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.