Happy Christmas Eve!

Twis once again, the night before Christmas. In a few short hours my face will be stuffed with seafood and chased down with wine. I love tonight; shrimp, crab claws, Riesling, crab dip, Sauvignon Blanc, crab cakes, Chardonnay, scallops in pesto, Pinot, salmon, Shiraz, Cab, calamari stew... I love tonight, but I already said that. 

Nothing fancy on this post. Just wanted to wish you all the Merriest of Christmases. 

Drink well and be well. 

Cheers!

Ho Ho Ho-liday Wine

Tis the season for

and holiday parties. 

Here's my budget bottle bringing holiday guide for 2012.

The "We're only staying for a little bit, then we'll say we have to go because ________," category:

Happy Camper Cabernet Sauvignon ($6.99)

I debated buying this. It looked and sounded cheesy. After tasting it, I think this might be a more appropriate label:

Beth liked it, but I thought it burned going down and was dry. Perfect for not showing up empty handed but not having to part with a good bottle on people you wouldn't want to drink wine with anyway. Bring this to my house and your actions will speak volumes.

Grade: D

The, "I doubt anyone there will even be drinking wine, and if they do, they won't know the difference" category:

Third Wheel, Red Table Wine ($6.99)

I revisited this last week and I gotta say, still a fan. It's a jammy, smooth and very likable, and for under $7, it's borderline lovable. Bring this bottle to the party where you might be the only one drinking it or you might share it with the cougar who uses it to chase tequila shots.

Grade: Easy B

The, "I need a cheap bottle of white for the girls Christmas party," category:

Rock View 2011 Riesling ($5.99)

This is the white equivalent of Third Wheel. A very likable, semi-sweet, smooth drinking Riesling. I had this again on Thanksgiving side-by-side with the Monchhof, which sells for $15. I definitely liked the Monchhof better, but not $12 better. This is solid. 

Grade: B

The, "I'm excited to go to the party," category:

Oak Ridge 2009 "Ancient Vine Zinfandel ($9.99)

While browsing the Chandler, (I think) Arizona, Total Wine, I had an interesting conversation with the salesman and then later on the phone with Tom. The salesman was pushing the Oak Ridge Reserve ($24.99) and Tom mentioned how much of a load of crap "Reserves" are. I had to put the theory to test. I got both, brought the Reserve to dinner and opened the Ancient Vine (how old must they be to be "ancient?") on Thanksgiving. 

They weren't the same juice in different bottles, that's for sure. The Reserve was huge, very rasiney, port-ish. The Ancient Vine was the best wine I had on Thanksgiving. A great Zin, at any price, but lovely under $10. 

I opened another bottle a few days ago and the first glass, Beth described as "smokey" while I tasted bacon. Not real breakfast bacon, but bacon flavoring. The second glass was more normal. The next day, the last glass was even better. 

Grade: B+

The, "I need a nice bottle for the cool people's party," category:

Meiomi 2010 Pinot Noir ($17.97)

I really love everything about Belle Glos and what they do with their Pinots. Again, Belle Glos, made by The Wagner Family, also the makers of Caymus. Good stuff. 

Enjoy this raspberry bomb and soak in the compliments. Warning, the party host may think you're trying to steal their show. Just sayin'.

*Note, that 7 in the hundredths place only matters when trying to apply coupons or case discounts at Total Wine. No dice if the price doesn't end in a 9. 

Grade: B+

Hopefully I don't ruin any friendships by showing up to your party with anything less than Meiomi! 

Cheers! 

Turkey Tackling Strategy

bang the link:    http://purpletooth.blogspot.com/

I've had, literally, singles of suggestions and questions for Thanksgiving wine pairing, I knew the time to type to my readers is now. I addressed this very topic last year, here.

Often, Thanksgiving Day turns into a day of football, wine drinking and at some point in the afternoon, a smorgasbord of a meal. None of the 3 are optimal fine wine drinking events.

I have a few rules to follow when addressing a Turkey Day wine list.

1. Know Thy Audience
How many wine drinkers vs. people who drink wine will be taking part?

If you have a family member that'll be filling their glass to the brim with whatever red happens to be opened, you probably don't want to deplete your precious stash on her. No offense.

I advise, stick with decent, non offensive, crowd pleasers. There's plenty of fruit-forward blends and zins under $14 that'll do just fine.

2. Keep Wine/Food Pairing Expectations to a Minimum
I touched on this last year, but a traditional Thanksgiving Day spread isn't really conducive to wine. I mean, would you ever go to a fancy restaurant with a deep wine list and ask the Sommelier what pairs well with turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce?

My suggestion, get a kick ass bottle and crack it tonight. Tomorrow, go Riesling or a dark beer. I'm kinda wishing I'd filled my 4 Peaks growler with Oatmeal Stout while I was there for lunch today.

3. Pace Yourself
The Lions game starts at 10 am EST. I'll probably call it a day around 8 pm. That's a long time to balance being on my best behavior and keeping a buzz. I'm pretty confident in my ability though.

My buddy John Harshbarger is now working for the fire department, and works Thursday. He said Turkey Days are never without incident. "Someone's always burnin' the side of their trailer from the turkey frier or beatin' up their old lady. We'll be busy." Do your part to keep them out of your neighborhood.

Now, onto my line-up. My dad's in charge of bringing the Monchhof.

I grabbed a few other semi-sweet whites and these reds:

That's 2 Zins, 1 Petite Sirah and 2 Pinots.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Celebrating Things Worth Celebrating

Online readers, do your thing: http://purpletooth.blogspot.com.

The in-laws have departed, which means I now have time to catch up on wine consumption tales.

As most of you know, Beth and I celebrated 10 years of mawwiage.

I knew that if we could get through Father John's bad breath during our ceremony, we'd be good for 10 years, easy.

Last night, heading home from Johnny's place (more on the tremendous wine we had in a few), I heard Rihanna's somehow catchy song that says, "Shine bright like a diamond," a good 85 times. I thought, 'you know what's cooler than saying "diamond" 85 times? Being named Neil Diamond, that's what.' Then, BOOM, next blog post topic came to mind.

The "America" Level - Neil gets no more powerful than this song. And on Veteran's Day, which, thank you Jared for your service, this song somehow gets awesomer. Seriously, give it a listen. Tell me you don't get chills. If you don't, you're a terrorist.

You may or may not know that we celebrated by cruising to Pasadena for dinner at the Vertical Wine Bistro, thanks to my co-worker, Veronica's solid recommendation. This place had a cool, hip, trendy vibe. Very good place. I give it 2 thumbs up, plus Beth's 2, making it a solid 4 thumbs up type of place.

Everything's better with pics:

Salted Carmel Ice Cream Sandwich. 

Fig & Burratta Salad. 

We brought wine, which I thought might be odd to bring wine to a wine bar, but they were fired up to cork and decant it.

I had a glass of the Seghesio Zin at the bar then we got after our bottle:

Yes, Tom, I recycled this pic from a night on your patio. 

I went Villa Creek 2010 Garnacha. We love the winery. We love their wine. It was as awesome as "America."I have double goosebumps from thinking of the wine and thinking of that song on a 4th of July night with fireworks blasting. 


The "Forever in Blue Jeans" Level. My personal favorite that may or may not be your favorite. Also, my karaoke go to.

We actually opened this on November 1st with Joe & Marie after a glass of Champagne from Weins. It was our way of double-dip celebrating.

Like the Jelly-of-the-Month Club, MYV's the gift that keeps on giving.

Last night, Johnny had a few people over to watch Jay Cutler get knocked to next week and the Bears lose at home to the Texans. The poor play by Chicago didn't stop us or the Hamiltons from enjoying a little wine.

The Cracklin' Rosie Level goes to last night's first bottle:

Black Kite 2009 Pinot Noir

Hot damn, that's a fine Pinot. Big, bold, racy and smooth. Just the way I like em! I'm not sure you could not be impressed by this wine. I'd love to try it side-by-side with the 2010 Belle Glos Clark & Telephone. Not sure I could say which one I think I like more. Both are awesome and in the same price range.

"Play it now. Play it now. Play it now my baby!"


The "Song Sung Blue" Level goes to our 2 bottle last night.

Feather ($40ish)

This bottle wasn't quite as disappointing as the reason I bought it, but it was close. Last year, Johnny and I had a bottle of wine wager on the Iowa/Michigan game. I lost as Michigan played like poop and picked this out at Hi Times on a strong recommendation from a lady working there. After a year of aging, we opened it last night and it fell pretty flat.

It had great color, a very nice nose, but did nothing exciting for anyone. Sort of like "Song Sung Blue."


And finally, we ended the night at the "Sweet Caroline" Level

Williams Selyem 2005 Pinot Noir Ferrington Vineyard

We went big to close the night and I'm very thankful for it. This was a beautiful bottle of wine. Why I didn't take a pic of the color, I'm not sure, but it was a gorgeous shade of purple. I said it looked like beet juice. I smelled and tasted a ton of strawberry flavors and it ended really smoothly. Wow, very nice.

Overall, I must say, I'm more of a Black Kite Pinot style drinker (bigger, bolder) but I can sure appreciate the quality of this bottle.

"So Good! So Good!"

Rating Vintages of Things

Let's all give a big round of applause to guest blogger, Mr. Thomas Jansen! Rock solid debut. Hopefully, a hint of what's to come.

And if you're an email subscriber, please click the link: http://purpletooth.blogspot.com. Thank you.


So, I've been busy thinking and drinking.

This ratings chart from the November Wine Spectator got me thinking about how other, non wine things, have stacked up over time. Let's take a look, shall we?

    
The Usual Suspects

1995           Original Rating: 92 Points

Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin and Keyser Soze

I was so excited to revisit this  a while back. I kinda wish I'd just left it with it's hype from years past.

Grade: C     

I've concluded that perhaps my opinions of things from my college days have changed (for the better, keep reading).



Counting Crows

Yeeeaaaahhhhhh!

                                                        

1993ish      Original Rating: 93 Points

Good God. I recently flipped through the old CD album and saw August and Everything After. I was wondering why the Counting Crows never pop up on an iTunes playlist. That'd be because none of their songs have been imported to my library. Well, that had to change. I put in August and Everything After (then Recovering the Satellites) with high hopes. Max happened to be in the room and didn't take long to comment on the crappy noises coming out of the CD player. 

While it was nice to hear "Anna Begins" and go back in time to memories of Rocky Point via Aaron Detzer's Geo Metro. Convertible, Geo Metro. And, yes, that was the trip where I had to donate plasma to fund my travels. But the music didn't make it to my iTunes library. 

Grade: D


Huey Lewis and the News 

1980-85     Original Rating: 88 Points

"Power of Love," "If This Is It," "The Heart of Rock Roll," I could go on, but you should just listen to them again.

Like a fine Bordeaux, Huey (not sure he needs The News) has gotten better with age. Thank you Woody for pointing me to the Huey Lewis Pandora station. I'm a better man for it. 

Grade: B+

Sesame Street

Original Rating: 90 Points

It's been around since 1969, and I know Big Bird's been trending as of late, but IMHO, the show sucks. It's fascinating that Gordan hasn't aged in 30 years, but after 15 seconds of marveling at skin and 2 minutes of Elmo, it's about as useful to me as a VCR. Since Tom's making all things VHS obsolete in favor of DVD, I'm ready to part ways with the Sesame Street Gang. 

Grade: D

Legos 

Original Rating: 96 Points

Lego went plastic in 1947 and designed the interlocking brick in 1949. 63 years later, they've only gotten cooler. Kai's Blade Cycle (from Ninjago) that I put together Wednesday evening was awesome. I wish I was 6 again if only to be able to play with spiky hair Lego guys.

Grade: A+

Now on to things that won't get the chance to age because I drank them.

Last weekend we unintentionally did a Paso wine night with Sprout's Jalapeno Cheddar Burgers, which were ridiculously filling, ridiculously hot and ridiculously tasty:

Twisted Sister 2010 Zinfandel ($17.00)

This is from Calcarious winery but I found it at Total Wine. It's a cheaper, less phenomenal version of their Zin we've had a few times. It got the job done, and I'd buy it again, just not right away.

Grade: B-

We also cracked...

Bob Wine 2010 Cabernet ($13.00)

I know, worst name, worst label EVER!

We picked this up at Whale Bone Winery. It was one of those, "$10 tasting, tasting fee waived with purchase." So, I figured this bottle, not worth $23, would bring back a nice memory over a nice dinner for the nice price of $13. I got about what I paid for.

Grade: C

Molly Dooker "Two Left Feet" 2009 Syrah ($22.00)

Dooker's label, the antithesis of Whale Bone. Love their style. 

I prefer "The Boxer" to "Two Left Feet" but I really don't think you'd be disappointed with either. They also make an equally awesome labeled Syrah, Carnival of Love, but because it goes for $90, I think this'll be the extent of my Dooker exploration. 

Grade: B-

Callabriga Douro 2008 ($14.99)
Wine Spectator rating: 90 Points

For some odd reason, this bottle's been hanging around since early summer. I mean, I've been cellaring it, waiting for the perfect moment to open it. Well, tonight was that night.

I cracked it for the family to go along with a delicious Santa Maria tri-tip and butternut squash. Really good meal.

The wine was not like anything else I can recall having. It was a dark, almost coffee color, but didn't drink nearly as heavy as it looked. It had a very pleasant berry flavor with a solid finish. It went very well with the meal and it's always good to try something new.

Grade: B

Here's to aging like Legos! 

The Oregon Trail

Guest blog by Tom Jansen

Admittedly, I’m not sure why I agreed to guest blog for Mr. Purple Tooth himself.  His palate and prose are unmatched in my humble opinion and I think I speak for all of his loyal followers in saying that we appreciate his (and Ms. Purple Tooth herself of course) plain speak approach to something we all have in common.  As my former brother-in-law from Wisconsin once simply stated, “Meat is good.” I would say that we can all heartily agree that wine is in fact, good and one of life’s simple pleasures.  Judging from my monthly Total Wine bill, I would say that’s it’s not just good, wine has captured my passion and my wallet with no chance of letting up anytime soon.

I am an unabashed Pinot Noir fan, guilty as charged.  It’s well reputed that Pinot Noir is already one of the more expensive and finicky grapes to grow.  We’ve all seen the movie Sideways and know it takes a little deeper dive into the jean pockets to find a Pinot that delivers.  Many times in my quest for great Pinot, the landing spot is sometimes Oregon.  One of my great childhood memories was getting my allotted time in front of my Apple II (yes, Apple II) and exploring the world in the form of the Oregon Trail video game.  From what I can remember, it involved wagons, hunting, and death.  I felt like a sniper as I reigned down shotgun pellets to stop a slow moving bison allowing me and my party to have 100 lbs. of meat.  In retrospect, I’m not sure why they limited this sacrifice to 100 lbs. given the mass size of a bison, but maybe the genius of the game was making me feel bad for killing an animal and not taking all its food.   At any rate, regardless of food capacity I always seemed to lose a few members of my party to dysentery, which for some reason I remember to this day, but still have no idea how it causes death.  I created countless tombstones, a profound effect for a 7-10 year old boy.  Losing a member of your party was one thing, but I was particularly affected by the loss of one of my oxen.  Jesus, is this why I drink so much wine?  That’s not rhetorical question btw.  I digress, on to the wine…… 

We started the night with this Total Wine hyped offering.

Kudos Pinot Noir Zena Crown Vineyard Eola-Amity Hills, 2009

$24.99

91 points, Wine and Spirits Magazine

This wine was balanced and fruity, both very good things.  Megan commented on the its easy drinking nature and nice flavor, but noted it didn’t smell good.  I tend to agree, while I love Pinot Noirs, I hate when they smell like one.  Is that strange?  It was a good starter to the evening paired with cheese, hummus, and crackers. Wasn’t expecting this to punch me in the face and it was soft as a kiss.  It still tasted like Oregon Pinot though.  Wait, it is from Oregon, what am I complaining about?

Grade- B-

And on to the main course…..

Ken Wright Pinot Noir Savoya, 2010

$43.99

94 points, Wine Enthusiast

We paired out pasta dinner with a strikingly beautiful/uniquely labeled bottle from Ken Wright.  I have always noticed his wines in the store, but never was compelled to pick one up.  Since I was bucking my usual trend, I picked this wine up to see where I truly stand on the California vs. Oregon Pinot argument once and for all.  This wine was noticeably smooth and smelled delicious.  It was described as full bodied, but I felt otherwise.  Nothing to complain about here, the flavors rolled effortlessly and had a satisfying finish.  I could definitely tell a lot was going on in this wine, but it just didn’t for me, especially for the price. 

Grade- Solid B

As mentioned above, I love Pinot Noir.  I know for a fact that Oregon makes world class Pinot Noirs, no one can argue this.  But, for me, I simply can’t find one that matches the profile I find in some California Pinots.  Oregon pinots tend to express bright acidity and earthiness and always look, feel and tastelighter on their feet. California Pinot’s for are more fruit driven and generally bigger in style. Doesn’t mean one is better than the other, but my choice is easy.  Bottom line is forget about the buzz, terroir is for real.  To me, the key to finding good wines is to not force what’s “supposed” to be good, but listen to what your taste buds are telling you.  You might find yourself spending less and enjoying more. 

That’s it for me.  Keep up the great work J! 

The Century Club

As always, if you get this as an email, please visit http://purpletooth.blogspot.com/

Hey, happy 100th blog entry!

It just so happened that I had a fantastic weekend of friends and wine for the occasion.

Last night, we ventured south on the 15 (twice actually, if you count Beth driving home and not knowing that we live closer to Riverside than San Diego. Thankfully, I directed her off at the first exit and we didn't take the kids on their first ever Mexico trip/impromptu Tijuana run). As always, it was a great trip to see the Jansens, bonus points for getting to see the Vettraino's (including new baby Zoe), and double bonus points for tremendously big Pinots. Good stuff.

balance 2009 Red Field Blend ($17.99)

I wrote about balance nearly 14 months ago, after an evening with the Grabers. I wasn't crazy about it then, and I liked the 09 even less. We had some 7 year Bass Lake Cheddar out, among other things, and balance just couldn't rise to the occasion. It started out ok, pretty good nose, very floral tasting, I was thinking "B/B-." But it was downhill from there. It got more tart and didn't finish all that well. We came to a consensus grade.

Grade: C+

Then it was showtime. Cue the Johnny Gill, "My, My, My":

Tom had some gourmet burgers and sausages to accompany these two bad boys.

Belle Glos Clark & Telephone Vineyard 2010 Pinot Noir ($44)
Wine Spectator score: 93 Points

Sojourn Gap's Crown Vineyard 2009 Pinot Noir ($48)
Wine Spectator score: 92 Points


Nothing disappointed.

In the side-by-side showdown, Belle Glos was the unanimous winner. On any other night, Sojourn would have shined. That's how yummy things were last night. Both wines were great, no, outstanding.

The Belle Glos is in the conversation for best Pinot I've had. Ever. Really big, zippy, delicious berry flavor with a long finish. Wow. Worth the rating, and worth the money.

The Sojourn just lacked a few adjectives in comparison. As I said, an outstanding wine that got better over time.

Belle Glos Grade: A
Sojourn Grade: B+

I'm a big fan of the 2010 Pinots. I'm a bigger fan of Saturdays at the Jansens.

Discovered By The Germans, 1904.

Named after the high school in San Mateo, Junipero Serra, where Tom Brady (and Barry Bonds, Lynn Swan, Jim Fregosi, Greg Jeffries and legendary coach, John Robinson ) attended.

Minassian-Young 2009 Junipero ($24)

Or maybe the Minassian-Young's have a cat named Father Junipero Serra? Or there's an outside chance it's named after Junipero Serra, founder of the Catholic mission chain in present day California. I think it's cooler if it's a tribute to Tom's HS though. Everything's cooler with Tom Brady.

Is it not?

Hey, click here e-mail recipients: http://purpletooth.blogspot.com

On to the wine.

This is becoming our new "Special Occasion Wine." Or at least our, "Family Time Wine," which is always special.

Over Labor Day weekend, my dad, Susanne, Aimee, Travis, Austin and one of his buddies came out. Aimee brought this, not knowing she was replacing the only bottle Keira has ever broken (and will ever, knock on wood). It easily stole the show from the meal, (unimpressive BBQ) while Michigan played scout team to Alabama's NFL-ready squad. Actually, I think this was the lone bright spot on the evening.

This red blend is a really rich, textured, flavorful wine. It's a tad sweet (as was their 09 Zin), but it still has a peppery finish. Lovely.

Sunday, Matt and Jen made their way out west. Again BBQ'd, this time with much better results, and cracked the Junipero. And again, it was great. I love the Minassian-Youngs. Good stuff.

Wine Grade: B+
Beth's Wine Grade: B
Family Grade: A+

Siduri- Rosella's Vineyard 2010 Pinot Noir ($35ish) Sorry, lost the receipt!

Wine Spectator 2010 Pinot report lives here.

I skimmed the list, found this bottle at Total Wine and thought I was in for something special. I bought a 2008 Siduri in New Jersey and wasn't impressed, but 08 wasn't a banner year for Pinot, so I thought they deserved another shot.

SIDURI
Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 2010	91	$30
Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Ewald Vineyard 2010	92	$45
Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Keefer Ranch Vineyard 2010	94	$49
Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Parsons' Vineyard 2010	93	$45
Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands 2010	87	$30
Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Garys' Vineyard 2010	93	$50
Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Pisoni Vineyard 2010	92	$55
Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Rosella's Vineyard 2010	93	$49
Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Sierra Mar Vineyard 2010	92	$49
Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2010	88	$30
Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Sonatera Vineyard 2010	90	$48
Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills 2010	92	$30
Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills Cargasacchi Vineyard 2010	92	$50
Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills Sebastiano Vineyard 2010	93	$48

That's a pretty impressive stat sheet. I found their 2nd highest rated bottle for $15 less than the Spectator price. This called for salmon!

Well, the salmon won the meal. Siduri didn't even put up a fight. It was a little too light (for my big style Pinot taste), a little too bumpy (not smooth), and a little too dry. As we finished the bottle, wishing there was a new Breaking Bad to watch, but settled for Dexter, Beth said, "It's getting worse." Not a good sign.

I do have to say, I'm in 100% palate agreement with the Wellesley Wine guy. He didn't have Siduri on the list. I'd take Wagner's Meiomi at $15 less everyday of the week.

Grade: C-

But this was really good with our shrimp cocktail appetizer with Peter Lugar's steak sauce that Max ate almost all of.

Let's Cook.

Much thanks to all who clicked the http://purpletooth.blogspot.com last time. There's more of you out there than I suspected! 

Perhaps I've been under the influence of Breaking Bad lately, not to the point of kickstarting my own meth lab, but when I saw those pretty blue bottles of Euro juice, I went right in with two hands. 

The bottle on the left, Han's Schiller 2010 Liebfraumilch ($3.99),
I discovered a few months ago. I thought I was on the cutting edge of discovery, and sure enough, 6 weeks ago, Total Wine had a huge mid floor display of the blue. My secret is out and I couldn't be happier.

If you're at all into semi-sweet white wine, there's not a huge reason to drop over $4 on a bottle of something decent. I had the Liebfraumilch before cracking my favorite German Riesling, Monchhof, and honestly, I can't say the Monchhof was that much better, certainly not $10 better.

Grade B+  (price curve: A)

On the right, Blue Nun Ravaner ($7 I think) is just ok. It's a little tarter and dryer than the Liebs. I'd pass

Grade: C

What else in cheap consumption you ask?

Castellana ($6ish)

This was a cheap Italian dry wine that exceeded my very low expectations. We had it with a thrown together pasta dinner mid-week. Not bad at all.

Grade: C+

Whitley Gardens 2009 California Zinfandel ($5.99)

$6 for a Zin with a "Staff Member Pick" tag hanging on it? Sure, why not. Based on the price and it's light color I thought it'd be crap, but it wasn't. I'll pick it up again.

Grade: C+

I'm looking forward to cracking something good Saturday night. I'm thinking a big pinot. Whatdya got?

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

I just felt like a little Janet Jackson to get things going. Speaking of doing something for me, if you get this as an email, would you mind viewing this from the webpage, http://purpletooth.blogspot.com ? I'm really curious to see how many people read this thing. Gracias.

Now then. It's been hot. I've been busy. And if you give me a minute, I could come up with a few more excuses for not keeping you in the loop of my nights with great friends and fine wine. I have been on a bit of a roll the past 2 1/2 weeks, though. Not drinking a lot, but when I have, it's been special.

Tres things stand out as of late. In first to worst (wine ranking order, not people or events) I break it down here.

Tom had us down with select company to surprise Meg for their 8th wedding anniversary. Actually, we weren't the surprise. The entertainment was. Tom arranged for singer/songwriter, Tyler Lyle to play a private show in their backyard. Think a way more likable David Grey. Very cool, super impressive.

"I just have to touch him." "Me too!"

Check out a video or two. Buy his album. Well worth it.

By show time, I had sampled a few of the many opened bottles. But I made sure to have the bottle of red we brought ready to roll.

Silver Horse 2009 "The Main Thing" $38.00
California Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, & Petite Sirah. 130 cases made. 

This was from day 1, second stop of our Paso trip. This place:

Ho-lee-cow. This was the best wine I've had since writing this blog. Easily. I really, really want to try it again because I'm very tempted to put it in the conversation of better wines I've ever had. It was that good.

Per chance it was the few glasses I'd had prior? Perhaps it was the company? Possibly the performance? Maybe that I'd brought it back from a great wine tasting trip? Or maybe it was just really that phenomenal.

Grade: A plus?


Bottle #2 (and 3 and 4) come from the fine folks of Wagner Family Wines. Tom cracked then double decanted 2 bottles of the 2009 Belle Glos Pinot, Los Alturas Vineyard. As you can see, it was a very special evening.

It's been well documented by me that this is one fine, big, smooth Pinot. That opinion didn't change. What I'd like to add is that a few months back I accidentally bought a 2010 version. I found out today that Wine Spectator gave the '10 a 92 Point rating, but I didn't know that going into a meal last weekend. I cracked it kicking myself for not paying closer attention to vintages. Hey oh! The 2010 is mighty fine. I'd say a bit bigger than the '09, but a tad less smooth. I'll take that trade off. I give the 2010  a slight edge.

Grade: A-

Wine Spectator Pinot Rating List Here.:


The Wellesley Wine Press also had a blogpost about 7 reliable fruit forward Pinots. Definitely worth a read.


And finally, a work conference in San Diego led me to dinner with co-workers in Little Italy at Davanti Enoteca and eating delicious food like this:

Go there. Wow.

While there, I was put in charge with ordering wine. I ventured out a bit from the norm and went with this.

Mollydooker "The Boxer" 2009 Shiraz ($27.00 at Total Wine)

I enjoyed it so much that I found it a few days later at Total Wine and brought it to Laguna Beach Saturday for dinner at Mare Culinary Lounge with my brother-in-law, J.R. and his girlfriend, Malea. 

Make that, brought it for a celebration for both of their upcoming movie rolls, prior to us going to Pageant of the Masters! Woo-Hoo! 

Congrats Again!

The Boxer Grade: B+