WTN: Very Brief Notes for Wine Party Saturday Night

The Good:

Arcibaldo 1997 Cab/Sangiovese Blend. Another beautiful bottle of wine., Coal black-purple-red color. Lovely mix ofsavory notes, tobacco, and still some great Sangiovese acidity. ****

GV Cellars 2004 Estate Merlot. tiny local winery under new ownership. Very dark color. Still some tannins, although they have mellowed over the past few months. Not a lot of secondary flavors (this is pretty young!), but I really enjoy the mouth feel and the black fruit character of this wine. There's plenty of fruit, but not too sweet. A really balanced wine for the price ($25) ***

Villa Raiano 1999 Taurasi WOTN. Another black as coal wine. Great mouth feel. Black fruit, but there is that lovely Italian tobacco/leather character. Bone dry-no excessive fruitiness or sweetness. ****

Cavallotto 1997 Riserva Brica ???? Still some fuzzy tannins, but this wine appears to be quite approachable right now. A bit of bricking in the color, I marked it as red-orange-purple blend. Meaty nose. I think I understand the "rose petal" description of Nebbiolo now-quite lovely, on the palette. Some meatiness on the palette as well. Just a hint of tar. Lovely wine-could probably be drunk a decade from now for even more complexity??? ***1/2



The Nice

Mauritsen Rockpile Petit Sirah (2004) Black seems to be the theme tonight. A lot of sediment in the decanter filter and the bottle. Nice furry tannins are still there-this was probably infanticide. Still, I really enjoyed the purple fruit and the mouth feel. ***

Fieldstone 2001 Petit Sirah. More red fruit, or at least a mixture of red fruit. Quite nice layers of resolved, smooth tannins. **1/2

Broman 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon Didn't show as well tonight. A little too fruity, not the savory, chocolaty flavors I expect from Broman. **

Juan Gill (Jumilla) 2004 Monastrell Not familiar at all with this grape. Purple color. Prominent tannins. Kind of an interesting sharp, floral, "purple"??? nose and definitely purple grapey (but not offensively so) nbotes on the palette. . My first Spanish wine I can honestly say I enjoyed with few reservations ***

Chateau Les Ormes Sorbet 2000 Medoc. A decent cab-based Bordeaux blend. Tannins fully resolved. Smooth. Not a lot of secondary flavors (Pretty young???), but this does not taste like a Napa Cab. Oak is balanced and not a problem. My only reason for scoring this lower (because I liked it better than the Napa Cabs) is that wonderful Larrivet Haut Brion I had last month was cheaper and much more interesting **1/2

Chateau Certan de May Pomerol 2000. Smooth and easy drinking merlot-based blend. Purple fruit, tannins fully resolved, smooth, elegant. However, it's pretty "international" in style. Maybe it's the youth, but it doesn't have the extra quirky savory notes I look for from France. This would be a good Napa Merlot, as a Pomerol which is NOT cheap, I can't rate it any higher than **

Domaine La Milliere Chateauneuf du Pape 2001 Very SWEET and fruit forward. Not sure I like this. Still, it had a nice kick of pepper in the finish. One more bottle, left, so maybe I'll put this down for five years???**

The Bad

Regusci 2004 Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon. Oh no. Where did all that nasty VANILLA come from? It wasn't there when I tried it last summer at the winery!!! Bleh-and I still have a bottle of this milkshake left. Waste of money, glug glug glug. Yucko. 1/2*

Stryker E1K Bordeaux Blend. 15% alcohol, pricey, and just totally nondescript. Had a decent nose, but absolutely nothing interesting on the palette. Another mistake. And,. it was decanted. A beautiful winery buidling, though *

Thanks for the notes! Cavallotto is one producer I've tasted too little of - it seems like just my style of old-fashioned yet well made and elegant wine. I think the ???? = Bricco Boschis (not Brica)?

-O-

You're right, Otto.

Cavallotto seems pretty widely distributed and fairly "affordable" for Barolo ($42 at BevMo, a big chain of wine/liquor realtors in California) I quite enjoyed this wine-it was more interesting than another Barolo I tried this week (name escapes me) in the same price range. More meaty and rose hip character.

The big disappointment was the Certan de May. It was just so "international" in character! Maybe too young, but I've had Saint Emillions at this age that have been very savory in character (at half the price!) It wasn't even bad, but if I want a smooth, soft, well-made style of Merlot, I can (with some difficulty) find some Napa wines at 1/3 the price.

[Jenise]

Monastrell = mourvedre. That Juan Gil came out of nowhere about two years ago and suddenly it was EVERYWHERE and EVERYONE was drinking it due to high Parker points. It's popularity was understandable, even for someone whose style preference it was not, like me: I remember thinking I'd rather drink it than most $10-12 wines that show up at parties, but I wouldn't buy it myself.

I'm surprised at the Certan de May, though come to think of it I don't think I've had a recent vintage. My general impression was that they were fairly traditional, but that's more anecdotal- I don't think I've had since 1990.

Monastrell = mourvedre. That Juan Gil came out of nowhere about two years ago and suddenly it was EVERYWHERE and EVERYONE was drinking it due to high Parker points. It's popularity was understandable, even for someone whose style preference it was not, like me: I remember thinking I'd rather drink it than most $10-12 wines that show up at parties, but I wouldn't buy it myself.

Yep=it's displayed on the prominent shelf end locations at Nugget market, my local "better" grocery store.

I know where you're coming from, but what surprised me was how how much I actually enjoyed it. Not sure I'll rush out and buy it again, but still...if I know guests like fruit, this was pretty darn drinkable. Interestingly enough, Cellar Tracker posts warned of fierce tannins. They were there, but not problematical.

[Jenise]

Not sure I'll rush out and buy it again, but still...if I know guests like fruit, this was pretty darn drinkable.

Right. And it's a better fruit bomb than most wines in it's price range. At least there's acidity there, and structure.

Interestingly enough, Cellar Tracker posts warned of fierce tannins.

There seems to be a LOT of that wine around, as in 'huge production'. And if so, there could be a lot of bottle variation.

And...the label sure is pretty