A few weeks ago Bob and I were out for a walk and sweet elderly lady I'd never met before came barreling out of her open garage to say, "You're Jenise, aren't you? The wine expert?" Forgive me for saying yes even though that's not a label I've ever given myself--it's just my rep in the 'hood-- but that caused me to be invited in to evaluate her wine "collection" which consisted of some 40 or so bottles people have brought her over the years and which have accumulated in her garage since neither she nor her husband drink. Luckily, the wines had been stored properly in a cool location and on their sides. Unluckily, most were cheap losers like Andre Cold Duck and the like, but two bottles had meager potential and she gave them to me. We opened the 1997 Villa Puccini Toscana on Saturday night, and the first glass was surprisingly quite good: soft red fruit, nice acidity, relaxed tannins, Sangiovese spice, sandalwood and raisins were all there. Everything went south in the second glass, but it was fun while it lasted and made us smile thinking back on that unusual afternoon in Pepper's garage (yes, a little old lady named Pepper).
The night before, we opened our last bottle of the 2005 Panther Creek Winemaker's Cuvee. A lot of people would poo-poo this as a sorry excuse for an Oregon pinot as it's unsweet and smokey, and I understand why such atypicity doesn't win friends. But on the other hand, if you theoretically leave this continent and compare it instead to a wine like Jaboulet's Thalabert Crozes-Hermitage in a year not like 03 or 07, that green element becomes olives and the wine works very well indeed. Based on this bottle I'd say the wine peaked about a year ago, but it's still enjoyable and for just $20 each to start with, we've enjoyed having this wine in our cellar.