I picked up six of these Saturday for $30 at Wine Library. We opened one on Saturday night, and this is the real deal. I will start by saying this seems a little tight at the moment so I would recommend some air if drinking any in the near future. I on the other hand as par for the course opened and poured and finished 2 glasses over a 1 hour period.

The wine is dark and at first spice notes on the nose but as it opened up revealed nice cherry notes. In the mouth the wine is supple yet is packed full of concentrated fruit. Flavors of plums, spices and chocolate filled the mouth with a nice touch of cherry and oak notes on the finish. Wine seems very well structured and would seem to improve gracefully over the years. For the price I would say this represents a great value and although WS 94 pts maybe pushin a little I would definitely rate 92pts+ and had I given it more air time may have really blown me away.

Definitely pick up a few you won't be sorry.

CalCab,

I had one of these Saturday with dinner and agree completely with you.

The nose was impressive but the flavor somewhat muted and dominated by acidity right out of the bottle, but as it sat in a VERY wide-bottomed decanter it came to be dominated by darker and darker fruit tastes and a growing presence of chocolate.

I see WineLibrary has a generous 20% case discount, getting this bottle down to $30.40/. Well, that's just great. Now I'll have to bring extra luggage with me to the NJ Syrah Tasting dinner!

Stemor

I would not hold off to long to order from Wine Library. They indicated to me Saturday they expected it to be sold out this week.

[ 09-24-2002, 11:50 AM: Message edited by: CalCabsmyFavorite ]

Tried this tonight with my wife's beef stroganoff recipe and haricot verts with wilted tomatoes.

It was opened 30 minutes before tasting. The color was a deep ruby with purple tinges. The nose was plum, vanilla and spice at first, with a cocoa edge as the night progressed. The palate was a deepening cocoa/chocolate and plum flavors with well integrated tannins--suprising for a young wine. As time went on, the chocolate began to dominate the palate, though the fruit was still very much present, and an interesting cedar and tobacco quality emerged after about three hours.

Given the hype over this wine in WS and in the forums, I was foaming at the mouth to try it...and I was not disappointed. And although it was not quite as rich as I imagined it to be, it was still an incredibly lovely wine.

Thanks to all who have discussed this wine, ans it would have certainly escaped my notice.

Theo,

Did you find that all that mouth foam detracted from the overall experience, or would you recommend it for others as a good pairing with this wine?

By the way, it sounds like we're all experiencing the same thing with this wine -- that is, a fairly quick and marked evolution upon opening the bottle. It's a fun experience if for no other reason than to learn something about the effects of air on wine.

stemor,

No, I wiped my mouth before tasting the wine.

I agree with your sentiments vis a vis the immediate appeal of this wine. In my experience such a young wine will normally exhibit one of three profiles: 1) either it reveals fruit first before the tannins clamp down and it closes 2) the wine is closed and may or may not open with air, or 3) the wine is all fruit and flab, that, while tasty, does not have the tannic and acidic components to age. By contrast this wine was pretty well balanced, the changes with air were changes in flavor profile and not in tannin dominance, and it seems sufficiently built for at least mid-term aging.

What do you think?

theo,

Ojeffso and I discussed this wine briefly, after I told him that I was buying MORE of this stuff here in his backyard (at the NJ Wine Library).

We agree that the wine is very good and really comes out of the bottle like a thoroughbred leaving the gate (kybo! This description is for you!), but it develops more character with >1 hour of full air time.

We also agree that this wine doesn't seem to have the stuffing to age and probably won't get much better, as it is fairly low on tannins and is in good balance now.

In short, drink and ENJOY now or over the coming three years.

I could be wrong but I suspect the wine has a little more stuffing than we think. I believe it to be a mid-term ager. I plan to drink my case (thanks Wine Library, the price beat what we found in Seattle) over the next five years.