Gary was impressed by the silkiness of it and I recall his review seemed to have weird impressions on the nose, but once he tasted it he was flabbergasted and didn’t even spit it out.  Let’s see what I think.

It’s a bit light and toward purple for a Pinot, not so ruby in color.  Smell is classic nice Pinot.  I smell like farm land, grass and hay, but that may be my shirt since I went to the dog park twice today.  The nose is really nice.  It reminds me of the wines I tasted when I first taste wine and Pinot on my Grateful Dead trip to Eugene, OR in June 1990.

Okay time to taste.  Gary is right, this thing is like velvet on your tongue, super smooth.  Not dry and over loaded with tannins or oak either.  The fruit really comes out.  You taste cherries.  For such a young wine, the alcohol level seems mild.  It doesn’t say what percentage it is on the bottle.  I think we hit the jackpot on this wine and it is one I should buy a case for down the road.  This is a bargain.

As usual, I didn’t give the wine adequate time to breath, the food was ready and hot so I didn’t pay attention to the wine that it deserves in deference to the hot dish I prepared.  Nevertheless, the sniffy-sniff I gave it revealed lots of alcohol, which is usually a good sign as it was with this bottle.   Upon tasting it, the wine revealed a fruity, over the top thick wine, not the vapor base I was expecting.  On the front of the tongue is a pleasing Adam’s sour cherry flavor, one of my favorites.  The finish is long an strong and has very little evidence of oak in its nose or palate.  For $20, this is an excellent wine.

This was my first Chateauneuf-du-Pape (CDP) and I had no idea what to expect.  I have gotten a few CDP as part of Cinderella 3-packs from the wine library, so it is good how those 3-packs open me up to wines that I have never tried.  This being one of them.

At $90 for the 3-pack of wine, I am counting this wine to cost me $30 but it may be worth more than that, so I was expecting at least a good wine.  When I poured it, it was a dark rich purple that was opaque for the most part.  The nose was filled with dark berry flavors. When tasting it it was a thicker viscous wine and not so hot considering it was rated at 15% alcohol.  As a matter of fact after the wine passes over the parts of the tongue and heads toward the throat I was preparing for the burst of heat.  I never got it though, it well balanced tannins on the back end dried up any remaining alcohol vapors and wrapping this effort into a well balanced wine who strong tannins positively counteract and seal up this wine.  You can tell, this is a very well made wine with all of its attributes in check.  Lots of strong cherry, berry flavors on the sides of the tongue make it exciting and a very good wine.  I have a few more CDPs from Lesec and they may be the same so now I look forward to and am a fan of CDP.

It’s a translucent purple, a bolder appearing wine than a Pinot yet not as big looking as a Cab. On the nose you get Welch’s grape jelly mixed with pepper. Kathy picked up the strong pepper component.  At a low 13% alcohol I wasn’t expecting heat and I didn’t get any.  I guess the decanting helped because this was a smooth wine.

Expecting a fruity wine from the nose I was delightfully surprised when the wine turned out to be well balanced easy going wine. Not close to over-bearing just smooth from start to finish. It is well made and balanced in its presentation with strong mid palates and a long finish. It is also earthy in it’s contrast to its subtle fruit approach. A very nice wine and thanks to Scott to opening me up to this varietal and wine.

In color it is a dark ruby, opaque except around the fringes. I let it decant for about 2 hours before sniffing it but I have been smelling it from the glass as I prepared this page and I can tell it isn’t going to be a shy wine.  At 15.2% alcohol I’m expecting something big that can stand up to that high alcohol content.  I’m also expecting a lot of heat.  I also go a hunk of Brie in case I need something to cut the seriousness of a big wine.  Let’s see, smell,taste and then slee.

Smell: First smell is alcohol and grape jelly.  Also some earthiness and dirtiness, a little scary.  Let’s go for a taste, something tells me I’m not getting through this wine tonight, cheese or no cheese.

On the palate and after tasting a the fear dissipates.  There is a tasty explosion all over the tongue starting at the front with grape and ending on the rear with wild cherry.  Well blended well made.  The high alcohol is tamer than expected and kind of dries out the wine the way a hirer tannin wine with more oak would do.  Interesting in that respect.  There is one thing I’ve been noticing about the high alcohol as I drink it, I’m getting drunk!  This wine’s gonna be tasting real good real soon.