Big House 2005 The Prodigal Son (California)
05 Oct 2015- Details
- Category: Uncorked Tonight
(June 6, 2015) ... Not the greatest wine I've ever had, nor the best Petite Sirah ... But there are some redeeming features like the blueberry and cassis aromas ... Those notes follow onto the palate and develop a little pepper and spice with a little time open. I read on CellarTracker that no one liked this wine for a variety of reasons ... But they were not looking at the big picture, nor did they have it at ten years. Yes there are some wood tannins that seem to dry the mouth out, but the mid palate delivers and the short finish is worth it ... I can see how the long tough tannins might lead to some thinking it's not as good, but after 2.5 hours in glass the wine develops a creamy sort of jammy quality (oxidizing? maybe) but there's still enough here to dry the tongue out on the finish.
(May 20, 2015) ... So here I am opening a leaky bottle I found in the cellar ... I'm not sure what most people do with those bottles that have demanded attention because their partial contents are on the floor - but I always advise an open-and-see approach ... You'd be surprised to find that a leaky bottle could actually be good, the trick is to find out just how compromised it is. Smell and taste were in unison here: smoky and lots of dried fruit, very dried fruit, with an exceptional amount of cedary notes ... As the wine lingered in the glass those dried fruit notes, for lack of a better term, dried up leaving no hint of fruit here at all - but I don't think it was compromised too badly because of the cork - I think the age played a bigger part here.
