By Simon Roberts
We had a great group in last night and we tasted some cracking wines. Wines started flowing at 5PM with a superb 2009 Favia La Magdelena headlining the party. Andy Erickson’s Cabernet Franc-based wine is tasting damn good right now. Straight out of the bottle, this wine had an impressive super silky mouthfeel with no hard edges. This is a good preview to a Graileys members trip that we are taking to Napa in April. I think that the tasting we have organized with Andy and Annie is going to be something special. Hop-along, Russ… this champ recently had knee surgery but got to feeling better with a 2003 Bond Melbury which showed massive black fruits and just a pure bottle fun. Dave was next up with a 2009 Foley Merlot. Bob Foley’s Merlot is one of those wines that fly under the radar and really delivers a great bang for the buck and it’s no wonder this a favorite pour around here. The wine had gobs of milk chocolate fruit, cedar and plush tannins. This is a monster Merlot that I enjoy drinking now but also look forward to revisiting over the coming years. This wine certainly has the stuffing to be even better with age. Michael and Stephanie were next with their 2002 Quilceda Creek Red Wine. This wine is drinking at its peak right now. This fantastic, big and bold Washington red is the baby brother to the highly-rated Quilceda Creek Cabernet and for the price delivers tremendous value. My man Mike and Bill walked in next. Mike went straight to the back pulling Harlan the Maiden. The 2006 was big and bold, much like him. Bill opened a 1997 Arrowood Reserve Cabernet that drank like a champ. This serious Sonoma Cabernet was a great find. Double D wandered in next, and there was just way too much domestic wines being tasted for his liking. So we dug out a 1986 Rostaing Cote Rotie La Londonne, which, honestly was slightly disappointing. I would describe this wine as tired. Even with an hour in the glass, it just didn’t improve. After the Rhone and a few tastes of more domestic wines, DD decided to open the 1983 Chateau Palmer. This was a knock out and the wine of the night by a wide margin. This wine left everything else in the dust. This was pure magic in a bottle. When you get a stellar Bordeaux like this, it kind of makes you sit back and relax. Conversation easily flowed around the tables and sipping this took me to another place, that good Bordeaux place, all nice and comfy. I will be buying up as much of this as I can find. It was a memorable bottle that defies the blah blah blah description. This was simply magic, simply cracking.