A blend of 57% Shiraz and 43% Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 2006 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz Cabernet is a deep, vibrant red with crimson hues in the glass. There are sweet aromas of blueberry and dark cheery supported by a nice backdrop of oak and clove. The palate is full bodied and rich; there are smooth flavors of blueberry, plum and mint with just a hint of green pepper. The finish is soft with nice flavors of oak and leather.

Overall this is a quality, affordable wine; I rate it a very solid B.

This wine is very nice and smooth.  To quote the Bogle Winemaker:

Head-trained, dry farmed old vines continue to be the source for Bogle’s Old Vine Zinfandel. These gnarly old vines produce concentrated fruit of unsurpassed quality and intensity. This supple and full-bodied vintage begins with brambleberries and raspberry jam. Summertime ripeness and richness integrate with hints of black pepper and a touch of dark chocolate. The finish of toasty oak, tobacco and spicy cloves creates a wine of both structure and sumptuousness.

This affordable wine offers a very jammy taste and bouquet of cherry, raspberries and plum. There is a wonderful mid-palette flavor of earthy dark fruit, chocolate and bell pepper.  The flavor lingers for several minutes afterwards with a nice hint of clove, nutmeg, and leather. The bottom line is that Bogle Old Vine Zin has all those nice Old Vine Zinfandel flavors I’ve come to enjoy.

This is definitely a VERY good value offering a pleasant wine drinking experience. I rate it a solid “B” or higher.

This spotlight wine is actually 2 wines… a 2006 and 2007.  This vintner (Bodegas Borsao) has proven, to me at least, remarkable consistency and excellence in a bargain wine.

The 2007 just like the 2006 that preceded it are a blend of 75% Garnacha (Grenache) and 25% Tempranillo.  Both offer nice aromas of leather and blackberry. There are interesting tastes of dark sweet cherries, currants, and raisins with a slight hint of strawberry, clove and a touch of oakiness.  It is a true fruity wine, just how I like them!  The body is nice and the wine is smooth.

This wine offers wonderful flavors and value!

Lastly, it is worth noting that both wines over-night well, if they are vacuum sealed.  I truly recommend those little seal pumps!

Thank you very much to the folks at Hook & Ladder Winery!

About 6 months ago these nice folks sent 6 bottles of wine our way for sampling purposes. We have run two separate tastings on their wines and have some very nice news.

Both of these wines come from California and are really nice. Unfortunately, because we obtained these wines ‘gratis’ from the gracious folks at Hook & Ladder, we have no idea how much the wines cost (we have yet to find them for sale in our favorite stores). Nonetheless because of the very special way in which we obtained the wines, and their high quality, we felt it only appropriate to feature them in our BLOG postings (rather than only listing them in our wine database).

The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon is quite special. This wine opens with pleasant aromas of leather and berries. The wine itself sports a full, robust body with dominant flavors of black cherry & plum. The wine has a nice finish of lingering berry, oak and leather. Using our rating method we give the wine an A-.

The second wine featured is almost as good (but not quite). It is a 2006 Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley of California (a really pretty area). This wine opens with what we’d call a wonderful “Pinot”odorus aroma; if you like Pinots you know what we mean. The dominant flavors are of cherry, blueberries and currants. The one down-side is that the flavors don’t linger as long as we would have them. In our scale this fine wine rates a B+.

Again thank you to everyone at Hook & Ladder.