1995 DeLille 'Harrison Hill', Washington state
I've bought and tried a number of Washington 1995 wines and they've all been very good--the vintage produced ripe fruit with plenty of structure. This is the first dog. Bricky red color. Syrah nose but cab francish in flavor (I don't know what grapes are in the wine.) Initially, it shows its age in that there's little in the way of primary fruit flavors left, but it's absent any attractive secondary characteristics. We figured that in 15 minutes it would either open up or go dead. So we opened another wine to have with dinner:
1999 Carmenet McNab Vineyard Merlot, Mendocino (California)
In the history of my cellar, this is one of the best wine deals ever--a $35 MSRP wine with serious concentration and structure for $5. The winery had been sold and all this product flooded the market. There were a number of different single vineyard bottlings available but this cool climate merlot one was my favorite, and this was the very last bottle. It's a shame I don't have more as every bottle has been better than the last. The wine is still youthful in color and structure with blackberry fruit, fresh herb and mocha notes, and it tastes like it's at least 3-5 years away from peak.
Meanwhile, back to the DeLille: it's dead, Jim.