Wine recs

[Fabienne]

32 pts is pretty low... just think about the furor when Laube rated Montelena estate 68 or whatever... 32 is probably like water out of the Charles river or Lake Erie or something.

Charles Shaw. Charles Shaw is probably a 32 or less.

 

[drizzt3117]

I doubt Wine Spectator would even give Boones Farm or MD 20/20 a rating of less than 55

 

[kabert]

I don't think WS and WA ratings go below 50 or 55, and that would be for a horribly brown corked nasty-smelling liquid.

Last night I drank a tasty California syrah that certainly rated more highly than 55 points - an Andrew Murray, 1998 Roasted Slope Vineyard. Not over the top as the 1998 vintage wasn't warm, but more like a Northern Rhone syrah, similar to Cote Rotie. Not even close to being mature; still on the upswing. Easily has another 10 years.

 

[drizzt3117]

Well, if you wanted something rated pretty low, you could always drink LISTERINE. http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/27/mo....ap/index.html

 

[bigbadbuff]

I have 1 '02 Pride Cab and '02 Merlot in my cellar- aka hall closet. And my collection- aka 15 bottles- is just starting

My local wine store has 2 more of the Pride cabs but they are IIRC $70something each- not sure if it's worth getting the other 2 or not at that price. I haven't had any of the Neal stuff but the WS forum folks rave about it nonstop. I got the impression though that it was really, really tannic right now, being so young. I am definitely considering an order for some though, it's already hard to find.

 

[Eric]

I am terribly underqualified to comment, as I don't like wine too very much, But...I had a merlot at a friends house a week ago that I like very much. I believe it was blackstone, not sure what year. Pretty inexpensive too.

Eric

 

[drizzt3117]

bigbadbuff,

I'd pick up all the Pride that you can find at $70, that's quite close to the release price.

As for Neal, you can get it from 2020wines.com for $40/btl right now. It's really quite excellent. Decant it for a couple hours and it will be great to drink right now.

I saw some of your posts on WS earlier...

 

[bigbadbuff]

I saw some of your posts on WS earlier...

lol I use the same username everywhere, no anonymity for me

 

[drizzt3117]

yeah, me too, always drizzt3117

 

[kabert]

Opened up a 2002 Pride chardonnay tonight for my wife's bday. Very tasty. By the way, I noticed earlier today that my local wine store has the 2001 Neal cab for $53. Sounds like that's alot more expensive than on the West Coast.

 

[drizzt3117]

Wow, lots of fruit, wonderful nose, very sweet, thick, apricots, very nice finish, highly recommend.

 

[drizzt3117]

Release price was $45, so that's not terrible, it just got rated 91 so I imagine that's why.

 

[Fabienne]

bigbadbuff,

I'd pick up all the Pride that you can find at $70, that's quite close to the release price.

As for Neal, you can get it from 2020wines.com for $40/btl right now.  It's really quite excellent.  Decant it for a couple hours and it will be great to drink right now.

I saw some of your posts on WS earlier...

You decanted such a young wine?

 

[jekv12]

I don't think WS and WA ratings go below 50 or 55, and that would be for a horribly brown corked nasty-smelling liquid.

Hmm a quick google gives: http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-scores.lml?ID=null that says both WA and WS go from 50-100 and discusses a few others. I know many people use a 20 point scale. Wines in the 60-70 range would be technically flawed - ie something went wrong in the making - and probably wouldn't be evaluated for any other characterisitc. The point of course is to trust your own taste, deciding if they align with or disagree with the comments of other evaluators. After all, you can't compare wines across rating systems, even if they are both "100 point" systems, like WS and WA.

 

[bigbadbuff]

You decanted such a young wine?

I think the Neal is reputed to be pretty closed and tannic upon opening, and it needs some good breathing time.

Guessing...