Decant Stop Tasting Wine Blog

What a disappointment.  Compared to the Durigutti Bonarda, this was a 180 in style.  Don’t get us wrong, we love the fruit bombs.  But if it doesn’t have complexity, it will never get more than 90-91 points.  This wine was pretty yummy as far as fruit bombs go, but not worth more than 91 points.  It is simple and near one dimensional, both in taste and bouquet.  Not worth the $24 we paid for it, and certainly not the $40 retail price.  Don’t waste your money on this one.  There are plenty of similar wines for less money, many of which are listed within this site. 

Rating:  91

Price:  $24

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I think this might be the first half-bottle we’ve bought and of course this wine proved why I was always afraid to go that route… we loved the wine and were really sad when the bottle was empty – we wanted more.  Call it [bad] luck I guess, I mean what are the odds?  We kept trying different white wines and wished they were half bottles, but when we finally buy a half bottle, we love it.  Figures. 

Other thing this wine proves is that everyone’s tastes are different.  Stephen Tanzer rated this wine 89 and we rate it 91.  Most of the time we rate lower than the pros, so we were a little surprised to like it better than the ratings suggest.  On to the review.

On the nose lemon bursts from the glass, with a little grass and minerality.  Mouth-feel is very smooth, medium weight, good acidity.  It would probably go with chicken quite well, although we had it with Mahi Mahi, which went very well.  Taste was butter, honey, and grapefruit (but not too sour), and a little lemon grass.  I don’t typically care much for butter in my wine, but the balance of this wine was superb, so all the butter really did was make it really smooth, if not a little creamy.  Buy the 750ml bottle!

Rating:  91

Price:  $22 350ml (K&L)

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This was in an impressively bold and heavy bottle, and that set the tone for this wine experience.  The label was simple, which I like… like they don’t need a label to sell their wine.  Decanting the wine gave another clue of what we were in for, as it was inky purple, almost black.  The aroma was cassis, lead pencil, cherry, blackberry, steamed rice, and licorice.  I had to keep reminding myself this was a Rioja… the ones I’ve seen and tasted were always pretty light… some of them even more like a rosé than anything.  This one was more like Syrah or Malbec.  It tasted like blackberries, bitter dark chocolate, licorice, smoked oak, espresso, blueberry, and plum.  Medium acidity and slightly spicy on the palate and  finished with lingering ripe tannins, smoked oak, blueberry, and dark chocolate.  A very long finish indeed.  The next day the chocolate aspect was even more pronounced.  In a nutshell this wine is bold, earthy, smokey, and ripe fruit.  At 45 bucks I wouldn’t call it a bargain, but worth trying if you can find it.  It is a limited edition and can be pretty hard to get at this point.

Rating:  92

Price:  $45

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Hello all! Just wanted to drop in and add my very first note to all you wonderful people. I’m very excited about this blog, and would like to think those who drew me to it.

My first post is a very special wine I came across while running tastings at my alma mater USC. After a successful tasting I was given a beautiful bottle of this vintage from Joseph Drouin of the Bordeaux region in France, but this particular wine was born instead on US soil.

The coldish, damp climate and acidic soils in Oregon’s Willamette Valley gives very similar characteristics to its grapes that those in Bordeaux do. The plump, overtly boring Pinot grape gives way to the slightly shriveled, sweetened grape that makes the Pinot Noir special.

You’ll notice deep, mushy blackberry and coffee on the nose right away, but a little decanting does wonders for this relatively young wine, allowing the deep cassis and faint notes of ripe orange to open up towards a mellow finish of velvety tannins.

A word of advice, this wine is special (read: expensive…as all good Pinot Noir is) so save it for a special occasion or a special red drinker of yours. My wife and I shared ours over her birthday meal.

Buy now and drink it, but if you cellar it it will get even better.

Hooray! One down, many more bottles to go!

Rating: 91

Price: $50 (K&L Wines)

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