Archive for the ‘Tasting Notes’ Category
Thanksgiving Wine in Real Time
November 25th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Thanksgiving this year is 21 people, so there’s a fair amount of latitude to bring different things to the tables. I got multiple bottles of a white and a red, and then a few bottles just to have around. I’m also not the only person bringing wine, so I’m figuring some of the basics will [...]
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Heitz Martha’s Vineyard 1998: A Tale of Woe
September 8th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
I have this game that I play when I go to winery tasting rooms. I try to get off the regular tasting menu and into the better bottles they have stashed behind the bar. The key to this is not a demonstration of vast knowledge; it is the display of great interest. The people who [...]
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Chateau Lascombes 2004: Trust Betrayed
April 30th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Aging wine is a matter of trust. You take good wine and put it away in the belief that it will get better. You have to trust that your patience and the storage conditions and the wine itself will take something good and change it in a way that justifies the deference of pleasure. I’ve [...]
Tags: wine
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90+ Wine Cellars: The Shipment is In
April 22nd, 2010 by Tom Johnson
I wrote a while back about 90+ Cellars, a négociant start-up that buys surplus wine from highly rated wineries and repackages it under its own label. The schtick is that these are 90-point wines available anonymously and on the deep cheap because of the current wine glut, and the hedge on the schtick is that [...]
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Wineblog Round-Up: Do Zins Improve With Age?
January 21st, 2010 by Tom Johnson
I’m a monster Zin man myself. I like my Zins big, unsubtle, full-frontal. Still, there are those who argue that aging Zin has its merits. I don’t have a really well-informed opinion on this, though the other night I cracked open a bottle that was as close to an aged Zin as I have: a 1999 [...]
Tags: Zinfandel
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Rivola Sardon de Duero: For Now My Favorite $15 Wine
January 11th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
I go through phases. I get obsessed with a wine and drink it by the gallon before suddenly abandoning it. Right now my phase is Rivola Sardon de Duero, a product of Abadia Retuerta, which started in 1996 with the mission of making modern Spanish wines for the world market. To that end, they restored [...]
Tags: Spanish Wine, tastings
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It’s Good to Have Friends: ’91 Cain Five
January 1st, 2010 by Tom Johnson
There is a saying among boaters that the only thing better than having a boat is having a friend with a boat. That’s because maintaining a boat is expensive and time-consuming. If your friend has a boat, you get to do all the cool weekend stuff with none of the mid-week drudgery and doling-out of [...]
Tags: Cabernet Sauvignon, tasting notes, wine
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Christmas Surprise: Virginia Wine
December 27th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
Non-wine-drinking in-laws from Virginia brought Virginia wine for Christmas dinner. Pardon my lack of enthusiasm. But: two bottles from Chateau Morrisette were memorably good. The 2007 Cab had a nose conveniently recalling a wine term I just learned last week (here, see comments): aldehyde. Perhaps too conveniently; I decanted the wine for 40 minutes before [...]
Tags: tasting notes, Virginia Wine, wine
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When Cork Taint Ain’t Taint at All
December 16th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
At last night’s wonderful Big Reds tasting at Westport Whiskey & Wine, one of the A-list wines on the agenda was Michael-David Rapture 2004. It’s a sleek Cabernet with a dense fruit core from Lodi, an unfashionable AVA better known for value than premium wines. Rapture was the first Lodi wine to crack the $50 [...]
Tags: tastings, wine
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Is There Such a Thing as a Quaffing Pinot?
December 8th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
I’m looking for a brooding Russian River Pinot Noir around $20. I’m doing this to round-out a writing project, and I’m doing it with full knowledge that Russian River Pinots tend not to brood. They tend to be, as one correspondent patiently explained, “pretty effusive, with a distinct soft silky texture.” Still, I try. Tonight: [...]
Tags: pinot noir, Sonoma, tasting notes, wine
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