2000 Château Cantemerle Haut-Médoc Red Bordeaux Blend
Dark fruits with some forest notes, dense but drinks well now. Red fruits took over by the end of the bottle and backbone dissipated at about the same rate--two hours apart you'd hardly recognize it as the same wine. Interesting transition, and it probably doesn't bode well. We'll drink our remaining bottle sooner than later.
2012 Whitehall Lane Tre Leoni Napa Valley Red Blend
A spicy cabernet blend featuring merlot, zin and syrah too, IIRC, that tasted more like sangiovese than any of the grapes it actually contains. Well-balanced and featuring zingier than usual (for '12 and Napa Valley) fruit, but there's not much here to prop it up much longer.
2014 Diemersdal Sauvignon Blanc Reserve South Africa
Unfamiliar but good-racy nose of lemon-lime soda and spice get decked out with a little toast and a lot of minerality. Though this never offers any SB typicity, it has fascinating complexity and depth--blind, I'd have guessed Italy. IOW, if anyone ever blended vermentino with arneis, it might taste like this.
2012 Duckhorn Wine Company Cabernet Sauvignon Canvasback Red Mountain
My first taste of Duckhorn's new WA state winery, and I'm impressed. This wine is not about power, it's about restrained elegance and balance (especially in a big vintage like 2012). Blackberry and boysenberry fruit are subtly nuanced by tobacco and Red Mountain minerality. Silky tannins and gentle acidity provide great mouthfeel. Drinks well now, will be interesting to see how it develops.
2013 Marcel Lapierre Morgon Gamay
Quoting Mark Lipton on CT: "iitially, very light and almost candied. With time, the wine took on greater depth and darkened. Notes of meat helped flesh out this very appealing though lighter rendition of this perennial favorite."
2013 Ferrari-Carano Chardonnay Reserve Napa Valley
Made from Napa fruit and closed with real cork (where the cheaper Sonoma Chardonnay is under screw cap). 50% new oak gives is a rich, creamy presence, yet allows the acidity to shine through. Very good but lacks anything special to warrant the $33 price tag IMO.
2013 Ferrari-Carano Pinot Noir Anderson Valley
I was poured this at a dog and pony show type tasting in a lousy glass and therefore probably didn't get all it had to offer, but with that caveat: spicy nose promises complexity that doesn't come through on the palate. It is otherwise a solid pinot noir, balanced and a bit earthy. Very good, just not especially compelling.
2012 Failla Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
Bought this because I hear the name spoken well of so often, but though we enjoyed the wine I can't honestly say it impressed me as above average for $35.
2015 Efeste Rosé Oldfield Estate Yakima Valley Mourvedre Blend, Mourvedre
Margot's bottle. Very pale, rich and sophisticated on the palate with a dry finish. Excellent.
2006 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Palengat Vineyard Horse Heaven Hills
Big and flavorful, but seems younger/less evolved than the two bottles I opened in 2014. Should have decanted it but I took it to a friend's home and there wasn't a decanter available. Decant!
NV Ensemble Cellars Release Number Eight Walla Walla Valley Red Bordeaux Blend
Margot's bottle, tasted alongside an Ensemble Six. The Eight is a blend of 09, 10 and 11. Black and blue fruit with a hypnotic, perfume-y nose, perhaps the closest to the famed "Margaux perfume" the winemaker craves than any other Ensemble I've had. Very structured and 2010-like reflecting the two cooler vintages in the mix most, and balanced. Captivating now, this will be a show-stopper in a few years.
NV Ensemble Cellars Release Number Six Walla Walla Valley Red Bordeaux Blend
Margot's bottle. The Six is a blend of 07, 08 and 09 vintages. Drinking very well right now, after an hour's decant. Black and red fruits reflect the two warm vintages (07 and 09) in the blend, but alcohol and ripeness are kept firmly in check. At peak, but can hold here for a couple years.
2005 Château Marqui Côteaux Varois Cabernet/Syrah Blend
Same as the last bottle. A decent, dry country wine with a little funk on the nose that's still evolving.
2014 La Conreria d'Scala Dei Priorat Black Slate La Morera Garnatxa Blanca, Grenache
Pale yellow; flavors/aromas of flowers, pears and white peaches with splashes of sweetened sushi ginger that linger in the aftertaste, both lightly bitter and sweet the way many cavas show. Quite drinkable but nothing more-ish or special here for a $20 Spanish white.
2010 Alma Rosa Pinot Noir 40 Sta. Rita Hills
The 40th anniversary edition. On the heavy side with dense, extracted fruit and lots of sweet vanilla oak. This isn't the Sanford I remember from the old winery. Well done for fans of bigness, but it's overbearing for me.