I brought this wine into my wine class to prove a point and ended up proving quite a different one. I had opened a bottle of this California blend a few months ago and found a synthetic cork under the capsule and a nasty tasting wine under the "cork" (so bad in fact that I never wrote it up, but did make a private note of the incident). Now I know this isn't suppose to be a long-lasting wine, it was a fluke that I found it in the first place, buried in my cellar - sad part is ... there was a companion bottle with it. And so I took it to class to show what an oxidized wine tastes like ... but that is not what actually happened. Imagine my surprise when I found a natural cork under the capsule - and a mighty fine wine under that: At first this wine made no friends at all, descriptions from the class ranged from earthy to dirty diaper, but once over the initial shock of finally being opened this wine started to reveal its real smells: dried cherry fruit, tobacco, dried blackberry and dried raspberry ... fresh fruit was not to be found here, but then it really wasn't expected either. Palate proved to be more interesting: vanilla and dried cherry with port-like nuances. Plenty of dried red fruit with touches of the occasional spice ... but most of all it was sweet with candied fruit and a quick finish. A very interesting curiosity of a wine and it served to prove a different point to those who liked it: wine is finite and once it's gone you can't buy any more - much to the chagrin of those who wanted to know where they could get a bottle or two.
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