Holiday Highlights

Here's a quick rundown of some wines tasted over the recent holiday break here on the home front.

The biggie was the 1997 Beaulieau Vineyard George de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet. I highlighted this wine last February when we picked it up. In my eyes this wine didn't dissapoint. It was everything I love in a well aged Cab. It was loaded with chocolate tones and bits of cedar. It was smooth, elegant, and reminded me of a good Bordeaux. Drinking aged Cab was a new experience for my father, and at first seemed really disappointed with this offering. But by the time he finished his glass, it really grew on him, and just maybe he has a new found appreciation for aged wines.

On New Year's Eve we had my cousin and his wife over and tackled some new wines. First up was Yellowtail's Reserve Chardonnay. I'm not gonna bother finding the vintage because I really disliked this wine. the aroma was too sweet and the flavor was like straight butterscotch. It was just over powering and the alcohol flavors pushed me away as well. Give it a shot if you dare, but I would not recommend it.

We followed that up with Columbia Crest's similarly priced Chardonnay offering. This was much more to my liking. Lighter flavors but still tasty, and drier with nice hints of oak. For ten bucks I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finally, we had Roederer Estate's NV Brut Rose at midnight. I have always been a huge fan of Roederer's Anderson Valley Brut and was thrilled to find this rose offering at a wine shop on Martha's Vineyard. It was a terrific sparkler for the New Year. Fun and fizzy with a good balance of acidity and fruit.

I'm sure there were a few other bottles sprinkled in somewhere, hopefully I'll hit those up in the coming week. Till next time..."Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything.:--Mr. Miyagi