I had a bit less than half a glass of Joseph Swan Lone Redwood Zin '05 left, and I was feeling sort of WTF, which does happen, and I dug out my remaining bottle of Ridge Geyserville '01 to have with my Saturday spaghetti dinner.
I opened the Geyserville well ahead of time (just to be sure, of course) <looking innocent as a little lamb> and it was, is and will be excellent.
But the LR was Really Good Stuff, too, which is why there was so little left over.
So I dosed the spaghetti sauce with a bit of the LR (it's my wont to help the sauce along when I'm reheating it for supper) and poured the remainder into my glass, filling it up with Geyserville.
I like to do these glass-blends. So maybe I am stupid. It's rarely bad, and in this case, having two really good wines to stir together, I doubted the result would be better than either of the components by itself.
Well, I was right. The result, IMHO [In My Haughty Opinion], was as good as either component. The LR was sort of like September berries with the feeling of a brown California hillside. The Geyserville is more elegant, less Zinny if you will, and has actually a touch of sweetness in the aftertaste. In combination (perhaps 55% Geyserville, 45% LR), the LR put a robust foundation under the Ridge. Yet it didn't kill that "Draper perfume", the little birdies flitting around the glass that make Ridge such an elegant wine.
Geyserville is going to have to stand up to a lamb steak tomorrow. I think she'll manage. I'm really looking forward to it.