WTN: All CA, All the Time

I had a few friends over for dinner and one of them arrived with a bottle in hand from his trip to Wine Country, a 2005 Hess Small Block Series Lake Country Sauvignon Blanc, which initially made me quite suspicious, but it far exceeded my low expectations for CA sauvignon blanc by actually tasting like the grape in a full on exotic and pungent 15.1% way, but still focused and relatively fresh. This was very drinkable if not exciting.

So, inspired by the emerging theme, I pulled my only CA offering in the house, the 2001 ESJ California Syrah which sent me into a dreamy smiley reverie that my non-wine geek friends could not really understand. Such lovely juicy syrah-ness, settling into a confident stage and wearing those few years of age like a comfortable glove, in the mouth. Lovely.

Rahsaan, in your rapture over the ESJ, you misspelled a word.. it's not `syrah-ness'. Such a word simply does not exist, as a brilliant student like yourself should know. It's `syrah-y-ness'! I dare you to look it up.

I know exactly what you mean... the rich soft juice.. oh yeah..