Decant Stop Tasting Wine Blog

Beautiful garnet color made me first think that this was going to be a great wine.  Then the super balanced and beautiful aroma of smoked oak, dark fruit, cark chocolate, cigar box, strawberry, and vanilla had me convinced.  Unfortunately the flavors didn’t follow suit.  We found it a bit on the light and simple side.  It tasted of smoke, plum, rose petals, strawberry, and a little cinnamon.  Nice, but not $50 nice.  Mouth-feel was lightly acidic and mild on the palate with mild, ripe tannins.  The finish, which wasn’t very strong or long at all, was cedar, cherry, light tannins, and tiny bit of black pepper.  Overall a pretty nice wine… certainly pretty to look at and smell.  But at 50 bucks, I’m not going to recommend it.

Rating:  90

Price:  $50

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This is the bastard step-child of the great Lafite-Rothschild Pauillac 2005… be aware of the difference.  The words Reserve Speciale don’t sound like they’d mean “this isn’t the wine you’re looking for”, but basically it does.  The noble father is valued at about $735 for a 750ml bottle, and hasn’t even been released yet.  All that said, this IS an interesting, and even beautiful wine.

Color is medium, ruby red.

Aroma is at first big time oak, with spinach, bell pepper, spice box, floral, fresh cut grass, hazelnut, almond.  Later, after a few hours, it becomes mostly floral.

Tastes of oak, black grapes, plum, and red raspberry, with a tiny hint of a floral flavor, which eventually becomes the dominant flavor after a few ours of decanting.  I know, weird.  Really good with dark chocolate though.

The aftertaste is pretty cool – dark chocolate, black pepper, and flowers.  Never thought I’d get that combo in a wine.

This wine is really complex initially, and fading to some kind of flowery fruit (mostly flowers) after a few hours.  If it were a little lighter in color I’d say it was the ultimate romantic wine.  But again, at the price, you might be able to do better… on the other hand, it is very unique, and worth a try.  I would love to see what this taste like in 2010, I bet it will totally rock!

Rating:  89

Price:  $30

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This is a beautiful wine to behold, and smell.  Of the four 05 Bordeaux we tried, this one was the most consistent from start to finish. 

Color was medium red – really red.  Beautiful by candle light. 

The smell of strawberries jumped out of the glass as I poured it, really nice.  Also smelled of cherries, ripe fig, honey, oak, and vanilla.

Tastes of plum, ripe fig, strawberry, and cherry… almost like a not so heavy desert wine.  Seemed kind of light though.

The finish was plum and spice, but not much there.  This was probably the weak point of the wine.

Given the aroma and bright red color under candle light, along with a fresh fruit (not fakey though) taste, I’d say this was a really good romantic wine.  Other than that, even though this sounds like a shining review, it didn’t totally impress.  I’m not really sure how much good cellaring will do for this wine either.  All in all, not a bad experience, but for the price, I think you could do better.

Rating:  88

Price:  $17

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This is another ‘05 Bordeaux that really could use more time.  This one was a little better than the Ch. Ballan-Larquette, but not so much that it was unanimously better.  But then, the person who preferred that one did so over all of the others, which no one else did.  Just goes to show that wine is all about preference.

Color was medium-dark, ruby color.  Very pretty by candle light. 

The nose was of bright fruit, citrus, plum, sweet cranberry, strawberry, oak, leather, cork, and eventually, bubble gum.  I mean the old-school plane pink bubble gum.  We all tasted it too, it wasn’t just me being weird (actually I think Rika smelled it first.  A pretty complex nose, but it didn’t really jump out at you.

The taste was not a continuation of the aroma.  It tasted of black pepper, blueberry, blackberry, and prunes.  The tannin structure was not overpowering, but had an obvious presence.  Mouth-feel was spicy and pretty acid, kind of light, almost refreshing.  The finish was black pepper, spices, plum peel, and eventually became just salt… or so it seemed.

As I said, this wine needs more time.  I think it showed excellent promise though, and really wasn’t too bad now.  Again, I would recommend buying this one, as it has a lot of what I like, but just keep it in the cellar for 3-5 years before drinking.

Rating:  88

Prices:  $12  (K&L Wines)

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We recommend you decant this wine an hour ahead of time.  You should pretty much always do that, but especially for this wine.  I will also note that we found it to be very young, and in need of a lot of cellar time.  Heck, its only $10, so buy a bottle and hold it for at least 5 years and then drink it.  It is fairly complex now, and seems like it would be pretty well rounded after that time.  Not too bad, if you like old world wines, particularly from this region, right now though.  I can certainly buy a bottle of wine I like better for $10 and can enjoy it now.  But if you have a wine cellar and can afford the space/are looking to fill space, this might make a decent addition.

Color is garnet color with a little purple – bright ruby by candle light.  I’d say it was a romantic wine, but not with this taste, not yet.

The nose is of bright red fruit… mostly raspberries, with a little tobacco.  Pretty tight actually, and not much to offer.

Mouth-feel is a bit too acidic and tannic, but certainly more powerful than the nose.  It tastes of tannins, tobacco, cranberry, red currant, oak, plum, and even the grapes themselves (young).  The finish was tobacco, heavy young tannins (which subside a bit with time after the bottle is open, especially like after a few hours).

You know, a note on all 2005 Bordeaux wines available now.  Some, arguably the best, are being released in January ‘08.  This one really does taste like it was rushed out to market, which is a shame, because it does taste like it had good potential.  I just hope staying in the bottle for a number of years does the trick for it.

Rating:  86

Price:  $10

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Coming from the Medoc region (left bank Bordeaux) the wine is a blend of 50% merlot and 50% cabernet sauvignon.  Color: dense red in color. Color shows this wine is still very young.  Purchased at Whole Foods for 19.00  This has an elegant nose. Primarily black currents and cassis, with some hints of mint, beeswax and new oak.  As for the palate, plenty of ripe black fruits much in the same vein as the nose, soft, smooth tannins give this wine good structure. There was an unexpected distinct copper aspect and slight hints of tarnished silver. I suspect I’m experiencing a little of their bottling process.  After 40 minutes of decanting the metallic taste subsided but a whole new aspect arose. I can only describe it as a faint neoprene wetsuit. Odd.  A weak finish.  Even with the wetsuit aspect the wine was not completely unpleasant. I found it cannot hold up on its own.  As usual I let the wine dictate the meal for the evening. That is a good thing since this wine is not completely enjoyable on its own. This wine can only accompany a meal. Unfortunately it cannot support an entire meal but only an appetizer. Carpaccio with caperberries, a dash English mustard and a little shaved Parmesan. This wine needs to have a complex aspect to accompany it so I have to give it my seal of disapproval. It was too much work to make something that I could enjoy as its culinary foil.    Bottom line: Drink it fast and move on.

Rating: 60

Price: $19

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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