2008 Fess Parker American Tradition Reserve Pinot Noir

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, January 20, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Fess Parker

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

American Tradition Reserve

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Santa Barbara County, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.1%

PRICE PAID

$25.00 (plus tax and shipping, resulting in a net price of $30.37) (regular full retail price is $35.00)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this wine from Fess’ wine club in June 2012; they were blowing this wine out at the special wine-club-member-only price of $25 (plus tax and shipping)

BOUQUET

This wine exhibits a classic Santa Barbara-area bouquet, especially red fruits, black pepper and savory herbs, smoke, and very earthy elements.

 

TASTING NOTES

At $25 (special wine-club-members-only pricing), this is one of the best California Pinot bargains. 

This Pinot has a mostly red fruit flavor profile, like raspberries and sour cherries, along with a little bit of black fruits like black cherries, blackberries, and plums.  Immediately after the red/black fruit profile, the wine’s significant spice profile comes to the fore, like TONS of black pepper and savory herbs.  Like any self-respecting Pinot, this wine also has a significant earthy quality, revealing its Santa Barbara County terrior.  This is also a relatively rich, creamy, slightly oaky Pinot, as well as being very well-balanced with a beautifully well-structured essence.  Some Pinots can be too sweet, too oaky, too spicy, and/or too whatever; this wine is beautifully well-balanced, with a nice, deep, complex flavor profile, smooth/sweet tannins and acidity, fantastic spiciness, rich, juicy, yummy fruit, and a smooth, elegant, nicely-balanced lingering finish. 

You may have noticed that I mentioned “well-balanced” about twenty times within the past one or two paragraphs.  That’s because this Pinot is, indeed, exceptionally well-balanced.  I have had better Pinots, but for $25, this Cali Pinot is VERY difficult to beat.  It’s rich, creamy, spicy, delicious, and, once again, well-balanced.  If I had the ways, means, and space, I’d buy about 25 cases of this fantastic Pinot at $25/bottle if that opportunity ever arose again.  As usual, great job, Blair (Fox, Fess’ head winemaker).

Fess Parker was the very first wine club we ever joined.  And after almost six years, we’re still proud, happy, satiated wine club members because Fess Parker is one of the few wineries where both their white and red wines are, without exception, always very good.  At worst, their wines, in my humble opinion, score 85 points or higher.  And most of their wines score 90 points or higher (again, in my very humble opinion).  We’ve cancelled a couple of wine clubs over the years because we joined them before we knew any better.  But Fess Parker continues to deliver well-priced, fantastic white and red wines, year after year after year, with reds and whites that aren’t Napa over-priced and exhibit honest varietal essence.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with a pan-seared ribeye spiced with Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence (which we used to use only on salmon, but it occurred to me that it would also work very well on steaks, which is does brilliantly (in my humble opinion)), smothered in Arthur’s world-famous mushroom medley.

This wine paired perfectly with the spiced ribeye and would also pair equally well with lamb (chops/rack/shank), prime rib, and just about any other grilled steak and/or red meat dish.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking gorgeously right now and will continue to age/mature well for another 10 years or so.  We decanted this wine for about twenty minutes before dinner, but if you’re not living in Southern California during one of its typical mid-winter heat waves (which we’re suffering with right now), I would recommend decanting this wine for about an hour before drinking.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

91

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD (regular price of $35)

GOOD – EXCELLENT (special members-only sale price of $25)

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.fessparkerwines.com/

2008 Inman Family Thorn Ridge Ranch Pinot Noir (94 Points)

DATE CONSUMED

Friday, January 18, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Inman Family

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Thorn Ridge Ranch

REGION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Russian River Valley, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.5%

PRICE PAID

$56

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought this bottle at the winery’s RRV tasting room in October 2011.

BOUQUET

This wine exhibits classic RRV Pinot traits, like tons of RRV earth, savory herbs, and red, blue, and black fruit.  The RRV in Sonoma County, just like the Santa Rita Hills in the Santa Ynez Valley and Central Coast AVAs, has VERY unique traits, both on the bouquet and flavor profile. This wine is no exception; RRV Pinots have unique floral, spicy, fruity, and earthy bouquets; this wine has all of those traits in SPADES.

TASTING NOTES

This is one of the best Pinots we’ve had in the last 12 to 18 months, with a rich, dark, creamy, wonderfully deep and complex flavor profile (it almost tastes like it came from the North Coast of Sonoma County, where Pinots tend to be dark, brooding, spicy, and delicious beyond belief).

This wine has an abundance of red and black fruit (black cherries, plums, blueberries, and black berries), TONS of savory herbs and spices (especially black pepper, along with the usual Pinot savory herbs like sage and rosemary), along with a gorgeous RRV earthiness.  This wine is beautifully well-balanced, with smooth, sweet, creamy oak and tannins, followed by a deft, delicate, feminine finish that lingers for the perfect amount of time.  This wine isn’t too sweet, too earthy, too fruity, too oaky, too alcoholic, and/or too anything; it’s a GORGEOUSLY perfectly-balanced Pinot Noir.  

We don’t buy wines from tasting rooms nearly as much as we used to.  When we first got “into” wine, we used to buy cases and cases and cases of wine from tasting rooms at full retail prices, but we’ve learned over the years that that isn’t terribly smart.  At $56 a bottle, this wine isn’t cheap, but we obviously felt compelled to buy this at Inman Family’s tasting room for a reason; and that reason would be because this is a FANTASTIC RRV Pinot Noir.

And one more thing: for years, wines that came with screw caps (technically called “Stelvin closure”) were generally pure crap.  As anybody who knows anything about wine nowadays well knows, that is no longer the case.  Some of the best wines in the world now come with Stelvin closures, including this beauty.  So don’t be alarmed that a fantastic, not-exactly-cheap wine comes with a screw cap.  If anything, it shows that Inman Family really cares about their wine and doesn’t want to gamble with having TCA-tainted corks ruining their precious wines.  Don’t blame them one bit!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with Arthur’s homemade duck confit (the leg and thigh portion) and a mushroom and potato medley sautéed with onions in the duck fat.  As you can probably imagine, the duck confit and mushroom/potato medley went PERFECTLY with this fabulous wine.  The wine’s red and black fruit, spice, mushroom earthiness, and structure paired beautifully with the duck confit and mushroom/potato medley.  This wine would also pair well with just about most red meat dishes, especially prime rib, lamb (chops/racks/shanks), and grilled steaks.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking GORGEOUSLY right now and will continue to age and mature beautifully for another 10 to 15 years.  In a perfect world, I would have aged this wine for another three to five years.  If you have this wine in your cellar and can’t wait any longer, cool it down and decant it for about an hour (we decanted for about ten to twenty minutes because we couldn’t WAIT to taste/drink this beauty).

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

94

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.inmanfamilywines.com/

2007 Domaine Chandon Yountville Brut (92 Points)

DATE CONSUMED

Friday, January 18, 2013

VINTAGE

2007

WINERY/PRODUCER

Domaine Chandon

WINE NAME

Yountville Brut

TYPE OF WINE

Sparkling wine

COMPOSITION

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but exact percentages are not given on Chandon’s website.

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Yountville, California (Napa County)

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13%

PRICE PAID

$39.69

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this wine from Domaine Chandon’s wine club for $39.69 (discount price of $31.50 (full retail price is $45) plus sales tax and shipping) in December, 2011.

BOUQUET

This bubbly has a yeasty and citrusy bouquet, which isn’t too surprising considering Chandon ages this wine a minimum of two years on the lees (yeast).  I also detected a slight graphite element on the nose as well, but that could have been due to the variety of aromas wafting around the kitchen area since Arthur was baking two different appetizers to go with this bubbly, along with his homemade duck confit for dinner.

 

TASTING NOTES

This is a delightful California bubbly with a deep, complex flavor profile.  Based on the depth of flavors, I would assume that most of this bubbly consists of Pinot Noir, though Chandon also grows fabulously rich, complex bubbly based on Chardonnay.  But it’s difficult to beat the depth and complexity of the Pinot grape.

Domaine Chandon makes a variety of vintage- and site-specific bruts (Yountville, Carneros, and Mt. Veeder to name a few).  They’re all fantastic.  In case you don’t know, Domaine Chandon is the American outpost of France’s Moet & Chandon, the maker of Dom Perignon and other fabulous Moet & Chandon Champagne.  Obviously, they know what the hell they’re doing, even here in California.

As the bouquet suggested, this is a rich, creamy, citrusy, yeasty bubbly.  The flavors go deep and long, reflecting Chandon’s typically/complexly delicious bubblies, exhibiting brioche, lemons, yeast, crème brulee, earthy elements, and thanks to the Pinot Noir, hints of suggestions of rumors of cream-of-cherries and other creamy varieties of typically red Pinot fruits.

We joined Domaine Chandon’s wine club in September 2009 for one painfully obvious reason; we went wine tasting in Napa Valley in 2009 and decided to visit their tasting room and were poured around eight to ten different bubblies, all of which were FANTASTIC.  We joined their club right then and there.  We were blown away by the quality and variety of all of their bubblies and have NEVER been disappointed in a bottle of Chandon bubbly.  Their bubblies are always very good and tasty; even their most basic and cheapest bubbly (Classic Brut, a non-vintage bubbly) is excellent, especially for the price (we had two magnums of the Classic Brut during the recent holidays and couldn’t believe how good it was!).

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this bubbly with two different appetizers: bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with pecans and black bean and banana empanadas.  We always drink bubbly with the stuffed/wrapped dates, which are sweet, creamy, salty, crunchy, and delicious beyond belief.  Bubbly pairs extraordinarily well with the dates (the bubbly’s acidity plays very well against the aforementioned qualities of the dates) and went very well with the empanadas.

AGING POTENTIAL

This bubbly is drinking beautifully right now and should continue to age, mature, and develop for another 400 to 500 years (assuming you store your bottle(s) at the bottom of the ocean).

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

92

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://chandon.com/

1999 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (93 Points)

DATE CONSUMED

Monday, December 31, 2012

VINTAGE

1999

WINERY/PRODUCER

Beringer Vineyards

WINE NAME

Private Reserve

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Cabernet Sauvignon?

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Napa Valley, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.9%

PRICE PAID

This wine was a gift from a friend of a friend when we had a dinner party at our house about a year ago.

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

See above

BOUQUET

We decanted this bottle for a couple of hours since the wine’s been bottled-up for the past eleven years-ish.  Like most mature/well-aged wines, the exuberant fruit aromas of young wines is less prominent and the oak and earthy elements become more prevalent.  There are fruit and spice characteristics present on the nose (especially red and black fruits, along with savory herbs and black pepper), but the Napa Valley’s terrior and oak is more up-front than the fruits and spices.

 

TASTING NOTES

This is a FABULOUS Napa Cab at this point in time; it is mellow, smooth, rich, creamy, oaky, earthy, and well-balanced with the perfect amount of fruit and acidity, even after thirteen+ years after harvest.  There are the usual Napa Cab black and red fruits (plums, blackberries, blueberries, and black cherries), a basket or two of savory herbs like sage and rosemary, gorgeously smooth, silky, perfectly-sweet oak and tannins, and an earthiness that just about any mushroom-loving wine drinker would die for.  As wines age, they begin to lose their "fruitiness" and reveal more of their middle-aged characteristics of leather, earth, meats, minerals, etc.  And although I love a big, bold, fruity red wine as much as anybody, sometimes it's nice to experience a mature, evolved, leathery, meaty red, especially if it's being drunk with a fabulous steak smothered in a mushroom medley as this wine was.

Unlike most people, we try to buy wines and/or discover them (or as we receive them from our five winery wine clubs) and drink them from the oldest vintage to the newest vintage to allow the wines to age, mature, mellow, and develop to their fullest potential (at least to the fullest potential that our patience will allow).  Is there anything better than friends/relatives who can afford to bring over beautifully-aged wines when we host a dinner party (e.g. the wine being reviewed here)?!?!  In addition to this wine, we also opened and drank a 1998 Veuve Clicquot La Grand Dame to celebrate New Years Eve (this Cab Sav was MUCH better than the over-priced Champagne, which was also a gift from good friends about a year ago).  If we had the means and the room, I would LOVE to buy fine wines by the case and allow them to mature and develop for a decade or more.  This Napa Cab is a perfect example of how/why one should (if they can afford it) allow a wine with the appropriate structure to beautifully age, mellow, and develop over time to allow the wine to fully express itself to it’s fullest potential.

  

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We drank this wine with rib eye steaks smothered in Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence and (needless to say) grilled to perfection (medium-rare).  This fantastic Cab Sav paired beautifully with the rib eyes and would pair equally well with just about any red meat dish, like braised lamb shanks, prime rib, etc.

AGING POTENTIAL

Thirteen years after harvest, this wine is drinking beautifully right now and will probably continue to age, mature, develop, and evolve gorgeously for another ten to twenty years.  If you happen to have this wine in your cellar, I can’t imagine it getting any better than it is right now.  But like any good Napa Cab or Bordeaux, it has serious “legs” and will indeed be eminently drinkable for years to come.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

93

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD (even though I don’t know the exact price paid for this wine, I’m assuming this wine cost $100ish)

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.beringer.com/

2008 Novy Family Winery Syrah (Rosella's Vineyard) (91 Points)

Date Consumed
Sunday, December 30, 2012

Vintage
2008

Winery/Producer
Novy Family Winery

Composition
100% Syrah

Vineyard Designation
Rosella's Vineyard

Region/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)
Santa Lucia Highlands, California

Alcohol Content
14.2%

Price Paid
$23

Where/When Bought and/or How Procured
We visited the Russian River Valley in October 2011 and after having read many good things about Novy and Siduri wines and never having visited them before, we decided that they would be on our short list of wineries that we had to try.

Bouquet
This Syrah's nose exhibits suggestions that this will be a very Rhone-styled red, with dark fruits, stones and minerals, earth, and hints of oak and spices.  The wine's bouquet foreshadows a Syrah that will not be a typically overripe, jammy, high-alcohol California Syrah but one that will be well balanced.  Let's see..........

Tasting Notes
Sure enough, the bouquet was an excellent precursor to how the wine would taste.  This is a rich, creamy, spicy Rhone-ish Syrah with dark fruit (plums, blackberries, and black cherries), sweet, creamy oak and tannins, fantastic minerality, barrels of spices (black pepper, thyme, Herbs de Provence, and rosemary), all supported with truck loads of earthy deliciousness that allows Rosella's Vineyard's terrior to shine brightly.  The Santa Lucia Highlands is part of the Monterey AVA, which is much cooler than Napa and some of California's warmer AVAs (think of the east side of Paso Robles), which partly explains why this isn't an overripe California Fruit Bomb (CFB).

This is a full-bodied, rich, creamy, deliciously well-balanced Syrah with a deep flavor profile and a long, lingering finish.  As I've alluded to several times already, this is not your typical CFB; this is a beautifully well-crafted, sublime, minerally, rich, delicious cool weather Syrah.  It's not too sweet, it has wonderful spicy and mineral elements that gorgeously complement the dark fruit profile, and it's smooth and well-balanced.  And at only $23, it's one of California's best bargains.  If we had the room and the money, I would have loved to bring home 10 to 20 cases of this lovely beauty!

Pairing Suggestions
We paired this wine with lamb chops topped with a roasted garlic and parsley pesto (one of my favorite lamb dishes EVER).  Needless to say, the Syrah went beautifully with the lamb, as most Rhone varietals do. This wine would also go well with a grilled rib eye smothered in Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence, as well as braised lamb shanks and just about any other red meat (prime rib, beef tenderloin and/or short ribs, etc.).

Aging Potential
This wine is drinking gorgeously right now and will probably continue to age, mature, and develop well for another ten to fifteen years.

Score (on a 100-point scale)
91

Q.P.R. (Quality-to-Price-Ratio) (Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent)
EXCELLENT

Winery Website
http://www.novyfamilywines.com/

2007 Windward Barrel Select Monopole Pinot Noir (94 Points)

DATE CONSUMED

Friday, December 21, 2012

VINTAGE

2007

WINERY/PRODUCER

Windward Vineyard

WINE NAME

Barrel Select Monopole

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

REGION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.3%

PRICE PAID

$61.78 (includes sales tax and shipping); regular retail price for non-wine club members is $72

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle in November 2012 from Windward’s wine club

BOUQUET

This wine has a GORGEOUS floral bouquet, exhibiting violets and other flower elements, along with red fruit, spices, earth, and just a hint of oak on the nose.

 

TASTING NOTES

Since the world didn’t (hasn’t yet?) exploded or been invaded by aliens or our sun hasn’t gone super nova, Arthur and I decided to celebrate by having a wonderful bottle of red wine with our dinner at home.  And what better way to celebrate our continued existence than with a bottle of fabulous Pinot Noir? 

Windward is a small, 15-acre vineyard/winery on the west side of Paso Robles, which is, generally speaking, NOT what I would call “Pinot Country.”  Yes, California has several incredible Pinot-producing regions, but Paso isn’t one of them (it’s tough to beat the Russian River Valley and the Santa Rita Hills for phenomenal Pinots, to name a couple).  But some how, some way, Marc and Maggie are able to coax every last ounce of quality from their Pinot grapes to assemble, by far, the best Pinot Noir that has/can/been made in Paso Robles.

Paso is much more famous for their Zins and Rhone varietals, but Windward Pinots can match and/or exceed some of the best Pinots on the planet.  This Pinot has remarkable depth, elegance, nuance, and complexity, fronted first by delicious red and black fruit like plums, black cherries, black berries, and raspberries, supported by black pepper and savory herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme.  There is the PERFECT amount of oak (it’s there, but in the background, not calling attention to itself but lending support and encouragement to the fruits, spices, and earthiness, kind of like Bill Wyman with the Rolling Stones), along with an earthy, terrior-driven creamy loaminess that adds heft and complexity to the flavor profile.

This Pinot is flawlessly well-balanced, with sweet, juicy, delicious fruit, nice zingy acidity, creamy oak and earthy elements, a gorgeous nose, a smooth, elegant, lingering finish, and a flavor profile with depth and complexity that 90+% of the world’s Pinots must envy. 

Depending on the weather/rain/other variables for a given vintage, Windward’s Pinots can be extraordinarily Burgundian-like (i.e. 2006 vintage (light-bodied, feminine, delicate, fantastic beyond belief)) or North Sonoma Coast-like (i.e. 2007 vintage (intense, brooding, dark, deeply flavored and masculine in style)).  But whatever the weather was like before, during, and/or after harvest, Marc Goldberg is an absolute master of the Pinot Noir grape.  Considering the quality of Pinot Noirs that Marc and Maggie can muster in a region that is NOT conducive to world-class Pinots is truly amazing.  I’m beginning to wonder what Marc and Maggie could do with the Chardonnay grape since they can perform unbelievable miracles with the Pinot Noir grape in a non-Pinot region.  Marc/Maggie: please contact Tablas Creek for some Chardonnay cuttings; I’m POSITIVE that you would/could probably make world-class Chardonnays in Paso as well.

 

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this fabulous wine with a huge rib eye steak generously seasoned with Kosher salt, freshly-cracked black pepper, and a mild sprinkling of Herbs de Provence and absolutely smothered with a mushroom medley.  Thanks to Pinot’s earthy herbaceousness, the wine paired brilliantly with the mushroom-smothered rib eye.  Because the 2007 vintage is very Sonoma Coast-like, I would steer clear of duck, salmon, chicken, and scallop dishes, which the 2006 vintage would pair beautifully with.  With the serious, dark, brooding, spicy 2007 vintage, I would stick with red meats to pair with this Pinot, such as lamb (racks/shanks/chops) and beef (just about any version will do).

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking gorgeously right now, but thanks to its structure, I would imagine this wine will continue to age gracefully and beautifully for another ten to twenty years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

94

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.windwardvineyard.com/

2005 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel (91 Points)

DATE CONSUMED

Saturday, December 8, 2012

VINTAGE

2005

WINERY/PRODUCER

Tablas Creek Vineyard

WINE NAME

Esprit de Beaucastel

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

44% Mourvedre, 26% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 5% Counoise

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Grown and bottled on the estate

REGION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.5%

PRICE PAID

$56.31 through Tablas Creek’s Collector’s Edition wine club, which includes tax and shipping (this wine is designated as a “library wine” and carries, at this day/age, a retail price of $70 and is offered only to TC’s Collector’s Edition members at a discounted price of $52.50).

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this wine with TC’s Collector’s Edition Fall allocation (a case of current and library releases) in September, 2012.

BOUQUET

This wine exhibits beautiful floral, spice, earth, and fruit characteristics, such as dark fruit, savory herbs, earth, and a touch of oak.

 

TASTING NOTES

I LOVE drinking perfectly-aged wines, especially since most restaurants serve (at most, generally speaking) two to three year-old releases (good luck going into a chain restaurant and ordering a 2005 red blend off of their wine list; most restaurant reds are 2010 to 2015 vintages).  That is exactly why we almost always bring our own wines to restaurants; their wines are generally way too young and way too warm.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve dined at “nice” restaurants where they serve 2010 reds at 80 degrees.  Whenever we go out to dinner, we refrigerate our wines about two hours before we hit the road so that by the time we have our main courses the wine has had time to “warm-up” to the proper serving temperature of 60 degrees-ish.

This is a nice Paso red blend.  Being served seven years after harvest, we properly cooled-down the bottle and let it air in our Burgundy glasses for about an hour before dinner.

Being close to half Mourvedre, there’s a nice meatiness to this blend, beautifully accented by Grenache’s and Syrah’s fruitiness and spiciness.  This blend exhibits significant heft and substance, with gorgeous red and black fruit (plums, raspberries, black cherries and berries) and a healthy dose of savory herbs like rosemary and thyme, in addition to black pepper.  There’s a depth-of-flavor profile that goes long and deep, keeping this wine very interesting and delicious from start to finish.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with pan-grilled rib eyes spiced with Kosher salt, freshly-cracked pepper, and Herbs de Provence.  I had a feeling this was going to be a rich, creamy, spicy red blend and sure enough, it was!  So the spiced rib eyes went PERFECTLY with the wine, though it would also pair well with most lamb and red beef dishes.

AGING POTENTIAL

Even though this wine is seven-plus years past harvest, there is an element of structure (acidity, alcohol, sugar, etc.) that allows this wine to shine as a “youthful” red blend.  In addition to yummy red and black fruit, significant spiciness, creamy oak, shovels of earthiness, and a depth-of-flavor most reds would envy, this wine has only begun to show is true potential.  Like all Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastels, this wine is meant to age and cellar for years.  It was probably fantastic two to four years ago but most likely has only improved with age (like me?!?!).  I would imagine this wine will continue to age and mature beautifully for another 10-plus years.

I noticed that this wine improved quite a bit with aeration.  If you have this bottle in your cellar or wine cooler/fridge, decant this wine for at least one to two hours; it only improves and evolves with every second of aeration.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

91 Points

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD (based on the library release price)

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.tablascreek.com/