Saturday night wineismylife and PURPLE hosted a scaled down version of the DAWGS for wine and dinner on a rainy and humid June afternoon. In attendance were Mr & Mrs WineDrinkerofTexas, Mr & Mrs bigred_seeker, BubbaP & BubbaP girlfriend, GregM plus hosts wineismylife and PURPLE. The theme for Saturday’s tasting was “Steak Out: Bring Your Steak Wines”. Any wine was allowed as long as it would pair with a steak. Wineismylife burned massive amounts of dead cow on the grill while each of the dogs brought the sides. All of the food was excellent, the wines outstanding and the company, as always, was simply fantastic.

Here are the wines for the evening…

Starters
2002 Banfi Brachetto d’Acqui Rosa Regale
2002 Terredora Fiano di Avellino Terre di Dora
2001 Patz & Hall Chardonnay Russian River Valley Dutton Ranch
2001 Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler Riesling Spätlese Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Bernkasteler Badstube

Main Event
1991 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District
2000 Bressler Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
2000 Jones Family Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
2000 Sherwin Family Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District
2000 Viña Montes Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Alpha Apalta Vineyard
1999 Keenan Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
1999 Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
2001 Livingston Moffett Syrah Napa Valley Mitchell Vineyard

Stump The Winos Round
2002 Friends Zinfandel Sonoma County
2001 Chisholm Trail Winery Late Harvest Cabernet Sauvignon

When it was all said and done five bottles were corralled as the best of the best by the end of the evening:

1991 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District
2000 Bressler Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
2000 Jones Family Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
2000 Sherwin Family Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District
1999 Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

With just a little waffling on the 2000 Sherwin and the 1999 Darioush it was left up to the 1999 Shafer, 2000 Bressler and 2000 Jones to seize the mantle and become the reigning wine of the night. In the end wineismylife made a command descision and declared the 2000 Jones Family Cabernet Sauvignon the wine of night, mostly based on everybody continuously asking “Can you pass the Jones again”.

I'll try to post some tasting notes when I get a chance.

Thanks again for everybody that could attend and I look forward to seeing the DAWGS again in July.

Sounds like fun. That was a whole lotta burned cow and cab going on.

Me likey dead cow.

Sounds like a great night Joe. Sorry we missed it.

Great lineup, the people, the wines, the dead cow. How much time did you give the Bressler?

Beef and Cab, yum You texans have your priorities straight.

Board-O, I splash decanted the Bressler 45 minutes beforehand per Bob Bressler's recommendation. I also decanted the Jones 2 hours minimum per Dan Bailey's recommendation. The Sherwin was a guess at 1 1/2 hours. All three were good at the start but seemed to get better as the evening wore on. All were doing well by the time we hit the bottom of the bottles, especially the Jones.

Corkage, you betcha!

Saw that you guys opened a bottle of the Friends Zin. What were your thoughts?

We opened one of ours this weekend, too. I think it needs a little more bottle time or I needed to decant it. Agreed?

It was a pretty good wine that didn't last very long. Thank you for the gift.

I would agree that it needs a little more time in the bottle to settle down. Decanting shouldn't be needed at that point.

Glad to see everyone enjoyed the wine WIML.