Found an autographed bottle of the '02 Garretson Syrah Hoage Vineyard Bulladoir in my wines. It says, “Go Bulldogs! Best Wishes, Matt” which was offensive until my baby graduated from UGA some years later. 17% alcohol, and it was pretty obvious from the nose and the first taste.
Dark red color, nose of pepper, light vanilla and licorice. Taste added blueberry. This was port-like especially now now that the fruit has receded. Somewhat hot, though a nice peppery finish. It’s still boozy. Amazing that it was a 17%er.
Had fonder experiences with this 12 or so years ago when the fruit was forward. Over the hill but still a reminder of Mat, the Syrah enthusiasm of the aughts, the HdR, and when it was fun to spar about the Gators and the Bulldogs.
John,
Was that closed by a NeoCorq or a screwcap??
Tom
That’s what I thought too. I had a couple of Garrettson’s from the time and they all had plastic cork.
Matt sent me some samples once after a discussion of big wines on the eBob board. One went feral, and I think that had a plastic cork. Matt kindly shipped another sample under a screw cap.
His 2005 Mon Amie was like port in '11, but his '05 The Aisling surprise me by being quite decent in 2017.
His wines had some Parker buzz so I bought some. Agree with John that the Aisling was the best of the bunch. Cool label too
Coda - Since the wine was hot with little fruit, I used the remainder and reduced it for some beef I was cooking. With the alcohol diminishing, it added some nice flavor to the meat.