Domino del Plata 2033 Crios by Susana Balbo (Argentina)

This is a tragic wine ... Lately I have been touting my love for the Bonarda grape; mark my words it will become popular one day and it'll been for it's fresh, juicy nature.  So I went looking in my cellar to see what I had in the Bonarda department, putting my money where my mouth was ... and I found this 2003 wine, a 10 year old Syrah / Bonarda blend (equal parts of each).  So needless to say I just had to try it.  The nose should have been the tip off to how this wine was going to be: old leather, white pepper, burnt cherry, with an under-current of green bin (for those of you not in Ontario, the 'green bin' is basically a compost container that gets picked up weekly from your home ... it's organic matter).  The palate gave me some hope: starting off fairly juicy but it ended funky and odd ... this wine is in the throes of a personality dilemma, it's not sure where it wants to be and if it should be there.  So with all this happening I wrote a note to myself that I will share with you now:  "These are the days I wonder if I'm an alcoholic ... I keep sipping on this wine although I know its bad - I keep hoping it will come around, but deep inside I know it won't.  I am sitting at the dining room table with the glass of wine on the other side of the table and I can smell it - and it is pungent and not very appealing ... and it's not getting any better."  With time in glass it still stinks and the palate has actually turned into nothing organically recognizable mixed with booze.  Sad part is you could tell it was a well made wine and it was fighting to be heard from, but a mix of the closure and time let it down.  I still believe in Bonarda, but aging it might be another issue.

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A Couple of Dancing Bulls (California)

Went to my brother's house a dinner of beef rib and coleslaw and in the deep bowels of the wine cellar I found a couple of bottles of interesting wine - a set of Dancing Bull wines: Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel both from 2003.  Now how they made it through all these years I'm not sure, but tonight was the night to try them.  Interesting to note that once the capsule was removed one of the wines was under cork the other under a synthetic closure ... weird, as you would suppose they would have the same closure.  The Cabernet was thin with hints of dried fruit, sweet dried-cranberry, and a massive hit of oak, but you really had to look for the fruit - for the most part the wine was lifeless and un-appealing.  The Zinfandel on the other hand was full of spiced vanilla and raspberry, while on the finish there was red fruit and spice mixing interestingly in an appealing combination - the wine still had quite a bit of interest to me as a Zin fan and those assembled as it contained some real umph as it sat in the glass.  I won't tell you which wine was under synthetic and which had natural cork, I'll let you figure that out yourself.

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Renwood 2003 Old Vine Zinfandel (California)

Tonight I thought I would BBQ up some ribs for dinner - so obviously it's time for Zinfandel.  I found an old bottle of Renwood 2003 Old Vines that I thought might just do the trick.  The ribs are in the oven ... wind gusts are hitting 70km an hour so BBQing is out of the question ... and I poured myself a glass of this wine.  First thing that happened was the cork broke ... easy fix, and I was able to push the cork through.  Next step was to pour the wine into a nice big glass - mission accomplished.  Now smell.  Holy crow, all I can smell is alcohol here, I look at the bottle, 15 whopping percent ... I knew that Zins were big (in fact I like that aspect of them) but this one just smells big ... taste is a little on the cherry-plum side of things but that big rocking alcohol is just reaching through the very middle of the wine and taking over.  I have to admit it has been a long time since I have had a Zin where I did not find at least one thing to like about it ... this is just too much alcohol with nothing else to back it up.

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Sparkling Wine Nightmare (Ontario / New Zealand / Ontario)

This Friday I felt like captain Walter E. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now as I experience "The Horror.  The Horror." ... but not of war, the horror of a sparkling wine debacle of the like I have never seen.  Earlier in the day I consulted with my wine database and decided this weekend I was going to celebrate Friday with my oldest bottle of bubbly in the cellar:  a Jackson-Triggs 2003 Methode Classique Proprietors' Grand Reserve.  And so I put it in the fridge in the morning hoping to open it around 5 or 6 o'clock in the afternoon after the work day was done.  And it it came to pass.  Six PM and I got out two sparkling wine glasses - unwrapped the capsule and slowly started to remove the cork ... with barely a pop, a hiss or a fizz.  Had I been able to pull the cork out of a bottle of bubbles soundlessly?  If so this was the first time I have ever done that.  Alas the bottle had lost all its bubble it was flat, uninteresting and for the most part oxidized.  I looked at the cork and it was a short, stubby thing that never (even three hours later) expanded.  So bottle one was faulty.  Now I had to hastily find something else.  This time a bottle of Oyster Bay Brut Rose from New Zealand ... I popped this one in the freezer and waited half an hour ... this one made a beautiful explosion as the cork was pulled from the neck and the fizz in the glass was exactly what I was looking for.  I poured one glass, and before I could pour the other a funny smell hit my nose.  I put my sniffer in the glass, and wouldn't you know it ... corked.  Shit.  Back to the cellar for a third bottle - my plan for dinner at 6:30 backed up by another half hour as I waited for my third bottle of bubbly to chill in the freezer: this time a bottle of Cave Spring Blanc de Blancs - I popped the cork at 7:15pm; washed out the sparkling glasses and poured my third bottle in the glass ... hazzah - finally a bottle we could drink ... but the time for bubbly had passed.  We drank the wine and it had its usual deliciousness, but we were not in the mood for it.  Although I love sparkling (and so does my wife) it just had lost its appeal this evening because of the trouble; the time for bubbles had passed.  Sigh - we'll try again in a few weeks and hope for better results - but now I know that there's a time for sparkling and there is a time to just give up.

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Tyrrell's Wines 2003 Rufus Stone Shiraz (Australia)

Earlier this week I mis-posted a 2001 Merlot as a 2003 wine, I knew I had 2003 on the brain for some reason and it's because I had pulled this wine out at the same time I yanked out the Merlot ... while the Merlot was impressive at twelve years old I thought this 10 year old Shiraz was even more impressive.  The nose had an absolute crap-load of cassis on it when first opened, then along came black raspberries and balsamic strawberries ... pretty intense.  The palate changed over the course of about an hour and a half.  It started out with cassis, cocoa nibs and a rather rough / raw finish; within about 15 minutes the finish started to develop those tell-tale peppery notes that Shiraz is known for ... the wine just kept smoothing out and becoming more recognizable as Shiraz and by the hour-and-a-half mark it proved that it had been amazingly well preserved (screwcap closure) with great dark fruit and pepper notes and just a touch of something dried ... really very impressive if you have the patience to let it sit.

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Two More Ruined by Plastic (California / New Zealand)

I am about to get up on my soapbox ... let me just drag it over here ... test it's stability ... tap the microphone ... and here we go:

Two fallen soldiers with tarnished toppers

Tonight I was appalled and also embarrassed by what I found under two, count 'em, two capsules ... neither was expected and neither was welcome - plastic cork.  I don't know what the fascination with plastic cork was in the mid-2000's but for god sake it is really starting to get on my very last nerve.  I understand that natural cork was letting us all down (at the least 10% of the time) and I get the point that screwcap looked cheap - but to opt for something like plastic, who thought that was a good idea?  Now in truth, of the two bottles I opened I had real faith in one of them, the other was more of a lark:  Delicato 2005 Merlot and Cooper's Creek 2003 Tom Cat Merlot ... I suspect you can guess the serious versus the lark ... but both wines were absolutely horrible (worse than I ever imagined), and that is not what I was expecting from Delicato.  Let's start by describing the wines in there present form ... and I must say these aren't all my words.  [Sidebar:  the reason I was also embarrassed (just a little) was that I opened these wines up for my wine class in the hopes of showing at least one good aged Merlot]  The Delicato wine was oxidized, funky and off-putting, "wet old shoes" was one of the descriptors used on this night ... the wine was prematurely aged and undrinkable.  But that wasn't half as bad as the Tom Cat - (now how much faith can you put into a wine like this?) but the odor was horrible, one student mention it smelled like their "green bin" the other said "rotting vegetables" ... whatever moniker you put to it it was not good, not good at all.  

Once again I make the plea to producers to please, please, please in the name of all that's good and holy to please put on your labels some indication that the wine is sealed with a synthetic cork (read: plastic), that way I, as a consumer of your product, will know not to lie it down - in fact I'll make a special rack in my cellar specifically for plastic corked bottles, those are the ones I can open immediately or as the fourth bottle on a bacchanalia-like evening, you know that time of night when nobody can tell the difference between a good bottle and rot-gut.  The sad part is that with all the research about plastic corks and longevity there are still wineries who insist on putting "reserve" designated wines under plastic cork (one I know about right here in Ontario just released some beauty 2007's under this closure, say goodbye to them by next year).  Something has to be done.  As consumers we have to start demanding better labeling for instances of plastic cork ... as a writer I have to make it my mission to alert everyone about plastic cork on bottles, that way I at least give them fair-warning before they make the decision to lie it down.  Plastic cork is fine for drink-now bottles (2 years max) but for anything you hope to have a future with (say 5+ years) no plastic should  be used.

Funny thing, it just so happens that I am going to visit the largest manufacturer of plastic cork (NomaCorc) later this month, I will have plenty to say on the issue of plastic corks ... I would love to hear what they think of the age-ability of wine under their product ... I can bet you dollars to donuts they're going to tell me their research is much different than my practical findings.  I know, keep an open mind and all - but I can't seem to get over the number of bottles I have encountered that have been totally ruined by a ill-placed and ill-thought out closure ... maybe that's a little harsh ... the question comes down to this:  do you blame the closure or do you blame the producer?  The closure is inferior for long term aging - the producer is negligent in not telling you about the closure ... maybe I've found my culprit - now how do we get wineries to tell us about their choice of bottle sealant?  Earlier this week I had lunch with a major Italian wine producer, and he seemed intrigued by the concept of putting that kind of information on the label ... will I have to make my pitch one winery at a time?  Or better yet, why don't we all put the bug in their collective ears.

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Two South American Bottles 2003 & 2010 (Argentina / Chile)

Dined on prime rib Saturday night, and I was in charge of the wine ... hate to say it, it was never actually said that I was in charge but I put myself in that position.  I pulled out two very different bottles one from Chile the other from Argentina ... one brand new (2010) the other nine years old (2003).  Started with the older wine: Clos de los Siete 2003 from Argentina, a wine that proudly states on the front label Michel Rolland's name.Turns out about 6 months ago I opened a bottle of the 2006 version of this wine and thought out loud in that post about what the 2003 would taste like.  As it turns out the 2003 was not as exciting as the 2006 but was still a decent wine.  Earthy nose was the mainstay of aromas, while the palate was dried of fruit with earthiness mixed in - the wine had definitely crested the hill and was on its way down the other side; but I still had a glass and a half to see how it progressed over the course of an hour or so - it never got better, but it didn't get worse either, so that was a plus in its favour.  The second bottle was the one I popped the cork on for dinner:  Valdivieso 2010 Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (Santa Cruz) - now this was typically Chilean, but typical in a good way: the wine was laced with mint chocolate, dark berries and a luscious mouthfeel.  Two wines with very different stories to tell and both told them in their own way, and I was glad to be there to listen (so to speak).

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Four Wines With Varying Degrees of Interest (Australia / California / Italy)

The only thing better than making new friends is making new friends with a good wine cellar who are willing to share ... I have been very fortunate this weekend to find myself in New York meeting some wonderful people and drinking some pretty interesting wines.  Friday was Sushi night and while everything we tried might not seem like sushi matching wines they were of varying degrees of interests all on their own.  Starting with a MollyDooker 2011 The Violinist, a wine made from the Verdelho grape - a grape found primarily in Portugal and Spain ... what the Aussies are doing with it I have no idea but this wine was not to many people's liking - there was a suggestion that maybe it needed time and I'm not so sure, this was just a very underwhelming wine that lacked character and acidity.  Should have been a great wine with the sushi, but in the end it fell flat.  Opened next (and quickly after the white debacle) was a Sine Que Non 2003 Omega ... it doesn't get much weirder than this an Oregon Pinot Noir made by a California winery, but what the heck. I'm picking up a lot of interesting tidbits this week ... like the US system is much freer in what you can make and from where than my beloved Ontario (more on that tomorrow).  This bottle was brought by our host because the bottle was leaking in his cellar and he wanted to see if it was still any good.  After I had this wine I looked at a few reviews on-line and discovered that ours tasted more like Pinot than others, who spoke of it as more Syrah/Shiraz like ... this was most definitely Pinot Noir, in fact it seemed to blend the old and the new worlds with its old world stinky nose and its new world fruit flavours, a dichotomy of sorts that worked out well ... maybe the leakage helped it along.  Final bottle at dinner was a Dark Matter 2006 Zinfandel, a delicious spicy, chocolatey with raspberry mixed in - it was a wonderful Zin, not for sushi matching but a lovely sipper tht would have been divine with BBQ ... maybe next time.

I'd be remiss if I did not mention a bottle of San Gregorio 2001 Serpico which was open earlier in the day on a dare ... and to see if this wine really was holding up.  Parker gave this particular vintage of this old vines Aglianico 98 points and the scuttlebutt is that it can age 30 years.  Upon first taste it would have been surprising that it lasted a second taste, but we were adventurous and kept giving it air and another try.  It started off quite fruit driven, then closed up on itself and revealed nothing but wood, cedar and oak notes.  The finish was raw and became like drinking liquid wood ... could this be the end of this wine?  About an hour later we came back to the glass and it had really blossom with fruit and the wood had dissipated to a dull roar - a supporting player to all that lovely fruit.  Post Script:  we left the bottle for about 24 hours and re-tasted it ... the end result was a so-so wine but that middle part was wonderful, that was the sweet spot.

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Artezin 2003 Zinfandel (California)

Seems like forever since I wrote on this blog ... probably isn't that long but I had a little bit of a scare over the past few days that has cut my wine drinking a little, something to do with kidneys ... but I'm sure I'll be back on the horse in no time - I should hope so the holidays are coming and so is get-together season, and that means a little drinking (as we all know, when it comes to some folks we need a little booze to get through).  Tonight we tried a crockpot recipe for ribs ... turned out alright but I now know why I prefer back ribs to side ribs.  The wine I used in the cooking and subsequently the drinking was an Artezin 2003 Zinfandel.  When I poured it into the pot at 10 in the morning it had a rustic, dried fruit quality that I thought would keep the sweet BBQ sauce in check.  8 hours later, ribs ready, the wine had blossomed with spiced plum, deep balck cherry, with licorice all-sorts on the nose, dried fruit nuances and a slightly raisined note that was very pleasant to drink ... I didn't want to put the glass down ... then my wife reminded me about the kidney thing and one glass was all I was allowed ... but oh what a delicious glass it was.

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Bodega Emina 2003 Emina 12 Months (Spain)

My Spanish is a little rusty ... okay it's a lot rusty ... to be perfectly honest it's non-existent, but here I am staring at a bottle of Bodega Emina 2003 Emina "12 meses en barrica" and from what I can garner from the back label, this wine is aged 12 months in French and American oaks, but no mention of the grape varieties used in the making of the wine.  A quick check of the website leads me really nowhere about this wine, but then again why should it, this bottle is already 9 years old - but it did lead me to amend the title of this post and add the "12 months" moniker.  Well enough about trying to learn the make up of this wine, let's look at the way the wines tastes now that it has had so much time in bottle.  The nose is red licorice laced with a touch of herbal ... the longer it sat in glass the more the 13.5% alcohol started to show (which in truth isn't an over the top amount) to the point where the wine smelled like alcohol soaked raspberries - but in a good way.  The taste started out as dried black fruit, on the sweeter side, and added herbal, menthol and cocoa-raspberries as the night wore on.  I was genuinely impressed with this wine, I thought it has hit its sweet spot with lots of great fruit (more dried than fresh) still showing through and there was very little evidence of the wood used, except for a bit of a smoky finish with a cherry-chalky linger ... plus the tannins are quite smooth, but you can tell they were once there, and quite robust.  Really liked this wine.

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Young Concha Cabernet + Old Wakefield Shiraz (Chile / Australia)

Tonight it was a late dinner (for us), with friends we have been trying together with since before the holidays.  I screwed up the pulled pork earlier in the day so we fell back on an old standby, meatloaf, with all the trimmings that should have surrounded the pork: baked beans and cole slaw (we scrapped the buns).  As it turns out everything was a hit, including the wine.  Started with a robust Concha y Toro 2009 Gran Reserva Serie Riberas Cabernet Sauvignon ... a full on raspberry assault of the senses, all that lovely juicy fresh fruit, tasty and ultimately sippable.  I then took my buddy down to see the cellar, and while there put my hands on a 2003 Wakefield Clare Valley Shiraz.  I have just recently become a fan of the award winning Wakefield Cabernet (the wine that put them on the map of Aussie wines ... little did I know I had bought a bottle of their wine many moons ago.  Wine cellars can be a funny thing as in you luckily lose things and then find them not knowing you even had them ... love it.  This older bottle of Shiraz had old smells and tastes but it was holding very nicely with earthy blackberry along with white pepper, herbs and graphite notes.  Lots of muddy sediment at the bottom of the last glass and the inside of the bottle looks like it had been painted maroon.  Glad to have opened this wine tonight as our friends found this wine more intriguing than the first - older wines just have more character (but they have their place, just like the young ones do) ... maybe I have sparked them to start their own cellar ... or just come over here more often - time will tell.

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Mitchelton 2003 Blackwood Park Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (Australia)

There are times that I pull a bottle of wine out of the cellar for no more important a reason than I wanted to ... there are other times I look a little deeper into the cellar and think I have to start drinking some of this older stuff ... this was one of those times (on both accounts).  This Mitchelton Cab was stunning from beginning to end, it was one of those bottles that after the first sip I was wishing I had more bottles and after an hour I was wondering if I should have let it sit longer. But all that means nothing now as it is the only bottle I have and it is now open and gone, but what an enjoyable wine it was.  The nose was full of black cherry and chocolate with a hint of rich vanilla cream.  The palate was even better with fruit flavours of blackberry and black cherry, then dark chocolate and vanilla took on some of the chores of delivering flavour ... as the evening progressed the wine continued to be loaded with rich dark fruit on the tongue and the finish was cocoa ladened with lots of length.  This was a delicious wine, so glad I got the chance to experience it - and while I wish I had bought more, I am glad I drank it during the sweet spot.

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Conde de Valdemar 2003 Crianza (Spain)

Friday night (the end of the work week - and a holiday weekend to boot) ... Meatloaf (a good one, not some run of the mill piece of meat with ketchup on it, or the rock singer) ... and a bottle of wine (nothing ordinary, wanted to spruce it up with something interesting) ... which all led me to this 8 year old bottle of Spanish Tempranillo, with a little Mazuelo (Carignan) on the side, (about 10%).  I love Spanish wine, I think they are some of the most consumer friendly wines about, especially because of their price.  This Crianza was full of dried red berries, a little cedar and some dried cranberries on the finish, paired well with the meatloaf and the relaxed atmosphere the start of a holiday weekend brings.

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Aramis Vineyards 2003 Leeroy Reserve Cabernet Sauvigon / Shiraz (Australia)

Tonight, I blindly yanked a bottle out of a case of aging wines and found in my hand this bottle of 2003 Cabernet Shiraz.  At first the nose was closed and almost vile, so I decided that maybe a little decanting could help ... and it did.  A violent decanting (turning the bottle upside down and pouring quickly into the decanter) livened this sucker up, aromas of smoky blackberry and cassis were followed by spiced-vanilla, some cinnamon and a little chocolate.  The nose was slightly more inviting and open than the taste which produced toasted black cherry and a little pepper on the tongue.  Not a bad wine for one that is 7 years old, maybe a little more time or a second decanting would have helped.  I think I still have another bottle, maybe next time I'll try that.

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Delaroche 2003 Pinot Noir - Bolla 2008 Valpolicella (France / Italy)

Tonight I was making a Panko encrusted Mahi-Mahi with saffron mustard glaze ... seems that I have been watching too much Food Network of late ... anyway, I thought I needed a light red wine for the occasion, Pinot Noir seemed the right way to go.  So off to the cellar I went and found an Anne Delaroche 2003 Pinot Noir from Corsica ("L'ile de Beaute"), popped the cork and poured the wine.  Not sure what is going on with me of late but I am finding all the corked wines in my collection at the same time.  The level of corkiness on the nose was subtle at first, and the wine itself was bland on the palate; I opened something else (see below) and revisited the wine an hour later - as I have long discovered a corked wine will get worse when exposed to air and this one was absolutely nasty, with a capital 'N' by the time the hour was up (ed. note: By the next morning it was downright foul).  So it was on to something else, a light, fruity and enjoyable Bolla 2008 Valpolicella - this one had the goods.  The nose was raspberry, cherry and cranberry cocktail, while the palate delivered a raspberry-cranberry kick with good acidity and a lovely lingering finish.  From bad to way better in two corks or less ... usually if I find three bad bottles in one night I defer to beer, thankfully it didn't get to that tonight because the pairing proved to be delicious.

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Lapostolle Merlot 2003 ... Senetiner Malbec 2001 (Chile / Argentina)

Is it old, corked or just woody?  That is the question I am faced with this evening as I have opened a bottle of Casa Lapostolle Reserve Merlot 2003 ...  I swirl and snort and there is some fruit here but there is also a big alcohol masking everything, especially the taste. I check the bottle and see a 14.5 staring back at me.  But the flavours are dull and dumb, not dried, which is what it would be if it were old.  Sure there is lots of wood notes coming through but they are overshadowed by the alcohol on the palate, almost wood alcoholish.  So I am left with the conclusion that this wine is indeed corked (slightly, but will get worse with time in glass), and as I sip on it and swirl it around in the mouth it becomes more and more prominent, especially on the finish.  So, one down and time to move on.

I have now moved from a corked wine to a wine with a crummy cork ... this one not only breaks in half but it crumble all over the place, I have to push the last few centimeters of cork into the bottle - so now I actually have cork in the wine.  The first glass goes down the drain, to many bits in it.  Next glass is fairly clean so now let's see how this Nieto Senetiner 2001 Malbec Reserva tastes.  The smell is cherries coated in alcohol so I check the by volume rate and see it is only 13%, not astronomical.  Palate is a little thin and the cherries are most definitely sweet and dried ... this one is almost too thin to deal with, but I think I will give it some time and see what develops.  Now some 20 minutes later and the smell is cherry-sherry, lots of maturity on the nose but the palate is smooth and those cherries, although not fresh, are still playing across the tongue.  Bits of cork add a little grit to the palate but it is quite drinkable - as long as your like your wines with a little age on them.  Finish lingers around pleasantly.

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Hedges 2003 Red Mountain (Washington)

Hedges Red Mountain is a red blend made up of the three major Bordeaux varieties and a titch of Syrah (1%), the grapes are taken from three different vineyards `Bel Villa`, `RMV`and `Hedges`.  A friend brought this over because it was a bottle he was dying to try and needed the steak and the company to do it with ... it proved to be a nice mature Bordeaux in flavour:  there was fruit, spice as well as dried berries and slightly woody aromas.  I know for certain it went well with the steak and potatoes.  I thought the bottle looked familiar so I searched my notes and found that I drank the same bottle a little over a year ago - I wish I had noticed beforehand cause I would have whipped out the decanter ... but this time I don`t think it really needed it, but it wouldn`t have hurt.

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Graham Beck 2003 Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon (South Africa)

A hunt through the wine cellar tonight unearthed this South African blend.  Now, usually, for me anyway, most South African red wines have a funky road tar note to them ... the good news, this smell and taste disappears with age - hence this wine had turned into a beauty.  At first I'm not sure if it was going to be, it had a certain age stink and the plastic cork had me worried; but leaving this wine alone (half an hour), while I cooked dinner (lasagna and salad), and something miraculous occurred, this wine got better, much better.  The nose was spicy black fruit, with a hint of cocoa and some nice herbs; the palate had the taste of lightly aged fruit with a pleasant spice that makes it fun and easy to drink with smooth tannins and a touch of white pepper.

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Hardys 2003 Bankside Cabernet Sauvignon (Australia)

I hate to say it, sometimes a wine is just a wine.  A couple of days ago I was speaking with a colleague and he told me that the new Hardy Bankside Shiraz is lovely ... I thought to myself, "I have some Bankside somewhere, I should give an older vintage a try."  Tonight, I easily located the Bankside Cab instead of the Shiraz (which I know I have a bottle of somewhere) and decided to open it and see how the wine has progressed in its evolution.  Still with delicious sweet fruit, but instead of lovely and lively it is more dried in nature, with hints of pepper and the faintest bit of tannins left.  The wine was just that, a wine, nothing to wow, but nothing to disappoint.  It has aged nicely, but I wouldn't have waited much longer, now I'm thinking, "I really have to find that Shiraz."

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RH Phillips Vineyard Toasted Head 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon (California)

It's the last night in my current abode, tomorrow the move to the new place begins.  So as you can well imagine I have nothing to cook in the place, nothing good anyway.  So it was a jaunt over to my parent's place for supper.  I had left this bottle unpacked for just this occasion - not sure why I chose this, it has no significance of meaning for me it just grabbed my attention while wrapping up my bottles; so it accompanied me to dinner.  The wine proved to be a nice match to the Korean BBQ ribs my father fired on the Bar-B, but on it's own it just kind of laid there - nothing that jumped out of the glass saying "wow that's a fantastic wine", but then nothing to say "you should have drank this one years ago".  It was pleasant, accompanied the food well and it was my last unpacked bottle ... what more is there to say.  The next time I talk with you I will be surrounded by boxes that need unpacking and putting away and I will be dying for a drink - wonder what I will unpack first?

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