01.09.08 Trying Wine for the Restaurant

Luckily the FCWAC still had some tasting left in them after the Staglin, as Jamie and I have compiled about twelve bottles of wine to try for BONDA. Generally we sit down with dinner and have a bottle at a time - wines that we have ordered as sample bottles, or new vintages that we get a case blind - to write the wine descriptions on the wine list, and to just check them out.

The picture, which I am having trouble posting, shows all the wine we tried, not all of the bottles being finished. I will give a quick recap of the wines but no go into too much detail as they officially cannot rank in the 365 Wines schema.

2006 Merryhill Cabernet Sauvignon: this is a wine we got for by the glass on a recomendation from Mike and Rob Makin. It had lots of cotton candy on the nose with earthy notes, high red fruit and medium tannins. Jamie noticed a lot of butterscotch. It was really tough coming off the Staglin, and most of the group had their palates upturned.

2005 Ridge Pagani Ranch: this wine only comes around every once and awhile so I was happy to score a case. Lots of elderberry and dark chocolate with a little acetone. It has the most Zin of any Ridge wine, a fact that made Sam call the wine "Very Zinny". Could benefit from more time in the bottle. I think they release a handful of their wines too soon. I usually sit on them for a while before putting them on the list.

2005 Ridge Lytton Springs: this is one of those Ridges that needs to sit for awhile. We ordered a case for a customer's party, so we had to dig into a bottle to make sure it was good. A bit of acetone on the nose with a wheated cereal note and almost a honeyed finish. Nice raspberry and blackberry fruit.