I had extra hours at work and took the day off to work around the house (it’s 2 o’clock and I’ve done nothing on the house) and catch up on the next newsletter…  More snow here in Denver.  It was 65 or so yesterday and now there’s 5 inches of snow on the ground.  I cried uncle on the snow months ago but alas, no dice….

I also finally got around to opening up the Rhone Sample Kit I received from brixr (http://www.brixr.com/).

These kits contain small 1.7 ounce samples and from a consumer standpoint, represent a fantastic opportunity to purchase and try a wine before committing to a full bottle.  Since I have had a couple of these wines before, I was curious as to how the wines would show from this smaller format.  I’m happy to report that wines showed beautifully!

I’ll have full notes on the wines in the next newsletter.  The ‘08 Arnot-Roberts Clary Ranch Syrah was stunning and I think someone screwed up and bottled a northern Rhone Syrah instead of the Sonoma juice.  The ‘06 La Pialade Cotes du Rhone was singing and demonstrates that you don’t have to have an inky, dark wine to deliver power and intensity on the palate.  The ’07s from the south of France continue to impress and the Feraud-Brunel Cotes du Rhone Villages and the Font-Sane Gigondas were also terrific.  The ‘06 Gilles Robin Crozes Hermitage and ‘06 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel showed consistent with my prior notes.

Over and out.

Jeb

This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Random Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.