For my belated birth day get together, a couple friends of mine conspired with my girlfriend and decided to have an all day wine drinking event with an early evening dinner. They dropped by early in the afternoon with several bottles while the little lady whipped up a great dinner. The dinner was a cold tomato soup made with fresh tomatoes, a whole bunch of other stuff that I noticed in the pot and in the middle was king crab and other stuff in it. I’m not sure about the cold part, but it taste pretty darn good. After the soup was a smoked prime rib with a great red wine reduction sauce.

We played a few hands of poker while trying the different wines. I think I lost enough to pay for all the wine……

From left to right:

98 Mudbrick from New Zealand. This was a bottle my Kiwi friend smuggled over in his luggage a few years ago. It’s a cab sav and malbec blend. Very nice bottle of wine…..
92 Dunn Petite Sirah. This one has some serious cellaring tannins going on. Once you get by them, it was very good.
98 Opus One. Always a good bottle of wine. I doubt this one can get much better if anyone’s sitting on a 98. Drink it now…..
01 Cain Five 1.5 ltr. We had this with dinner. Outstanding bottle of wine. It’s a blend of five berries – 52% cab sav, 20% petite verdot, 14% cab franc, 9% merlot, 5% malbec
02 Lamborn Platinum Vintage Zinfandel. This was by “gift” and I just couldn’t bring myself to open it. This is my all time favorite bottle of wine and they are down right impossible to find any more. I love Lamborn zins, but this has to be the best one they’ve ever produced. I put this one in the zin cooler for another day.
04 Lamborn cab. This is their second vintage of cab sav. It is a wonderful bottle of wine. Slightly less powerful nose than their first vintage, but a bit more of a finish.
98 Jordan cab. I like Jordan and the 98 ready to be drank. Very mellow for a cab with a nice crisp, clean fruity nose. Great bottle.