This past weekend was Easter for me (Greek Orthodox Easter sometimes differs on the date from Western Easter, but I won't take the time to explain all that here) so that meant a trip to my parents' house and plenty of good wine. There were a few things tasted Friday night, but I'm going to skip over that for the bulk of the drinking from Saturday night and Sunday's Easter lunch.
Saturday night my aunt and uncle joined us for steaks on the patio and plenty of wine. We started before dinner with a 2002 Terralsole Brunello, which of course we had tasted at Vinitaly. A bottle was actually tried Friday night but was corked, so an exchange at the store Saturday brought us another bottle. This one was just about as we remembered it from Italy - a very good Brunello with some nice fruit and really drinking well. Again, this probably won't be a long-term ager but it's very nice now and worth it if you can find it marked down compared to other vintages.
Next up was the 2004 Barossa Old Vine Company Shiraz. Dad didn't seem to know much about this bottle (nor did I other than having heard of the producer before). I had mentioned my preference for good Shiraz with steaks though, so that may be why he pulled it out. It was quite tasty, not too overdone like many Shirazes tend to be these days. It certainly had a lot of fruit and some spice, but was very well-rounded. Some checking up afterwards reveals that this wine is generally quite highly regarded and a rather pricey choice as well. I certainly enjoyed it.
Finishing up dinner but enjoying our evening, we then turned to an old favorite but with a new twist - the 2006 Turley Salvador Vineyard Zinfandel. From the recently arrived shipment, this is a new offering from Turley, sourced from a vineyard in Contra Costa County. It had plenty of peppery Zin goodness, but was not a full-throttle Turley like one tends to expect. We were amazed to look and see it was tipping the scales at 16.3% alcohol, because it came off rather more elegant than that. Overall, it was an enjoyable Turley, but certainly a bit different than most of their offerings.
Sunday, with more friends and family joining us, Dad chose two wines to have with our traditional roast lamb. First was the 2003 Guidalberto from Tenuta San Guido, which I brought down from Atlanta after purchasing for Dad last week. We decided to try it out after loving the 2006 Guidalberto tasted at Vinitaly. From the same winery that produces Sassicaia, the Guidalberto is a blend of 45% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Sangiovese. It was opened a few hours early and needed that time to come around. Once it did, this was an enjoyable wine, but probably showed a little of the strain of the hot 2003 vintage. Very good, it didn't reach the peaks of the 2006, but for a blend of mainly Cab and Merlot (not my favorites) it was still quite enjoyable.
Finally, our other wine for Sunday was a 1993 Pignan Chateauneuf du Pape. Pignan is the second label from the famed Chateau Rayas, though it is usually on par with many of the better wines from the appellation. This 1993 looked as if it may be fading when first opened, but it turned out to be still in peak form. It had a lot of typical Grenache flavors, with some pepper and a hint of cherry, with a finish that was still fairly long. I really enjoyed this one, and wished I could have had more. It reminded me why I love the wines from Chateauneuf du Pape, especially once they do have some time to age and really show off all they have to offer.
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