Text 7258, 131 rader
Skriven 2006-11-03 17:09:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: boozy tastes'n'stuff 535
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Norton Torrontes 04 - clear light amber color, perhaps a bit too
pee-like for my taste. A bit of cork aroma, which blew off well
yielding a heavy floral tropical-fruity experience. Pretty assertive,
quite dry, went well with bbq chicken.

Diano d'Alba "Fosco" 2001 - Clear red, not much legs; bright
cherry flavors, quite acid, a bit overripe and perhaps going
thin on the finish. I wonder what it would have been like 2
years ago. This wine is I believe entitled to the name
Dolcetto d'Alba but chooses instead the fancier name.

Vina Nora Albarino 04 - a touch of cork blew off. Pleasant
wine, tropical fruit aroma, peach-pear flavor, good acid.
Went well with bbq chicken.

Canyon Road Sauvignon Blanc 05 - drowned my sorrows during
a flow control delay on the airplane. Not bad for a $5 wine.
Tasted like guava juice. United also serves their Cabernet,
which is dryer than and not bad for a $5 wine. Turns out
that Canyon Road is an off-brand of Geyser Peak.

Bourgogne Aligote 05 (Chevrot) - rather pale in color,
Good aroma - slightly floral, tropical fruit, pleasant,
good acid. Nice palate, but unfortunately a bit of a
wimpy watery finish.

Nero d'Avola 04 (Ruggero di Tasso) - dark inky, great legs.
Spice, a bit peculiar and phenolic on the nose, a surprising
moothness on the palate. A little milky (I'd say creamy but 
don't like the effect that much). The only fruit presence is
a pruny-raisiny-fruitcaky finish that tapers off to a sour-cherry 
aspect. From chron.org (the Northwestern University Republican
newspaper) -
 Since this wine is produced by fellow Sicilians, I might be 
 partial to praise. But upon the first sip, I almost teared
 with disappointment/revulsion. But after an hour of breathing,
 this turned out to be an excellent wine. The flavor was jammy,
 but still balanced and smooth. So proud. 2002. $4.99. Grade: good

So I let it "breeze" for over an hour. Aroma now very phenolic
and a bit garbagy-skunky. A bit of coffee flavor. Thinning out
quite a lot, with a lot of that lactic taste that I don't like.
All this proves is that college students don't know squat about
wine.

=

Gabriel et Andrieu Chateau de Clam (sic) Fins Bois single
estate Cognac - medium gold, very clear, slightly harsh on
the nose, almost appley. Palate brown sugar, moderately
sweet, a little fruitiness. Finish quite harsh.

=

Casa Mayor Cabernet 2004 (Colchagua Valley) - had one bottle
at the proper temperature - it was rather cloyingly fruity,
with a flavor that reminded me of artificial grape, or rather
what artificial plum would taste like if there were an
artificial plum. A purple taste if I ever had one. Decent
acid and tannin, but somehow I found it a tad sweet. I had
another bottle that was ice cold, and it was much better,
rather like grape soda only not as sweet. I would have guessed
it as a $5 per fifth of wine; actually, it's not available in
the States, but in Europe, where the taxes are higher, it runs
the equivalent of $4-5, so perhaps a $3 bottle.

Andrew Peace "Masterpeace" 2004 Cabernet-Merlot (Australia) -
obvious, very fruity, with plums and tropical fruit, just a
tad too sweet, just a tad too pale. A mass-market wine
masquerading as something better.

Clos Montirius 2003 Vacqueyras, a biggish red that my dining
companion thought had gone dumb (he caught a lot of tannin
but didn't find enough fruit or spice) but I thought pretty
satisfactory: some dark dried fruit, tobacco, but maybe not
enough oomph on the finish.

=

Vinous observations:

Ad for tourism in Arizona: picture of a golf course. Caption:
  A 64 in the morning. A '64 Merlot in the evening. Good round
  [picture including glasses of a very dark wine that couldn't
  possibly be a '64 Merlot] Seize the day.

The only reason for 64 being chosen, I figure, is that the
target audience for this ad must be 42 years old. Otherwise,
'66 would be a far superior choice. And Cabernet, darn it.

-

The trick or treaters this year (95 of the little leeches)
are growing up - we had some whose voices were broken and
who were 6 feet tall. As we didn't have an enormous amount
of candy left, I suggested to Carol that we save our supply
and start giving out nips of gin that we'd gotten on the
airplane. The kids were pleased with that idea, even though
we didn't implement it.

-

Burton's amusing post makes one wonder about the current
wine-buying public. What gets into their heads, I wonder.
It's like buying copper bracelets to put on their bottles.

-

The big issue in Massachusetts this election day is a
referendum on wine and beer sales in supermarkets. The
pros say that it's irrational to exclude these sales
from food stores; the cons say that people will drive
drunk more if you allow beer sales in the stores, and
then bring up the point of what happens when a 16-year-old
kid tries to buy beer from a 16-year-old cashier at the
7-11. Then the pros say, well, if you make the drunk
drivers drive all the way to the liquor stores to buy
their fix, that adds to the amount of drunken driving
being done, and anyhow, the law specifically excludes
convenience stores from the rule (I don't know which
party is lying here, not having read the bill). I'm
of two minds on it - if the Stop & Shop is allowed to
sell wine, that makes life a ton easier for me; but
it'll also take biz away from the real stores, where
the good selection is. The safety arguments are silly,
I think: there will likely be no epidemiological effect
whatever. I probably won't vote on this.

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