To celebrate InternationalGrenacheDay, I had last night at AquaSanta:
1. SineQuaNon Calif Grenache (14.9%; "SQN is more than just a number") 2002: Dark/near black color w/ very slight bricking/murky; very ripe/jammy/boysenberry/Grenache some toasty/charred/oak rather hot/fumey/alcoholic bit tired nose; somewhat hot/alcoholic very ripe/overripe/bit late harvesty/raisened/Amarone-like very strong boysenberry/jammy/Grenache some toasty/charred/oak rather tired/late harvesty flavor w/ modest tannins; fairly long hot/fumey/alcoholic very ripe/Amarone-like very strong boysenberry/jammy/Grenache light toasty/charred/oak finish w/ light tannins; seems like an Amarone-style overripe Grenache that has not evolved very well.
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2. JosephPhelpsVnyds Delice du Semillon NapaVlly (13.0%; RS: 10.1%; 15% SauvBlanc) 1986: Dark gold/orange/burnished bronze color; very intense peachy/apricotty/botrytis/canned peach syrup quite fragrant/old Sauternes light coconutty/butterscotchy/toasty/oak complex beautiful nose; fairly tart intense botrytis/apricotty/canned peach/fruit cocktail rather caramel/butterscotch syrup/oak slight volatile lovely old Sauternes flavor; very long/lingering intense botrytis/peach syrup/apricotty/canned fruit cocktail light caramel/butterscotch/oak fairly complex finish; a lovely Calif Sauterne sorta like an older Climens.
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. When Whit put corkscrew to the SQN btl, the cork started to slide into the neck. Try as we might, we couldn't get to screw started and had to punch the cork on thru and decant around it. There was only a modest amount of sediment left in the btl. So the cork seal was not very sound....but I've had worse in wines that came out sound. There was no signs of significant ullage in the full btl.
Try as I might, I couldn't find significant signs of oxidation in the wine, either browning in color, or signs of oxidative flavors. I just struck me has an Amarone-style wine that had not evolved as well as I'd hoped. To bad...IGD deserved a stronger testimony to the greatness of this variety (did I say the right thing, Larry??).
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2. Delice: I was rather surprised at the color of this wine. Normally, a Calif botrytis wine of 26 yrs of age would be a very dark brown/near black/PX color of a wine. It was not. It was an appropriate burnished bronze sort of color, befiting of a 26 yr old Sauternes. Maybe it was the acidity...maybe it was a high SO2 dosage at bttling. But I thought it resembled a Climens of an equivalent age...though maybe not a complex or dried out.
Tom