The Wine Cult » General

Thumbs up or thumbs down

pcook — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 03:00:11 +0000

We are having a conversation about starting to blog wine again. We want to do it, if people will comment. So, we are going to add a little feature to the bottom of each post – “thumbs up or thumbs down”.

Should we do that or do “spit or swallow” – as it relates to tasting wine…

Give us your opinion. We thrive on it!

2006 Abiouness Sangiovese “Game Farm Ranch”

pcook — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:39:24 +0000

On a day when everything is not going your way, it is nice to find a little inexpensive wine (under$30) in your cellar that brings its A-game. It’s so nice, in fact, I’m sticking it on the blog.

I am drinking the Game Farm Ranch Napa Valley Sangiovese from Abiouness. Nice licorice and dark fruity character yields a fantastic jammy nature to this little gem. With only a 150 cases produced, finding this wine may be the hardest part of drinking it. I happened to meet Nicole Abiouness at a local wine shop (Cellar 17 in Houston) during a tasting and thought this was one of the top wines that night. Of course, I picked up a little…

This wine is subtle and velvety and has a nice almost complex finish. Lots of fun to drink and try to get all those little nuances out of. This wine goes well with my chicken cordon blu and the Chick Corea playing in the background. A nice ending to the start of another day – a day where I will win!

92 – PC
93 – CC

2004 Hundred Acre

pcook — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:41:29 +0000

Hello, this is Paul… On a warm Texas evening 22 years ago yesterday, I married my childhood love, Carol. Tonight while hanging out with some friends, both old and new, we were happily surprised when the owner of the local Wine Styles, brought us a little anniversary present. The 2004 Hundred Acre! Wow, it is fantastic.

I’m handing the iPhone over to James to write the review.

This wine has concentrated fruit of baked blackberry, black cherry, current, and dark plum. Black pepper, Spanish cedar, mushroom, tobacco, and forest floor round out the nose.

On the pallet there is a beautiful mineral content, with a great fruit and tannin balanced full mouthful. The finish is long and thick.

Go out and find all you can afford; this wine is an excellent representation of Shiraz and hard to beat.

96 JH – after drinking it longer
95 PC – after drinking it longer 96+
97 DH

This wine is exceptional!

2007 Leviathan

jheck — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:48:11 +0000

This garage wine project from Andy Erikson and Anie Favia is once again outstanding, and for the money is IMO one of the best red blends from all of California.
Leviathan is made by the incredibly talented husband and wife team of Andy Erickson, (Staglin, Hartwell, Favia, Ovid, Dancing Hares, Jonata, Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle and Arietta), and Anie Favia (viticulturist for Abreu and Screaming Eagle). You can find many wines on this site that have been influenced by Andy and his wife Annie.

Proprietor: Leviathan Wines

Vintage: 2007

Appellation: 100% California

Varietals: 47% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Syrah, 14% Merlot

Tasting: Beautiful dark black/red in the glass. concentrated flavors of baked Cherry, blackberry, raspberry, scorched forrest floor, toasted oak, black pepper, roasted beef, coffee, and chocolate. On the palate the wine is intensely flavored, full bodied, round, with soft tannins, bright lively acidity and great balance, with a beautiful long velvety finish.

It is really hard to find a more pleasant red wine from California in the mid $40.00 range than this one. Get it and enjoy!

Rating: 93+

2006 Ovid Napa Valley

pcook — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:20:38 +0000

Top 20 of 2009 – Ovid is “wonderous and new”! It has been a long week with some great results and Carol and I are treating ourselves to a little special treat from winemaker Andy Erickson this Friday afternoon at Brix Wine Cellars.

Sometimes the stars align and the week’s events fade like an old photograph and the red juice speaks your name… Such is the case with today and Ovid.

Dark currant and cassis, licorice and blackberry along with a supple smoky blue texture. Well balanced with round silky tannins this wine breathes a fragrant bouque of evolving textures. Lovely and alluring. The finish goes on for days with fruit coming out more and more with dark cherry notes.

My friends shall damn me for not saving this one… But it called my name! Get here quickly if anyone wants a sip.

93 Paul, 93 Carol

2006 Torbreck “Descendant” and 2005 “The Pict” – Part Two

jheck — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:33:32 +0000

David Powell the Managing Director and Chief Winemaker for Torbreck Cellars was once a Lumberjack, and it probably is no coincidence that the second wine we enjoyed was bold and masculine just like your stereotypical Lumberjack. Torbreck Cellars The Pict is an amazingly bold large-framed intense and concentrated wine that strikes an amazing balance of fruit, tannins, and acidity.

Proprietor: Torbreck Cellars

Vintage: 2005

Appellation: Barossa Valley, Australia

Varietal: 100% Mataro or what some of you know as Mourvèdre from a single vineyard

Note: Two years in new French barriques. Unfiltered and unfined.

Tasting: Dark purple in the color. Beautiful notes of cassis, plum, followed by tobacco, tar, dark olives, leather, eucalyptus, scorched earth, roasted meat and a beautiful mineral component. The wine shows great balance even though it is not blended with another varietal such as Grenache. The Pict can be immensely enjoyed now but has the structure to age and improve with cellaring.

Rating: 94 JH, 94 PC

2006 Torbreck “Descendant” and 2005 “The Pict”

jheck — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:17:30 +0000

Recently the gang met up at Cellar-17 in Houston for a couple of really nice wines from Torbreck. Torbreck cellars was founded in 1994 by David Powell who was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. David’s style of wine making blends his love for the Barossa with his admiration for the Northern and Southern Rhône valleys. The first wine we tried was the 2006 Descendant, a single vineyard wine that was planted in 1994 from 13 year old cuttings from the RunRig vineyards.

Proprietor: Torbreck Cellars

Vintage: 2006

Appelation: Barossa Valley, Australia

Varietal: 92% Shiraz, 8% Viognier

Tasting: Beautiful black purple color in the stem. This wine has a massive bouquet of dark fruit, roasted beef, eucalyptus, sasparilla, dark truffles, bottle caps (the candy), caramel, black cassis, cola, minerals, and toasted oak. The palate is silky smooth, with a full round mouthfeel. The wine coats your entire mouth and lingers for an elegantly long and generous finish.

This wine can be greatly enjoyed now with some decanting, but will improve with some rest in the cellar. I will continue Part 2 of this post tomorrow.

Review: PC 94, JH 95

2004 Arcanum I

pcook — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:19:49 +0000

Great wine follows me around these days. Carol and I were feeling like a little wine tonight and grabbed this Tenuta Di Arceno at Cellar 17. What a great wine find! A little unknown to me, this Super Tuscan style wine brings it and it is really nice.

Rasberry notes with dark fruit very interesting nose with some rose and licorice. The dark fruity nature of this wine comes out as it opens. The finish goes on for some time giving a great taste of tannic fruit in your mouth.

The lost art of finding great wine and then finding it’s little brother and then having them together is hard to do these days but that is just what we did.

Arcanium II was right next to the Arcanium I… So we had it as well.

92 Paul, 93 Carol

2004 Marston Family Vineyard

pcook — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:05:54 +0000

We met up with Don of Brix Wine Cellars and Michael Landry of Pioneer Wine here is Houston, Texas. They stared talking about great wine and Spotteswood soon came up and then Marston Family Vineyard came up. So, we got some and started tasting.

Up front burgunday cherry, cassis, and awesome tannins for
2004. Good spice and and dark fruit with spice. Black cherry and a nice spin of spice and fruit.
The mid pallet is full of cedar spice and dark fruit with a long complex finish of corriander and dark berry goodness.

This wine has an ability to last 5 to 10 years. You should open a bottle of current wine one hour or more before drinking.

Release in 2007, this wine brings “the thunder” to quote Gary V… Licorice on the finish speaks of this wine’s power to bring it.

PC 94, Carol 95, Don 94, Micheal 94

2006 Royal City “Syrah”

pcook — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:03:33 +0000

Carol and I are out on a date night… And of course we are thinking, drinking, and writing about wine. We are at Brix Wine Cellars in Houston. Nita brought us some Henriot champagne to start the night off and Carol has finally Found a rose that she loves. And btw, the truffle fries are addicting.

We were very pleased to find that Don and Nita had brought in the 2006 Royal City syrah from winemaker Charles Smith. This wine was very nice and deservedly so, wine enthusiast rated it a 100 points. Generated from ~~Walla Walla Washington fruit~~100% Stoneridge Vineyard located northeast of the Wahluke Slope AVA, across the Saddle Mountains, near Royal City, each glass is continuing to open and show this wine’s fantastically complex structure.
Notes of blackberry, plum, tobacco, and a short burst of floral goodness. Very nice long finish, a little tanic on the finish and now some tobacco but this wine has only been open about thirty minutes.
We ate some sliders which where fantastic, like all the food here (check out the new menu). The wine went great with the food. And we are hopeful this wine will age well for 6-10 years. Stacked with fruit goodness, but not so much that it blows the structure away, we love this wine. I will be buying for locker and cellar. Get some!

Paul 94 Carol 94