WTN: It was the best of times, and the worst of times

[Jenise]

The 'best' are highlighted in purple and an interesting reflection on how few of the wines we drink I actually enjoy. Sigh.

2014 Baer Winery Ursa Columbia Valley Red Bordeaux Blend
The last Ursa I had was a blockbuster wine, a low-acid, blueberry milkshake style with loads of milk chocolate. Not that I liked that, but it's why I was so unprepared for this to be overly acidic, parched. I don't understand this winery.

2015 Beaulieu Vineyard Tapestry Reserve Napa Valley Red Bordeaux Blend
Not a fan of plush style wines, but Tapestry is a poster child for when plush is good. Spicy aromatics, complex black cherry fruit, tobacco, smooth tannins, balanced. I put it into a neighborhood tasting for wines billed as 'seductive', and it came through in spades. Everyone's favorite, including mine. (Btw, to make the tasting more fun, I gave each wine a naughty alias name on the handout. This one was called 'Rug Burns'.)

2016 Taken Wine Co. Taken Napa Valley Red Bordeaux Blend
Big, ripe black and blue fruit, moderate tannins, low acid, lots of dark chocolate and vanilla oak (tastes like American), cloying finish. Leftovers the next day were unbearably goopy.

2015 Bogle Vineyards Phantom California Zinfandel Blend, Zinfandel
Plush, simplistic fruit, vanilla, no tannins; a crowd pleaser but it's not for me.

2013 Bevan Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Ritchie Vineyard Russian River Valley
Virtually unchanged from the last bottle we opened 25 months ago: "Not for the faint of heart...rich, mouth-coating depth and complexity. Pear fruit with guava, meyer lemon, tarragon and just-cut grass." Longevity in a California SB? Bravo, Russ Bevan!

2015 Cinder Syrah Snake River Valley, Idaho
Ripe, jammy, sweet black and blue fruit with canned black olives, vanilla and tar. An odd, clumsy combination; didn't work for me.

2002 L'Ecole No. 41 Perigee Estate Seven Hills Vineyard Walla Walla Valley Red Bordeaux Blend
Margot's. Good but not as en pointe as the last bottle a few months ago--was decanted at their home in advance, and it tasted as if the sediment got a little too mixed up.

2009 Reynvaan Family Vineyards Syrah The Contender Walla Walla Valley
Garnet-purple color, starting to show some age. Superb bottle development--dark fruit, green olives, tar, minerality and Rocks funk with a bit of old saddle. Exemplary for new world syrah and makes me proud to say, a la Tom Hill, I followed them from the very start.

2017 Villa Maria Private Bin Rosé Hawkes Bay Rosé Blend
Options2/18/2019 - I WROTE: NR (Edit)
A decent rose. Drinkable but not distinctive.

2013 Avennia Syrah Arnaut Boushey Vineyard Yakima Valley
Just fine. Good, supple example of the other (non-Rocks) style of Washington syrah. At this point, lacks the zing of the young wine but also the wisdom of maturity--hold, things will get better.

2012 JC Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Stagecoach Vineyard Napa Valley
Saturated, extracted cassis fruit with black olive tapenade and not nearly enough acid to carry both. We struggled over a glass apiece then fed the rest to the rhododendrons.

2014 Foxglove Chardonnay
Coming to the end of a great case of inexpensive California chardonnay as smokey barrel notes are dominant where chiseled minerality and white Burgundian fruit once held forth. Time to say goodbye.

2013 Nota Bene Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Heart of The Hill Vineyard Red Mountain
How did anyone make such a screechy, acidic wine from 2013 fruit in WA? Had five bottles open on my counter all afternoon (for a big tasting), and these show unbalanced, unyielding fruit with bitter tannins with no improvement over time. Purchased at 50% of so-called MSRP, but not worth even that. Beware!

2014 Château Féret-Lambert Bordeaux Supérieur Red Bordeaux Blend
90% merlot in a red-fruited, easy way that's closer to a cheap American bar-wine merlot than it is, let's say, Monbousquet or your average $20 Washington merlot. Just not enough Bord in the Bord Sup.

2016 Mayu Pedro Ximénez Elqui Valley
My first ever PX table wine, and VANDAL16 nailed it beow. "Orange Blossoms, lemon and saline. Dry." Really liked this.

[David M. Bueker]

While our taste don’t always overlap, I think the percentage of wines that really hit home is similar. Mine is probably a bit higher, given my narrower exploratory range,

[Jenise]

Agreed. I live in a neighborhood where I drink/share a lot of wine with people whose threshhold for ripe, plonkish flavors is relatively low, and for the most part this list represents that aspect of my life. To them, as long as something has sweetness and doesn't taste bad (as in bitter, sour) then it tastes good. Around friends I have to travel a bit further to see, like Spohn et al to the north and Taranow to the south, the percentage goes way, way up. You and I would agree on most things, except for the part of my palate that adores Sauvignon Blanc where yours doesn't find it acceptable at all.

You're also enough of an obsessive nut (like many of us) to take notes from all that plonk.

[Jenise]

Indeed, Chaim. But, while none of these were collectibles, except for the Phantom the others were all, price wise anyway, not 'plonk'. They were $40+ by well-respected wineries here in my home state. Writing the notes helps me relegate those producers into 'never trust again' territory.

Ah, expensive plonk!

[Jenise]

Ah, expensive plonk!

Not expensive if they were decent wines, but in light of the results: expensive plonk!