As it did last month, the February edition of our wine-snobbery began with a photo shoot. For your viewing pleasure, I present Exhibit A.
I’m not sure why I was so insistent on getting this shot, but it took a damn while to get. Once we had it, it was time to open up this 2009 Mollydooker Blue-eyed Boy Shiraz and let the tasting fun begin!
I knew I was in for a treat the moment I tilted the glass. The wine had an almost syrupy quality to it, and it clung to the side of the glass like a lipstick kiss. I couldn’t wait to give it a taste.
But first, I had to give it a sniff. The aroma for this wine was a bit hard for me to pin down. Mostly, I blame Lucy. You know, the troublemaking red dog from our little photo shoot? Well, perhaps as repayment for forcing her to sit still, she decided to make up for lost time by being particularly rambunctious. And by “rambunctious,” I mean “crazier than a bat locked in an old refrigerator.” Over and over, I attempted to concentrate and take a whiff from my glass, only to be distracted by my collar jingling, chair thumping, tail chasing, leg wrestling little terror. Eventually, I gave up and moved on to the tasting. Sorry.
(That’s her very best, “What do you mean, Dad? I’ve been behaving perfectly all night!” pose. A pose of lies.)
I find it difficult to describe the way this shiraz tasted. This part was not my dog’s fault, however. (She settled down quite contentedly once I treated her to a pinky’s worth of the stuff.)
The challenge of this wine lay partly in the alcohol content. This particular wine has a content of 16%, where even your heavier California cabs tend not to go above 15. Thus, what started as a simple tasting, purely for science mind you, quickly evolved (or devolved) into a bucking bronco of a buzz which I intended to ride for the remainder of the evening.
But more than that, the wine is difficult to describe because through the 20-odd minutes I spent tasting and weighing, its flavors changed at least three times. When I began, it had a prominent note of vanilla, with a touch of spice on the backbeat (that’s less-than-official wine terminology). Not long after, I took another taste and discovered that the vanilla had become chocolate, and by the 15-minute mark the chocolate had grown into blackberries, perhaps dipped in chocolate. By the 16-minute mark, the flavor had disappeared, because there was no more wine left. If I’d had more patience, perhaps I might have experienced a fourth iteration. But alas.
Anyhow, I give this 2009 Mollydooker Blue-eyed Boy Shiraz top marks (and so does my dog)! I rate it at 98/101.