Another awesome Barrel Tasting event - I think it's the 5th year that we've been doing it. This was Peter's first time, and we had an awesome day. A little less food than in previous years, but that usually all depends on which wineries you go to. Tasting Notes from this year are as follows:
Geyser Peak: Meritage 2005 Barrel was awesome - it will be on the market in 6-7 months. I'm definitely grabbing a bottle as soon as it's available.
Ferrari Carano: they did NOT do barrel tasting this year, but we stopped by anyway and picked up one of my favorite discoveries, the 2004 Fume Blanc - it got a 91 in Wine Spectator, and I had brought a bottle up to Thanksgiving Dinner at Peter's brother's house. Ferrari's 2005 Syrah was also pretty good.
Dutcher: this was a new one. The barreled Cabernet was good, and the Gold Metal 2005 Zinfandel was also good.
Dry Creek: this was a bummer compared to previous years, there wasn't much that impressed us. However, they had a very decent table wine for about $8 called Regatta that we picked up. It has the kind of flavor that will go with anything.
Rued: pronounced "Roo-ed." Another new one - they had a GREAT, unusually fruity 2005 Zinfandel that will be released in October. I put my email address down to get the release notice.
Everett Ridge: we know that their chardonnays and sav blancs rock. Their Zin was also good. I picked up a reserve chardonnay while I was there.
Limerick Lane: Anna wanted to stop here, and she usually chooses well. we liked the '04 Zin, and we bought the '97 Zin just out of curiousity, since that was supposed to be a great year overall. The crowining glory of the day was
CHRISTIE, a new winery just opened in 1993. Everything I tried was awesome - standouts were the cabs (both the '03 and the '04) and the '04 chardonnay. Sublime....now we just have to pick out the right foods to go w/ all our wines.... a nice problem to have!
