Decant Stop Tasting Wine Blog

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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I asked our guy at Wine Expo for an "already aged" red that was similar in style to a Barolo, for around 20 bucks.  The guy never fails us.  If you’re good at describing what you want, he’ll hand it to you (no silver platter available).  That’s pretty much what this is.  At about 10 years old it has some aging under its belt, although I could see how a little more would still serve it well, and who knows how long it will last.  The cork was a bit moldy, but the wine was unaffected. 

It is pretty earthy and dusty on the nose, with some indication of red and dark fruit.  However, once in the mouth it opens right up with plum, apple peel, slight oak and tannins.  Mouth-feel is medium bodied and light to medium acidity.  Right as you swallow you get a bit of red fruit with spice and black pepper.  The finish is long and goes from watermelon and muscat and fades to what I can only describe as cucumber.    Very interesting and very delicious.  All in all a great wine for a good value, especially with its age and complexity.  The thing holding it back from a better score is its dustiness.  It is ever-present and a little distracting.  I would still recommend this wine, but luck will have to be with you to find it.  Give Wine Expo in Santa Monica a call as they are your best bet.

Score:  90+

Price:  $22  (Wine Expo)

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Sometimes you read reviews of wines that say you can enjoy it now… but your experience with wine tells you it is probably best to cellar it for at least a few years.  Then you open the wine at the review’s recommendation, and you find you should have cellared it.  This is one of those times.  Oh, when will I learn?  For the most part, if it is a French red, cellar it 3-5 years after release.  It may or may not gain anything, but undoubtedly won’t lose anything.  If you have a case, open a bottle a year upon release… who cares.  We don’t have that kind of budget though, plus, we’d rather drink lots of different wines than more of the same. 

The color is medium ruby, quite pretty.  Aromatically it is pretty nice, after decanting, with some dustiness and a nice red fruit tart (not sure what, but maybe has some blackberry in it as well).  I think what I’m also smelling is actually the tannins, which would be the first time I noticed that in a wine.  Mouth-feel is probably what you’d expect from a Cotes Du Rhone… a little bit lighter than most of what we drink typically, with what I can only describe as perfect acidity – can be drank by itself or will probably go with just about anything.  The fruit is pretty much a nice red fruit mix; strawberry, raspberry, and cranberry – and a nice surprise… orange and lime peel!  Add a little black pepper (joy) and spice, very smooth and balanced oak and tannin, and you’ve got the flavor profile. 

This is a really nice little wine for the money.  Made me want pizza for some reason… a nice gourmet basil and mozzarella, not Pizza Hut anything.  Basically, something simple but delicious.  This isn’t weak like a white, so it doesn’t require weak flavored food.  You just want to be able to appreciate the wine, so don’t blow it out with something too complex or intense. 

My advice is to find this wine, cellar it for a few years, decant it for an hour, and enjoy.  Even if you can’t/don’t want to decant, it is very enjoyable right now.  I do think it has the structure/backbone to continue to blossom for another couple of years at least, so if you can, drink in 2010.

Rating:  90

Price:  $13 (K&L)

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This is an Australian red blend of 94% Shiraz and 6% Viognier.  That’s right, a white grape.  My take is that the Shiraz alone was thick and dense like tree sap (but probably tasting a lot better) and the only thing they had laying around to thin it out was Viognier.  I’m joking, of course.  I think they actually were trying to add complexity and aromatics, which they did succeed in doing. 

My problem with this wine is that it just doesn’t taste… right.  At least not for my tastes (nor Rika’s).  I would love to tell you what kind of fruit it tastes like, but I can’t place it.  Basically, it is dense (still) in bouquet, color, and flavor.  The profile is red fruit, maybe a mix of all of them… but it is too jammy for me.  When I opened it the aroma of blackberry jam slapped me in the face.  I actually thought "cool!"  But after tasting, was pretty disappointed and confused.  It never got worked out… sip after sip until the whole bottle was gone.  After-taste wasn’t too bad, and lasted a while… mostly the oak, tannin, and black pepper.

If you like a challenge, buy a bottle and try to figure out what it tastes like.  Be sure to post it here!  But then, for the price, you can get far better wine.

Rating:  86

Price:  $16

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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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This is the first white wine that I’ve had no complaints about for as long as I can remember.  This is quality stuff indeed.  The nose is more or less the same as the flavor – grassy, with citrus and a little cantaloupe.    It has medium acidity and is pretty flexible for food pairing.  The finish is pretty long and pleasant too.  I guess I actually do have one complaint, which is the price.  Not that it is crazy expensive, but to me this is at the same level as many 10-13 dollar reds that I’ve had, but at twice the price.  Certainly there are wines this good at a better price point.  The search continues.  I would recommend this wine though, because it is quite good compared to other whites I’ve tried.  It probably is quite different than the California Chardonnays a lot of people are drinking too, or all of the other wines from labels that produce millions of cases per season.

Rating:  89

Price:  $22 (K&L)

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The nose have it!  Big black fruit aroma, with a little smoke, spice, and veggies.  Mouth-feel is solid, lush, with light to medium acidity.  This wine is BIG on fruit!  Black plum, black and blue berries… you can imagine that the grapes themselves must have been heavenly delicious.  Nice long finish.  Goes great with Gumbo!  A big recommend for the price!

Rating:  91

Price:  $13

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Deep rose in color and smells like a dusty cellar with tobacco and black licorice, and a little smoky.  Mouth-feel is fairly light with slight acidity and very slight ripe tannins.  The taste is well balanced with mostly red and some black fruit and a touch of black pepper (my favorite thing to find in a wine).  The long and pleasant after-taste is basically plum and black pepper, really nice.

I had the wine in my cellar for quite a while waiting for the right moment to open it.  My expectations were high and I was not disappointed.  This is a K&L exclusive, and they’re sold out, so good luck finding it.  I wish I could get my hands on another bottle… I’d love to see what it tastes like in another 5 years!

Rating:  91

Price:  $20

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Dark rose colored with an bouquet of forest floor, veggies (bell pepper mostly), and a good amount of fruit, especially plum.  Mouth-feel is supple with medium acidity, and mild tannins on the finish.  Flavor profile is medium dark fruit with a balanced vegetal component – largely dark plum with asparagus.  The plum lingers through the long finish/aftertaste with the mild tannins remaining like a memory.  All in all a darn good wine for the money.  It is deliciously approachable in its youth, complex enough to satisfy even the toughest critics, and versatile to pair with a wide variety of foods.

Rating:  91

Price:  $17

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Sorry for the lull in reviews, but I promise I have a sorry excuse!  LOL  Two things contributed most to my not posting our reviews as dependably as before.  The first is the fact that my laptop, which I did the reviews on 95% of the time, bit the big one.  I got another used one, but was sick of Windows (too resource hungry) and decided to give Linux yet another try to see if it is "ready" for prime time.  After a couple of months of testing, I have to say it is close, but not there yet.  The biggest issue for me is that there’s no good blogging software.  Windows Live Writer is light years better than anything available on Linux, and despite my valiant attempts to get it to run in Linux, I was unsuccessful.  So, this past weekend I installed Vista, of all things, and am back in action.  My system might be slow, but it works.

The second is that we went through a period of being lazy, both in writing reviews and with buying wine.  We got into a zone and were embarrassingly stuck on a specific group of yummy wines and weren’t too adventurous.  I felt a little "burnt" on doing reviews too… I just wanted to relax and enjoy the wine for a while.  It did give me a great appreciation for the work that wine critics do.  They don’t have the luxury of going on an extended vacation from reviewing wines.  But I think I’ve found the solution, so hopefully we’ll be back for good.

I’ll be posting a several reviews that I made notes on paper for, thinking I’d be posting them soon from my PC.  I can’t tell you why I never did… it is a mystery to even me.  It is far less convenient to post from my PC, since I typically post reviews on the spot from my laptop, not from my office some other time.  But still, I do spend plenty of time at the PC and could have done it… guess I just used it as an excuse. 

Oh, and if you read this, POST COMMENTS!  We know there are lots of people reading our blog and nobody is posting comments.  We want them!  Give ‘em up!  Especially if you try a wine we review, whether you agree or not, post your own comments about it.  We want to know what you think. 

Shawn (MrSato)