Dinner with Carlisle, Tercero, and August West

We were expecting 2 couples over for dinner, but snow got in the way. Since I already pulled the wine, I was opening them no matter what. 4 people or 6. Didn’t matter.

The Carlisle wine from Mike Carlise had a jammy nose. It was the '07 Rossi Zinfandel. Some fruit. E-Z drinking. Some spice. Very smooth. This was good drinking on P 'n P (pop and pour). Opening up nicely at 90 minutes. 92 points

The '12 Outlier by Tercero, from winemaker Larry Schaffer, is always a crowd pleaser. Fruit on the nose. Tasting some grapefruit. I have a short pour available for dinner tonight. The grape is Gewurtz. I bought 4 bottles mid-November. This was my last.

The '08 August West Rosella’s from SLH (Santa Lucia Highlands, just south of SFO) was the WOTN (wine of the night). Ed Kurtzman has always made good wines, and this is no exception. Some fruit. Some spice. Wonderful nose. Smooth. Elegant. Delicious. This is a fuller bodied pinot noir. Nothing left for a re-taste. 93 - 94.
FYI, Ed makes the Sandler wines that were offered for BerserkerDay.

Nice dinner, Dan. I dig that Outlier from Larry, I still have a couple in my cellar. Really nice white. Been some time since I tasted the AW Rosella’s. We have the 2012 in Falltacular this year so a # of us can try it then, see how Ed worked with the vintage. I’d normally have some good perspective on the releasing vintage but I traveled so minimally last year and mainly tasted only 2011s so the new 12s coming out, right now I lack vintage perspective.