1995 SAINTSBURY PINOT NOIR CARNEROS RESERVE Bought a half-case of this from Benchmark three years ago, prompted by a 93-point email shelf talker and a fair price for a then ten-year-old wine. But days later the first bottle was taking a nap, and months after that the second bottle was still asleep, and so it went over the next three years. But tonight the sixth bottle awoke, not to 93-point splender but, say, 90-point respectability, with a muted but pleasant nose and enough happening on the palate to make for pleasant sipping. And I wish I could do as good a job of concealing my age as this Saintsbury does. "Where's the bricking around the edges," asks my wife?
2007 MARK RYAN WINERY VIOGNIER COLUMBIA VALLEY Who'd have thought! Zingy acid in a domestic Viognier! After a two-decade boycott of flat, flabby CA and WA Vios I finally found one that sings. Kudos to Mark Ryan. I'm now a born again Viognier fan.