NIce Try

The remaining two wines in the tasting both had problems.  One, a 2008 Mollydooker The Boxer from Australia was perhaps too young. It was fruit intense, sweet and almost syrupy.  It was 16% alcohol by volume, and with a hot finish tasted every bit of its ABV.  It never entered into anyone's discussions about best wines. 

The other wine, a 2005 Sequel from Long Shadows winery in Washington State's Columbia Valley was my personal choice for the biggest disappointment of the tasting.  It may have been the most interesting for all the wrong reasons.

This is not an inexpensive wine ($55) and the wine maker for this project is John Duvall who worked for a number of years making Penfold's Grange.  Long Shadows is getting a lot of recognition for their wines and one, Poets Leap Riesling is among my favorite U.S. Rieslings.

Everything about the Sequel seemed technically correct.  There was good fruit, but not too much.  The acid was correct, the tannins were in balance, and the alcohol level was about where I would expect at 14.7%.  The winery fact sheet (click here) suggests black cherries and dark chocolate.  I could detect this, but it wasn't strong.    My problem with this wine was that it came across as totally soulless.  There was no character to it to differentiate it from any other syrah, nothing to give it it's own identity.  It just stood there and said "I'm wine."  It wasn't bad, it wasn't good, it just 'was.'

This wine even had an advantage over the others in that the host for the tasting decanted the wine before the others arrived.  I tasted it just after it was opened and again two hours later and it never changed.  Perhaps the wine is in the proverbial dumb phase and will show some character in the future. I wouldn't be adverse to trying it once again in a couple of years.  On this day it just showed nothing.  Sad and disappointing.

It was a good tasting and a good comparison of some wines.  Good wine, good food and good people.  It's what makes my world interesting.