There was a nice turn-out for the Joseph Phelps tasting. These were some of their less expensive wines in the tens and teens, and a couple in the thirty-dollar range. In general I wasn’t really impressed, but my tastes have gravitated a bit higher as of late.<\/p>\n
First off was the… 2002 Sauvignon Blanc $16<\/strong> I’ll pass on this one, as nothing beats a Marlborough appellation Sauvignon Blanc right now.<\/p>\n 2001 Los Carneros Chardonnay $23<\/strong> I’m passing on this one too…<\/p>\n 2001 Red Pastiche $10<\/strong><\/p>\n This was clear the crowd favorite for the evening. Too bad they ran out of bottles for sale, as I heard several people say that they would buy this one if there were some left. Most also said that they wouldn’t make a special trip back to the store for this one the next day when it was in the works to have more in stock. I think that about wraps up my feelings about it. It seems like a nice wine for the price, but nothing to go out of your way for. It is touted as a Rhone-style wine. It doesn’t seem completely typical of that style to me, but I’m not going to suggest that is a bad thing for this wine, as I did like it.<\/p>\n Very dark red, especially if they are trying to emulate a Rhone style. (Being a very dark red is okay by me for most any wine!) 2001 Merlot $37<\/strong> VERY dark red, similar to a Cabernet Sauvignon. (They say that there is only 5% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, with the rest being Merlot.) There is just a hint around the edge of brown starting to sit in. I think this is appropriate for a 2001. I thought it was a decent wine even for $37.<\/p>\n 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon $38<\/strong> I didn’t think this was worth the money even though it was okay. I would part with about $15 for this one, but no more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There was a nice turn-out for the Joseph Phelps tasting. These were some of their less expensive wines in the tens and teens, and a couple in the thirty-dollar range. In general I wasn’t really impressed, but my tastes have gravitated a bit higher as of late. First off was the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farglesnargle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farglesnargle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farglesnargle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farglesnargle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farglesnargle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farglesnargle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farglesnargle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farglesnargle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farglesnargle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n2002 White Pastiche $10<\/strong>
\nNice light color, very clear.
\nNice fruity aroma like peaches or apricots.
\nThis is a nice blend and the taste curve is well-rounded. It was a little too sweet for me, but I heard others say that it was a little tart for their taste.
\nIt had a nice finish.<\/p>\n
\nBeautiful, clear appearance.
\nLightweight aroma, with just a touch of oak.
\nOkay in the mouth, but nothing special.
\nFinish is okay, but not great.<\/p>\n
\nClear yellow, typical Chardonnay look.
\nToasty oak aroma.
\nToo much oak in the flavor.
\nFinish turns a little bit bitter.<\/p>\n
\nNice spicy aromas.
\nA little too fruity flavor for me, but nice. And others liked this characteristic.
\nThere is a touch of pepper just before the finish.
\nThe finish is pleasant.<\/p>\n
\nI thought this was the wine of the night. Now if you’ve been paying attention, you know that is high praise from me about a Merlot.<\/p>\n
\nNice fruity aroma with a hint of cherries. (Several others, whom I polled said that they too smelled cherries, and no one smelled anything resembling chocolate as the corporate write-up suggests.)
\nThis is nice on the palate. There is a lot of Cabernet Sauvignon characteristic to this one.
\nVery nice finish. Several thought that the tannins were a bit much here. I didn’t think so.<\/p>\n
\nVery dark, very nice look, with nice legs.
\nBlack fruit aromas.
\nVery fruity flavors. Not huge, but big. Not as nice as expected considering the appearance.
\nOkay finish.<\/p>\n