Notes: I drank a fair amount of wine over the holiday (2002 Cakebread Chardonnay, 2003 Robert Sinskey Los Carneros Pinot Noir, and a Sean Thackrey Pleiades) but took no notes on them because I was holidaying. They were very delicious, though, I can assure you of that. And on the last day of the year, well, let's go off on a big note and talk about something I have been remiss in posting until now. Here is a nice little love letter to a bottle of wine to end the year.
My love letter is to Sean Thackrey's Sirius, which is his Petite Sirah, and the grapes come from Eaglepoint Ranch in Mendocino. I love Thackrey's stuff but mostly hoard it, and drink the Pleiades (which is nothing to sneeze at) as much as I can. I finally decided it was time to break into a bottle of something fancier. Thackrey's wines are a little crazy, and it seems you either like the crazy or you don't (I fall on the "like" side) and this one was even more wacky and complex than the Pleiades. It was the first red wine I've ever had that had a distinctive mustard aroma, and even though that sounds crazy and wrong, it worked for this wine.
In the glass, the wine is a dark purple, almost black, with purplish red edges. When agitated, it has that yellow mustard smell in the nose, and when it sits around quietly that mustard morphs into gardenia and jasmine (I know! It makes no sense! But it is true!) with a lindenlike candy smell. Under all the mustard and flower there is a solid line of black fruit (berries, plums) with a little bit of nut/vanilla creaminess. The wine assaults your mouth with a wave of concentrated blackberry/blueberry flavor beginning right at the forefront of the tongue, and this rolls around smoothly to the finish, which has some peppery spice and drying tannins. The finish leaves you with an echo of the floral in the nose, and is very good. This is a monster of a wine that has a massive amount of fruit in it, but the acids are well-balanced and there is a lot going on to keep it from being a baked fruit bomb. I would have been interested to see how this fared after a day or so (I will make a resolution right now to spend 24 hours with a bottle of Thackrey wine in 2006 and watch it change) but I have to say it was so tasty we made quick work of it over the course of the evening. Maybe next time....
Cost: $45
Overall: Could it be anything but an A? Nope. Please send five cases immediately.
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