Weeding out cellar

[brappy]

Hey, great notes Eng. Wow, you're all over the place. I know what you mean.... It's tough to decide which wine to bring from the cellar. Actually, Hattie wants the total number of wines to decrease by a couple of hundred. So she really is the one who spurred this whole thing on. Keep them coming.....

Here we go:

Last night #1 Hill of Content, Grenache (90%) Shiraz(10%), '04, Clare Valley, Australia. Still showing nicely. This is a solid wine. For any of you Grenache lovers out there, this is the QPR you're looking for. I might actually finish this tonight. Maybe....

Last night #2 Arcadian, Cabernet Franc, New York State. I thought for sure this wine end up falling apart. Not even close. I may get laughed at for this, but it reminds me of a left bank cab franc predominant from an off house. Very well done.

Tonight #1 Summers, Charbono, '04, Napa. I actually opened this up because the last one I opened had a touch of oxidation. So I figured the wine was aging too quickly. This wine doesn't even have a hint of oxidation. So I was dead wrong. That's what I get from my total ignorance with this grape.
Red cherries and baking spices on the nose. Wow, the palate has much of the same with nice acid level and a gripping tannic backbone. This wine could have easily aged another 5 to 7 years. The fruit is very good. Even better than the first few bottles I opened a couple of years ago. Very good.

Tonight #2 Simon Bize & Fils, Bourgogne, "Les Perrieres", '03, Burgundy. Over extracted....... Why???? Ohhhh, to cover the extremely high acid on the palate. I'm not sure what I'm thinking but I'll give this some more time.

Tonight #3 Frei Brothers, Merlot Reserve, Dry Creek Valley, '05, Sonoma. Also over extracted, but not nearly as bad. Forgivable anyway. A bit of red fruit on the nose as well. The palate is full of tart red fruit. The acid takes this wine out of balance. Not terribly so, but takes any thought of aging this wine to null. I'll give this some more time to see what happens.

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