Decant Stop Tasting Wine Blog

My experience with wine has made me a disbeliever of labels.  Almost like the prettier the bottle the worse the wine.  I know that is a gross generalization and should never actually be applied, but….  Anyway, the bottle is one of the best I’ve seen.  It looks like its hand painted grape vines and wording.  The big turn off for me, like a big red flag,

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We got lucky with this one.  I’m not sure how K&L got it, but I think I got the only bottle.. which was at one time owned by a private party.  There was even a message written on the bottle with a grease pen, which said "Enjoy this puppy in 10 years, [guy's name], and the date, which was in ‘95.  So, I think it was a gift back then.  Not sure why it wasn’t enjoyed in 2005, but we enjoyed it at 16 years old, in 2008.  It isn’t every day we get to drink 16 year old wine, so I jumped at the chance, since it was only $15 (the wine originally sold for $20).

It is a lightly filtered wine with some sentiment in the bottle.  It was pretty dark – like a dark plum (on the outside).  Aromatically it was pretty earthy and smoky with a little floral action mixed in… and you could smell the fruit, which was a mix of red and dark.  The flavor was a good portion of the barrel, which I would guess was mostly used toasted french oak, along with a healthy dose of mostly black and some red fruit.  It had near perfect acidity for most "regular" meals and not much tannins.  The finish was about average, with mostly the fruit lingering behind. 

Not that you’ll be able to find this wine anywhere at this point (or us), but if you do, and can get it for $20 or less, I say go for it.  With this much age you never know what happened to the bottle, but its probably worth the risk.  We enjoyed it.

Rating: 90

Price:  $15 (K&L Wines) $20 new

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I read that this wine was a good example of the classic taste of Pinot Noir, and for only $11.  How could I pass that up?  Turns out, the reviews are right, it is a [pretty much] text book example of the Pinot Noir Variety.  It isn’t special, but it is good, with nothing to complain about, and nothing to shout about.  It is enjoyable by itself, or with not too strong flavored food… basically anything but BBQ.  It has enough acidity to cut through some fat, and enough complex structure to compliment most meals.  It has one component that I love in any wine and have been missing lately… black pepper.  The wine has a light to medium body and flavors consist of mostly red fruit and fine tannins, and of course, black pepper.  Strangely, right after opening the bottle we smelled a good dose of oak, which scared me, but it didn’t follow through to the palate fortunately.  I did like the nose… mostly red fruit with a dose of floral aromas.  It is a very balanced wine with a pretty long finish, considering it isn’t a very dense wine.  All in all I’d recommend this wine to anyone who isn’t looking for a “stout” kind of wine, and isn’t looking to pair it with BBQ.

Rating 89

Price $11 (K&L Wines)

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This was the best of the bunch at this tasting, a pretty serious wine.  Color was medium ruby red.  The nose was pretty tight, lightly oaky and a good dose of cranberries. 

Tasted of oak (subsided to a great degree after airing a while), well rounded tannins, cranberry, strawberry, and flowers (mostly rose petals).  Mouth-feel was pretty pallet attacking with those tannins and good acidity.  Finished with cranberry, raspberry, and heavy tanning (also subsided a bit after a while), and lingering rose petal. 

All of the bottles were there on a side table and we could have grabbed any of them to drink after the tasting, but this was the one that everyone poured from in the end.  If I didn’t have to drive home I would have just kept drinking and drinking this one.  It probably would have been even better after another couple of hours.  I also wish we had a decanter, which also would have improved the wine overall.  This is a typical problem in restaurants… something I hope will change.  At any rate, we would have scored it 89, but since I know it would have broken over the threshold to 90 soon, I went ahead with that score in full confidence.  Worth the price, but not a great value – I’d feel better recommending it at $20 or less, which you can get by buying a case of it. This will also improve with age, so this might be an excellent option.

Rating:  90

Price:  $22-26

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I’m starting to hear more and more about this winery.  First our friend Eiko had the Pinot Noir in a restaurant, and now this.  I did some research on Paige 23 and found out that “The Ritz” has their entire line on their wine list… and they typically only have 3-5 wines in each category (although there are probably a dozen categories).  According to Sasa of Metro Cafe, who carries at least some of the Paige 23 line, this isn’t the best of their line.  I thought this one was quite good actually, but Eiko was in a fit about how much she liked the Pinot Noir.  I can’t wait to try that one too.  But I digress….

Color was medium red, really nice by candle light.  Aroma smelled of a camp fire… I mean it really gave me flashback to so many camping trips I went on… licorice (which I REALLY like in a wine)red currant, vanilla, and even sausage… the kind you find in the gourmet shops that are hanging, dried/cured, and still linked.  A very nice nose, indeed.

Taste was of black cherry, black plum, a little smoky flavor, with nice ripe tannins.  Great complexity, kept us guessing and discussing for a while.  Mouth-feel was nice and soft, with good acidity.  The finish wasn’t so long, but not bad at all in flavor… a little black pepper, tannins, and a hint of the black fruits, but almost as if they started “un-ripening”, getting “redder”… if that’s possible.  Paired pretty well with most of the dishes we were eating, especially the “Chicken with Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce” Past dish… which is one of my favorite dishes there.

I’d give this a big recommend if it were a little cheaper… at 20 bucks it might be possible to do better.  But if you’re in a restaurant and this is the only thing you recognize (maybe thanks to this post), get it… I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.  If you have $20 to throw at something new, then again, try it, I’m fairly certain you’ll like it.  Consider this a “recommend”… just not big.  It is worth the money, just not a bargain.  Oh, and I think this will get better with time too.  Maybe buy a bottle and keep it for another couple of years before drinking.

Rating:  89

Price:  $20

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This was the first wine we tasted at Metro Cafe last Wednesday.  This sparkling white is made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  It has a light color with a slight peach tint, and lots of nice small bubbles… one sign of a potentially good sparkling wine (you don’t want it looking like soda). 

Not particularly aromatic, but shows some peach, green apple, and a tiny hint of strawberry.

Tasted of green apple (with out the sourness), apricot, honey, some vegetal variety, citrus, and a bit of orange peel.  Mouth-feel was particularly nice, with a good dose of acidity, which would make this good to pair even with a full meal.  The finish was spicy with apricot, orange peel, and honey.  It didn’t last as long as I hoped though. 

All in all a pretty good sparkling wine.  It was kind of what I would call a “girly” bubbly, in that it was on the fruity side, without that much complexity.  I tasted this with 3 girls, and they all liked it more than I did… ‘nough said.  Unfortunately I don’t know how much this retails for at the moment, so I’ll have to get back to you on that, along with an up or down for the recommendation.

Rating:  89

Price:  Pending

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This wine was given to Rika as a “Secret Santa” gift at her work’s gift exchange.  We weren’t really expecting too much, but were pleasantly surprised.

Color is dark, ruby red with just a hint of purple.

The nose is very aromatic with a heavy vegetal component, like bell peppers and sage.  Very earthy… old wood and dirt.  There’s some spice in there too… it is certainly interesting.

Taste is hard to describe.  It is very earthy, with subdued fruit – sour plum, not so ripe strawberry, and black pepper.  It is quite acidic.  We started drinking it with Korean bbq style beef ribs, and it was quite good for that.  The sourness of the wine complimented the sweetness of the ribs.

Mouth-feel was not too bad initially, but by the end of the 3 hours it was pretty weak. 

But by itself, there’s a good bit of spice on the back end.  Tannin structure isn’t bad, but don’t think there’s much life left in it… that is to say I doubt it will get better with age.  Not near as much oak as I was expecting, although I took a tiny sip right after decanting it and it was fairly oaky then, but after an hour that subsides quite a bit. 

All in all it was an interesting wine that continued to change as it aired over about the 3 hours we had it out.  There was a point, at around 45 minutes to an hour that it was at its best, in my opinion.  For the money, I’d have to say pass on this one, as it isn’t $20 better than the 3 Buck Chilean Chuck.  I’m not saying its the same… it wasn’t that bad.  But you can do better for $23. 

Thanks Robert for the wine, we did enjoy it, and found it quite intriguing. 

Rating:  86

Price:  $23  (average price found online)

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Now, don’t beat me up already, having read the title of this post.  Before I even start, let me just say that I bought this wine to make a syrup for home made ice cream.  That said, I thought it would be fun to pour a little in a glass and review it just for fun. 

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