Tuesday, October 30, 2007

2002 Kent Rasmussen Petite Sirah

Absolutely fell in love with this wine. Deep, dark, broad, layered, I could see myself getting into trouble by drinking the whole damn bottle in a single setting!

COLOR: 5/5 - Deep, dark, inky red right out to the edges. Julia Robertsesque legs in the glass.
NOSE: 13/15 - Effusive nose of black currant, mint (think Wrigley's Winterfresh), vanilla, licorice, and old leather just swirl and frolic from the glass into the deepest corners of your brain.
FLAVOR: 9/10 - Take small sips. This wine explodes on your palate and muscles its way into every nook and cranny in your mouth. I get some of the minty licorice flavors as well, but this is where the fruit starts coming in with black currant and (maybe?) pomegranate.
FINISH: 8/10 - I'm not sure if it's a trick of the alcohol or if there's bit more residual sugar in this than a typical Petite Sirah, but there's an initial sweetness (relatively speaking) at the beginning of the finish. A waning candied raspberry evolves through a gradual puckering reprises of currant through the licorice mint and ends with a small-berry glow (currant, elderberry).
POTENTIAL: 4/5 - Petite Sirahs are the Sean Connerys of the wine world -- the only improve with age and this clearly has the quality and stamina to last 20+ years in a good cellar.
OVERALL: 4/5 - Why not 5/5? It's not perfect! The sweet caught me off guard and I'm still not sure what to do with it. In the 2 hours I've had it open it's started to fall apart a little bit on the mid palate and pick up a tannic edge. If you open this with two other people and pop & pour I guarantee you the bottle will disappear long before it starts to slide... and even now it's a DYNAMITE glass of wine.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

It starts here. It starts now.

Well, put enough wine in this Vermonter and things like this happen.

I have a blog.

This comes with the crowning of the Boston Red Sox as the 2007 World Series Champions. As such, I will dishonor this maiden posting with a repeat tasting of a precious NV 21 yr old Glengoyne Singlemalt scotch that presided over the Sox's 2004 Championship and has only been cracked once since then. With this tasting, I have enough for MAYBE 2 more championships. I'm willing to make the Big Purchase and pick up another bottle if the Boys from Beantown can keep it going.

So this bottle is special. It's the last man standing from a trip to Scotland in 2002. There have been many since and none its equal. Scoring will follow my typical wine rubric (sans "Potential" for hopefully obvious reasons):

94/100
COLOR: 5/5 - Pure 24k gold in a glass.
NOSE: 13/15 - Strong, dominant butterscotch on the nose with a bit of ripe apple.
FLAVOR: 8/10 - Knowing there's not a bit of peat in this malt, I find myself imagining it there, yet not missing it. My wine-trained palate cannot describe the flavors of this smooth drinking highland malt other than to say it's truly a lowland styled whiskey. Honeydew Melon?
FINISH: 9/10 - Minerality, toast, and butterscotch all blend together at the end to give an outstanding, smooth, lingering, enticing finish.
OVERALL: 9/10 - It's smooth. It's flavorful. It's an outstanding malt that's well made. Heck you could 'cellar' this for 20 years, but you're only hurting yourself, chief! Drink now & drink often. Slainte!