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.

The Unbalanced Lineup

The Graber's came over tonight. We had an awesome time, great conversation, kids playing together, fabulous food, (we served our summertime staple of seared Ahi and crab stuffed mushrooms), and pretty fantastic wine. T.J. brought the DuMol Syrah, and I thought I'd revisit Balance since I thought it went so well with this meal 5 weeks ago.

DuMol 2006 Syrah ($59.99)
94 points: Wine Spectator, 93 points: Robert Parker


We opened this first and it blew the doors off the place from the get go. After the first sip I had a, "I wish I could drink wine like this everyday" feeling. This was a fantastic wine. It was earthy, smokey, peppery, yet silky smooth. Wow. Some good wines dissolve/disappear, some wines burn all the way down. This one seemed to hang around for a while letting us enjoy the experience even longer.


Grade: A

UFR: balance 2007 Red Field Blend ($17.99)


"It's not your fault."
Look at me. Listen to me..."It's not your fault."

Balance was the unfortunate wingman to the super model tonight. It's a really nice wine. Really nice. But tonight, DuMol was Giselle and Balance was the cute girl at The Blue Beet on a Thursday night. I still feel Balance is a nice buy, but UFR (upon further review), I can't give it the A- I gave it a few weeks ago.

UFR Grade: B

Happy Father's Day!

balance, 2007, Red Field Blend ($17.99)


This was a great wine that accompanied an amazing meal.

For Father's Day dinner, we hit up El Toro Meats. We came home, cracked this bottle, then got to cookin'. Let me start with the food. I fired up the grill and did up a little Carne Asada, sliced it up for our appetizer. SO good. Then for the main course, and I can't take much credit here, the quality of the food made it too easy, but we seared shashimi-grade Ahi steaks (50 seconds a side), stuffed mushrooms, and an arugula salad with heirloom tomatoes & feta cheese. Wow, felt like I was living on the set of the Food Network!

The great thing about the wine, is that it went with everything we threw at it Sunday night.  It was great on its own. Went really well with the Carne, and then hung with Ahi. Very impressive. I will definitely get this again.

Grade: A-