8/20/2021 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Fresh color and fresh on the palate. All of the oak treatment seems to be resolving and this wine is delivering all of the chianti goods. Red and black fruits, earth so clean that Greenblanket would like to take a nap on it and finely expressed acidity and tannin. Lovely right now and should continue to improve.

8/20/2021 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Greenblanket has always said that he doesn't like Brunellos and his first taste of this wine seemed to confirm his opinion - it was California big with some serious gum sucking tannin. But that big fruit was all about lovely complexity and spice inflection. Greenblanket may still note care for Brunello but this is a seriously delicious and interesting wine.

8/20/2021 - greenblanket wrote:

What a great example of the relatively unknown joys and diversity of Italian white wines. This featured a fresh and assertive attack of acidity, mineral and crazy green herbs. Greenblanket knows that all of that sounds extreme but somehow it isn’t and the energy and brightness and bitterness just kept inviting him back for another sip. Things get even better with food. The wine loved the fresh tomatoes, arugula and especially the salsa verde served with our tagliata but not so much the ribeye.

8/17/2021 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Opened to go with a ribeye tagliata; this wine was a gift from a friend who loves Moone-Tsai and wanted to see what our dinner group thought of it. Greenblanket is not a Napa Cab guy and he was not super happy about drinking a "cocktail wine" with a meal that he had been looking forward to cooking. He couldn't have been more wrong. Right out of the bottle it was all about flowers and was linear and smooth with clean distinct fruit balanced by earth and spice. It's smooth fine tannins and well balanced acidity were a great match for the meat and even the funky salsa verde. As the evening wore on Greenblanket thought that fruit became more prominent and coarse. This was a lovely wine and an example of how good California cabs can be. Greenblanket was so impressed that he is gonna drop a rare score.

8/9/2021 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Easy wine of the night among three bottles opened to go with a spare rib ragu. It was showing it's age in a very nice way with smooth fruit backed by soil and floral notes and it still had enough stuffing to hold its own with the big flavorful sugo. Greenblanket is happy that he has several more bottles.

8/9/2021 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

This is lovely and has held up well in Greenblanket's new climate change Seattle ambient cellar - which now has more temperature swings than a Kentucky rickhouse. Nice pure fruit, appealing soil and mineral tones and even a bit of tannin. The nearly empty glass brings whiffs of spice. Greenblanket is gonna take his time finishing his last three bottles.

8/4/2021 - greenblanket wrote:

Greenblanket hasn't tasted any vintage of this wine for years and he is thinking the cepage has changed while he has been messing around with beer and spirits. Big ripe fruit aromas for sure but they are backed by some legit herbal notes. Again big old fruit on the attack but there are real garrigue flavors lurking below. And considerable tannic structure. It is not out of balance and should be great with the right food. Greenblanket thinks it would have cleaned up nicely with the grits and grillades he cooked for a friends birthday yesterday. $10 and change at Costco and it won't make old bones? That's a damn shame.

5/24/2019 - greenblanket wrote:

Staring to show a bit of mature color. In a really nice place coming out of Greenblanket’s ambient global warming northwest cellar. Beautiful red fruit, slightly mushroom-y soil, cedar, dusky florals. Tannins advance on the finish. If Greenblanket had another one he would drink it soon but he is in a new place in both actuarial and climate change considerations. (He’s getting old and his once cool ambient cellar is starting to take on The temperature change characteristics of a Kentucky rickhouse).

5/14/2019 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Greenblanket was happy to find this at Costco a few years ago. Seemed enjoyable and a little simple back then but now tannins are starting to assert and things are much more closed. These are probably good developments. Greenblanket should have known better than to open one now, it certainly won’t go with the Gai Yang, but a guy needs to check in now and then - especially when he can afford to buy at Costco prices. Hold.

1/20/2018 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Nice fruit and acidity and a classic of what can be done in the new world with old world material. This is not a Vouvray or a Montlouis but is still a great expression of the grape. It was particularly refreshing with a fully spicy and flavorful Kung Pao.

1/20/2018 - greenblanket wrote:

Picked up at Costco to try with an assertive Kung Pao. It more than did the job with a great assortment of fruit flavors and acidity. The Gong Boa Ji Ding was the GD bomb and the Verdejo kept everything under control and in balance. Perfect!

1/14/2018 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

This bottle is in a great place - the dark fruit is starting to show some age and getting along well with the clean earth and spice. The finish becomes a tannin show. Great with the Sugo di carne.

11/22/2017 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

The light nature of this wine is belied by the still youthful intensity of red fruit. At this time it is showing a swirl of that red fruit, juicy acidity and what this old boy interprets as underbrush. (It’s an old memory but the sous bois in this wine is strongly reminiscent of the smell and taste of getting whipped in the face by a branch while crashing though a thicket of huckleberry bushes in the lowlands of the Cascades). Lovely Anderson Valley stuff and a leading candidate for the table tomorrow.

11/3/2017 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Dang this is amazing. Cooking the base and tare for a Tokyo Shoyu ramen for the Seahawks game. Took longer than Greenblanket planned so he and the Mrs had to order a pizza and open this bottle of Tardive from the cellar. The amazing thing is that the earthy core of this wine almost matches the umami that Greenblanket was trying to build into the ramen base with country ham and niboshi and katsuobushi. Greenblanket has learned that umami is umami no matter where it comes from and he hopes his guests on Sunday night agree.

10/17/2017 - greenblanket wrote:

Applely. Got better as it warmed and opened. More advanced than I thought it might be. On its way to a better place? Time will tell.

10/17/2017 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Up from the cellar to go with an old skool beef and carrots braise. This was a good match to a braised top round with sage and bay served with glazed carrots and parsnips. (A riff on Molly Stevens) nice red fruit, mineral and savory herbs. Thought it would go with the beef and herbs and worried all day about the wild fires and this great site. In a nice expressive place but far from aged out. Lovely.

7/8/2017 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Greenblanket finds this wine to be a skillfully made and happy merging of the old world with classic rhone-ish character (floral/herbal/mineral) melding with the bright clean fruit and refreshing acidity of the best Washington wines. And, if that is not enough, there is also the juxtaposition of fruit from one of Washington's OG wine growers blended with grapes from one of the NW's nouveau sites. In short, everything this effete old teletubby needs in wine - geek factor combined with pure delicious refreshment while sitting beside the big lake on a blazing hot afternoon.

6/19/2017 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

This wine was fantastic. Selected to go with clams in white wine with garlic and saffron and simple pan seared Alaska halibut showered with green herbs. It really loved the herbs and cut through the clam broth very nicely. Greenblanket thinks that this bottle is still showing its vigorous youth with maybe just a bit of broadening richness. He is also glad he has a few more bottles. Two of which will go into the deep science closet.

3/26/2017 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Tough and green on night one but way different on night two. This had a great floral nose with some graphite, wet sidewalk and dark red fruit. Long with intertwined fruit, earth and smooth tannin in the mouth. Really nice with charred skirt steak off the grill.

3/26/2017 - greenblanket wrote:

Still a bit tight and young. Nice; full and complete but too tannic for this old teletubby's taste, maybe it was the food. Greenblanket is receiving mixed signals from his ambient cellar. Two reds this weekend are tighter than expected but two recent whites (a middle aged vouvray and an older auslese looked like disturbing urine samples when poured.

12/11/2016 - greenblanket Does not like this wine:

Much bigger and rounder than my last bottle but this was from a magnum. Many of what I thought were developing secondary notes several years ago now seem to be mostly reburied. Very nice as is but this may have a future.

12/4/2016 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Brought up from Greenblanket's ambient cellar to pair with Monsieur Henny's three beef daube. It was wonderful with the food and in maybe a peak spot in it's development offering smooth ripe tannin, red and black fruit, classic spice, herb and earth, and an amazing floral nature.

12/4/2016 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Paired with a rustic daube along with another 2005. It was great with the food showing way more youthful than Greenblanket expected. Dark red fruit still rides atop garrigue and earth. Years to go, Greenblanket thinks.

12/2/2016 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Another candidate for the braising liquid for Monsieur Henny's Daube. Greenblanket likes this wine, a lot. It is balanced and floral and wouldn't bring unwelcome oak to the daube - but - it seems just a little to modern for the "rustic" stew that Greenblanket seeks. Is Grennblanket a bit fussy? Yes, but he is enjoying thinking about wines as part of a dish as well as an accompaniment. Why would anyone want to include merlot and cab in this lovely wine? Greenblanket knows he doesn't want in in his stew.

12/2/2016 - greenblanket wrote:

Greenblanket picked this up with the idea of dumping it into tonight's daube but he decided to go with a cheaper but more immediately spicy Vin De Pays de Vaucluse instead. The Saint Cosme will most likely appeal to some of Greenblanket's guests in an appetizer setting - and hopefully set the table for the CdPs.

Grennblanket hasn't had one of these in years. It seems a bit more simple and fruit driven than past vintages but it is darn appealing for the price. And yes, Greenblanket is drinking before 4:00 again.

6/27/2016 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

From a jeroboam. Soft tannin, nice acidity, lots of local flava but clean - zero funk. Greenblanket thought it was quite good and it was a big crowd favorite at the gathering he attended; it was drained it short order. This was stored right on the floor of an fairly cool and stable ambient cellar and still showed considerable development given the size of the bottle.

3/28/2016 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Greenblanket didn't even know he had this wine in his cellar and may have picked it up in a "chump off" situation when the sister in law moved. Whatever, it was in a great place; plummy and smooth with none of the big alcohol showing. (Greenblanket doesn't understand what alchemy of time made this possible). It had some nice Mourvèdre flavor with sticks and stones and a pretty floral thing going on. It was just wonderful with our middle eastern lamb " bo saam".

3/20/2016 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Dark Syrah fruit, lively acidity, earth and black pepper. Not loaded with obvious Syrah character but balanced, refreshing and friendly with an array of snacks served outside on a beautiful Great Basin afternoon.

3/6/2016 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Nice, too early really but Greenblanket buys this every year and tries to keep track of what's going on in the "cellar". Lots of dark fruit and nice dark cab notes (yes, including some green vegetal flavors). The always abundant oak notes are just beginning to meld with the herbal spiciness of the cab. And, if Greenblanket's experience with this wine means anything, the cab has the street cred to out last the lavish oak treatment.

2/23/2016 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Really nice; linear with plus minerality and brightness.

2/23/2016 - greenblanket wrote:

Nice with red fruit and earthy, maybe slightly meaty notes. Nice but not a lot better than just OK.

12/3/2015 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Wonderful, balanced and fresh. Alive with red fruit, spice, firm fine tannin and acidity. Great on the table with our amateurish attempt at Portuguese rotisserie chicken.

12/1/2015 - greenblanket Does not like this wine:

This wine is certainly not haunted with over the top oak or alcohol. Actually, Greenblanket thinks it's rather nice showing the expected big blueberry fruit and some faint hints of Cab Franc. But, sadly, that's about it.

Tannin? Gone.
Acidity? Probably never there.
Finish? Short and sweet.
Value? Don't make Greenblanket cry about what he could have done with 40 bucks almost 10 years ago.

11/23/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

Pretty friendly after only eight years. Still, it's firm and tannic just not terrifyingly so. It was good on the table but I suspect we would have been better off waiting a couple more years.

11/23/2015 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

No vintage problems here - this wine just keeps getting better. Showing some age with no loss of the lively balance it showed almost three years ago. Beautiful on the table with the cassoulet.

11/21/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

Big dark fruit still dominates with some hints or flashes of earth and dried herbs sneaking past. This had all the acidity we needed to cut through the fat in our skirt steak carne asada and the fruit really helped with the heat from the chilies. The odd thing is, that with the high level of acidity this wine presents, tartaric acid is listed as an ingredient. Did Ridge acidulate that heavily?

11/17/2015 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Paired with a saffron forward Abruzzi lamb ragu. Maybe not a classic pairing but it was wonderful. The wine was medium bodied, notably fresh and showed a nuanced balance of fruit and garrigue and earth.

11/16/2015 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Lots of ripe fruit but totally cool and restrained. Big on the Zin spice with some oak in the picture but balanced. Inexpensive and lacking hype but wonderful.

11/16/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

Delicious with brilliant, racy minerality. And great on the table with an assortment of "Turkey Lab" trial dishes.

10/29/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

Corked.

10/25/2015 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

This was golden yellow in the glass with the beginning of secondary flavors and textures. While it still has a ton on slatey minerality and acidic snap in its step, this wine has also become deeper and more interesting with the appearance of some tropical fruits and oxidative notes. My last bottle, sadly opened too soon.

10/25/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

Weird. This wine seemed very advanced in it's bottle age.
Compared to the last one I opened. I'm thinking it was flawed in some way

9/21/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

One of my favorite A Raf cabs ever. The oak is starting to resolve leaving really nice dark cab, fruit tobacco tinged herbs and the beginnings of forest floor. Let's take just a second to be totally honest here; this stuff is big and ripe and modern - but somehow it doesn't matter. Almost perfect with our Kenji animal burgers.

9/13/2015 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Last bottle from the good old days. Opened to go with our efforts to recreate the Halal Guys chicken and lamb. To be honest, I was thinking of this bottle as a throw away or "drink it up" situation as I was not thrilled with my last bottle. It goes to show what this old teletubby does not know about holding quality non CDP wines from the southern rhone. This one is fantastic - it's aged down, smoothly balanced and showing a ton of gracefully presented local flava.

8/29/2015 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

Soil driven and slightly fragrent of the farm when opened but - in a good way. After a while, say after the first half of the Hawks game, a beautiful core of mineral and herb accented Cab Franc emerges. Nice, but the offensive line still smells like crap.

7/27/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

Big, sweet and oaky; just sayin'.

7/1/2015 - greenblanket Likes this wine:

This held up nicely to our new style PNW summer (OK, so 88 isn't that hot by anyone else's standards but it triggers the opening of cooling centers in Seattle). This was perfectly tart and vegetal and refreshing on the deck with a quick little salad while looking at the full moon and the big volcano. Is it earth shattering SB, no, but damn that moon.

4/18/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

We took this out to dinner with another old Napa Cab. Just as I was starting to compliment our young server with how smoothly she was extracting the 30 year old cork it popped out of the bottle followed by a medium shower of undrinkable wine. I guess this qualifies as "bottle was flawed or defective". At least it didn't blow the cork in my cellar and spray crappy Napa Valley wine on my Muscadet.

4/18/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

Different experience than many of the recent notes here. This seems to have moved into an awkward place in which the green and slightly unclean soil notes have taken on an unwelcome prominence. To be fair we didn't give it much time to open and it was on the table with a very nice old school Napa Cab.

The second day is a different story. No one liked this wine last night - not even the young server who was sprayed by my 30 year old refermented Science Closet wine. (We let her taste all of our wines and scored a couple of free deserts in return) This afternoon it is balanced and totally enjoyable with black fruit, dark herbs, clean earth and minerality. Just goes to show what this old country boy doesn't know about French semi-hipster wines.

4/14/2015 - greenblanket wrote:

Maybe a touch of petrol on the nose but mostly apple, apple, and more apple all the way through the finish. Lightly corked?