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.

I Heart Wagner Family of Wine's Wine

Here's the facts:
- International player with a passport, Woody, was coming over for dinner Sunday night.
- Beth was making salmon (allegedly) for dinner.
- I wanted to serve a nice Pinot, but didnt' have any.
- I wanted a bottle of Luli, but live in Corona now and neither Total Wine, BevMo or Albertson's carried it.
- Woody was already in Costa Mesa so I asked him to swing by Hi-Times and pick up a few bottles of Luli (and a few other things).
- Hi-Times was out of Luli.
- I asked Woody to do the "if I like this, what else would I like in the simalar price range?" thing.
- He showed up with this:

Meiomi 2010 Pinot Noir ($17.99)

I love it when a plan comes together.

But wait. There's more.

I shot Tom a pic of the bottle saying how much I dug it and he was quick to point out that I was drinking a Belle Glos (on a Sunday). Huh? Yup:

No wonder I liked it. Pretty much, ok, close to being just as good as the Belle Glos Las Altarus, but at a $20 discount. That's one expensive waxy top, Belle Glos. Turns out, Wine Spectator put it on its Top Value list and scored it at 87 points.

It was fantastic. Very rich. Super flavorful. Smooth finish. It went really well with the, um, fish. See, Beth didn't pay close enough attention to detail at the grocery store and ordered a few pounds of the pink, salmon looking fish, only to have me point out at home that she bought steel head trout. Hey, never hurts to try something new, right?  Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference.

Grade: A-
Beth's Grade: A

Here's what I've concluded from experience. Wagner makes delecious wine. They make these:

Maybe someone in marketing can explain to me why they wouldn't use just one label or name? I didn't know for a while that the makers of Caymus also made Belle Glos. Seems to me anyone that's had Caymus would be much quicker to pick up a bottle or case of Caymus Pinot knowing that it would be kick-ass, no?

Which reminds me, the week of our move, a few buddies and I went to The Blue Beet for rib night to have a, "I'm moving, and even though it'll only add 10-15 minutes to my drive to Newport,  this sounds like a good reason to go to rib night" night.

Johnny, fresh off a Napa visit which included a stop at The Wagner Family of Wine, brought this for dinner.

Yep, Caymus Zinfandel.

In typical Wagner Family fashion, it rocked. Ok, why do they get to use the Caymus label? I'm confused. My only mistake was not saving some to go with one of the best racks of ribs I've consumed.

Bottom line, I have good friends who drink good wine made by the Wagner Family.