Varietals are the spice of life!

If any of you have any 98 Silverado Sangiovese in your cellars, now’s time to open them. I just opened one tonight at a little dinner party (fresh oysters, king crab and rib eye’s), and it was great. One of my buddy’s Girlfriends likes Merlots, so I figured I’d let her try something light, like the Sanviovese, and to my surprise, it was wonderful. I didn’t think 98 was a very good Napa year?

Another excellent bottle we opened was a Cline…. Ancient Vines Zin…2003. Full of berry flavors and full bodied, just the way I like them. With Zins, I either really like them, or hate them. I have not found any mediocre Zins. They’re either great or they suck. This one is great. I’m going to buy a couple cases tomorrow. It goes for about $15 (US) per bottle.

I just opened one tonight at a little dinner party (fresh oysters, king crab and rib eye’s)



Now that sounds like a helluva good time!!

cheers

If you like their ancient vine zin, you should try Cline's Ancient Vine Mourverdre. I think it's their best wine, and it's only $18.

We had a Penfolds Robert Hyland CavSav last weekend. At $19 a bottle it was one of the least enjoyable expenditures i've ever had.
The wine itself showed promising character, but it was so harsh on the palate, it was hard to drink, even with food. A look at the tasting notes and spec sheet shows why. At 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.55...

Maybe if this wine could mellow with some cellaring, but still, that is a pretty high alcohol content which really takes away alot of smoothness. A single glass gave my wife a headache. Usually she is good for the first two or three.

While at the warehouse yesterday, they had a sale going on a bottle of 2000 SIMI, Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (reserve). I haven’t had this one before, but I’ve had other SIMI wines and thought they were pretty good.

Normal price for this bottle was $78, on sale for $32. So I bought a case of 12. Hope it was worth it………..if not, I’ll be handing out wine for birthday gifts.

I’ve had that bottle several times. It’s a ‘dandy’ in my book. If you like the higher Alcohol content wines, take a look at Stetzner. They usually have some kick.

That is one thing i'm not keen on, higher alcohol content.
I've had some nicely refined whites before that were quite smooth and very tasty and yet i was surprised to see they had a 14% alcohol content. There are certainly some wines, when properly done, that can have the higher content w/o affecting its overal enjoyability. We just didn't find that Penfolds to be one of them.

If you don't like that Simi, you are welcome to send us a bottle or two for personal inspection.

mdrew,

Had a bottle of Silverado Sangiovese 2001 at dinner last night - lots of tannin hiding the fruit. I imagine it would be a much better bottle with a little more age.

Also had a 2003 Seghesio Zin (sonoma county) - good stuff!

Anyone have any good Petit Syrah suggestions?

Ya, it needs a couple more years. I had the 2001 and 2002, both were disapointing. That 98 was frigging excellent though.....

If you like Silverado, you can get their 94' cab on line for about $40. It's amazing. Probably my all time favorite cab. Better than their 99, and that one ranked 23 in the Wine Spectator top 100 wines a couple years back.