Posts Tagged ‘Orin Swift The Prisoner’

ZIN is IN Tasting Results

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Tasting Notes courtesy of Mark Johnson, Commander Printing.

Wow, it was quite an evening last night at the ZIN is IN tasting at Casa de Keating. We started with 3 white wines: a white Rhône from Milaflores Winery, a Sauvignon Blanc from Stephen & Walker/Trust Winery Sonoma, and a unoaked Chard from Morgan. Then we started in on the vast array of tasty food: falling off the bone Thai style ribs, BBQ pulled pork and tri-tip sandwiches, black bean and beef taquitos with pepperjack cheese, stuffed mushroom caps, smoky BBQ ribs, and spicy chicken posole, plus breads, cheeses, nuts, and crackers.

We opened 21 wines and overall the quality was quite good, with only a few real dogs (including a pricey Aussie Zin). After separating the Zins into two flights (of lower vs. higher alcohol content) we went to work, and after a slow start found several standouts in the first group of 9. After a food break we went back at it and found several more really good wines in the second batch. Then it was time for elimination and final judging. It grew quite contentious as the west side of the table argued with the east side, almost coming to fisticuffs. Finally, after much verbal sparing we selected a winner: the 2007 Carlisle “Papera”, which interestingly was my wine — in first place — again. Though to be fair, my personal favorite which I actually scored higher, was Ruth’s 2005 Martinelli “Jackass”.

Here are my top 8 Zins:

2007 Martinelli Jackass

2006 Michael-David LUST (controversial)

2007 Mauritson Rockpile

2007 Renwood Crain Sleeper

2007 Carlisle Papera

2006 Valdez

2008 Prisoner (very controversial – see note below)

2007 Carlisle Montazi

Thanks again to Kent and Jill for hosting and helping with all the food. The table was set up perfectly with all the appropriate tasting accoutrements. Job well done!

NOTE: when is a Zin not a Zin? That was a major topic of discussion last night as some thought the Prisoner was not “qualified” for this tasting (even though it tasted great). As luck would have it, in today’s LA Times food section the front page article was all about field blend Zins. It makes for a very interesting, and timely, read.

Mark Johnson

Commander Printed Products

3450 Camino del Sol

Oxnard, CA 93030

800-722-3676 / 805-988-5880

www.commanderproducts.com

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Cass House Birthday Dinner

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

For my parent’s birthday we went to the Cass House restaurant in Cayucus – A French-American style restaurant http://www.casshouseinn.com/restaurant.html with a daily changing, seasonal menu.  Beautiful location in the North side of downtown Cayucus. There are two dinner options to choose from, 3 courses for $48 or 4 courses for $56.  You can select any of the options within each category.  Sounds confusing, yes, but not really.  Rob selected the soft shell crab brioche appetizer that was dressed with tartar, pancetta, tomato confit and arugula – scrumptious.  His salad selection was the Cass House garden greens (which are grown in the backyard), full of feta, local beets, soft herbs, pine nuts with a meyer lemon vanilla viniagrette.  Third course was wild Northern halibut with forbidden rice which is an heirloom rice that is black when raw and turns purlple when cooked – this was an excellent entree, the halibut was perfectly cooked and delicate and he ate up all that forbidden rice!  Linda split the same salad with sistah Nina and also shared the artisan cheese plate and charcuterie with accompaniments – a fabulous selection of rich, handmade cheese from around the world with fresh fruit, raw nuts, olives & pate.  Linda then enjoyed the fried green tomatoe stack with bacon, mustard greens and aioli.  She finished with the scallops with gnoochi, pea tendrils succotash and lobster beurre fondu – WOW, very flavorful and interesting to boot.

The wine list was quite amazing and very extensive.  Their corkage was reasonable at $14/bottle.  We brought Jack Creek’s ‘06 Pinot Noir Reserve which is one of our favorite California styled Pinot’s, Ecluse ‘05 Syrah and then ordered their last bottle of 2005 Orin Swift’s The Prisoner.  All were excellent and then some.  They waived the corkage fee for the bottles we brought in since we purchased a bottle as well – more than fair.

This restaurant was classy, we had the table the entire night and the wait staff was very attentive.  Highly recommended.  We’ve actually spent more, for less in the past.

Linda

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Red Wine, Wines, good wine | 1 Comment »