Weeding out cellar

[brappy]

Hey Eng, where did you post on the Dry Creek? Anyway, good notes. Especially the box-wine note.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes.

It has taken me 2 days to recover. Pretty pathetic, but hey, I'm not getting any younger.

The day was spent with a couple of friends and my wife (4 total). We hit a couple of wine shops in DC after a fattening lunch at Mark's Duckhouse in Northern Va.

OK, the wines. Oh, also the notes are fairly clipped; we were drinking, not tasting.

#1 - Wakefield, Clare Valley, Riesling, '05. Sorry took not one note on this wine. Dry with good fruit. This was palate prep.

#2 - Duca Enrico, Sicily, Nero D'avila, '88; red, sweet cherries on the nose; And then I put this wine on my palate... I had one of those moments where the wine was just sitting in its window... Its perfect window. The wine could not be more into its peak than at that moment. Great red fruit, perfect balance, and great finish. A finish that makes you beg for more. Wine of the night, and we had to start with it.

This wine is made by Corvo and is thier flagship wine. We bought this (the last 5 bottles) for $10 per at Scnieders.... What a find!

#3 - Chateau Bois-Malot, Bordeaux, '89. Don't know anything else about the wine. A friend of mine brought this from Taiwan. So this bottle has been around the world. Nose has some red fruit with a bit of green. The same on the palate,with a touch of black pepper and dirty earth. This bottle doesn't seem to be in decline. Not the best wine out there, but aging well for what it is.

#4 - Chateau Troplong Mondot, Bordeaux, '92. At first the green in this wine was just overpowering. But in time it calmed down to have a nice balance with the generous red fruit it was sporting.

#5 - Chateau Troplong Mondot, Bordeaux, '96. Much more weight than the '92; But the fruit wasn'r near as tasty. The nose was nothing but mushroom, and that never died. Overall, a pleasant wine, but not one that I want again.

#6 - Corison, Napa, '99 - Great nose. All dusty red fruit. Medium body and just enough green pepper to give this wine some complexity. Great purity and simply a great wine.

#7 - Kenwood, Artist Series, Sonoma, '99. Some barnyard earth on the nose; also some minty/eucalyptus type of thing.The fruit really comes out on the palate. Great weight on the mid-palate. There is also some cracked black pepper noticeable on the palate. Great balance. (I wrote something else but am having a hard time reading it).

#8 - Spencer-Roloson, Zinfandel, '04, Sonoma. Great heavy fruit with strong notes of coffee and chocolate. Great, sweet fruit. The last word I wrote here was "Hedonistic". Not sure where I was going with that but the wine was a killer wine.

#9 - Biale, Zinfandel, Sonoma, '01. Tons of fresh natural black, blue, and even some red fruits. Great weight. This wine, unlike the Spencer-Rol, didn't use oak to flavor. Biale let the fruit do all the talking. Great job.

I hope that doesn't come off as a rip on the S-R Zin. The oak they used, paired with the fruit they had was a perfect match. I was just making the distinction between the 2 Zins.

I guess there was a 10th wine. I opened a bottle of Shotfire Ridge Shiraz, '04. I didn't take any notes. I'm not sure I could have written anything else at that point.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun.....

mark

Oh, and I'll post on this wine in the correct place, but now am enjoying both the '04 and the '05 Hundred Acre Barossa Shiraz.