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Needing a glass or After a glass?

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Bogle Phantom 2008

This became my back up wine after I drank my last bottle of Klinker Brick Old Vine Zin '09.  This isn't K-B but it has been close enough to go back to the wine shop for more bottles.  It will be  my Go-To wine until I get a chance to try the latest vintage K-B.

A red blend which is deep, rich and wonderful weight to snuggle up with on cold and now snowy nights.


Buttonwood Hawk Red 2007

This was one of a local wine club pack.  It is a good thing I made notes.  I had no clue how I ended up with this.

This is an unspecified red blend from 1 of the 2 appellations in Santa Barbara county, California.

The color was deep.  Tannins were still present but on the gentler side.  I noticed them only in afterthought while I was thinking about what I was drinking. They helped the wine stand up to the food, keep it's character. 

It didn't have the weight of cabs or other cab dominant blends but it certainly had more oomph than many Merlot blends.  It was certainly tasty but I wouldn't go out of my way to look for it.

Zappa Zappa Zappa!

Is what I said when I went back to the wine shop when I picked up the last three bottles of this a year or 2 back! 

A red blend from the Languedoc made up of Syrah, Tempranillo and Grenache.

Color was very red.  The tannins, smoothed.  The fruit wasn't over the top but just enough for my mood.  It held up over the 4 days it took to finish the bottle.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Saladini Pilastri 2006

Pregio del Conte.  

This seems to be a red blended wine with no mention of varietal.

Nose: not really aromatic or aromatic enough for me to identify anything...blackberry-ish with a touch of eucalytus?

Color: heading into brick.

Taste: Smooth.  Very light fruit, just a touch of something just barely sweet? - or maybe that was what my capellini w basil marinara & lamb pushed it to be.  Medium finish.

Now that dinner is finished, the wine in my glass is not sweet at all.  Apparently I guessed well at my pairing tonight.  Yippee!

Good thing I liked it.  I have 1 bottle left in my cellar.  I am trying to work my way through the older bottles before they get past their prime.  So far I have been lucky.  There were some that were starting the down slide off the bell curve.  This is probably the last year for this 06.

Li Veli Primonero 2008

Primitivo & Negroamaro.   

Not my usual label type picture.  I pitched the bottle before I remembered to take a pic.  My bad.

It wasn't the wine taste I was looking for that night.  I couldn't remember how it tasted and I opened it without doing a quick internet search.  My bad again.

The wine wasn't bad.  It just wasn't what I was in the mood for that night or the nights it took to finish.

The nose was slightly medicinal.
Color: red heading to brick at the edges.
Taste: No obvious fruit erm...maybe a not sweet blackberry? Smooth. Long finish.  Earthiness - in a good way.  No taste of ass that night.

Chateau Les Tours Seguy 2007

Just when I thought the fresh barnyard was bad....I open up one which smells like an outhouse.  

I have a laminated wine wheel which lists categories which help neophytes identify what they are smelling.  It identifies Chemical smells of all sorts, including Hydrogen Sulfide & Kerosene.  It doesn't list sh*t.  It must be a universal given.

The smell did not go away with aeration though it was less so the next day.

That's it.  Beyond drinking through the obscure, garagiste wines already in my cellar I am not getting any more.  I could really use the smells of summer berries right about now: even more so when the snows start to fall.

90% Merlot, 10% Cab Sauvignon.

Other than the offending nose, the taste wasn't bad.  It was a plummy taste, on the lighter side.  Light finish.