Oct 21st 2008
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Vintage: 2004
Purchased: Feb 1st 2008
Price: $18.99
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Tasting Notes:
This wine was a winner. I knew the second I took a whiff of the nose that I was going to be very happy drinking this. The nose was very intense with tons of red fruit, minerals, and smoke. When you tasted it, you were surprised at how light it seemed to be. I'm sure you've heard of pinot as syrah from California. Well, this is syrah as pinot! The texture is silky smooth with an insane amount of bright red fruit that is joined mid way through with a black pepper and bacon component that just drove me wild. The finish is quite good with licorice and mint making an appearance. The more the wine breathed the more the strawberry and raspberry flavors came out. That combination with the great acidity made me want to keep drinking and drinking.
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Jul 29th 2008
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Vintage: 2007
Purchased: May 31st 2008
Price: $16.00
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Tasting Notes:
This was wine number one for the Mia and Ryan farewell dinner I prepared. It was pared with playful takes on salad nicose and pasta primavera.
This is a nice fruit forward wine with a good dark pink (with hints of salmon) color. The nose is very lively with fresh red berries and violets.
The wine is all bright red fruit on the palate, with a nice acid backbone and a slight residual sweetness on the finish that balances the floral characteristics nicely.
It may be a little expensive for a rose, but a single vineyard wine made with this much care is a good thing to support.
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Apr 28th 2008
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Vintage: 2004
Purchased: Jan 5th 2008
Price: $10.00
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Tasting Notes:
This is a very interesting shiraz. While most (and especially Australian ones) are dense inky purple, this was fairly light by comparison. It still was an inky purple, but was almost translucent. The nose was very expressive. Mostly black fruits with a touch of cedar. You might think that with the low alcohol (12.5%) and the lighter color, that the wine would be under ripe. You would be wrong. It was explosive with fruit flavors. The finish is strong with the taste of cedar, and just a hint of black pepper.
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Vintage: 2004
Purchased: Apr 13th 2008
Price: $12.00
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Tasting Notes:
Kathrine really wanted to pick this up, but I wasn't sure. I tend not to like Australian wines at the lower price points as they seem too fruity and sweet to me. I was worried that this wine would even go further in that regard than usual.
It has the typical inky black/purple color, with a nice frothy bead to it. The nose is super fruit forward with blackberries and blueberries. I didn't notice any non fruit aromas. In the mouth it's creamy with the same fruit flavors dominating. There is just a touch of tannin that comes through the bubbles. It actually was quite pleasant at first. But the more you drink, the more it tastes like a fruit candy. It just began to wear me out. This might be an ok wine for an aperitif for a group of people, but don't expect a small group to finish a bottle.
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Apr 21st 2008
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Vintage: 2005
Purchased: Jan 5th 2008
Price: $7.00
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Tasting Notes:
I opened this up for a pleasant mid week drink when I didn't need anything fancy. It's a dark inky color in the glass with a nice fruity nose. It all dark fruits on the palate with a nice body and an herbal finish. This is a good wine, at a great price, that is much more interesting than most domestics you'd get in this range.
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Jan 28th 2008
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Vintage: 2005
Purchased: Aug 5th 2007
Price: $15.83
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Tasting Notes:
Very rarely do you open a wine at this price range and after the first sip say to yourself, "I think this was perhaps a little young." This wine is from a fairly famous syrah producer in Tuscany. His Il Bosco syrah sells for $40-$50 a bottle. He uses the same parcels of land to make his lower wine, but does not age it in oak quite as long.
On the first pour I was surprised at how thing the wine looked. It was more of a cherry red and semi-translucent that the deep purple I see from New World syrah. The nose didn't give off anything. Just a hint of fruit and a hot alcohol smell. In the mouth the wine was beyond tight. There was a sour cherry note upfront and then the tannins just took over.
Luckily after a few hours it really opened up. The alcohol smell blew off and the cherry scent was much more prevalent. It was also backed up by scents of new leather. In the mouth the sour cherry flavor remained but it was backed up by the tastes of creme de cassis and licorous. The finish brought a spicy black pepper note, and the tannins, while softened, were still very strong.
The wine should have been decanted, and probably should have sat for another year or two. Unfortunately I don't have another bottle to see how it ages.
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Jan 9th 2008
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Vintage: 2001
Purchased: Jan 14th 2007
Price: $9.99
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Tasting Notes:
This one has been sitting in our basement for some time. I had orignally bought three of them and two were drunk over the past year. The last one worried me that there might not be much life left in this, so when I needed a red wine to go with a grilled t-bone, I pulled this out.
The color of the wine doesn't give away its age at all. It's still a very deep inky purple, almost black. The aroma is fruity with a touch of leather and spice. The first impression on the pallet is still fruit. It's not a fruit bomb and it's less fruity than much of what comes from Australia, but it is still very jammy. There is quite an intense acid backbone however that cuts through the blackberry jam flavors. There is an intense peppery spiciness to the finish, and very soft tannins. I actually think the wine could probably even age a bit more, though it would become unpleasant with much less fruit. About the only thing to give away the age of this wine is the sediment. There sure is a lot of it.
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Feb 21st 2007Comments(0)
Dec 3rd 2007
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Vintage: 2004
Purchased: Apr 23rd 2007
Price: $12.99
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Tasting Notes:
This is a wine that I hope no one learns about. It's too good to be this cheap, and I want more for myself! People seem to assume that Roussillon and the Languedoc produce identical wine (maybe it's the confusing name Languedoc-Roussillon). However, the Languedoc makes Southern Rhone style wines while Roussillon Steers toward a mix of Spain and Priorat in specific.
It was a beautiful violet color with a strong black fruit aroma. The flavors were of bright ripe fruit with a strong metallic mineral background that was very intriguing. The finish was long and super silky.
This wine is from mostly syrah with 80-100 year old carignan (a la Priorat) and 35-50 year old grenache if this wine were produced in Priorat or even in the Rhone it would be three times this price. Can you imagine a CdP producer using their best 80 year old varietal stock in a $12.99 wine?
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Sep 23rd 2007
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Vintage: 2005
Purchased: Jul 14th 2007
Price: $10.00
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Tasting Notes:
This is another wine that we got from
Tim Shannon at First Crush. I opened it to have with a deconstructed cassoulet that I had made. In the glass it was an inky purple. It was full of dark fruit scents, with a hint of dust and herbs. In the mouth it's a delicious well balanced wine. The definition of a good food wine, and at this price it really could be an everyday drinker. If you like Cotes du Rhone wines, give this one a chance.
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Jun 17th 2007
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Vintage: 2006
Purchased: May 30th 2007
Price: $9.99
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Tasting Notes:
Kathrine opened this up midweek to drink while I was out playing poker, she didn't care for it that much so I helped her polish it off.
It's a good pink color in the glass with a nose of strawberries and watermelon. The aroma is quite mouthwatering. In the mouth, you get the same fruit flavors; but there is an added floral complexity. I tasted it as lavender, but the tasting notes suggest rose water or violets. I didn't care for this aspect of the wine. Then the alcohol hits you. I thought that was what threw it all out of balance.
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