Monday, February 09, 2009

"In the Next Room" Weekend

Shane’s Notes

Actually, we started this weekend on Thursday by opening a Benovia 2006 Sonoma Coast Pinot. I think the price on this one was in the neighborhood of $30. It was too oaky for me so I only had one glass. Here are Jen’s notes.

The palate is smoky and shows cranberry and black cherry. It is lighter than many CA pinots. Pleasantly acidic. A little too much oak.

On Friday, we opened a Domaine Grand Veneur 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape (30 bucks). After 30 minutes of decanting, I was disappointed. After 60 minutes of decanting, I was singing the praises of this fantastic wine. It clearly needed some time and was even better after two hours. Here are Jen’s notes.

Velvety texture, long succulent finish with pleasant astringency. Palate shows currant, earth and herbs de provence, cedar, blackberry and orange peel. One hour decant.

On Saturday, we saw a play at the Berkeley Repertory Theater entitled “In the Next Room” by Sara Ruhl. It was a very interesting play that dealt with the sexual mores of the Victorian era. I enjoyed it but it is definitely geared more towards women than men. Prior to the play and at intermission, I had a glass of Raymond Merlot and Jen had a glass of Domaine Carneros. While neither are wines that we would buy, they were both drinkable. The Raymond Merlot is over oaked but it does show some fruit underneath.

We finished the evening in bed with a half a bottle of Grgich’s Violetta ($85). This is certainly one of the best American dessert wines we have tasted. The palate showed rich flavors of Apple, Apricot and Honeysuckle. It had good acidity and finished with quite a pucker. Is it worth $85? The price pretty much puts it out of our price range but when compared to other expensive dessert wines, I can’t say it is overpriced.

Our Super Bowl wine was an Italian wine - Guido Porro 2005 Dolcetto d’Alba (a $16 Kermit Lynch selection). We decanted and for the first hour, this was an incredibly bizarre wine. The flavors kept shifting with each sip. At various times, we wrote down the following flavor descriptors: bramby, earth, funk, flat cola, fennel, violets, berry and pepper. After about 90 minutes, the wine settled into an incredible Dolcetto. This was quite simply the best Dolcetto we have ever tasted and it would be a bargain at twice the price. The palate was very concentrated and showed Persimmon and perfume with brambly undertones. Kudos to Kermit!

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