WTN: Two Seniors Last Night..(short/boring)

Tried last night w/ my pasta al forno:
1. TerreRouge AmadorCnty Mourvedre (14.5%; 200 cs) 1995: Vary dark color w/ slight bricking; strong plummy/licorice/fennel slight pencilly/toasty/oak some sauvage/garrigue/southernRhone slight blackberry/Zin-like interesting nose; soft bit hard/tannic fairly strong plummy/licorice/fennel briary/gamey bit pencilly/toasty/oak flavor; med.long somewhat hard/tannic plummy/licorice/fennel light toasty/oak bit SouthernRhonish finish; rather interesting old Mourvedre but starting to dry out a bit.
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2. ClarendonHills Liandra Shiraz (14.5%) 1997: Very dark color w/ little bricking; rather smokey/pungent/charred/fresh grilled steak/WWII beacon slight blackberry/Syrah some pungent/oak complex nose; soft/fat/lush blackberry/blueberry/Syrah slight minty/menthol/eucalyptus/koala turd rather smokey/pungent/charred/oak some gamey/grilled meat flavor; med. some menthol/euclyptus strong plaummy/blueberry/Syrah fair toasted/charred/oak finish w/ light tannins; lots of grilled steak character; a pricey Oz Shiraz that has come together well; bit pricey at $55.00
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No BP today; Rev is busy.
Tom

"WW II Beacon"?

That has to be the very first reference in a tasting note anywhere in the world to a WWII Beacon! Bravo~!

"WW II Beacon"?
That has to be the very first reference in a tasting note anywhere in the world to a WWII Beacon! Bravo~!

Brian,
I've used that term before (infrequently) in my tasting notes. It's essentially the smell of ozone & burning carbon...a rather pungent but very specific smell.
After WWII was over, lots of military surplus WWII beacons, used for spotting aircraft at night, were sold to civilians. They were used often at promotions like auto dealers, movie openings, circuses, county fairs, etc to attract attention at night and pull in the thongs. My Dad was a sucker for these & he'd often get in the car (we're talking KansasCity here) and track down what was going on. No InterNet in those days for such info..AlGore hadn't invented it yet. We'd locate the happenning and I hold his hand and we'd stand beside the beacon as it crackled and sparked, emitting that distinct odor. Very exciting times.
They also used carbon arc in the movie projectors in theatres back then as well (Thomas Edison hadn't invented the LED yet). If you were one of the cool dudes, you'd set up in the back of the balcony in front of the porthole to the movie projector, and make out like crazy w/ whatever chick you could find. And take in the carbon arc smell. Alas...I could never get SusanDavis up there into the balcony.
I'll ocassionally take a hard hit to the facemask from an epee, and it will cause a spark, and that distinctive ozone smell.

Now you know the rest of the story. More than you wanted to know probably.
Tom

Nice story on the beacons. I won't ask about the koala turd descriptor.

I remember going through several bottles of that mourvedre a number of years ago. Good stuff back in the day.