Tried this other relic the other night:
1. Ramsay AlicanteBouschet NorthCoast (13%) 1993: Very dark/near black color w/ slight bricking; fairly strong licorice/boysenberry/pungent somewhat earthy/loamy bit coarse/rustic light toasty/oak slight ripe/tomatoey (MendoCnty?) interesting nose; rather soft some earthy/loamy/root-cellar/rustic/coarse bit licorice/pungent/boysenberry/blackberry flavor w/ light/coarse/drying tannins; med.long earthy/loamy/rustic/coarse some blackberry/boysenberry fruit light toasty/oak finish w/ light/drying tannins; in remarkably good shape for a 20+ yr old Alicante but clearly on the downside.
_____________________
A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. This was one of onlt a few Alicantes that KentRasmussen made. AB is a tenturier grape (pigmented juice) and makes a wine that is black as the ace-of-spades when young. Because of its weird phenolics, AB tends to drop color pretty rapidly in the btl. I was struck by how black this wine still was. AB makes a pretty coarse wine (can't make a silk purse outta sows's ear, they say in Kansas) and this coarseness still showed in this wine. Not a profound wine, but far better than it had any right to be.
Tom