Rare gems from a personal favorite-mobile blogging
I have a long history with Jaffurs Winery- , dating back to the 1996 vintage. For those of you unfamiliar, Craig Jaffurs & Dave Yates produce some of the best examples of Rhone Varietals I've ever seen in this country. They produce wines that have structure balance and terroir. Sadly, the ratings haven't shined on these wines nearly brightly enough. I have either bought or sold Jaffurs for a large chunk of my professional career. That said, I had a rare chance last night to imbibe some rarities from the bellows of the Jaffurs Cellar. I was visiting with my good friend Dave (the aforementioned Yates), and as our kids rode the merry go round, he asked where I was going for dinner that evening, I replied "Westside Cellars", he said, "Do you want some wine?". Duh! So Dave gave me 2 bottles, pictured here. So off we went for dinner with Mark & Sue Storer , winedude, and proprietor of markstorer.com. It was great to spend an all too brief evening with The Storers, and Mark has really been too kind in how he writes of me. As I explained to him last night, he has been the one person (along with my wife Heather, but she has to live with me) to support and encourage me to pursue wine writing. He had a great Steinbeck quote last night that I can't seem to summon...
But I digress- The Upslope Syrah, which is a blend of Thompson, Melville & Bien Nacido Syrah, only available at The Wine Cask and in NY State. And the Cane Felice Sangiovese form Paso Robles. The Sangio. was delicious for our first wine with beautiful and delicious sweet red fruit. Highly chuggable. The Upslope was a revelation. It is without a doubt, the most age-worthy rhone red I've had from the new world. This was actually reminiscent of an Hermitage with it's tight, but perfumed black fruit. Dinner was amazing as chef Kelly Briglio is a tremendous talent and displays a heavy hand with the Madeira marinated filet. Every year, Jaffurs blows me away, but they rarely surprise me. You can color me impressed and syrah-stained!
So in conclusion, I am thankful for Syrah, specifically those from Jaffurs, friends, particularly Mark & Sue, and great food, especially the kind you get at Westside Cellars
This entry was posted
on Thursday, December 22, 2005 at 7:07 PM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
(ahem)
if i haven't been completely supportive of your writing, it's because you suck.
(i kid)
I don't doubt your skills and talent with writing about wine, Adam... in fact, i think that you SHOULD pursue it. If I haven't been supportive in the past, I apologize... nice post though! I want to try these wines sometime based entirely on your description (and the fact that you used the word "terroir". I need to go look it up now....).
» Post a Comment