Little black dress

Treated to dinner by @bsumoba

• 2022 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 96 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Lifted and fragrant aromas of fresh red cherries and floating cranberries, wet stones and some earth. There’s a bit of a spiced hay giving the nose a gentle kick.
  
  On the palate the wine shows a darker hit of fruits. Quite unexpected since the nose was so fresh and lifted, but it comes offs as a welcomed surprise. Almost savory stones, and earth from a forest floor.
  
  I miss tasty CdP, especially when they're clean like this with a great sense of freshness of fruit and earthy, spiced frayed oak. Strong 96+ and easily some upside with some short-term aging.

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• 2021 TOR Cabernet Sauvignon Black Magic 99 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  On pop and pour, the aromas hit you with creamy, macerated purple and black fruits. Although young and gushing with dark fruits, there’s dark herbaceous notes, with a touch of menthol. There's a fragrant butterscotch with maybe even a bit of orange creamsicle.
  
  The palate showed similarly with macerated, creamy fruits. Dark purple and black fruits just crushed in your fist. This had this constant expansive wave of flavors like those Russian nesting dolls, where you open it and there’s another one in it. Very clean minerals, showing gentle but bold bitterness. Fruited graphite. It’s like with more time, the fruits recedes a bit, allowing what’s underneath to surface more.
  
  I was able to take this home for a second day tasting, in which the wine shed a TON of that tasty baby fat, leaving a trail of clues as to how this may age. Much more serious, with the fruits becoming brooding and bold. The fruit loses its fun and tasty side and shows a more concentrated and focused profile. Both aromas and palate developed a dark and vivid undergrowth, with earthy aromas and black fruit. The palate showed an integrated black earth with black fruit, along with slightly savory stones and an awesome lingering of steeped black tea on the finish. The dark fruits are constantly coating and clinging on to everything.
  
  "Black Magic" is a very fitting moniker. You think you know what you're gonna get outta this, being a Napa wine and all, but rather you're presented with a witch's cauldron, full of mysterious herbs, magic frogs, and a mix of secret potions - and there's only one way to find out how it tastes.

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Shout outs to @bsumoba for the dinner and the tasty ass wines. Both wines went surprisingly well with prime rib as it did not take away from the wines at all.

Feeling blessed af <3