TN: Dinner w JBL & Lynne: 08 Soalheiro Alvarinho & 00 La Rioja Ardanza Reserva

DINNER W JBL & LYNNE: 08 SOALHEIRO ALVARINHO & 00 LA RIOJA ARDANZA RESERVA - Bocanova Restaurant - Oakland, CA (12/9/2009)

Last night Traci and I braved the cold weather to meet Jason Brandt Lewis and his wonderful wife Lynne at Bocanova in Oakland’s Jack London square. A terrific meal with some standout dishes like the crab deviled eggs with chipotle aioli, lamb, brussel sprouts, sea bass ceviche, etc.

Wines were chosen off the list and were terrific.

Very nice nose of lime skin/limestone, with crushed rocks and glycerin quality. Palate at first is lively with just a hint of spritz, more lime skin, white flower characteristic. A little time in the glass the spritz sort of went away and the effusive white flower characteristic faded to show more minerality, terrific acidity and a sea shell/limestone quality. Lovely wine!

Lovely wine as well. Great ruby color, the nose is pleasant mixture of red cherries, vanilla/spice, and a little earth. On the palate the texture is silky with more red fruits, smoke, earth and maybe a little tobacco. Nice acidity holding everything together with a medium length finish. A very nice wine. 90/100

Posted from CellarTracker

I like Soalheiro quite a bit, but really think it’ll improve in the bottle. Great acid and fleshiness from what I recall. Nice wine for sure.
We snagged all the boxes for our market. Still have folks asking for it.

Dang, I would love to see Jason post on this board…on any board for that matter!

Otto I would too. Jbl and Lynne are great people and we love getting together w them. He’s pretty much off the boards but still enjoying great wine and food.

Ian. It really is a terrific wine and one that I could enjoy everyday. So refreshing

That is a shame. He is a wealth of knowledge on old California wines and wineries. Make sure he knows he’s missed.

Cris - he is and I do…and I even got a lesson on Spanish and Portugese wines last night. He’s an amazing fountain of knowledge when it comes to wine.

I keep nudging him to post so maybe when he decides to come back it will be here.