Friday Night Tasting November 19

This was a small tasting in attendance were Piroca and Jimmy. There were two covered bottles.

1. Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

This was a very pleasant wine. The smell and taste was that of a typical Cali Cab. We both liked the smell better then the taste. It was deep in color with the taste of black fruits oaky and rich. No official score was give but I will give it a 2+ with a side note that uncle P was impressed with its PQR.

2. Robert Mondavi "Reserve" Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

This is a wonderful wine! It is very complex with great depth. The smell has the richness that lingers. There is no need to drink just breath deeply and enjoy. Very dense purple color. Taste and smell of anise, smoky oak, cedar, black currants, spice, and leather. The is rich and long. This wine gets a 4+

The 2004 Mondavi is in the top 10 of the Wine Spectator 2007 top 100 list. It has a blend mostly form To-Kalon of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot

Friday Night Tastings, November 12, 2010

Tonight, there was a full complement of Aunties and Uncles, except Lady Sea and Uncle N, who could not make it. Our gracious host, uncle P, hosted the event offering some incredible wines and excellent hors d'oeuvres. Special guests were Auntie A and Uncle Grasshopper, Auntie Junebug with a cameo appearance of Uncle M. Most wines came uncovered.
This one, the Caymus 2007 is a favorite with the group, a truly excellent wine. Dark red rich creme brulee, vanilla and expresso coffee. Enormous on the palate, a classic, chewable wine. A long, lingering finish; it is too bad you have to swallow it.
It is amazing how this vineyard maintains high quality year after year. An easy 4+!

The Matriarch, 2006

This wine never disappoints the drinker. As a matriarch should, the 2006 is a very mature wine, even though is just four years old. The silky rich quality is always there, delivering the high-octane knock-out. A 4, for sure.

Kobalt, 2005

Kobalt wines tend to be tannic, if tasted before their time. This one was mellow and very good, without offering a tremendous fruit punch. Herbal notes with light cherry and cassis. A bit short finish. Still, excellent, a 3+.

Paul Hobbs, 2006

A great wine, as usual from the perfectionist Paul Hobbs. Dark, rich, apricot and ripe figs, blueberry with lemon zest and thyme. excellent. As far as I know, Hobbs does not believe in mixing grape types, it is always 100% of one varietal. Great, 3+ to 4. for instance

Chateau Latour, 2001

Legendary bottle. Excellent Bordeaux nose but without much funk; taste is wonderful for those who like these wines. Uncle E was very impressed, but the rest of Uncles and Aunties were less enthusiastic. Uncle P declared that he did not like "old wines". this may not be popular among devoted oenologist sophisticates, but I definitely share his view. Still, a good wine, 3+.

Chateauneuf du Pape, Clos mont Olivet

Ok, so this the another wine that we schlept back from France, using trains, planes, cars, and raw manpower and packed tightly in socks and underwear to keep it safe. The nose was ok, but the color (transparent, would put a pinot to shame) was disappointing. Taste: very weak, just like the color, without much flavor or character. Few were impressed with this wine. We had much better Rhone wines in France but this was not worth the effort. A 2, or less.

Caymus 1994

This bottle was covered up. We guessed it had to be an aged Italian, probably a Piedmont, uncle E's favorite. European, with flattish well-aged nose and taste, herbby, cedar and rosemary. To our great surprise, it was an early Caymus, 1994.
Uncle E swore that it was properly stored at 55F in his cellar, but he was disappointed by the wine's performance. We thought that it was an interesting wine, even though it had past its prime. We are familiar with this feeling...A 2.

Tenuto del Portale

A bottle of aglianico. A south Italian favorite with many. A good, fragrant nose with a fair taste, fruity but young, whatever that means. A 2.

In Flagrante, SQN

As it was one week ago, this promising SQN did not live up to its reputation. We suspected that it was not the genuine item, being part of the same vertical flight. Drinkable, but medicinal with cassis undertones. A 2+.

TASTING ON SATURDAY NIGHT, NOVEMBER 6, 2010

After three months absence, we are back in business. Present were Uncles P, Winepath and Auntie Jbug. We had some interesting (if not all great), wines tonight. We also had some home made foccacia to go along the wines. Some of the wines were brought back by us from our trip in the south of France. The photo is from a remote catalan village called Llo, in the French Pyrenees where we stayed in a 16th century inn.

Sine Qua Non, a doubtful vertical flight.

Uncle P brought us 2 opened bottles of Sine Qua Non, which represent a vertical sample of 1997 and 1998 from this well known boutique winery. He told us that he obtained these a while ago via the internet and after tasting them on Friday with Uncle Jimmy, they reached the conclusion that these wines were probably not SQN. We agreed with this. The nose on the wines was smokey and slightly sulfurous. Both wines, the 1997 in particular, were thin, flat and very unremarkable. They certainly did not taste like the great SQN should have, according to RP. While we cannot prove this, judging by the taste, these two wines are probably not SQN, and possibly were counterfeit wines.

A Languedoc-Rousillon meritage.

This wine, was bought together with the syrah (see the following item), from a winery in Languedoc-Roussillon, and it is a Merlot (60%) and cabernet (40%) meritage; quite pleasant but not as good as it originally tasted to us. Fruity, but young and thin wine, a 2.

Bourdic vineyards, Syrah

We cannot believe that we brought this wine back, all the way from France, fighting railway workers', firemen', garbage-men' and airline employee's strikes- just to taste this ,grapey, thin and uneventful wine. A 1+. At the time we tried it (in a little stone hamlet, not far from Avignon) it tasted fine, our host was very pleasant. See the attached photo of the church clock tower of the village.

Shafer, Hillside Select, 2002

To improve the mood, following the previous unremarkable crop of wines, Uncle P has offered the wonderful Hillside Select by Shafer. As before, this wine was in its prime, with the smokey, heavy (oily) nose and wonderful cassis, dark fruit, virginia tobacco and cinnamon flavors. You could almost chew this wine. An easy 4 to 4+!

The bridge of St. Benezet and the papal castle in Avignon

This is the famous Avignon bridge on the Rhone. It was named after St Benezet, who, as a shepherd boy, was helping eleventh century pilgrims cross the furious Rhone river. His grave is in a chapel on the bridge itself. If you are familiar with the song (..."sur" le pont d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse..go on, sing if you'd like), you also must know that it was originally"sous", i.e under not "sur" le pont, that people were dancing to live music. After multiple destructive cycles by man and nature, only about half of this bridge is still standing. The "anti-popes'" palace can be seen in the background. One of these (there were nine) popes, namely John the XXII, had actually declared in the fourteenth century that the local wine was "le vin du Pape". Since this time, the Chateauneuf-du-Pape has evolved into a small but very famous wine region. The Rhone is the fastest river in France and it certainly resists most bridging attempts.