It can be painful prepping for a wine lunch in Vancouver because 1) if I pull a cork then I could maybe run afoul of open-container laws on the other side of the border and 2) no wine tastes good to me at 7:00 in the morning. I could detect TCA or something, but good/better/best? It's a crapshoot.
But I nonetheless decided to test the Horsepower (Cayuse) Grenache I thought would be cool to share. This was a no-theme day and I didn't have any other tricks on stand-by, so why not share something from what is arguably Washington's best winery.
2013 Horsepower Vineyards Grenache Sur Echalas Vineyard Walla Walla Valley
Interesting this mornhing to read my CT note from 2020 when it had more fruit than it does now, but in which I complained about a very bitter finish. Yesterday, this spent two hours in a decanter and currently the fruit, such as it is, shows mostly like rhubarb and green olives, MASSIVE green olives. This is a characteristic I enjoy in moderation but here it's just darned unpleasant. And the bitter finish is here just like the last bottle. Obviously, we didn't take it to Vancouver. And there was no improvement by the time we got home last night either. Dumped it.
So I went to the cellar and pulled another wine I had in mind:
2018 Anthill Farms Syrah Campbell Ranch Vineyard Sonoma Coast
In the decanter it was a bit cloudy, thin-looking and sour-ish at first. Another hour of oxygenation didn't help though I did keep wondering was it the wine or was it me being me at 9:00 in the morning. Either way, it did not seem to recover enough to risk taking it so back in the bottle it went. We sampled it when we got home last night. Big, big improvement: the nose was more effusive, the color was deeper, the dark fruits had arrived and it had the body it needed to offset the acidity. Lovely wine but I'll let my other bottle rest for a few more years.
Then I went back to the cellar and grabbed an 08 Pegau and a 15 Oregon Pinot to take instead. Notes on those when Bill posts.
