NOW I am tasting more of the oak in this bottle, opened last night with friends to accompany ribeyes and New York Strips! Less black fruit than at the winery.
My one friend is a bit of a wine geek (although the bug has not bit him to the fiscal extreme it has me
) and he blurted out "not what I expected."
A very smooth, big, bumptuous coconutty and vanilly wine. Definitely more oak tonight, and I can understand now a little better why one would feel this is a "dumb" wine. Still, the smoothness and elegance to me are a big improvement over the harshness of many moderate to low end Napa Cabs that are also over-oaked. And, although it is not really my preferred style, it was interesting to taste this one, which provided quite a contrast to the second wine. Would I buy this one again? Probably not, as there are other interesting wines out there that need to be tasted, only limited time, and definitely only a limited budget.
Verite Sonoma County Le Desire Bordeaux Blend (Almost all Merlot). Wasn't decanted or opened very long before hand and didn't show quite as well as it did at the winery (Which was one of my very, very best wine experiences, so....). Still, this is an absolutely beautiful wine probably near its peak. Multiple layers of black fruit, flavors, a nice firm structure but not harshly tannic at all and a powerful herbal-savory kick on the finish. Delicious-and everyone at the dinner expressed a preference for this wine over the Silver Oak. would I buy it again? Well.....the new releases are far above my budget for large purchases (I do have a 2003 in the cellar) but this is a go-to winery for big splurges. There is always the magic six numbers of the California Lottery
