Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard 1999 Bobcat Blend (California)

Now this was a real surprise. At one point I owned 3 bottles of this wine,. The first one I drank in April of 2006, the next in August of 2007 - the note on the last bottle said hold another year ... seems I'm a little late, as two years have now gone by. Upon opening the wine was a little shy in the glass, giving up forest floor notes and not much else; but with a little coaxing, the right glass and some aeration fruit began to emerge, not fresh fruit, dried fruit - but, twas fruit. Figs, dried blueberry and cranberry rounded out the forest floor notes on the nose. The mouth is where this wine really shows its age, but also shows it's complexity: dried leaves, dried fruit, barrel notes of cinnamon and spice with touches of dried herbs. There's a nice seam of acidity here that seems to hold the wine up nicely in the mouth and very little tannin, but still there is some tannin ... this wine was a real surprise, ten years old and still holding up well. Lovely, in an that old wine kinda way.

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