Franklin Square Wine Bar

SaraGrace and I have been experimenting with wine bars lately; for her birthday we went to Zza's Enoteca in Oakland, and then 3 days later for mine we went to Franklin Square
The first thing to say about Franklin Square is that we liked the atmosphere. They had outdoor seating (a big plus) and a cute, narrow main dining area with a bar. When we got there, the outdoor seating was quite noisy from the traffic of downtown Oakland, but by the time we left it was quite pleasant.

The food was quite pleasant, if a bit mis-served.
We had the chicken pâté which was simply divine. It was unfortunately served with thickly sliced bread rather than crackers or toast, so we had to separate the crust from the bread before eating so that the bread did not overwhelm the delicate flavours of the pâté.
We also had the pecorino, which, whilst a good accompaniment to the reds we ordered, was overpriced for the miniscule portion that we received.

The Wine selection was decent. Like expected, about 1/2 the menu was devoted to whites and of the reds about 1/2 were Bordeaux varietals, leaving only a 1/4 of the menu for our preferred styles.

The major disappointment came in in the serving of the wines. I ordered 2 1/2 glasses of wine; a Contra Costa Zin and a Sierra foothills Syrah. SaraGrace ordered a flight of Santa Cruz Pinot's.
The Syrah and Zin came in ridiculous heavy glasses with a thick bead around the mouth of the glass. Great water glasses, but completely inappropriate to taste wine in. The wine was also very warm. Probably 70f+. The Pinot's also did not come until the food was almost gone.

I inquired from the waitress about the glasses and the warm wine; she responded that the glasses came from the distributor and that the wine was warm because their ac unit was on the fritz.
If they are counting on their aC to keep the wine cool, then apparently they have no proper wine storage. This is actually not so big a deal as they probably go through their wine fast enough that the few days of room temp rather than cellar temp that the bottles experience are not likely to ruin the wine. The bigger sin is the shitty glassware. They are a wine bar for gods sake - they should invest in glassware likely to sell more wine.

The Verdict:

No hurry to return

Grocery Outlet

The Grocery Outlet


James is this guy that I work with who's pretty darn wine knowledgeable, and has good taste in wines. His family is involved in the wine industry in the Finger Lakes AVA and he grew up with it.

We have these semi-monthly wine tastings at work where everyone brings something in and we all taste. Quite fun. If you ask James where he makes his acquisitions, they are usually at some winery function or other, usually when the winemaker is disposing of excess library wines. The other big place James makes acquisitions at is The Grocery Outlet.

Just what is the Grocery Outlet? It's a store that acquires it's inventory from defunct businesses or product lines and then sells them off cheap. Usually it's associated with almost past the sell by caned goods, but they also acquire quite a bit of wine. And sell it off for about $2.99 a bottle. Now, they never have consistent inventory, and you have no idea how the wines have been stored. So James usually shows up, drops a $20 and goes home with half a mixed case, pops them all open, tastes them, and then returns to buy a case or 2 of the ones he liked.

I decided that it was high time I popped in to the Grocery Outlet myself and give it a try, so I loaded my friend Doug into the SUV and we headed off to Berkeley at lunch to check the place out.

They had about the same size selection that you would find at Nob Hill or Albertsons. Not too many labels that I had seen before (at least that I would drink; Ernest & Julio were present in the selection as was Joe Franzia) were present, although there was one wine from Jessie's Grove.

I bought 7 wines for $19.78. None of which I had ever tried before, and only 1 of which I had even heard of (The afore mentioned Jessie's Grove). I have so far opened 3 of them, and found all 3 to be very good, and I'm heading back tomorrow to buy more. At less than $3 a bottle you can afford to experiment (like the 2 bottles of Algerian Shiraz I picked up on a whim)

If you consider the $20.00 a "Tasting fee" then you won't mind throwing out (or making sauce out of) all 7 bottles then it's worth shopping there on the chance that even one of the wines turns out to be a keeper, as you can load up on a case for the price of a single bottle of Rosenblum.

Verdict:
Give it a try.

Page Mill Winery Tasting Room

We were long over due to pick up the futures that we bought from Big White House so we popped over to Livermore for the day. Our first stop was Stony Ridge where we replenished our stock of sparkling Malvasia Bianca that we depleted over the holidays. Since the kids were sleeping, we forewent a tasting and just bought the wine.

After picking up our Big White House futures, (and tasting) we decided that we had time for one more tasting, so we headed to Page Mill.

Almost a year ago, we were in invited to Page Mill's re-location event by a friend of ours that does some financial work for the owner. We were unable to make it at the time, and had been meaning to drop by and check it out.

What is a relocation event? Well, the winery is old enough to have once been located in Santa Clara County (on the eponymous Page Mill Road to be exact) When Santa Clara County was known for vines rather than code lines. The owners decided that the best use of the original location was residential rather than agricultural, hence the move to the Bay Area's other wine growing region.

The winery is not marked well from the road, so even though we knew where it was, we still drove past it and had to turn around. It's behind someone's (we assume the owners) home. The parking lot was poorly marked and a muddy mess, but don't ding them for that as the unimproved nature of the drive adds to the charm. The Winery building itself has lots of character.

The tasting room is well appointed, with almost a Victorian atmosphere. There is a good collection of dust covered bottles, and a half open curtain showing dimly lit aisles of casks.

There was no tasting fee.

The wines were good as well. Dane (the wine maker) seems to like bringing fruit forward into the nose of his grapes; a style of which I heartily approve.

The visit was completely spoiled by the rudeness of one of the staff in the tasting room - one Gary Brink. This man needs to take a pill. The issue here is that we bring our children tasting with us. Gary did not appreciate us for this. We were not the only ones in the tasting room with children, but we were the ones that Gary not only gave the evil eye to, but also chastised.
Gary's rudeness was Dane's loss as I would have likely have not only bought some of his wine, but would have returned again and again to try and buy more. A word to any winery owner out there: If you make your tasting room kid hostile, then you will not sell any wine to their parents.

The Verdict:
I liked Dane's wine. I liked everything about his winery, from the history on his web page to the buildings and decor. I like to support the clients of my friends. I do not like Gary Brink and will not visit this winery while he is working there.

2003 Trinitas Bigalow Zinfandel

The Bigelow Zin is my favorite zin of all time. I first fell in love with the 2002 vintage, and alas, there is none to be had in the whole world, so I'm now drinking the 2003. fortunately, almost a year has gone buy since I reviewed the 2002, and it's time to see if a year in the bottle makes the 2003 equivalent.

The presentation was identical to the 2002; It came in a Bordeaux bottle. It had a real cork. Not much penetration into the cork, and it left only the faintest of tattoos. One difference to the 2002 is that in the '02, there was a fair amount of sediment around the neck; in the '03 there was none.

It had a rich raspberry colour with raspberries and charcoal on the nose. There were lots of legs long and short. after the swirl I got more raspberries and some chocolate. It's still full and rich with a blackberry taste.

We had it with chocolate fondue, and it picked it up fabulously.

The Verdict:

I have 11 more bottles and plan on drinking them all.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Oakley Contra Costa County, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Trinitas
Alcohol:	15.0% by Volume
Price:	$24.36

Volunteering at Lost Canyon

I have a couple of friends who have volunteered to help out at wineries, and I always thought it would be a good way to learn something. When I was last at Lost Canyon, they asked if I would be interested in volunteering, so I said yes. They have since emailed me twice, asking for help. The first time was to help pour in the tasting room. That did not strike me as a learning experience, so I declined. The second time was to help rack the wine.
When you rack a fermenting beverage, you are simply taking the must/wine/wort/beer/cider from one container and putting it in another. You do this for a variety of reasons, the most common one being to remove it from the lees (sludge). This is a fancy way of saying that you don't want all of the dead yeast and other solids that are rotting at the bottom of your container to flavour your end product.
Other reasons could be that you want to blend the beverage, or introduce oxygen to help a stalled fermentation.
The reason that Lost Canyon was racking was for none of the above. This was the 2006 harvest, and the Pinot Noir was not the best quality in fruit that year, and the wine maker felt that the Pinot would benefit from some additional colour. The way that he decided to add colour was to swap casks with the much darker Syrah. This caused a pre-mature blending of the Syrah, but he was ok with that.
My job was to help siphon the casks into the stainless steel tanks, and then back again into the opposite casks. SG got the glamorous job of washing the casks.
There were 46 casks in total that we were working with that day, and the winemaker wanted to make sure that there were no "bad" casks getting blended with the rest, so he handed me a turkey baster and a wine glass and told me to taste them all. Good work if you can get it :-)
I was amazed that the same wine could taste so different out of different casks. Not only the toasting, but the age of the cask and the type of wood all made a difference. It's one thing to read about it, but quite another to taste two wines that are identical but for one of these variables, and have it stand out so sharply.
All in all I learned a lot. I had some fun too. It would have been nice for the Lost Canyon folks to offer a bottle to take home in appreciation for 16 hours of work (8 by me and 8 by SG) but they didn't.

The Verdict:

I would volunteer there again only if the task was different, as it would give me a chance to learn some more.

Rosenblum Red Rangers

Rosenblum has two tasting rooms - one in wine country and the other at the winery in Alameda CA, less than 2 miles as the crow flies from my front door. It was founded by a hobbiest, Veterinarian Kent Rosenblum and has evolved into a good sized operation with about 50 single vineyard wines. Rosenblums wines are what is refered to as "Fruit Bombs" by most aficianados. It's a style well adapted to Mataro, Petite Syrah and Zinfandel but IMHO less well adapted to the other Rhône, Burgundy, and Bordeaux varietals that the good Dr. makes.

Rosenblum's wine club is slightly different in their wine club memberships; most winery's offer a Whites only, a Reds only or a mixed club. Rosenblum offers 3 clubs as well; Premier, Red Rangers, Explorer's Club. The difference primarily lies in your commitment: Monthly, Bimonthly or Quarterly.

The club gives a less than stellar 10% discount and complimentary tastings.

They also promise admission to the annual club party and BBQ.

We joined this club for two reasons:

• They are close - Every time Rosenblum changes what they pour in the tasting room we can easily drop by and taste it for free. And when you like The Good Doctor's style of wines, that's a big deal.
• The party - The wine club BBQ is a much heralded Alameda event.

The Verdict:

We like their wine enough for reason #1 to be almost enough to keep us as members; and as they have not had the BBQ since we've become members; we'll see if reason #2 is enough to throw it over the top come June.

Lost Canyon Tasting Room

Lost Canyon is one of the 4 winerys that you can visit during a lunch break if you work in Alameda. It is also probably the most obscure of the three, and has very limited tasting hours.

The tasting room is in the lobby of the winery, and because it is such a small winery, the gentleman pouring our wine was no other than Jack States himself; the vintner behind Lost Canyon's wines.

Jack gave us a tour, and led a good discussion on barrel choices and the different types of Oak trees used in their manufacture. I learned more about this subject in the hour and a half we were there than I have anywhere else. This is what visiting a winery is all about.

There is no tasting fee.

The Verdict

It's a good tasting room. I will go again; as a matter of fact I signed up to be a winery volunteer.

Dashe and JC Cellars Tasting Room

Dashe Cellars and JC Cellars are co-located in Oakland's Jack London Square. They used to be co-located in Alameda with Rosenblum; but Rosenblum grew too big and needed the space. At first ear, Jack London Square should be a great place for a tasting room - it's Oakland's only tourist stop after all; but the winery is located off the main path so to speak; so you won't just stumble across it.
We were the only ones there at lunchtime.
Co-located tasting rooms are a mixed bag; on one hand you get more than one winery without having to worry about driving. On the other, they are not usually located at the winery, so the chances of running into someone who actually knows how the wine is made is slim. I figured that since this co-located tasting room is in the co-located winery that we would have the best of both worlds; but alas, we didn't. The girl pouring for JC wasn't bad; but the Kiwi they hired at Dashe, while a nice guy, didn't know anything about the wines he was pouring. They lose points for that one.
The tasting room itself is in their receiving dock, so you do get to see some winery happenings whilst sipping.

They both have a $5.00 tasting fee. That's EACH. That's uncalled for. Other co-located tasting rooms that I have been to shared a tasting fee. The money is credited back to you if you purchase.

The Verdict

I will probably return; if only because my wife has not yet tasted here and it's so close to home; but I certainly won't hurry back.

Rosenblum Cellars' Alameda Tasting Room

I like tasting rooms. You can drink a little wine, get a feel for the style of the vintner, and learn more about how the wines you are drinking were affected by the methods of the winemaker. You can also usually get vintages not available elsewhere; indeed some winerys only sell their wine at their tasting rooms or to their club members.
There are 4 winerys that are easy to visit during a lunch break if you work in Alameda; with one in Alameda proper (there used to be 4 in Alameda itself; but they were co-located with Rosenblum and eventually had to move due to space restrictions). The one I'm going to write about today is the one in Alameda, Rosenblum Cellars.
Urban winerys like Rosenblum are at a disadvantage to those located amongst the vineyards in that most people don't go looking for a tasting room located in an industrial complex, (and they also can't produce estate wines; but that's a different topic) And Rosenblum is no different; you would never expect it to be where it is.
The tasting room itself is upstairs overlooking the big receiving area, and is open to it. It simultaneously feels cozy and airy - a difficult thing to do. I have been there twice now; once midweek at lunch time and then again on a Saturday. The weekday tasting was definitely the better of the two; we were the only ones in the tasting room and therefore got to monopolize the time of the pourer. It also helped that we came on a day when they were changing the wines available in the tasting room; as we got to taste twice as much wine.
I returned on the Saturday because Rosenblum's website said that they offer tours at 1:00 and 3:00. Upon arrival, the tasting room was filled to overflowing with people spilled into the receiving area (with additional tables set up to service them). And no tours. They should remove the mention of a tour from their website as the lady pouring our wine said that they do not do tours when it's crowded; which is every weekend.
My other negative comment is that their weekday tastings hours are 11:00-6:00; this does not leave much time to drop in after work. You would think given their location at the ferry terminal, that staying open after work would attract a few commuters?

The $5.00 tasting fee is free to club members.

The Verdict

It's a good tasting room. There is a larger number of wines being poured than most; and you can look at thier website to see what is being poured before you even go in.

2004 Rosenblum San Francisco Bay Zin

I bought this bottle when I went to the lunchtime tasting with some friends from work. Rosenblum only had splits left at the winery, so that's what I ended up with. I figured that being splits, that they would be perfect for my wife to take with her to Florida next week.

Alas, last Friday I was possessed by Bacchus and he needed an extra glass of wine, so I drank this bottle immediately after the three Trinitas wines (of the past three posts), and my wife fell asleep while watching Star Wars, (causing me to finish the split) so I was a little lit when I made my notes :-)

A typical Rosenblum, meaning it's a little on the young side, but it was good never the less. The presentation was good; the split bottle was Bordeaux style, but hey it's a split. It had an agglomerated synthetic cork that left a tattoo on the webbing between my thumb and forefinger, showing great sedimentation.

The labeling was good - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) and in the right places. The tasting notes on Rosenblum's web site give much more information, with datum down to the vineyards and personal history of the growers. That's the type of information that I like to see; too bad there's no room on the label for it.

I don't remember any legs (I was buzzing remember?) but, given the high alcohol content of this wine I assume that there must have been. It tasted of blueberry jam.

The Verdict:

I enjoyed this wine, and will certainly try the other split when I'm sober enough to give it a proper evaluation. Bacchus sure liked it, and at about $17.00 a (split adjusted) bottle this is a good buy, and should prove excellent in a few more months.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Petite Sirah
Appellation/Terrior:	San Francisco Bay, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Rosenblum Cellars
Alcohol:	15.6% by Volume
Price:	$8.16 (split)

A Trinity of Trinitas: Trinitas 2003 Mataro

Last Friday; My mother, her girlfriend and another of her friends all showed up tonight for dinner. We BBQ-d a couple of tri-tips and needed some wine to accompany. Since my mother and her friends all live in Concord; I figured a selection of Contra Costa wines would be in order; so over the course of the evening we opened 3 different bottles from Trinitas. This is the third bottle of those three.

Trinitas is Matt Cline's Hobby vineyard. Matt is the wine maker for the largish vintner Cline (which owns a lot of vineyards in Oakley). He married a scion of the Jaccuzi family; Erin. The Trinitas label is a partnership between Matt and Erin and Busch and Rodeno families of Oakley. Their goal is to show off the terrior of heritage vineyards in Contra Costa County.

I bought this particular wine based upon my good experiences with their 2002 Bigelow Zin. I opened it without any idea what I was getting into.

The presentation was OK. It came in a Bordeaux bottle; but then this wine is a blend of Rhône; and Burgandy varietals so the bottle cannot be traditional. It came with a real cork.

The labeling was good - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) and in the right places. Oddly, Trinitas has chosen less-used names for two of their grapes; Mataro for Mourvèdre and Black Malvoise for Pinot Noir. The rear label gives tasting notes and history of the region as well as the goal of the vintner; but does not hint at fermentation techniques oak? brix? punch down? etc.)

There were some legs, and a rich nose. The colour was brilliant. It tasted of strawberry jam followed by booze. The boozy taste makes me say that this wine is unbalanced, but it is good.

The Verdict:

I enjoyed this wine, but with the alcohol after taste am not sure I would choose another 2003 - When they release the 2004 though I will likely try it to see if 2003 was an exceptionally sugar rich harvest (accounting for the extra booze)

Style:	Meritage
Varietals:	Mourvèdre, Petite Sirah, Pinot Noir
Appellation/Terrior:	Contra Costa County, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Trinitas
Alcohol:	14.5% by Volume
Price:	$21.75

A Trinity of Trinitas: Trinitas 2004 Old Vine Cuvée

My mother, her girlfriend and another friend all showed up on Friday night for dinner. We BBQ-d a couple of tri-tips and needed some wine to accompany. Since my mother and her friends all live in Concord; I figured a selection of Contra Costa wines would be in order; so over the course of the evening we opened 3 different bottles from Trinitas. This is the second bottle of those three. Read yesterday's post for the first.

I bought this particular wine based upon my good experiences with their 2002 Bigelow Zin. I opened it without any idea what I was getting into. This wine is a piece of California history - reading the blend of grapes in this puppy is like pulling layers of history off of California's plantings. I would love to believe that this is a field blend of grapes from vineyards that have evolved over the centuries (19th, 20th and 21st).

I am very glad that I had cow on the BBQ as one sip and swirl was enough to see that this wine was meant for beef. The tri-tip was on indirect heat with dried lavender thrown onto the coals to generate smoke (sort of an "Herbs de Provence" smoker) and the lavender really complemented the wine. By accident I ended up with a superior pairing.

The presentation was good. It came in a Rhône bottle; but then this wine is a rather odd blend of Provençal; Rhône; and Zinfandel varietals so the bottle cannot be traditional. It came with a real cork.

The labeling was good - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) and in the right places. The rear label gives tasting notes and history of the region as well as the goal of the vintner; but does not hint at fermentation techniques oak? brix? punch down? etc.) Oddly, Trinitas has chosen less-used names for two of their grapes; Mataro for Mourvèdre and Black Malvoise for Pinot Noir.

There were some good legs, and a nose full of jelly. The colour was a brilliant burgundy. This is truly a heritage wine; the richness of the old vines really shines through.

The Verdict:

Awesome for accompanying smoked meat a BBQ. Well drinkable at other occasions as well. at less than $20 if you are having meat - buy it. I am planning my next BBQ now just so I have an excuse to drink my next bottle of this superior vintage.

Style:	Heritage
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Mourvèdre, Carignane, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, Pinot Noir
Appellation/Terrior:	Contra Costa County, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Trinitas
Alcohol:	14.0% by Volume
Price:	$15.66

A Trinity of Trinitas: Trinitas 2002 Bigalow Zin

My mother, her girlfriend and another friend all showed up last night for dinner. We BBQ-d a couple of tri-tips and needed some wine to accompany. Since my mother and her friends all live in Concord, I figured that a selection of Contra Costa wines would be in order; so over the course of the evening we opened 3 different bottles from Trinitas.

Trinitas is Matt Cline's Hobby vineyard. Matt is the wine maker for the large vintner Cline (which owns a lot of vineyards in Oakley). He married a scion of the Jaccuzi family; Erin. The Trinitas label is a partnership between Matt and Erin and Busch and Rodeno families of Oakley. Their goal is to show off the terrior of heritage vineyards in Contra Costa County.

I first became interested in this particular wine when I started to drive past the vineyard on my way to our ski cabin in Kirkwood. You will see it on your right hand side as you are about to cross the Antioch bridge across the Sacramento river on your way out of the Bay Area. It contains what may likely be the oldest Zinfandel vines in existence. When most of CA was ripping out wine grapes during the "Great Experiment" of prohibition; the vines of Oakley remained in the ground. The Bigelow vineyard contains mostly 120 year old zinfandel vines. Not even Dalmatia can claim an entire vineyard of this grape that old.

This is one of my all time favorite Zins. 2002 was a great year, and this vineyard produces the richest fruit one could imagine. Kudos to Matt and Erin for preserving this vineyard from the city of Oakley's machinations to turn it into a Wal-mart.

The presentation was ok. It came in a Bordeaux bottle rather than a Zinfandel one. It had a real cork. There was a fair amount of sediment around the neck; enough to leave a faint tattoo on the web of my thumb indicating that this wine was stored up-side down (This is good).

The labeling was good - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) and in the right places. The rear label gives tasting notes and history of the region as well as the goal of the vintner; but does not hint at fermentation techniques oak? brix? punch down? etc.)

There were some good legs, the nose was prominent of loganberries. With a brilliant colour, this is a wine full of fruit. The term "Jammy" in this case refers to a spread that you would put on toast. If only there as a jam that tasted like this, PB&J would never be the same (skip the PB!) You can really taste the old vines in this wine. Imagine if you bought a single Jelly Belly jelly bean that somehow ended up with all the flavour of the whole bag - and that's the type of grape that this wine is made of.

The Verdict:

The only Zin that comes close to this one is Trinitas's 2003 CCC Old Vine Zinfandel. Buy it at any price. I would pay upwards of $50-$75 for a bottle of this, so at the $25 I paid for it it's a steal (but don't tell Matt or Erin I said so)

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Oakley (Contra Costa County), California
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Trinitas
Alcohol:	15.0% by Volume
Price:	$24.36

2005 Rosenblum Heritage Clone Petite Sirah

Wednesday at lunch some co-workers asked me if I wanted to join them for lunch at Rosenblum. It sounded like fun, so off we went. Little did I know that that lunch would be liquid only, but lots of fun was had.
Previous to this, my only exposure to Rosenblum's products had been at restaurants, and my company's informal monthly wine tasting events. My impressions there had been that every Rosenblum was young. What I found at the winery did not change that impression (indeed even the guy behind the counter agreed with me) - Rosenblum's releases all would benefit from another 8-18 months in the cellar. What did impress me is the gigantic selection of individual wines - Rosenblum makes an awfully large number of single vineyard vintages. They currently list 34 different 2004 wines for sale on their site. Wow. I am a big fan of single vineyard vintages - you get a much better feel for the terrior that way IMHO. The other thing that I like about Rosenblum is that they source a good number of their grapes from Oakley - and the flavours that the ancient vines in this region, combined with the earth and the sun and the river air of Oakley impart to a wine make it amongst the yummiest terriors I know of.

I would normally not drink a wine this young, but the tasting room left me craving more.

The presentation was good. It came in a typical Rhône bottle. It had an agglomerated synthetic cork.
The labeling was fair - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) but in odd places and sometimes inconsistent; for instance the booze and appellation are both listed on the rear label - and the appellation is listed as San Francisco Bay, but the verbiage states "...from Napa and Sonoma to the base of Mt. Diablo." I'll give you that Oakley is at the base of Mt. Diablo, and within the San Francisco Bay AVA; but Napa and Sonoma are not - and given the listing of the San Francisco Bay appellation, grapes from Napa and Sonoma combined can only make up less than 15% of the fruit used in making the wine, so why list it? The only reason I can think of to do so is to market this wine to consumers who have no clue about wine regions outside of Napa; but then again with this wine only available at the winery - are they likely to get any consumers like that?


There were some legs, the nose was medium, and oh what a body! It had the body of a desert wine, and was extremely yummy. With a colour like purple lipstick, this is a wine full of fruit. Plums and Mangoes. Pomegranate and Blackberry. If this wine was a jam, it would be awesome spread upon a scone with or without clotted cream.

The Verdict:

With the discount that I got at purchase time (I joined their wine club) it is highly worth it. This wine is wonderful now, will be superb at Thanksgiving and truly great next year.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Petite Sirah
Appellation/Terrior:	Oakley (San Francisco Bay), California
Vintage:	2005
Vintner:	Rosenblum Cellars
Alcohol:	14.4% by Volume
Price:	$14.69