SDMB Wine Club -- Week 21 (This Thread Is Legal To Drink!)

Cafe Society
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Hello, wine lovers! It’s time for another addition of Wine Club.

Last week’s thread is here. Many thanks to flickster for keeping the wine bottle rolling while I was away.

This week’s sommelier is . . . buttonjockey308! I for one will be very interested to discover what button jockeys drink.

buttonjockey has a week to pick a wine. He (or, possibly, she) will let us know the wine by next Thursday, and then we’ll drink, post, and compare notes.

Everyone welcome, if you’re underage don’t tell us, if you want to be added to the sommelier list, do tell us.

Enjoy, everyone. :slight_smile:

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Greetings all… I have my selections lined up, however I forgot about one that I’m not sure is available everywhere, I’ll know by this evening and post it all tomorrow.

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I’m heading out shortly to do my weekend wine shopping. What should I be buying, buttonjockey?

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OK, I have two and an alternate.

We’ll begin with the end in mind and will start my selections with a dessert wine.

The first recommendation is;
Warre’s Otima 10 Year Tawny Port

I realize we just did a Porto in September, but friends, this wine is not only good, it is in-bloody-credible. The stylish, contemporary packaging is the first thing that lets you know this is no ordinary port. To begin, it’s lighter than most ports because of the barrel aging (as opposed to bottle aging, which is more typical). Because of that aging, it’s ready to drink today and drink it you will, I can promise you. It’s a rich and fruity tawny with caramel, honey and dried fruits that dominate without overwhelming, has a pleasant oak taste mid-palate and nice long finish. Serving it chilled will enhance your drinking experience, which by the way, can be anytime during the year. It’s at the top end of the price range in most places at $20. Makes an outstanding gift, as well.

(I will recommend the 20-year highly also. It’s a little more complex than the 10 year, and chilled, it is absolute nectar, but out of the price range set by the thread)
The second recommendation is:
Penfolds Thomas Hyland Shiraz 2004

This is an excellent dinner wine, best paired with beef or lamb, but will compliment chicken or seafood, depending on your tastes. It comes at you with a savory nose, leaves a nice fruit mid-palate and lingers perfectly. This wine is very bright for a red, and has a somewhat complex oak undertone that holds up the plum and pepper flavors very well. Those flavors are what make this wine worthy of being a selection at Morton’s (for the uninitiated, Morton’s is a blue chip steakhouse, with a reputation for wines). It will continue to age in the bottle, and will keep for another few years, so I’m told. Drink it now, or later, you almost can’t go wrong serving this wine, it’s midrange at $15

The alternate is:
Saracco Moscato d’Asti, 2006

This is an outstanding dessert wine, that stands up to cheesecakes and pastries, or is great by itself. It’s sweet, fizzy and relatively low in alcohol at 5.5%. Many sophisticated palates will find this wine too sweet and pedestrian for their tastes (especially after the Houge) but they will secretly love it. It’s about $15.00 as well.

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And we’re off

Spec’s on-line has the Shiraz listed at $10.83 :slight_smile: and the Port at $21.40. I’ll begin searching their local store before heading into the city.

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Thank goodness. When you mentioned that they might be limited availability, I feared that we would find that your horse’s name was “Button” and you were just waiting for your “wine picks” to be cleared by the Racing Commission. I was having trouble thinking of what type of meal would be a good pairing.

The Warre’s Port was one of Wine Enthusiast’s 90+ Wines Under $20; I’m not sure if it’s still there because they tend to rotate wines in and out. I have had a lot of good suggestions from that site, though. I’ve priced this for $19.99, so it’s within the price range. And a penny saved…

The Penfold’s shiraz. Darn. A shiraz was going to be my pick. Hmmm, not sure whether to still go with it or rethink. Oh well, I should have been quicker to subscribe. :slight_smile: I’ve priced this at $11.99.

No sign of the Saracco, but I have found other Moscato D’Astis. I’ll keep looking.

Sounds like fun!

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One thing I will say about the Moscato d’Asti wines is that generally the more they cost the better they are. That’s my experience (only about 6-7 bottles to date) anyway.

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I will see if I can find the Port, but I’ll just add that I’m a big, big Penfolds fan. In fact, I just downed a bottle of their Koonunga Hill Cabernet Shiraz a few nights ago. These guys make terrific wines in all price ranges. Their expensive wines are excellent, but the cheaper ones (like the Cab/Shiraz) are really good, too. I’m up next time in this club, and that was on the short list for the red. No problem, though. My “short list” is quite long. :slight_smile:

Just checked BevMo-- the Port sells there for $19.99-- under the price limit by a hair.

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Wait, that’s for a 500 ml bottle, so I guess it’s actually over. No biggie, at least as far as I’m concerned.

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Picked up the Penfolds Thomas Hyland Shiraz and after reading about how well liked Penfolds is I also picked up a bottle of their Bin 2 - Shiraz / Mourvedre to give that a whirl as well.
Also picked up the Warres Otima Port, even though as JM pointed out, it is over the price limit. In my quest for additional wine experience & knowledge I went for ti anyway. Local price $20.83 for a 500 ml bottle.

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Opened the Thomas Hyland Shiraz tonight as an after dinner treat while we were watching the Tennessee / South Carolina football game.

Deep Dark color - almost a black. Enjoyed the plum and dark berry flavor. I found it enjoyable, as was the game. The only thing I noticed was it seemed to be all front end flavor and I wasn’t really getting anything on the finish. Still didn’t take away my enjoyment of the plum and dark berry flavors though.

I’m intrigued enough to continue working my way through the rest of Penfold’s product line.

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I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised as you do.

I picked up the Otima today at BevMo. $19.99, as advertised. And I picked up the Penfolds, too, since they had it. I think it was about $12. I noticed it had a Wine Spectator rating of 86, for those who like to keep score. I’m having some buddies over to watch the Boston game tonight, so Ill cook up some good red meat and try both of those. Hopefully we won’t be watching any more baseball this year after tonight. :cool:

BevMo was having a special on Melipal Malbec (Wine Spectator: 91), so a grabbed a few bottles. Can’t wait to try those!

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I didn’t open the Penfolds last night (guests brought lots of other wine that we had), but we drank th Otima Porto. It was not too heavy and not too sweet-- just about the way I like it. It went great with some dark chocolates we had for dessert, so I’d say this pick is a winner. My guests liked it, too.

And with Boston winning, I’d say it was a very fine evening indeed! :slight_smile:

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I agree completely. I would not hesitate to buy any Shiraz with Penfolds on the label, and I also like their Rawson’s Retreat label. I think that the Koonunga Cabernet Shiraz is one of the great wine buys around. I have heard wine afficianados refer to a QPR (Quality/Price Ratio), and that wine and the Bogle Petit Syrah fit that description for me. So it will come as no surprise that I am a big Bogle fan as well (Petit Syrah, Old Vine Zinfandel, and Phantom to name a few).

I stopped at the NH liquor stores on the way up to Maine, and it ended up being a Penfold’s weekend for me. In addition to our weekly pick, I noticed that they had a closeout on the Penfolds 2001 St. Henri Shiraz (marked down from $37 to $22). They’d had a similar closeout in the spring and I had picked up the last 5 bottles. They were showing only 8 bottles left on their website as of Friday night, and only had 5 when I showed up. They are showing zero bottles now.

I haven’t had a chance to open the Thomas Hyland (hopefully tonight). I’ve had it before, but not recently and I want a chance to try it again. I do remember that I liked it.

Sorry, I hadn’t seen that when I made my comment - I didn’t notice until I looked for it in the store.

I didn’t pick it up, knowing that my credit card was reaching critical mass. I do owe our previous picker Aceospades an apology, however. I had mentioned that I just didn’t find the Graham’s port to be my cup of tea (so to speak), and yet I notice that a third of the bottle is missing. I can only deduce that either the cats or I have acquired a taste for port. The Warre’s will be next on the list.

Do make sure to invite us over when you open the Grange! :smiley:

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Seriously.

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Grange - at $222.00 local price, I’ll let you all know when I hit the lottery :stuck_out_tongue:

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I had the Penfolds Thomas Hyland Shiraz the other night. I’m sorry, I forgot to note the year but it was undoubtedly the 2004.

The glass was a wonderful dark purple. Alas, with fall coming on (with all its attendant ills) my olfactory assessment of the bouquet would be inconclusive. The review stated that the tannins were in balance, and that would be my feeling as well. I don’t like them to be too assertive, but this had a nice dark-roast coffee sort of background that went well with the dark fruit. And I hope I never get tired of the distinctive Shiraz aftertaste, well evident here.

Even though this pick differs in style from my preferred Shiraz*, I’ll undoubtedly drink this one again.

*I’m still not sure whether I’ll pick a Shiraz now, or go for something else, so I won’t mention any other labels.

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Just a bump in case anyone has something to add before this weeks pick.

It may just be my imagination, but it seems that we are losing members not long after they make their picks. I hope not; I really liked hearing a number of opinions, even if they were not favorable to the pick.

Well, anyway, I hope that this hasn’t imploded, but if so - would the last sommelier put the bottles out for recycling?

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I did enjoy an alternate Penfold’s over the weekend (Bin #2) but haven’t had the opportunity to open the port as of yet.

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Better late than never. I’ve printed out this week’s picks and heading to the store to see what I can find tonight.