Taste it Again / Lost & Found

Lost & Found: Old Ontario with Larry for Larry

16 Jan 2015

(November 23, 2014) ... A buddy of mine, let's call him Larry, invited me over to toast and commemorate a mutual friend, also named Larry.  He also wanted to check the quality of a wine made in Larry #2's honour by his good friend Jim at a winery called Stoney Ridge with grapes that Larry Two actually helped to plant.  

Wow that opening can get kinda complicated.  Anyway the wine I am referring to is the Stoney Ridge 2010 Radical Red, made up from a blend of Landot and Merlot, constructed by Jim Warren in honour of everyone's favorite Little Fat Wino, Larry Patterson.  I will admit I cringed a little when Larry #1 pulled out the bottle, thinking this might not be such a good experiment ... But Larry #2 was known for his love of odd grapes and wines, rumour has it he once shop-vaced a spilt container of grape juice off his basement floor and still made wine from it, calling it 'Shop Vac Red'.  As much as I wanted to hold my nose I did not, and not only smelled but tasted the wine.  Aromas were smoky with notes of sour cranberry and showed some of its age, the smell was definitely of a well developed wine.  Palate proved to be more than fair with lots of cranberry, smoke, and a light easy finish ... The wine was quite drinkable and impressively so.  Lost & Found Rating:  Tolerable

Since we were tasting old wines I brought along one of my own, a Kacaba 2003 Cabernet Franc ... I have to concede that Larry #1 won this battle, as the Kacaba proved to be a real disaster.  Nose was full-on weedy and loaded with green pepper.  Taste wasn't much better; sure the wine was smooth, after 11 years, but nothing exciting, and yes it still had some tannins, but that's about it ... No flavour ... Larry and I looked at each other and had the exact same thought, "Stick a fork in it, it's done".  Larry did have a good suggestion for those of you who have some of this languishing in your cellar, if you're having a frat party pull out that case you've been storing, it would be a great time to get rid of it, afterall the wine isn't totally undrinkable, it's just not very enjoyable.  To give it the benefit of the doubt we tried it again an hour, then two hours later ... nothing had changed, it is surprisingly boring and lackluster.  Lost & Found Rating:  Trash

When I arrived home in the late afternoon my wife and I opened a bottle of Westcott Violette Sparkling ... Full review can be found here.

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