Decant Stop Tasting Wine Blog

Is this Borolo?  Sure tastes like it.  This is a massive and serious wine!  We had it with our Valentine’s dinner.  Before the pour i wiffed the cork and got really excited… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

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This is a blend of 85% Sangiovese, 10% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Spicy on the nose, and a light to medium color density.

I wasn’t expecting much before opening this wine, given the low cost and who’s heard of an Italian wine with a screw cap? Not me, I’ve only seen it in Aussie wines mainly, and occasionally with Californian wines. But hey, I tried a Cote de Rhone this summer that was not only screw cap, but had a plastic bottle! OK, we’re not talking about a very serious wine obviously, but still… winemakers are clearly willing to experiment.
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Wow, what a mouth full the name is!  At first glance (referring to color and density) it was a little scary… I’m usually not a big fan of “light” wines.  But oh boy, with a sniff I was already imressed, and had instantly become optimisitc.  Basically, it smells like a rustic Italian Rosso, Read more

This is an Italian Cab-Merlot-Sangiovese.  Color is fairly rich and purple, which seems a bit rare for an Italian wine, but maybe not so rare for the Umbria region?  On the nose it is like blackberry jam with dust on it, pretty much, but not bad.  It isn’t a bashful wine.  It is fairly tannic and vegetal up front, with good acidity.  The fruit is a little subdued for the color and aroma, but still fairly pleasant… mostly red fruits with a little of that blackberry thrown in.  It has a medium length after-taste that includes black pepper – one of my personal favorites.  But all in all we weren’t all that happy with the wine.  It just didn’t have anything really pleasurable about it.  That said, I think it has the structure to improve over 3-5 years, so if you can afford the space, buy a bottle (or more) and let me know how it works out.  Better yet, invite me over to taste it! 

Rating:  88

Price:  $9 (K&L)

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Last night we had a couple of good friends over for dinner and shared a few wines that were pretty good.  For starters we had the 2005 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot, from the Columbia Valley in Washington.  This was the lightest of the three, which we mostly drank before the meal.  It wasn’t bad, but not impressive.  There was a fairly good balance of oak, red fruit, spice, and acidity.  My “problem” with it was that it was a little weak for my tastes (this is strictly a matter of personal preference), and the fruit was a bit too extracted tasting. 

Since we were serving a grilled roast, we decided to have a little tasting of two Australian wines since I knew they’d be pretty hearty.  To make it fun we used two different wines from the same maker, Marquis Phillips… the 2006 Shiraz and the 2006 “Sarah’s Blend”.  As expected, they were big fruity wines, and per our preference, were pretty dense.  Sarah’s blend, which is a blend of composed of 60% Shiraz, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Merlot and Cabernet Franc.  This was the “smoother” of the two, but less complex, ironically.  The Shiraz, while largely a fruit bomb like the blend, was a bit more complex with a more identifiable tannin structure.  These were both delicious wines. 

Basically, we have to agree with the critics on this one, but with about a point subtraction each.  The critics rated them (in order that I listed the wines above) 90, 91, and 92 points.  We’ll be giving them 89, 90, and 91.  I don’t know if we’re just picky, but it seems we rarely give the same point score as the critics.  But then, same with Gary V. on Wine Library TV.  I’ve seen him up the point score, but this is a very rare occasion.  We probably give the same score as the critics about 3-5% of the time, but typically not that far off otherwise (this is not intentional, we’re just being honest, after all, this blog is for our own “logging” of what we try, for our own purposes).  But I digress.  Prices paid, $10, $13, and $13.

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Robert Parker gave this Cab 90 points, but I think he was more trying to steer people away from California Cabs.  Or maybe he just likes raw meat and earth.  Or maybe this wine will be better tomorrow night.  For now, I don’t see the 90 points.  I love wines from Chile, but this one isn’t quite up to the 90 point threshold.  It is fruity and dense, more than most CA cabs, and it does have some tannin structure, is slightly floral, and as I said before, pretty earthy, with a little raw venison, especially on the nose.  The nose, while very expressive, isn’t all that pleasant to me – but this is highly personal.  I mean, raw meat on the forest floor next to a camp fire might be wonderful to some, just not me.  I would have liked more of the floral aspect on the nose and perhaps a better definition of the plum and blackberry that is prevalent on the palate.  Actually, on the palate there is also some asian spice starting to come out as it breathes. 

In conclusion, I think most things are all about expectations.  I expected some of the same wonderful Chilean wine that I’ve had in the past, and Mr. Parker was not expecting so much.  Therefore I was let down, and he was impressed.  In the end, I think we have the same opinion of this wine.  For the 10 bucks I paid, this wine rocks.  It is pretty serious and complex, with a lot to offer – especially, as RP says, over a lot, if not most CA cabs of up to 3x the price.  We certainly agree on that point.  It does open up quite a bit with time, so I would advise decanting for at least a half hour before drinking.

Rating 89

Price $10

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This is from the Duero region of Spain, which I’ve taken an insterest in lately, ever since I saw the winelibrary tv show on them.  I have found that I typically like Spanish wines, so was happy to hear about a region I hadn’t discovered yet.  Eiko brought this wine over when we had her over for spaghetti last night.  Thanks Eiko!

On the pour into the decanter it was pretty purple and I knew I was in for a fruity ride.  On the nose it was raw meat and black fruit – blueberry and blackberry mostly.  I was surprised had how balanced it was, and that it wasn’t like dark fruit and vodka.  It was very smooth and supple, and as expected, plenty of fruit.  There was a little bit of rip tannins and some oakiness as well.  It has low acid on the pallet, but was very well suited for a steak.  Finish wasn’t particularly memorable, but certainly not unpleasant. 

Rating:  89

Price:  $16 (Wine House and K&L Wines)

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This is a Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah blend from Chile.  I really liked the taste of this wine, asside from the almost over-powering smokiness.  If that was toned down a bit I would have easily rated this wine 90 points plus.  If you pair it with BBQ ribs or something of that sort it might actually drink like a 90 plus point wine.

Garnet with a little purple in color, and an interesting aroma of old musky dirt (like under my grandmother’s old house in New Orleans), cedar, and vanilla.  Tasted of smoky spice, chared oak, blackberry, blueberry, very ripe tannins and black plum.  Mouth-feel was a journey of lush smoothness, then good acidity kicks in, followed by a nice ripe tannin structure.  Finish was toasty oak, spice, and plum peel.

Rating:  89

Price:  $14

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This was a pretty highly rated wine for $16, and since I like Aussie Shriraz, I decided to give it a whirl.  We ended up not rating it as highly as some of the pros, but it was enjoyable none-the-less.  Mostly I appreciated the complexity and we had a good time picking out the flavors/aromas. 

Color was deep purple with an interesting aroma of sweet tobacco, cranberry, cherry, raspberry, cassis, and a farm aspect that I thought was pretty cool.  It tasted like black cherry, blue berry, white asparagus, terroir, and blackberry.  It had medium to high acidity and palate staining ripe tannins.  Finished with blueberry, blackberry, licorice, and a hint of mint.

Rating:  89

Price:  $16

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This is a Shiraz-Cabernet-Merlot blend from South Australia… a first for us.  The color was medium to dark ruby and had smoke, black pepper, and a yeasty bread smell on the nose.  It tasted of black grape, ripe black plum, a vegetal aspect we couldn’t quite finger, and ripe tannins.  Mouth-feel was fairly acidic, but smooth.  Finished with plum, cranberry, herbs, and orange rind.

On paper this seemed better than in the mouth.  It has a lot of what I like in a wine, but was just a bit awkward somehow, and a little too alcoholic.  All in all, pretty complex and not a bad wine at all for the price.

Rating:  88

Price:  $9

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