2002 Marquis-Phillips Holly's Blend

[Drew]

This wine is 100% Verdelho. Pale wheat in color. Very floral nose of peach, grapefruit,pineapple and petrol. Really thick in the mouth, intense like flavors with a hint of bitter orange and a petrol/solvent character that was interesting and added to the complexity. Long 40+ second finish. A delicious wine. 13.5% Alc/vol, $14. Treated myself to this wine last night while dining alone with New England Clam Chowda, Mixed green salad and Asiago cheese bread. Perfect.

Drew

[ShortWiner]

That sounds delicious . . . wish I could fine these Marquis Philips wines you guys are always raving about. But why do they call it Holly's Blend if it's 100% Verdelho?

[leatherman]

the 2002's are out? or was this the 2001?

[Innkeeper]

Remember Rawhide, that they are six months ahead of us. In six months we will have 2002 whites from America on the market.

[leatherman]

I mean the MP wines specifically. I remember the 2001 hitting the stores last summer so I was suprised to hear that someone had a MP 2002...

[Drew]

ShortWiner, I thought the same thing but the bottle and Parker's rating sez 100% Verdelho. The rest of the MP lineup is the 2001...only 2002 is the Holly's Blend.

[leatherman]

Oh ok thats right. thanks drew. cant wait for the 2002 reds thats all [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

[joeyz6]

I can't find the Marquis Phillips, either, or at least they didn't have any at a couple of stores I tried in Chicago at Christmas. In fact, they had never even heard of the line at one of the shops!

[wondersofwine]

Dan Philips is the distributor through Grateful Palate. I obtain the wines at Carolina Wine Company in Raleigh. Grateful Palate is based in Oxnard, CA and does some mail order business (it includes a "Bacon-of-the-Month Club") but I'm not sure about distribution in the Chicago area. I didn't find a list of retail outlets on the web.

[leatherman]

my guess is that there are very few if any MP Reds left anywhere in the country. These were hands down the hottest wines of the year

[Auburnwine]

I thought that the Cab was pleasant enough, though not so outstanding as some seem to think.

I really liked the Shiraz -- but as a $12 Shiraz. There are lots of satisfactory Shirazes in the $12 - $15 range. There's no rational reason for the price sky rocketing, as it seems to be doing.

[Drew]

You have to let the cab open for a day or two before it begins to strut it's stuff I found. The Sara's Blend is another that needs some exposure to the air to show it's stuff this early on.

Drew

[joeyz6]

So where do you all get it? Do you order it through the mail or something?

[Auburnwine]

A bottle here, a bottle there. Its popularity has changed the distribution pattern (and price) big time. The local wine shop says that their distributor says that there is none to be found.

Someone told me that it's commanding big prices on the Internet. That is ridiculous. It's not a big-price wine. Something like the Paringa stands up quite nicely against it.

[newsguy]

i agree that there's a frenzy around the MP wines that is making prices on the secondary market go into ridiculous levels. but's it's not because of pure hype. the shiraz and the cab are fabulous. while i have been, and still am, a big fan of paringa's shiraz, i don't think it's quite in the same class as the MP, which is the richest, most concentrated sub-$20 shiraz i've tasted (sorry peter lehmann). just my 2 cents worth.

[eskinnyc]

I was just lucky enough to grab the last bottle of the 2002 from my local wine shop. According to the guys there (who are usually pretty knowledgeable) the "blend" is Verdelho & Semillon.

[Drew]

I have since learned the same, that it is indeed a blend of Verdelho and Semillon...wonder if anyone told Parker?

Drew