2006 Qupe Syrah Purisma Mountain

Tonight I had the taste for a steak and good wine to go with it. Mary was out of town so I couldn't open one of our good wines. We have an agreement that neither one of us can drink one of our favorite wines or wines that we purchased on a wine trip without the other's permission. I don't have any nice wines I purchased myself so I went to the wine store to buy some wine. We don't visit the wine store that often because we get shipments from our wine clubs often enough that we have plenty of wine just from those few clubs to which we belong.

I knew I wanted to have a steak for dinner so I wanted something that was full-bodied and would not be overpowered by a grilled steak. Thus pinot noir was out of the question. I was hungry as hell so I didn't want anything that needed to breathe. I had a petit verdot from Portugal which sounded very interesting, but then I saw tat they had a couple syrahs from Qupe Winery. We visited Qupe on our recent trip to the Santa Ynez Valley and enjoyed their wine. They had two syrahs from Qupe one was the 2006 Bien Naciedo, which we brought back from our trip so I bought the Purisma Mountain Syrah.

On the website it is described as "Bright ruby-red. Wild nose combines redcurrant, rhubarb, underbrush, herbs, resin and oak; notes of cherry skin and minerals merged with aeration. Supple, suave and quite dry, with the slightly bitter cherry skin element giving the wine a refreshing character. Finishes with very suave tannins and a mineral edge." And I can't describe it better... maybe because I've drank alot of this wine tonight.

2003 Crauford Zinfandel

The 2003 Crauford zinfandel was so far the best zinfandel I've had this year. The color was a dense, dark purple to a point that it was almost black. The taste had strong notes of plum and cloves that had a nice long finish. I bought this at The Corkscrew in Springfield for ~$30 and it was well worth the money. I drank this wine with some barbecued ribs and the zin was a great match the the smoky ribs. I highly recommend this wine and am about to go online and try and buy some more from the winery.

Cheers,
BC

2005 Kaz Dudes Petite Sirah

Last night we had a petite sirah from one of our favorite wineries Kaz.

It had a great dark berry flavor that had a long finish. Unlike many petite sirahs, it was not overly tannic and like most of their wines it is very food friendly. Although it is a red wine, we had it with some grilled shrimp and potatoes and it did not overpower the taste of the shrimp. I can't wait to have this wine again!!!