A friend, in fact my only friend around here who is a true wino really needed a pick me up this past Saturday. He and a few other buddies who also enjoy wine came over for some blind Cabs as I promised my friend he would get nothing but good wine.
First up was 2006 Ramey Hyde Vineyard chardonnay. I own 16 bottles of white, 13 are rieslings and the other 3 are this particular chardonnay. This was served non blind, directly from the cellar (58 degrees) This wine smells like a sauvignon blanc. Minerals, citrus and salt with a little lime. As it warms up, some oak starts to show. Never a butter smell or taste. The palate is full of more citrus, some hints of brown sugar and a bit of nutmeg. Long finish that lingers.
Then three blind cabs. Single blind to me. Double for them. All three decanted for 3 hours.
2004 Lamborn Family Cabernet Sauvignon.
This had the weakest nose of the night (all agreed) A bit tight with whiffs of smoke and a slight vegetable smell. The palate was light with some nice red berries and chocolate. Lots of drying tannins. Dissapointing though by no means a bad wine. $100 is definitely too much to pay. Not much change over 6 hours.
2005 Karl Lawrence Dr. Crane vineyard
Big nose with raw beef and spices. Not particularly complex but big. The palate was cool and refreshing which was surprising. Cranberries with a nice dose of acid. Still tight, will do better with time and in fact improved some over the course of the night with the palate filling a bit. Nice finish with solid tannins. Time will tell how I feel about how much I paid for it.
2004 Shafer Hillside Select
Dark with a purplish edge. 5/7 people said some version of “this is the better of the three wines” after just smelling it. Huge nose of toasty oak, blackberries, coffee, baking spices, smoke and even some ripe cherries. Full palate loaded with ripe dark berries, sweet chocolate, and oak. The tannins are solid, but unobstrussive. Wow finish. What a great wine. Definitely worth the money to me. Cant tell you if it evolved. It was gone before I could even get a second glass.
Next was a wine brought by one of the guests that Ive never heard of (the rest were pop and pour):
2002 Keenan Mernet (50/50 merlot/cabernet)
Almost opaque.
A hint of BBQ and cranberries on the big sweet nose. Slightest whiffs of camphor. Medium heft palate with raspberries and some tartness as it finishes. The finished is a little clipped by the acidity though somehow drying tannins are also there. Pretty good up front but the finish left me wanting to move on. In fact, this was the only wine with any left over. I have no idea on price.
Then my friend said: Get me something Ill really like. He loves Harlan, Screagle, Insignia and the like and oddly enough Aussie bombs (Velvet Glove, COL, MP…) so…why not a little of both?
2005 Switchback Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon
Dark core with a ruby edge. Great huge nose of blackberries, cinnamon, orange rind, oak, figs, hazelnut. Biggest palate of the night (to this point) with dates, chocolate, cranberries, blackberries, and great creaminess. Long velvety finish. My friend actually changed his mind and declared this his WOTN (to this point) He had never had SR and is now a huge fan. Great at even the $100 I paid on WC.
“Comon Berto, reach back, got anything that can wow us more than that last one and the HSS?”
SQN Atlantis Syrah at cellar temperature and pop and pour…Dark to the core. Only my friend had heard of SQN (and tried an Over and Out I brought to his place once and a Papa I sold him for an anniversary yes…at what I paid for it. Ive never made money from wine) Everyone smelled it at once and there was a collective gasp. I was part of it. I have had this wine twice before. The first time it was great but I only got a taste as I opened it for a lot of people and somehow I had no memory of anything like this night. The second time was at Bonner’s dinner and it was in the middle of a bunch of 100 pointer SQNs, a 2-3 oz taste, and in crappy glasses with no bowl. There was so much SQN flowing that it also was lost to me. Tonight we had healthy pours (just 5 of us plus a driver) and Riedel Sommelier glasses. JFC what a nose! The up front SQN Slim Jim as I’ve learned to expect, then BBQ, black currants, black pepper, unsweetened cocoa, brown sugar, followed by a huge palate (even at cellar temp) of currants, butter, blackberries, nuts…the long finish goes on forever with sweet and perfect tannins…someone remarked something Ive read here before (this was not a wino which was surprising) “I think this is a perfect wine, 'cause its huge but I can taste nor smell booze.” This is now my favorite SQN experience yet. Ive tasted the majority of SQNs including the Queen of Spades and this was a perfect example of how the setting (not to mention the glass) makes a huge difference in how you percieve wine. My friend is hard to impress, and he recently had a tragedy. It was very important to me that he had a good time, and in the end he was shocked at how good the Atlantis was. I think this was what made this my favorite SQN to date. Everyone present agreed almost at once that the Atlantis was not only WOTN but at a different level than HSS and SR. Granted they are different grapes the nose and palate diversity of flavors in the SQN wowed everyone after having been wowed by either HSS or SR a few minutes before. 3/5 liked HSS better than SR by the way.
We also had a 2007 Kiona Ice wine as an afterthought that showed its usual tangerine nose and bananna baby food palate and while good, people would not take their minds off the SQN.
