1. Finca Allende Rioja 2004, score=2+ to 3This is the wine that winepath raved about in the past post. Uncle-N found this and brought this to see if Winepath could recognize it (of course not). To quote Winepath, "it's what a Bordeaux should taste like when it grows up: fine nose of funky vanilla with undertones of clementine and tangerine dark-roast ethiopian coffee. Musty hints of green peppercorn and rubbing alcohol (isobuthanol, to be exact). The tannins reflected the 36 months spent in eastern-silesian bariques, followed by 400 days in in norvegian aspen barrels. Definitely spicy, peppery on the mid-palate with medium-toasted sesame, ginger afalfa and new mexican blue corn with a hint of lebanese cedar resin and european white oak acorns". The rest of us are not as astute to appreciate all this mambo jumbo but, again, we all like this wine. Spain is definitely doing better than other old world.
2. Cliff Lede cab sauv 2005, score=2+ to 3Everybody agreed that this is a new world wine from Napa. Some thought it tasted like 2004 Neal. Nice nose with lots of red fruits and vanilla. It tasted like a good Napa cab with lots of fruits, vanilla and caramel. Some thought this is bit over oaked as many Napa cabs are. Rather young and tannin has bit of an edge. We agreed that bottle aging may do good.
P.S. Uncle-E brought 2004 Cliff Lede before which some of us have tasted (not Uncle-N) and gave score of 3.
3. Caro 2002, score=2+We tasted this several times before but we could not identify it. Some thought this could be Bordeaux but lacking mineral or terriore taste. This was collaboration of French and Argentine; blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec made in Bordeaux style by two renowned wine families; Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) and Nicolas Catena. Nose has slight funk (reminiscent of Bordeaux) but by no means not too disturbing. Rather austere but nice complex taste of balanced tannin, fruits, and acidity. Finish is bit short. Again we will rather drink this than over-priced Bordeaux.
4. Contender 2003, score=4We tested this in the past but none of us (beside Piroca who brought this) could not identify it. This is from famed Behrens and Hitchcock Winery. Blend of cab sauv (73%), cab frank (22%), Merlot (4%) and Petit Verdot (1%). Nice nose with cherry, vanilla and green pepper. This is by no means a fruits bomb and rather subtle but complex tastes. It tasted like good Bordeaux should be. Nice long finish and nice tannin structure. Our favorite of the evening.
5. Ghost Pine Sab Sauv 2005, score=3It is 100% cab sauv, 61% from Napa and 39% from Sonoma. Nose is bit closed but no funk and slight red fruits. It was bit warm when tasted. Taste is rather austere at first but after some time, it opened up (as per Winepath and Jbug, the wine tasted better next day). with nice complexed tastes of berries, cherries with vanilla and caramel tastes in the finish. Nice solid tannin. To us, this is more subtle than many of the Napa or Australian fruits bombs but it is more sophisticated and complex.
P.S. Additional "floral" description by winepath showing off his innate ability to bullshit and his unwillingness of using spell checker. Quoted as is; "Ghost Pines, to me, had a definite boysenberry and soft parsimon jam finish. Underneath all that, a subtle, yet noticeable whiff of parsley, azalea and seared radicchio was also detectable."
3 comments:
Ghost Pines, to me, had a definite boysenberry and soft parsimon jam finish. Underneath all that, a subtle, yet noticeable whiff of parsley, azalea and seared radicchio was also detectable. While Junebug did not agree with azalea part (she thought there were different floral arributes), Winepath, the famous boutique winemmaker, still considers Ghost Pines a drinkable wine.
Being a Japanese, I have eaten "persimmons" of many varieties including fresh, dried, as a part of dishes (such as with white Tofu dressing) but never tasted "jam" especially "parsimon" jam, hard or soft. Therefore I can not tell what kind of taste that is. I agree, though, Ghost pine is a good wine.
Uncle N,
Romanian farmers often have parsimmon jam for breakfast. They have developed this during the difficult medieval ottoman rule. They would sneak out in the dead of the night, and secretly harvest the parsimmon in the fields. They would then bring it back, neutralize its corrosive acids in Ca(OH)2 and cook it for 48 hours. The syrrup concentrate would gel naturally, due to the high pectin content. Since they could not afford to have bread, they consummed the jam by itself. This caused them intestinal discomfort, which they relieved by running often to the same fields which grew the parsimmon. Thus the ottoman conquerors had an easy time catching the peasants in the fields, with their pants down, while they were fertilizing the parsimmon crops.
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