A Special Bottle

Louise has had Thanksgiving on the brain for a while now, and so yesterday, for no good reason, she roasted a whole turkey, and made mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.  It was yummy.  She asked for a bottle of red wine, and in my continuing efforts to clear out bottles that are over-aged, I opened a special bottle for which no special occasion had justified its opening.  So, Thanksgiving in October?  What the hell...

Back in 2003, we were lucky enough to be included in our friends' small wedding at the Michel-Schlumberger winery in the Dry Creek area of Sonoma County.  It was a beautiful and intimate event, and, in addition to the wine we drank that night, we were gifted a bottle of 1999 Syrah.  With these fond memories (and I'm not even going to mention the wedding reception later that year in Las Vegas.  What happens in Vegas...), I opened it up.  It was very tasty with bright ripe fruit flavors (cherries and strawberries in particular), that went very nicely with dinner.  While it was a bit fruitier than I normally prefer, the memories made it spectacular!  Thanks, Mark and Pinata!

Wolf Blass Yellow Label

I've been trying recently to clean out my collection of bottles that were becoming aged (read: old).  Many of these were never meant to sit for quite so long, so their time has come. 

Long ago, when we lived in Michigan, my wife and I chanced upon a bottle of Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz/Cabernet.  We enjoyed it so much that we bought a few bottles.  I've had the last two sitting around for several years now, and the other night, when she told me steak (my favorite wine food) was on the menu, I decided to pull out one of those bottles (a 2002).  It was slightly peppery, but, more than anything, the feeling I got was "mellow."  All the flavors blended beautifully and I enjoyed it all night. 

The most recent vintage that I found reviewed, the 2005, scores an 85 from wine enthusiast with these notes: "This 60-40 blend features gentle aromas of vanilla and cassis in a medium-bodied, creamy-smooth format. It’s not powerful or complex, but offers pure cassis and vanilla flavors tinged with chocolate on the finish. Good value. "  I agree!

A long time coming...

Its been a long time coming, this blog post.  I've really neglected my duties.  Nonetheless...

I enjoyed two nice wines this weekend, and came home from Binghamton with a case! 

First things first...last night Louise roasted a nice Turkey breast - simple, simple, simple, but great.  In a non-traditional matching, I chose a carbernet-based blend that is my oldest bottle of wine.  It was a 1998 Estancia Meritage.  I first had this wine way back in about 2002 at Louise's boss's Christmas Party.  It was one of the first really good red wines I had ever had, and I fell in love.  At $35 it was out of my price range (that's still about the most I'll spend on a bottle).  Anyway, Louise bought me one bottle as a gift and we've hung onto it ever since.  Now, I knew it was beginning to get "old" and had not always been properly stored (an understatement) so I wasn't expecting much.  On top of that, the cork broke and I had to push it into the bottle.  So, I had to pour the wine through a sieve into a 4 cup measuring cup to "decant" it (anyone looking for gift ideas for me should start and end with a Decanter!).  I have to say that, despite all of this it was excellent.  It was a deep dark red with a luscious feel.  Strong dark berry flavors, but very rich.  A lovely bottle that lived up to my memories. 

Tonight, with Maple-Glazed Salmon, I opened up a budget Pinot Noir from Bogle.  Cheaper Pinot Noirs can often be just plain bad, but this was nice.  Light in color, it had strong fruit flavors - most cherries.  It was light and yummy and just what I needed.  Wine Enthusiast says "not bad for the price," and I agree. 

Now, back to grading....sigh.....