From the Cellar
Thanksgiving 2014, Part 1 (Chile / Australia / California)
10 Dec 2014- Details
- Category: Uncorked Tonight
(October 12, 2014) ... Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, and instead of staying in St. Catharines, as in previous years, we headed to the Big Smoke (Toronto) for dinner with my brother's family. As usual we arrived a little early to lend a hand ... But in actuality we just sit around, chat and open bottles of potential dinner wines. Tonight I had brought an array of four from different corners of the world: Of course ther's a bottle from Ontario, but also Chile, Australia and California ... none would be considered typical turkey wines.
In my basket of tricks were three Syrah/Shiraz based wines and a Zin from the Golden State ... The first to be opened was a Syrah, from right here in Ontario, produced in a so-so vintage: Fielding 2006 Syrah, which I found surprising good. You can read my full Taste it Again review here ...
We then cracked open a Tamaya 2005 Reserve - Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah from Chile. The nose showed a subtle mint nuance along with mainly blackberry fruit; palate dropped the mint for a more dark nature namely blackberry and cassis while adding a gentle spice ... The time to drink this one is now, as I doubt it'll get any better than this.
While the Tamaya seems to have peaked, the next wine on tonight's agenda has crested the hill: Andrew Harris 2001 Shiraz, I'm not saying it was bad, or tasted old, but I'm sure this had a lot more to give in its youth. Today the aromas are double-noted with the simplicity of raspberry and spice and the palate delivers on that promise of fruit with soft/subtle raspberry flavour, surprisingly it still had some jamminess to it, hinting at what it once was; now that is impressive for a 13 year old wine; but what it retained in jamminess it gave up on in acidity.
Finally, another 13 year old wine hit the bottom of my glass, this time a Dry Creek Vineyard 2001 Heritage Clone Zinfandel ... I had just tried the latest offering of this wine from Dry Creek at a Sonoma Tasting in Toronto and found it quite appealing, so that is what sparked my interest in this older version I've been letting languish in my cellar far too long. I knew it would not bear any resemblance to the fresher version I just tried, but was curious all the same. Here a nose of prunes and dried cherries ruled while flavour-wise there was some sweet dried fruit, smoked cherry and vanilla nuances ... I would have to say I was pretty impressed with this wine also, for a wine I thought might be completely dead this old girl showed signs of life.
