Went to the Sea Otter bike race on Saturday. I raced in the Beginner Cross Country 35-39. Didn’t do so hot but did finish. 2 hours 30 minutes for 19 miles. Finished towards the back of the pack. I need to train some more.
This has nothing to do with wine except that I will drink a bunch tonight to celebrate actually finishing. 
Wow… This wine is huge… Big chocholate, blackberry, and black cherry flavors. 15.4% alcohol. Just got two cases and I think I will hide them away.
Rating: 9.1
Buy it Now!
More Alban Vineyards Wines
We decided to go camping in Yosemite this year. Hope to see the waterfalls raging in the spring time. On the way we stopped by Turley to pick up our spring shipment from the wine club. So we packed up the Wine Westy and headed up to Paso. We arrived on the scene at ~2:00pm. The party was in full swing. Soon we had our glasses and headed straight for the 1997 Hayne Syrah. I was OK, but I was hoping for lots more. Slightly Alcohol nose and taste, weak fruit. Maybe 10 years is too much time for Turley. Checked out the rest of what Turley was pouring, the petite syrah’s were showing nicely. Especially liked the library reserve (97?). The Dogtown was too dry for me, Linda thought it showed better balance. I liked the Presenti, more fruit foward and bigger, less dry finish. The real winner was the 2006 Dusi Zin, barrel tasting. This wine was big and syrupy. Lots of flavor. Already finished fermenting and not the least dry. We met our friends Mark and Cathy from Commander Printing and they invited us to check out Jack Creek. It is by appointment and we had never been, so hard to resist. They were pouring a Viognier, Chardonnay, and several Pinots. They were sold out of the syrah. The whites were nice, but not our favorite. The Pinots were good. The 2005 are showing really well so I bought a couple of bottles. Opened one for dinner, it was yummy but not delicate like a Pinot should be. They call it “New World” style. It is almost a syrah, but with more complexity. We moved on to Calcerous… in a word “YUK!”
Well on to Yosemite… be back soon.