The other day, after tasting the Honig Wine, I decided to drop in on my Friends at Cult Wine Central and taste what they happened to have open. Fridays are the day they change their tasting menu so they had even more wine open than usual!
Ozzie and Bryan greeted us in the room and we decided to taste the reds. My pick for the best value is the Vinum Red Dirt Red at $29. Wow! This is great and priced well. The 2002 Falcor Cabernet made by Ray Coursen of Elyse has nicely aged soft fruit, very smooth and balanced with a nice long finish - ready to drink! The 2003 Fife Cabernet was full of rich, dark berry flavors, both black and boysenberry! It was my favorite regardless of price and a great value at $50 ! Last, I tasted the 2003 Madrigal from up at the top of the valley. It had some smoky flavors that were very good, it was a real treat.
Paul Torres came out right at the end of the tasting and told us about the Ghost Block 2005, the company's flagship. It is going to be released in about 6 weeks and most of it is already sold!
This vintage is a little different then the 2004 but still excellent. It is difficult to produce more than 2000 cases and although they have many more vineyards, they could not justify the additional fruit being added, as the quality was just not the same. This will leave a few people unhappy without wine but at the same time if they made more, the quality would suffer. So they have held the line and maintained the quality. Where in the past many have increased production to satisfy demand and lowered quality Paul has decided not to! In a world of profit driven mediocrity I salute Paul for his integrity!
Wow! agreat article.tasting wine is really very exciting.
Posted by: wine | March 11, 2008 at 11:34 AM