This is my maiden voyage into posting tasting notes on this site. Rather than compete with other’s rather eloquent tasting notes I will provide my general impressions I had while tasting each wine. Anyways, even between the four other people I was tasting with we seldom agreed on the same aromas and/or flavors.
I am sure the chance to try the “Prisoner” brought in most of the crowd. I have no idea how long the wines were open prior to tasting. Unfortunately, a few of them needed much more time. This is the order the wines were served.
2007 Soda Canyon “Barrel Chaser” (70% merlot, 20% Cab Sauv, 5% Petit Verdot, 5% Cab Franc). As was the case with the first three wines I got a lot of cherry (red fruits), vanilla, some chocholate. The girl next to me said she got some licorice. This was medium weight and I kept on thinking it needed some food to go with it. Still very young. A nice wine but not for the tariff in Ohio ($41.99).
2006 Soda Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon. This was my favorite wine of the tasting. Much fuller, lusher, softer than the Barrel Chaser. I didn’t since a lot of tannins so I am not sure how this will age, but I really liked that night. Probably 60% of the group thought it was the best of the night.
2007 Beau Vigne Cabernet Sauvignon (76% Cab Sauv, 21% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and Can Franc). This wine was very polarizing and I will provide both view points. While this wine displayed a very lush mouthfeel, with good balance between oak and fruit, something all three wines achieved, I was tasting a distict vegetative (green pepper) trait. The more I thought about it the more pronounced the taste become, perhaps psychological. The lady next to me agreed with the green pepper. However two other tasters felt the wine had the best fruit expression accompanied by a silk finish. Definitely could use some decanting and/or cellaring
2008 Veladora Tofanelli Vineyard Sauv Blanc. To be frank it smelled a lot better than it tasted. Perhaps the margherita pizza overpowed it. The nose had terrific grapefruit and lemon aromas, but I thought it tasted a little simple. Wish it either had more acid or a more creamy mouthfeel. There is a small amount of Semillon blended in.
2008 The Prisoner (46% Zinfandel, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Syrah, 10% Petite Sirah, 2% Charbono and 1% Grenache). I will make it clear that I have never been that enamored with this wine. Everybody else at the tasting can’t drink enough of it. I believe Columbus receives the third largest allocation of the wine. I truly think it is unfair to judge this wine right now. Way to young. I sensed the alcohol and fruit haven’t come together into anything distinguishable. I think I may eventually like this wine more than its predecessors b/c, although there is a lot of rich fruit, it didn’t seem as “jammy” as previous efforts. Perhaps it is the larger percetage of cabernet.
2006 Papillon (65% Cabernet, 27% Merlot, 4% Petite Verdot, 2% Cab Franc, 2% Malbec). As was expected this was full throttle. Had huge fruit on the pallet with sweet oak. I used to like these kinds of wines. The kind that exploded in your mouthand touched every taste bud. I find myself preferring wines with a little more finesse and character and I didn’t think this wine had that. At least on this night.
Hopefully this helps some of you. I apologize if you were hoping for more insight and details. Perhaps some day I may become more articulate.