If it's the 2010, you will not be dissapointed.

Ironically, I sent Cap'n R the pic of the individual bottle this morning to post itt so that I could do the review before getting involved in this wedding day business this afternoon. My guess is that he's doing Daddy-duty because I've not heard from him yet.

I'm going back to Sportsman's Wines to get a couple of more bottles of the Pride for tonight. At $58 a bottle, my Value score is

I'll also tell you that this wine benefits significantly from a decant and about an hour's breathing. If you're considering drinking it this weekend, perhaps you'd be good enuf to do the review and I'll chime in with my thoughts when I get back home tomorrow evening.

Tried Educated Guess last night. Very good for under $20. I think I will have to get a case. Thanks for the recommendations.

Sorry I'm late to the party, been playing paintball all day.

I'm gonna derail my own thread.

So yesterday before coming to the wedding I bought another bottle of the Ovid for $238 because it was special and I wanted to treat the bride's Dad whom I have known for more than 30 years to some decent wine. The wedding is being held at the Wigwam resort, a swanky, but older resort, about 45 minutes from Scottsdale.

The nuptials take place at 4:30 and dinner is slated for about 8. The post wedding party is going pretty strong and I see this 65ish year old lady standing about dressed in what is presumably Wigwam attire looking like she's boss so I asked her if it would be OK for me to bring a bottle of wine to dinner. She tells me, "No, state law doesn't allow us to serve any wine that we don't sell." (You and I know this is utter bull****, but I'm not dissuaded from my mission.)

At any rate, during dinner I ask this nice server lady to bring me an empty bottle of the wine they're pouring, go to the bathroom with a corkscrew in my pocket and transfer the Ovid into that empty bottle. No problem, amirite?

I was wrong.

Wigwam granny sees me going back into the feast hall carrying a bottle of wine and tells some feisty security lady about my misdeed. Within a minute or two of me being seated, the security lady taps my shoulder and says, "I'm sorry, sir, you're not allowed to bring wine to this dinner."

I, of course, say, "This is your bottle, not mine." She's momentarily confused.

Let's rewind a trifle. Just before the ceremony, I opened a bottle of the Pride and gave two of the groomsmen a glass. They were impressed. I said, "If you like that, you're really gonna like what I'm bringin' to dinner."

The bridal party was seated at the head of the room, thereby giving these two groomsmen a perfect view of the leo doc shakedown in progress. They were not gonna be denied their wine.

They simply walked to the table, grabbed the bottle and said, "It's about time you got back here." One of them then poured two very generous glasses of of that wine, set the bottle down and they both walked off.

Then the BITCH took my bottle and I never saw it again. So, if any of the folks at the Wigwam stumble upon this missive, I just wanna say, "**** you."

I reckon 9finger is just gonna hold onto his bottle so I'll do this review.

When I initially tasted this wine (after the decant), I was hugely impressed and thought, "Wow, what an elegant and well-structured Cab this is." Then I get to about the halfway point in the initial taste and realized the velvet transition to the finish belied its Merlot etiology.

This wine was expansive and voluptuous and refined. It was classic in that it possessed every transitional element that good wine should have. The nose was refined and floral and there was little doubt that I was gonna enjoy this wine. I'm not too sure of the color 'cause I just went ahead and lifted my glass without looking thru it and onto the white linen that covered our table.

I really, really enjoyed drinking this wine. From fruit to finish, it was spectacular. Had I known it was going to be that good, I'd have tried it blind with Death Donkey against the Velvet Glove and the Ovid.

Taste: 9.4/10

Value:

WE: + 1/2

The autrocious front label of a wine that I'm pretty excited to review.





The back label tells you a bit more.





It's another Australian that a wine rep recommended and I'm glad he did because this wine blends the best of Spain (it's 50% Tempranillo) with a large dollop of Australia (28% Shiraz) that was made and blended by some irreverant Aussies. It's entirely appropriate that it was produced by "Misfit Productions."

Notwithstanding a label that might guarantee a long shelf life because- IMR, who's gonna gravitate to that bottle- this is a frugal man's dream-come-true. At $14.99 a bottle, this is easily case-worthy wine and, imo, better than the Immortal Zin and (shudder) the Educated Guess.

As is typical of the Aussie wines, it's festooned with a screw cap. My advice is to give it a couple of twists and empty a long pour into your glass. No need to let this set for more than about ten minutes 'cause it's gonna open up real quick. The nose is rich and earthy and makes you wanna say, "Damn, did those guys at the wine store mis-mark the price?"

The color is a deep purple and easily passes the "no see the fingers" test.

On the palate, this wine presents a smorgasbord of flavors. If it were a deck of cards, every ace and king in two different suits would be represented. (Also the Q.) What I find almost unique about it is that it's pretty easy to appreciate the individual grapes that were blended. In addition to the aforementioned Tempranillo and Shiraz, it has 14% Grenache and 8% Cab and those grapes were fermented before bottling.

The finish is pleasing and smooth.

My recommendation is an enthusiastic and this one is worth a multi-store search.

At $15 a bottle:

Taste: 9.2/10

Value: (super easy)

WE:

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Effort to find this last wine. Two wine stores tomorrow. Also need to drink the educated guess. My wife being bothered by red wines is slowing me down. I can't just polish off a bottle like Ron.

I can confirm brujeria is not available in any of the usual bay area stores

I have no ****ing idea.

I was beginning to think I was posting to myself… which is OK I suppose but I just wanna think my friends are with me.

Your friends are always there in spirit, if not in posts.

The tough part is finding wines that aren't common. If they're reasonably large wineries (especially CA), most of the local stores will carry it, but if not, it can be pretty difficult to get stuff.

In any case, I'm enjoying the wine reviews even if I can't partake of the wines, and reading this thread always gets me in the mood to open a bottle. Right now drinking an '09 Rutherford Cab that's pretty good.

My wife doesn't drink, so unless the wine is really good I can only get through half.

aaaw leo... i dont post much but i do read each and every one of your reviews and then look to see if the wine is available at any of the local stores. depressingly low coverage it turns out.

But we have found a couple of gems...the allegrini was so-so but the boxer, the educated guess, and the 7 deadly zins were completely worth it. i've located the donum and might have reason soon to open a bottle of the runrig soon !

I'm wondering if we can't find some of this stuff on the internets, have it shipped to you or the Cap'n, then plan a tasting.

Speaking of the RunRig: I had another bottle with jesse, DC and jon locke in Scottsdale. The next night, DC and his wife took me to dinner and I found another Torbreck (not RunRig) that was really good at less than 1/3 the price. My next review (hopefully today) will be a side-by-side comparison of the wines.

Same here, I've read it all and looked for everything mentioned. Only able to find a few of them so far, but what I have found were great recommendations. The way I am running, it looks highly unlikely that I will be treating myself to the RunRig any time soon.

That sounds like a capital idea....the cap'n organizes lunches every month or so and we could all taste it then.

oooh...excited.

As promised, here's the RunRig against The Struie.

The 07 RunRig.





The 06 Struie.





First, the RunRig:

DC, jon_locke, jesse and I had dinner at CAZ over which we enjoyed a bottle of the RunRig. Dinner was a bit problematic in that we attempted to make reservations but were told, "Come on up and we'll see if we can accommodate you." Now I'm pretty sure they had no idea that jon_locke would be accompanying me and, further, that he'd been buying me shots of the Macallan 18 in that outside bar on the ground level. Nor- I'm certain- did they didn't get a whiff of those fine cigars we were smoking either.

So we take the elevator to this top floor restaurant and they managed to shoehorn us into a table which was pretty amazing since they had less than 50% occupancy. In retrospect, I think they told us to 'come on up' so that they could evaluate our 'riff-raf' status and decide if we could actually afford supper in the joint.

So we get menus and I get a wine list. RunRig at about $350 a bottle looks good to me. (I was privately relieved when no one else objected.) Apparently my selection got the attention of someone other than our waiter 'cause it wasn't the waiter that brought the wine. Here's what I thought of it:

The tasting pour had me worried. It was a cramped wine and lacking the robustness that I've come to expect from the RunRig. I'd like to think that I told my pals to give it a few minutes but, honestly, I don't remember having done so. I do remember that the color was good so there was that.

Time and air proved to be this wine's two best friends. It revealed itself after about thirty minutes to be a seductive and delicious wine. The 07 isn't in your face like some of the other RunRigs, but it's truly good wine possessed of the elements that only Torbreck can infuse.

It's restaurant pricey at about $350 a bottle, but here ya go:

Taste: 9.2/10

Value (for a restaurant):

WE:


2006 The Struie

Before taking me to one of Scottsdale's finest strip clubs, DC and his engaging wife took me to dinner where I stumbled upon one of the Torbreck companion offerings. The Struie is also a Barossa and has the signature taste/flavor of a Torbreck. Comparing apples to apples, it was $106 in a restaurant so it was less than 1/3 the price of the RunRig.

There was no mistaking this nose: It was Torbreck… and so was the color.

This was a big wine, but so gentle around the edges. It didn't quite have the finish longevity of the RunRig, but this was some seriously good wine and I'd pay $106 a bottle for it retail.

Taste: 9.2/10

Value: + 1/2

WE: + 1/2

Two bottles of the Brujeria will be on the way in the next day or so. Would suggest that y'all try it blind against the Educated Guess.

Tonight's selection: the 2010 Forman Cabernet.





I opened this bottle about an hour ago and will attempt to make a couple of updates as the evening goes along. I will warn you, however, that the wife gets a bit horny while watching Vikings so there may be an interruption at about 10, my time.

This wine is a monster CA Cab. I mean it has it all. You can almost drink the nose on this wine. It comes at you like the fog on the GG Bridge. It's dark purple- almost black- and looking into this wine is like staring into an abyss.

On the palate, it's quintessential CA Cab, albeit one that stands with the greats. The initial fruit is robust and sweet and unctuous. The transition to finish is hallmarked with leather, cedar and, I think, a hint of menthol. The tannins are firm but exquisitely balanced. I am certain that this wine will continue to improve for at least 15 years.

My thoughts at $99 a bottle:

Taste: 9.6/10

Value: + .99

WE:

I'm about two hours into this wine and it continues to improve. The nose is becoming more floral and seductive. The taste is becoming more complex and is just fabulously good. Gonna have to give this one an extra pip on the taste scale and go with 9.7/10.

This **** is special.

Thanks again leo. I got a bottle of the EG in my "cellar", so it looks like a nice 2-hour long lunch is in the future.

Looks like Torbreck has a lower line (the juveniles) that the local wine store carries, I think analyst and I need to plan a foraging trip.

Thanks a lot Leo, really excited to try this one out given the review and that I find that I really like Australian wines in general.

I looked for the forman in the local stores just now, and couldn't find it. It's really strange that a napa valley cab is not obtainable in the bay area of all places, maybe I just dont know how to search. OTOH the winery is like 2 hours away so next trip up to Napa will make it a point to drop by.

The Brujeria will be an atypical Aussie wine in that it contains so much Tempranillo and that the component grapes were all fermented before blending. It will be a typical Aussie wine because those guys know how to make big wines that are just plain ol' good.

I'm beginning to wonder why I'm able to find some of the CA wines here in TN that you boys can't find- especially in the Bay Area. My first guess is that the retail shelf life of the highly rated wines is much shorter where you are due to the greater number of enophiles that are willing to part with the dollars needed to acquire them.

Perhaps I need to start the "leo doc TN-to-CA import express company."

And tonight's selection is the 2009 Saini Zin, Apple Block Vineyard





I like it when I have four days off and get to review wines. I mean it gives me another unneeded excuse to drink and I'm down with that.

If it's not apparent, I'm a pretty big fan of good Zins and this is a really good Zin. The nose and color are characteristic of an Old Vine Zin. (If you don't like what you smell or see, I'm pretty sure you're not American.)

On the palate (and I'm doing this contemporaneously), this is a rich, lush, intensely grapey and very long-finished wine. The tannins provide an almost invisible- and harmonizing- backbone to the fruit of this vino. (It's a noteworthy experience when the fruit overwhelms the tannins.)

This is another leo doc recommendation and one that I hope is discoverable in parts unknown.

At $42 a bottle, it's not only a solid value, but it's a powerhouse wine.

Taste: 9.3/10

Value: + 1/2

WE: + 3/4

ETA: For those of you that have found favor with my Mollydooker and similar "big wine" recommendations, the Saini should suit you quite well.

You have my word on this matter.