Text 35127, 105 rader
Skriven 2016-01-15 03:55:34 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: boozal tastes 820
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Hewitson Ned and Henry's Barossa Shiraz 11 - this was a lot better
than it had to be; pretty dry, good berries and plums, a little
floral, nicely textured (your tongue could feel a velvet texture).
A bit of a sweet finish.

Crane Lake Moscato n.v. - pale color, aroma of muscat grapes, but
good moscatos have some more complexity, tropical fruit, whatever,
but that was absent in this pleasant semi-sweet one-dimensional
wine. Low alcohol, I would guess maybe 8%. I drank a bit of it
and tipped the rest into a pot of stew, which it livened up just
a little but at the cost of adding too much sweetness.

Bota Box RedVolution 2013 - bright cherryish flavor,
sweet-and-sour, thinnish. Not my kind of wine. Said to be mostly
zinfandel, but I didn't detect the spicy charm of that grape:
I wasn't that fond of it, as it seemed to compete with the
lower-level bottled wines (that go for 1.5x the price, though).

Bota Box Nighthawk Red 2013 - medium-dry, good concentration,
quite plummy roundness. Some tannin on the finish. Not too bad, 
though nothing special. Better than the above, though, and for 
the same price.

William Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 13 - good plummy brambly drink,
some menthol on the nose, pretty decent body, a little phenol
and a touch of sweetness and plastic on the finish let us know
unequivocally that this was a cheap wine. The house pour at the
American Express Centurion lounge.

Chateal Kyolic or something (turns out to have been Kyanac) 11
- a very neutral beverage, would have benefitted from a little
acid and a touch more tannin. And some fruit. On the whole, a
flabby tasteless wine that I'd have been just as well off not
having drunk.

Beers

Portland Black Watch cream porter - medium thin body, quite
dark, malty, with more bitterness than your usual porter, giving
the whole a coffeeish (or maybe Postum) aspect. I think there was 
lactose in this, otherwise it would receive more enthusiasm from 
me - I'd drink it again but only with the aid of a pill or two.

Deschutes Obsidian Porter - a middle-of-the-road dark brown
medium bodied somewhat chocolaty malt liquid, pleasant and 
meant for warm weather quaffing. Pretty tasty.

Rogue hazelnut brown nectar - strong nutty aroma and taste,
not necessarily hazelnuts - I thought almondy as well. A little
sweet. Not my style, but no real defects either.

Black Tooth Bomber Mountain amber ale - supposedly an amber,
this skirts the boundary with red. Aromatic, pretty nice but
definitely a thoughtless quaffer.

Fischer Tradition blonde - this is very common in Europe at
the moment, being the subject of a promotional push by its newish 
master Heineken. I am told by some it used to be called Gold and 
by others that it used to be called La Belle Strasbourgeoise. It
was my impression that these had been in my youth different
products, neither particularly interesting, but these both in my
taste memory blow this stuff out of the water; it's watery in
color and flavor, with some malt and little hops; I wouldn't have
 been surprised had I been told that it was Coors Gold brewed on 
a bad day.

Some much hyped boozes

Avion silver tequila - this managed to win the palm as the world's
best white spirit according to the publicity. Well. It's clear,
slight peppery aroma, somewhat peppery (white and red) on the palate,
modest burn, and alcoholic finish. I was not impressed and would
have considered it average to below but for the pepperiness, which
elevates it to average to above. I imagine it would go well in a
vodka-like bloody, but it's way too expensive for such a use.

Sheridan black and white liqueur - the schtick is that it comes
in a bipartite bottle, and you uncap it and pour out of this
miracle spout, and you get a cute layered beverage. The black
tastes like coffee, wood, and booze. The white tastes like the
coffee milk I had when I was in the single digits, plus booze.
Both are way oversweet. Together, they taste like a coffee
milkshake with toothpicks ground up in it. It's a cool concept,
but in real life, you know, just hold on to your wallet.

Pyrat XO - this was a huge disappointment. I had a coupon good for
a free premium drink at the Admiral's Club, so I asked for a Pyrat
in a snifter. The bartender gave me a Captain (the label of this
brand has the picture of a pirate on it), which was disappointment
number one but not the fault of Pyrat. A month or two later I had 
another coupon and took the precautions of going to another 
Admiral's Club and pointing out which bottle I wanted. This club
didn't have any snifters handy, so I got a red wine glass, not a
huge deal. The opening on this rum is orange candy, and the first
sip was not a surprise - very sweet, aromatic, citrusy herbal -
rather like a less sweet Beirao liqueur. There is not much to
recommend this - it's almost as cloying as an after-dinner drink
but without the texture. Truth be told, the Captain was just as
satisfying.

Graham Q dos Malvedos 2001 - nicely balanced with a muted sweetness,
still good tannin. Aroma and palate reminiscent of mint and herbs,
cough syrup (but not too much so) finish.
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