What's in your glass tonight?

[Boatboy24]

Disappointing to hear, as I have not yet had one from my 2014 LE WE ST batch yet....

Could be that I just royally screwed it up.

 

[jgmann67]

Could be that I just royally screwed it up.

Nope. Mine was a real disappointment, too. The Bravado seems to be substantially better very early on... should be a good one. The RJS I had of BBJim's was exceptional.

 

[Boatboy24]

Nope. Mine was a real disappointment, too. The Bravado seems to be substantially better very early on... should be a good one. The RJS I had of BBJim's was exceptional.

Went back to my notes this morning, and my last note from April, 2016 (bottling day) was that this wine suffered from the 'sour-ness' that many of my kit wines were showing.

 

[geek]

2014 LE WineXpert Super Tuscan. Started in July of 2015, so almost 2 years old. Not even in the same league as the RJS Winery Series ST.

I always said this wine has been meh.....and I don't think it will improve, sadly.

 

[Ron0126]

Trapiche Broquel Malbec 2014 at Montana Grille in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

 

[sour_grapes]

2014 LE WineXpert Super Tuscan. Started in July of 2015, so almost 2 years old. Not even in the same league as the RJS Winery Series ST.

Nope. Mine was a real disappointment, too. The Bravado seems to be substantially better very early on... should be a good one. The RJS I had of BBJim's was exceptional.

I always said this wine has been meh.....and I don't think it will improve, sadly.

I have never been so happy to be a contrarian. You guys made me dig out a bottle. It is now nearly 2 years old, and there is nothing wrong with this wine! It has a decent nose (i.e., good for a kit). The taste is great, with lots of dark fruit, and a little jamminess. The body is full. Mine has a hint of sweetness, along the lines of an Apothic (maybe not quite that sweet). The color is garnet, not real deep, but not thin either. None of Jim's sourness (which I have also experienced in many of my batches).

I know the next question: What were my tweaks? Here are my notes:

Used BM45 and 7.5 g FT Rouge tannin. Kit comes with 60g oak dust and 30g oak cubes. Sprinkled yeast, did not rehydrate. Add cubes only in bulk aging. Added ~2 oz. glycerin at bottling + 1/4 tsp k-meta.

So, make of that what you will. I will point out that 2 oz. of glycerin is not a LOT of glycerin, but may be behind the perceived sweetness.

I am pleased!!

 

[ibglowin]

2013 Kevin White Reserve Red Wine. Syrah, Mouvedre' from Yakima Valley, WA. This is a 5 Star QPR wine for sure. Kevin has not given up his day job yet with Microsoft but hopefully someday soon. Awesome sauce that paired wonderfully with Pizza on the Pit Boss!

 

[geek]

Cupcake New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc again..do I love this wine or what....

 

[geek]

Very good wine for $5.99 at Costco.

 

[ceeaton]

Very good wine for $5.99 at Costco.

Dry or with some residual sugar?

 

[geek]

Dry or with some residual sugar?

It has a perception of some RS but it is a dry wine, very light.

 

[JohnT]

Tonight I'm sipping some of the stuff that didn't quite make it into the bottle. It's a 2015 Merlot and really really delicious. Have I ever said I love this Hobby?

 

[Boatboy24]

Camaraderie 2012 "Grace". I picked this up at TW yesterday. After being disappointed with what I opened last night, I was hoping for redemption (hadn't planned on opening this one for a bit, but what the heck). This is much closer to what I was looking for last night, though there is a biting acidity that I think needs some time to integrate. Overall, nice wine, but not (yet) worth the $20 I paid.

This is an interesting scenario. Western WA winery, that says they source grapes from the eastern part of the state, including Red Mountain. Like I said, this wine isn't overwhelmingly good, but they seem to have a nice operation going and a beautiful spot.

 

[Bubba1]

Last years Montipulciano I love this stuff.

 

[ibglowin]

Port Townsend, WA is absolutely beautiful. It might be hard to ripen a strawberry however. Very cloudy, cool and rainy pretty much year round. Not sure how they are getting grapes from some of those AVA's listed however!

This is an interesting scenario. Western WA winery, that says they source grapes from the eastern part of the state, including Red Mountain. Like I said, this wine isn't overwhelmingly good, but they seem to have a nice operation going and a beautiful spot.

 

[Boatboy24]

PNot sure how they are getting grapes from some of those AVA's listed however!

Like you've said, maybe they 'know someone', or they have deep pockets.

This wine opened up pretty nicely after an hour. Still has a bit of a bite, but much better. it paired beautifully with the coffee/pepper/brown sugar in the rub and the richness of that ribeye cap steak.

 

[PandemoniumWines]

My SIL brought a bottle of "cotton candy" over, and left what was left. Flavored grape wine. It's bad. It's really bad. Drinking it to get it gone and it makes my taste buds sad.

 

[Elmer]

hoppy, funky, tasty!

 

[ibglowin]

2011 CC Reserve Syrah from H3. 93pts WS. Worst year ever for the entire West coast for grape production but this wine managed to be one of the ones to rise above the rest. H3 is the warmest AVA next to Red Mountain so it had one of the better chances I guess. Not a heavyweight but totally in balance and expanding nicely as the sun goes down here in the desert southwest after a nice afternoon rainstorm. Back to the Pu mines tomorrow so I will savor this for a few more hours this evening.

 

[Boatboy24]

Out to dinner w/ some family that's in town from a temporary overseas assignment and went out for a nice steak dinner (hard to come by in certain parts of Africa, so you jump on them when you get the chance, I guess). I started w/ a nice, dry Provence Rose, then onto a 2015 Daou Cabernet from Paso Robles. Nice fruit with good body, but a little light on the tannin. Good wine overall though, I was happy with the choice. Stumbled on the link below when researching it after we got home. I'll have to look for it at Costco.

http://costcowineblog.com/2015-daou-paso-robles-cabernet-sauvignon/