Little Known Ozzie

The find of the evening though was this Shiraz blend from a little known Ozzie wineyard - Kangarilla Road Vineyard in McLaren Vale region of Australia. This Shiraz blend contains 8% Viognier. According to the vineyard, "The Viogneer creates amazing changes to the Shiraz - enhancing the color, lifting the aromatics of the wine, and adding complexity and length." I have never had this blend before, but it was an amazing wine. We finished the evening with this wine, and although it was following a much acclaimed (and truly amazing) 2002 Joseph Phelps Insignia, the Kangarilla Road held its own and did not disappoint the crowd. Remarked one guest "If this is a filler wine, I'd rather have filler wine all evening." This fine does provide great smells of spices, fruit, and oak, and on the palate is extremely rich and complex, and true to the vineyards claim, has a loooong finish. I did save some for the next day, and I am surely going to try it again before running off to the store and buying more. It sells for $25 and is rated a well-deserved 92 points. I would stock this one and try it again between 2010 and 2014.

A duck never tasted this good

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and we opened the 2003 Decoy from Duckhorn Wine Company. The Decoy is a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Cabernet Franc. Each year, Duckhorn experiments with different varietals and blends. In the 2003 experiment they struck Gold. The bottle opened to a beautiful nose that smelled of many black fruit (I think Cherries, berries....) and a tad bit of smoke. I decanted it for about 10 minutes and served it to the guests who oohed and aahhed while gulping it down. It had very little aftertaste, but as the evening went on, the wine became a little bit bolder and the finish was yummy. At about $25, this is a great find. Wine Spectator gives it a 89 points. Felt more like a 90 point wine to me.