Real Nice!

Buehler 2008 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ($23.98)
91 Points Wine Spectator


Oh kids! Hi Time's December Newsletter rated their top Cabs of the year and this one checked in at #10.  As you can see, (you clicked the link, right?) it's the cheapest on the list by $14 and 7 of the top 10 sell for $50 or higher. In other words, this is a steal. And did I mention that it was phenomenal? I should have. It was. I have to say, this is the best bottle I've cracked in a long time.

Beth called it, "liquid velvet," and said she tasted chocolate cherry. I definitely agree with black cherry flavors up front. Earthy too yet super ridiculously smooth. A really well balanced wine. This, paired with our filets last night....

Real nice!

Grade: A, easily

Beth's Grade: A

Good Times, Great Oldies

We had a sitter come over to watch the kids and Beth and I took to the town to meet up with a few of my buddies from the days of Tucson. Woo Hoo! 

Woody and his girlfriend Katie spent the week in Anaheim working the NAMM (North American Music Merchants) show for Yamaha, and Jason Jones tagged along to be a fan of rock n' roll and check out the music scene. The three of them, plus one of Woody's co-workers met us at Bandera in Corona del Mar for dinner. It was the perfect place for a group of productioned-out travelers. 

Bandera's ambiance is awesome; perfect lighting, just loud enough music. It really allows for guests to focus on their own conversations without being distracted by anyone else in the packed restaurant. Or maybe our company was just that awesome and I had no reason to be distracted? Maybe a bit of both, but once Jason got to telling classic stories like working with me and Dustin as busboys at Tucson National and Dustin dropping the steak knife off his tray and onto/into the bald head of one of the diners, complete with the sound effects and visuals of blood squirting out of his head while Dustin says, "oh, let me get you a napkin," who cared about anyone else in the place? 

Oh, and Bandera doesn't charge a corkage fee. Unheard of, especially in a town like CdM. 

I put myself in charge of the vino for the table which called for me to make a visit to a wine store. This time I opted for The Wine Exchange in Orange, where the 55 and 91 freeways meet. Cool place that probably deserves its own write-up some other time. 

Anyway, I walked out of Wine Ex and into Bandera with a Trader Joe's bag full of this:

First, we cracked the Pinot.

Bella Glos 2009 Pinot Noir (on sale for $28.99)

This is becoming my favorite Pinot. It was better last night because the waiter had to battle the waxy top. Full bodied deliciousness.  

Grade: Still an A

Next up:

Punch 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon ($27.99)

I think the story of this wine sold me. High-end winemakers got together to make a wine that they could afford. They outsource their grapes from different places every year, which is why the bottle simply says, "California." 

Punch was a fitting name. It packed one. A big blast of fruit up front with a nice long chewy finish. 

Grade: B

Batting third:

La Storia 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon ($16.99)

I wasn't sure we would need a third bottle, but I brought one just in case. Yeah, mid dinner we tore into the La Storia. Hey-oh! This was really good. Super smooth, just the way I like my Cabs. I definitely need to revisit this because I'd had a few glasses by this point.

Grade: A (I think)

Great evening with great friends. 

Happy New Year!

What a tremendous evening of the finest meats, cheeses, and wine in all the land. Yesterday, the Jansen's came up our way to say adios to 2011. This evening had been on the books for months, so expectations were a mile high.  I'd say confidently that it did not disappoint, well, Tom may be a little disappointed that I spilled his glass of wine on him near the end of dinner. My bad.

If it weren't for the baby formula on the counter and baby bottles on the drying rack, you'd might have confused our pad for Mastro's.

We kicked off the evening, err, afternoon with some bubbly.

Yes, we were outside enjoying the 75ish degree weather.

I spontaneously picked up some sparkling stuff for the boys. They didn't like it. Tom did his usual Wine Spectator research on a tasty bottle of Champagne. We loved it.  It impressed with the cheese Beth and I brought back from New Jersey and Tom and Meg brought back from Wisconsin. I guess you can't get cheese in California? Tom also made some oyster shooters. Good stuff.

Then it was on to the Pinots.

Morey-Saint-Denis 1st Cru 2005 Pinot Noir ($59.99) &
Belle Glos 2009 Pinot Noir Los Altures ($34.99)


The bottle on the left was a highly anticipated WTSO purchase from September. It was 70% off of its original price of $200. I was wine tasting at the time and it seemed like a good idea. Eh, not so much. It was ok, I guess. Nothing super special about it. It smelled like Pinot, was very jammy out of the gate, then didn't deliver. 92 points my arse!

Grade: C+
Beth's Grade: C


The bottle on the right I wrote about a few weeks ago with the pain in the ass waxy top. It's the best Pinot I've had not bottled by William's Selyem. It is such a big, bold, beautiful wine, yet perfectly balanced with a super smooth finish. De-lish.

Grade: A
Beth's Grade: A-


We wrapped up appetizers and Pinots about an hour and a half before dinner, so I opened a bottle to pass the time, not yet wanting to tap into the big guns.

Columbia Crest 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon H3 ($9.98)


Hey, a nice little find from Hi-Times! Turns out, this scored 90 Points from Wine Spectator and just made their "100 Outstanding Values" list. It's also Hi-Times Wine of the Month. I put it in a really tough spot following up the Belle Glos, but the H3 held its own. For $10, its a great Cab that I'll definitely get again.

Grade: B


For the main course we put together a solid spread and busted out the wedding gift China.

Filets, lobster tails, roasted butternut squash & red potatoes, and a nice salad.

Hall 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon ($42.00)
Anderson's Conn Valley Eloge 2008 ($99.99)


I picked up the Hall from Hi-Times. It had a 95 point rating from Robert Parker and a scored a 91 from Wine Spectator. It was a big, chewy, full bodied, super smooth Napa Cab. It easily lived up to its high marks.

The Eloge is a blend of 55% Cab Sauvignon, 25% Cab Franc, Petite Verdot, and Merlot. Robert Parker gave it 96-98 (?) points. This was a powerful, fruit blasting, yet controlled wine. There were so many things going on and all of them good.

They're two different varietals, they should be different. It probably wasn't fair to have these side by side, but we did. And since we did, it's only natural that we picked favorites. Beth, Meg, and I preferred the smoothness of the Cab and Tom crowned the complexity of the Eloge, champ.

Hall Grade: A                   Eloge Grade: A-
Beth's Hall Grade: A       Beth's Eloge Grade: A-


Overall, it was awesome, baby!

Happy New Year! 

Cheers!

The Specialist Occasion Wine

If you stare long enough at the T.V. in the background, the Bears will jump off-sides again.

Amusee Cellars 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon (60% off: $29.99)


Twice this fall I've had the pleasure of drinking Amusee, and it just so happened that both times were to celebrate huge, monumental occasions. Johnny and I went in on this wine from WTSO about three months ago. According to their sale at the time, the original price for the bottle was $75 and as John pointed out, the winemaker, Reed Renaudin, used to be at Screaming Eagle, which as avid followers of PurpleTooth, I think I'll put a bottle of Screaming Eagle on my Christmas list, in case you were wondering what to get me.

Anyway, I had it Friday for the 2nd time to celebrate 9 years of mawwiage. The first time was at Johnny's house and he cracked it to celebrate the return of the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football.

On the first go 'round I thought it was a huge Napa Cab. As the write-up said, "Full bodied, powerful, and enormously endowed." We had a glass then tore into pizzas and the wine was phenomenal from start to finish. Super smooth with a nice long finish.

He said, "Endowed."

Friday night we opened it before putting steaks on the grill. It again was great, but didn't seem like the same bottle of wine. It had a little bit, just a touch of a not quite ripe cherry. It reminded me of the last few times I've had Chimney Rock, which I really like, but wouldn't put at the top of my all-time favorites list. I thought it got a lot better with dinner, but finishing up the bottle afterwards, again, I didn't find that same huge, smooth bottle I had the first time around.

Round 1 Grade: A
Round 2 Grade: B+
Beth's Grade: "Oh, an A"

WTSO shines in debut

Verdict:

Eponymous 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon ($29.99)
Wine Enthusiast Rating: 93 Points


I think it's pretty safe to assume that if you pay $25+ for a Napa Cab, you'll get something better than decent. This write-up isn't so much about this bottle, which was better than decent. It had all the great things that one would expect from a Napa Cab: great nose, dark cherry, "chocolatey raspberry" (Beth's quote) and a fantastically smooth finish. Nope, this write-up will focus on the purchase. A first of perhaps many for me.

A few weeks ago, Tom pointed wtso.com in my direction. "Wine 'Til Sold Out" is a site that sells one wine at a time, at a discounted (allegedly) price, until it sells out, then it's on to the next bottle. Order a certain number of bottles and get free shipping.  So, I partnered up with Johnny on my (our) first purchase, the '06 Eponymous. I think this wine was originally $60, but don't quote me on it, and was discounted 50% to $30. Together we got the 3 bottle minimum for free shipping. A few days later, the Fed Ex man dropped it off on our door step. Everybody's happy.

I brought it to Opah for dinner, paid the $15 corkage fee and enjoyed every last drop of it. Not a bad little restaurant either, by the way.


Grade: A- / 4
Beth's Grade: A

Gordon Bros. Gets the Gong

Gordon Brothers 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon ($22.99)


I know, I know, it batted clean-up with an Honor Roll class in front of it. This bottle was the 4th opened on the night after an "A" Cab, an "B+" Cab, and an "A+" Pinot. Judging from the nose alone, it belonged with those big boys, but it just didn't deliver.

I had it side by side with what was left of the Cult, and it couldn't hang. I (we) found it to smell delicious, but taste very ripe, young maybe, and finish with a flat, center of the tongue, dullness that to me, should not be found in a Cab in this price range. Nice label and all, but between the Blanc and now the Cab, Gordon Bros is 86'd from my purchasing list.

Grade: C-

Greetings!

Regusci 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon ($40ish)

After only 11 months,  Johnny and his girlfriend (who gets an A, btw) made the trek south to Aliso Viejo to join us for dinner. I have to give them credit, sacrificing the early part of a beautiful Saturday evening with an old married couple with 2 kids, but they did it, and they came bearing great wine. 

Beth gladly didn't open the Fetzer white she was ready to crack when she saw Johnny's wine was being opened. Smart girl. First up was this. A super solid Cab. We had it with carne from El Toro as an app. Good combo. I thought it was very similar to the Rombauer. I think I give the edge to Rombauer, but that could be because my dad didn't drink much of it, therefor, I had 2/3s of the bottle. This was smooth, complex, black cherry, tobacco goodness. 

FWIW, Beth gave this the nod as the "Wine of the Nigh" but with a Pinot (see below) that stood head and shoulders over every other Pinot I've ever tried, I gave the nod to Williams Selyem. Thats no knock on Regusci, it's really good stuff.

Grade: A

And During the Few Moments. That We Have Left...

Cult - Cabernet Sauvignon ($24.99)

I was very afraid of this being a sucker bet. I needed 1 more bottle for my case discount at Total Wine, and there on the top shelf of the end-cap with a shiny 91 point ranking by someone, this bottle catches my eye. I roll the dice and pick it up. 

To be fair, this bottle was sandwiched between 2 bottles in another league the night I opened it. I really thought it stood up well. It had an Earthy, not overly exciting nose, but was full bodied and very smooth on the finish. Lots of black cherry flavor going on. I really liked it and will pick it up again. 

Grade (though I'll revisit): B+