SuperBowl Night

Shane and I headed over to Mike's to do some wine drinking to go with the superbowl again. We each brought a wine that we could sit with and then a wine for the others that were there to drink on

• 2003 Saint Jean du Barroux Ventoux L'Oligocène 68 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Ventoux

  nose: at first this started off with nice classic french grenache tones of saddle leather, garrigue, black fruits, and a dollop of pepper. Of course, that lasted a good whole 15 minutes before it fell apart into a bad amarone/port concotion mess. All sorts of singed and stewed black fruits with old prunes to go with it. It was decent at first, but once it fell apart it was near dreadful and was appropos for the vintage for those that tried to hang it on the vine too long
  
  taste: a complete disjointed mess. Some bakers chocolate is the only decent flavor with bad port and amarone type flavors of raisins along with some charred black licorice and stewed black fruits. Drinkable I guess, but there is no acidity and the feel is very disjointed
  
  overall: a complete mess of a wine. I'm not sure what GV was tasting when he gave this a 95. simply put, this wine blows and I'm glad that I haven't and won't own any bottles of this

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 1996 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle 92 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

  nose: classic and deep hermitage nose filled with black pepper, black cherries, leather, charcol and dripping with bacon fat. A really great nose that sings and opens up more as the evening had gone on
  
  taste: great medium/full feel with good medium tannins providing a nice spine with black pepper, loads of bacon fat, charcol, and a good helping of black fruits. Very polished feel thatflows well and showsits class
  
  overall: a really good La Chapelle. Good layering and great weight, this is very much a baby. While it will never be a blow away La Chapelle, its a lot of fun to drink and has a very long life ahead of it

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 1985 Château Canon 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  nose: wonderfully balanced and mature nose filled with classic st emilion notes of cedar, red cherries, smoke, various berry tones, lots of underlying tones of roasted herbs, and nice hints of dried mushrooms with hints of leather. Fully mature and very beautiful as it wafts from the glass in it's pomp
  
  taste: great medium feel with almost fully resolved tannins(they are very fine grained) with tones of leather, red cherries, berries, cedar, and some bits of roasted herbs
  
  overall: fully mature and a great aged st emilion. Wonderful balanced aromatics and flavors with a great plush feel that really starts to sing once it got about an hour or so of air

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2005 Château Marsau 87 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Francs Côtes de Bordeaux

  nose: nice and filling nose that is very ripe for bordeaux with berries, red cherries, some red licorice, and a bit of anise to top it off. Its nice and aromatic, and while not in your face ripe, it doesn't really evoke bordeaux
  
  taste: good medium feel with medium tannins providing tones of red licorice, a lot of mixed berries, and red cherries. Again, it doesn't taste or fully feel like a bordeaux, which is a bit bothersome
  
  overall: an international styled wine. It doesn't really say bordeaux in that many ways to me, and while very good, it has little sense of place. A good wine for the price, but I've certainly had other 05 bordeauxs for under 20 that tasted like bordeauxs that were accessible and excellent for the price

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2005 Strathewen Hills Shiraz Patterson Lakes 85 Points

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Mornington Peninsula

  nose: a stark contrast to the other wines that were being drunk, this was pretty in your face with tones of mint, eucalyptus, black cherries, cranberries, and cigarrette ash. bold and fairly rich, this was rather out of place from everything else that was being drunk
  
  taste: overdone, hot, and hollow on the mid palate. This didn't seem like the same wine that I enjoyed in the past. Tones of eucalyptus, black cherries, and cranberries go decent with each other
  
  overall: this wine was out of place and it probably isn't fair to do a real evaluation. c'est la vie. It would've fared much better with other shirazs, but with that said, it was a hit with other people that were at the party that weren't drinking as much wine

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

A great game and another good night. Always a fun time, and to have such a great finish happen made it all the better. Looking forward to doing it again next year