Oh man, it's been a long time. Way too long, in my opinion. But, sometimes life just gets busy and my 2011 was just that - BUSY - and, unfortunately, the thing that suffered the most was this blog. Now, I'm not self absorbed enough to believe that anyone truly cared or I ruined anyone's day (although, shockingly, I gained over 1,500 twitter followers while I was "away") but, it has occurred to me that I personally started missing the fun of it all. I guess beyond just loving wine, there's something inside me that needs to talk about the wines I drink and not just with my nerdy wine geek friends (even though they are a solid group of people). Most of all, the blog pushes me to constantly taste and explore wines, which is what it's really all about...and what I've been missing the most.
So, here I am, trying to get back at it. And, what better producer to start with than Gramercy Cellars? I mean, seriously, Greg Harrington and crew are producing some absolutely stellar wines using Washington fruit. I last posted about Gramercy Cellars over a year ago now (way too long) and it's time to dive into the 2009's. Today, we focus on two: the 2009 Lagniappe Columbia Valley Syrah and the 2009 Columbia Valley Third Man:
2009 Lagniappe Columbia Valley Syrah
So much ripe and tart raspberry, with warm smoke, minerals and toast on the nose. On the palate, incredibly silky with more raspberry and smoke, accompanied by tobacco and cedar. Strong tannins and a surprising level of acidity (all good), with a very strong and lingering finish. Still a little tight, but that will just take some time to resolve, so if you already have some bottles, wait a year or two minimum - you won't regret it.
My rating: 93
2009 Columbia Valley Third Man
There's a lot of menthol on this nose, far more than I've experienced lately. For me, that is a beautiful aroma, one that grabs the nose and holds on as if it really was meant to heal what ails you. Beyond that, red and black fruits (a fair amount of rhubarb coming through, actually), tobacco and a slight touch of hickory smoke. This wine is more subdued than the Lagniappe, with less acidity and richer, but definitely fighting at the same weight in terms of depth, balance and finish. The blend is 50% Grenache, 28% Syrah and 22% Mourvèdre.
My rating: 92
NOTE: these wines were sent to me as free samples.
Hey there, just found you. My friend and I are military wives and we wrote a Spanish cookbook, we chronicled it on my blog about my family's life in Spain, called Spain Is My Happy Place. Our cookbook is called The Drinking Girls' Guide to Spanish Food and now that we are starting our 2nd, we decided to start our blog, TheDrinkingGirls.com.We will be adding you to our blog roll! Cheers, Ashleigh & Tiffani, The Drinking Girls