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May 2004 Collector´s Club
2001 K Vintners Morrison Lane Syrah
You´ll note that the prevailing theme for this month´s wines is "
oops." For lots of different reasons. The particular oops in this
case is, well, I forgot that I had several cases of this wine in stock, earmarked for
the club! Quite a memory lapse (hey, I paid top dollar for my memory loss...).
Needless to say, Charles Smith has made another winner here, as just about every
major publication has noticed - you did catch the Seattle Times article, no?
It´s still available on-line if you didn´t. Morrison Lane Vineyard is
one of Walla Walla´s newest. If you haven´t heard, many Walla Walla
vineyards took quite a bit of damage in this year´s freeze; I´ve not heard
how this one fared. We have a bit of this left at $45.00. It´ll hold for up to
five years, and go well with lamb.
2001 Valderiz Ribera del Duero
This Tempranillo-based wine from Spain is one of the leading lights of the new wave of
wine from the Ribera del Duero, one of the up-and-coming regions in the world.
It´s a large, powerful wine that´s built perfectly for summer barbeques,
and still has enough finesse for that elegant dinner you were planning. No oops
involved here - just an outstanding wine at $21.50, with a fair amount left.
1997 Chateau Listran Medoc
Here´s the next oops!, a wine from the severely underrated 1997 Bordeaux vintage.
I´ve found endless good deals from this vintage; some have found their way
into the club when I find enough. Folks were too busy buying up the highly-rated
vintages like 2000 to bother with these; consequently, distributors have a LOT of it
clogging up the pipeline. Voila - instant deal. It´s all of $9.50,
it´s all gone, and it´ll hold for about five years. If you choose to
drink young, please decant!
2000 Les Jamelles Selection Speciale Cabernet-Merlot
The next oops! is a wine from a familiar producer, whose Sauvignon Blanc was featured
some months ago. This time, the producer has gone out of business (at least
that´s the word), and what was a wood-boxed rarity became available for the
paltry sum of $7.00. This one´s ready to drink (although decanting does
help), and will go quite well with a patio party.
2001 Les Jamelles Chardonnay
Here we go again - same producer, same basic story, same price. Both wines are
made in the Languedoc region. This Chardonnay is ready to go, and will be just
fine at the same patio party!
2002 Margan Shiraz Rose Saignee
The term "saignee" means "bled," a reference to how the wine is
made, by bleeding off a certain amount of free-run juice from just-crushed red
grapes. This Hunter Valley, Australia producer used this method to make this
rose, which will benefit from decanting (!!) prior to serving, as we found out at our
club tasting this past Thursday. There´s a small amount left at $8.00.
One more for that patio party!
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