Dinner with the Fam

I ended going to my parents house last weekend for my Grandmother's 90th birthday party, I know, amazing right? The night before the party; my parents, brother and his wife, and myself had a great dinner and semi-organized tasting. My mother made a fantastic bouillabaisse with fresh halibut, snapper, and shrimp in a beautiful saffron broth. The great thing about a dish like that is that it is powerful enough that you can ignore most rules about drinking white wine with fish.

We wanted to follow the Southern French theme and enjoy wines of a similar origin and character. There were three wines lined up and enjoyed over a 3 hour duration to experience the evolution of each.

1. 2004 Domaine Marcoux Chateauneuf du Pape*** - This wine had the highest level of Grenache and you could easily tell that because of the color in the glass. The nose was bright with blackberries and raspberries, but there were dense undertones of smoked meat, baking spice, and new leather. The palate with balanced and had black cherry and spiced red fruits.

2. 2005 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Rouge*** - Deep and dark with aromatics of provencial herbs, black currant, licorice, and iodine. The palate was filled with supple dark berries and quite enjoyable. For tonight, this wine was most in it's sweet spot.

3. 2005 Tablas Creek Panoplie*** - This wine was extremely complex and makes me very excited about checking back in with it in 3-5 years. The nose showed smoke, black plum, savory duck in a sweet plum sauce, and graphite. The palate was rich and supple with dark dark fruit abound.

The tasting was great to see the two Tablas Creek wines next to each other and also see how they compared to a wine from CDP.

Cool tasting, I hope that you enjoyed hearing about it. I have a few stories to share that have happend over the past year, so let's call this the "turn back the clock" chapter of the blog.

Happy travels!


0 Stars - No rating
1 Star (*)- Not of significant quality or interest
2 Stars (**)- A notable wine of legitimate interest
3 Stars (***)- Great wine that is worth searching out
4 Stars (****)- Fantastic wine that should not be missed
5 Stars (*****)- An absolutely mind-bending wine - beg, borrow, or steal to get your hands on some of this amazing juice!

Disclaimer: This rating is based on my palate and at the given time when tasted and may differ from yours. Also, I may catch a bottle in a dumb phase or it just may not speak to me at that particular time.