Needed a red wine fix last night as Marco Island Florida usually means white wine so I opened some wines that I have in my small storage unit and shared with friends and casual food.
1995 Ristow Napa Cabernet Sauvignon-I bought a couple of cases of various vintages of Ristow a number of years ago not long after they started making wines so I've had this for a while. Medium red with plum and mineral notes on the nose. The wine is starting to show a bit of age with a hint of brick in the glass. Mediuim weight on the palate, a bit of herbal notes at first with typical Napa dusty flavors. A bit of red fruits, plums and leather amoe what one-note. OK but not very interesting. "C+/B-"
2007 Kongsgaard Grenache/Syrah 85/15-Dark ruby in the glass. Effusive nose of crushed red raspberry and wildflowers. Deep bright flavors of red currants, exotic spice a bit of black pepper and quince. Nice round and smooth, well balanced. "B+"
2007 Charles Smith Royal City Washington State Syrah- I'm not a fan of huge, over extracted, high octane wines but this one kind of grew on me. At 16% alcohol we decided to open this last and it was a good choice as it was very Port-like in structure. Inky black, thick and glass coating. Nose of pure blackberry juice. A hint of black peppercorns and briary thistle. Very heavy on the palate initially with the impression of sweetness from the very ripe fruit flavors. More like blackberry liquer than wine, it was delicious in a strange way but not appropriate with many foods, it's more of an afterdinner sipper. If you like them big, thick, heavy and rich...it's an "A". For me it was just a "B"