Decant Stop Tasting Wine Blog

From the Barossa valley – probably our favorite combination (shiraz). I was pretty pessimistic about the possibility that this wine would actually taste like a layer cake. Much to my surprise, however, it was way layer cake!  A delicious one!  It is rare that I get exited about a wine, and I have never been exited about a restaurant wine. Well here we are at "Pinot Bistro" in Studio City, and I’m excited about this wine that I bought from the menu for a mere 45 bucks. That would still be a decent price for this wine retail, much less at a french restaurant.

The nose is smokey, oakey, and vegetal. With some sweet red fruit. The mouth-feel is soft with a little acidity. It tastes, aside from layer cake, like blackberries, black plum, and black grapes. Some asparagus and a little oak. Totally delicious!  You’d never guess it was 14.9% alcohol.

Rating:  92

Price:  $17 (BevMo)

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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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