The Fancy Wine Monthly: 2006 Sandrone Barbera d’Alba & 2006 Colonial Estate Eclaireur Old Vine Grenache

(Ladies and gentlemen, after a brief hiatus, my husband has dutifully returned to his monthly Fancy Wine Blogs! Without further ado, here is his entry about our April and May selections!)

You may have noticed that there was no April wine entry. This was not because we did not do a fancy wine tasting in April; rather, I made the foolish decision of trying to do one achievement too many in a single evening and paired “drink fancy wine” up with “eat new kind of ethnic food.”

We drank a 2006 Sandrone Barbera d’Alba, paired with Korean cuisine. The Korean food, while delicious, overpowered any subtleties of the wine, rendering a real review impossible.

I do remember liking the wine, but not why (and it was too expensive to buy twice). Hence the silence.

I did not make the same mistake for May. We cracked this month’s bottle, a 2006 Colonial Estate Eclaireur Old Vine Grenache, in the privacy of our own home. Because we are especially classy, we drank this fine grenache whilst watching our DVR’d finale of Dancing with the Stars.

As our hometown hero Hines Ward revisited the quickstep to the strains of “Putting on the Ritz,” I uncorked the wine and poured a sip for myself and my wife. I found the depth of the red, which was a rich ruby, to be very promising. I knew we were in for something special. I swirled the glass and took a whiff. I could distinctly smell the fruit–sort of a blackberry, perhaps plummy scent–with notes of chocolate.

Then it was time for the tasting. I let a healthy sip settle on my tongue and weighed the various flavors. Chocolate was the dominant flavor, though it was spicier than I would have originally guessed–incidentally, this is also a fair description of Hines Ward’s Latin dance performances.

As the judges awarded Hines a 29 out of 30 for his fleet-footed floorwork, we gave the wine a second go-round. I could really taste the oak, which gave the wine an almost creamy texture. it was one of the smoothest wines I’ve ever had, truly elegant. If I were Bruno Tonioli, I’d give it a “TEN!”…but on our scale, I’ll rate it a 96/101.

Next month…Canadian wine! Stay tuned.