Saturday, January 27, 2007

Been Gone So Long!

Sorry Folks! I know its been about a month since we last posted anything, but between being a realtor and a techie and Christmas and what not, we've been pretty busy. But we're back now and ready to kick off this new year with a our first tasting!
This actually took place on January 6th but we haven't gotten around to blogging till now. We will be discussing 3 wines: Pillar Box Red, Padthaway Australia (2005) - $7.94,
Leasingham Shiraz/Cab Magnus, Clare Valley (2003) - $9.29 &
Foppiano Zinfindale, Dry Creek Valley (2002) - $13.39.

We started with the Pillar Box Red, Padthaway Australia (2005), which actually has a screw top. We realize that alot of wineries have opted for screw tops instead of the traditional corks due to preservation purposes, but we believe it cuts out the classically romantic aspect of actually opening the bottle. At first the nose was really jammy, mainly of dried strawberries, a hint of white pepper and I personally smelled skunk. The good kind though, and all you people who understand, know what I mean. :) This is a medium bodied wine which hits mid-pallet with a lot of berry characteristics such as plum and strawberry. The taste was a bit lighter than expected after the spicy nose so we decided to let it aerate for about 2 hours. When we came back to this wine it had really opened up a lot! Suddenly we were smelling soft vanilla and oak along with the dried strawberries, and the pepper had softened a bit. The flavors were still full of berries but more blackberries and dark fruits with a hint of fresh strawberries. We paired this with mushrooms sauteed in a wine/port sauce with lots of garlic and decided that this match was quite tasty!

Next we tried the Leasingham Shiraz/Cab Magnus, Clare Valley (2003). This wine is 60% Shiraz & 40% Cabernet. Once we popped the cork we new at 1st sign that this will definitely have sediment and we were right. Deep ruby in color, the nose showed a lot of dark cherry and blackberry with a slight caramel and a hint of smokey tobacco. We could definitely taste toasted oak, dark fruits and a bit of cassis. This wine hits back pallet and although is soft, smooth and buttery it is also rich and thick from the sediment.

Our final and favorite was the Foppiano Zinfindale, Dry Creek Valley (2002) which we discovered later won a Silver Medal at The World Wide Championships. The color was light and a little thin. The nose was earthy with caramel and muted pepper, along with a sweet, sugary smell of wild blueberries. This wine hits front pallet and tastes earthy as well, with hints of wild mushrooms, spicy pepper and delectable blueberries. At first sip we noticed a medium body with tight, upper-gum tannins. As I said before, this was our favorite of the evening and worked well with all courses that we cooked for the evening.

Evening Meal was as follows:

1 Rib eye & 1 Filet Mignon marinaded in Stubbs Beef Marinade, Garlic & Beer.
Baby Portabello Mushrooms sauteed in a port wine sauce with al ot of butter and garlic and a hint of cream.
Grilled Corn on the Cob with a garlic & lime butter smothered on top.
Red, orange & yellow peppers skewered with red onions, marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic and rosemary and grilled to perfection.