Strawberries, cherries, and an angel's kiss in spring

[raybear]

I buy most of my bottles of wine blind, or with only a few keywords to guide me (a year, a valley, a country), and then I come home and google the hell out of the label to learn about them.

I am drinking a 2002 syrah from Mission Hill winery which is in, get this, Canada. I didn't even know. I mean, sure, there are wineries everywhere, but that doesn't mean they are making bottles that deserve to be shipped out and sold to other cities and drunk by people like me, who have a choice in the matter. (I had this wine at the Amana colonies in Iowa that I nearly choked on, which made me think about how location of a commune building is important if you are going to be self-sufficient and what your goals are for said commune and how mine would need goats for cheese and hills for vines. Anyway....) The guy who owns Mission Hill also owns Mike's Hard Lemonade and he took all his money from that and made a gorgeous building and winery that produces wines that supposedly don't live up to the grandeur, according to some articles I read. But this wine I'm drinking is from the "Select Lot Collection" and I'm pretty sure it peaked. I say this only because I bought it for like 60% off at Binny's and when I looked it up online, they are no longer carrying it at the winery. But, maybe it's not peaked, maybe it's peaking with only moments left, because it's quite good. It's very grapey in a way that wine usually isn't (unless it gerwuzhiqrepqrhwhatever) and is more tart than acidic. I would be tempted to buy another bottle if it were to be drunk quickly (i.e. in the next few months), given the low price I found it at, but I'm not going to bust myself out to get to Binny's to make sure I get the last few bottles.

Speaking of syrahs, I had a Smoking Loon syrah at a party over the weekend and I didn't hate it. This is good news, I like being able to find wines I can somewhat enjoy that are available in regular grocery stores. Of course, after taking a sip, I promptly opened up the spanish syrah I brought and drank that instead. But still. Also, I can't remember a damn thing about the details of that wine other than that I got it Treasure Island for $9.99. Because I took it straight to a party and didn't have time to come home and google it.

Comments

spanish wine

[keetbabe.livejournal.com]

it was a black label with yellow/ivory lettering. the name began with a "p" i think, like plano or something like that. i bet i could recognize the label if needed, but that doesn't help with googling it. it was delicious!

Re: spanish wine

[raybear.livejournal.com]

yes! los planos! that's it! i could picture the font and the label, but not the words.

this person liked it too:
http://winecentric.blogspot.com/2006/03/los-planos-syrah-2003.html

My commune will have alpacas and make yarn.

[iamthesphinx.livejournal.com]

Derek and I are going on a Michigan wine trail tour the weekend after next (it's billed as a Cupid's Arrow wine tour, which I'm ambivalent about given our...interesting...relationship history, but whatever). I'll be sure to report back on anything fabulous I find, but I kind of think of Michigan the way you think of Canada, like, sure they make wine there, but.... we'll see. We both have a long weekend off and it's something to do.