1999 Clos Du Bois Marlstone

• 1999 Clos du Bois Marlstone - USA, California, Sonoma County, Alexander Valley (7/22/2008)
  This wine changes every hour. Popped and poured. Very red for a wine of this age, I was expecting a little bit of garnet or burnt sienna. Thin in the glass and a bit more transparent then I expected. Nose: Lots of tobacco. Like a handful of crumbled Lucky's. Some spice and red berries. Palate: Still tobacco, raspberries and some gamy meat. Smooth and thin with a bit of tannins. VERY dry. Cotton balls in my mouth. After about two hours opened it had a bit of poopy and garbage on the nose. I could have done without the garbage. No real heat despite the 14.2% ABV (except when consumed with dinner earlier). A little green on the finish after two hours, a bit of asparagus maybe. Nice wine, I would not mind a bit more length on the finish or a tad more complexity. I think I purchased this in 2004 from the Wine Library at maybe $29 to $35. (87 pts.)

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• 2002 Cardeal Dão Reserva - Portugal, Beiras, Dão (7/18/2008)
  Nose: Very floral with plenty of Violets. There is also a bit of Port on the nose and blueberry pie filling. The nose is actually very good (after at least an hour or two open). Palate: Here is where the points disapear. A little Port, a little spice and some chemical reminiscent of a Cali Cab. Very dry at the end and that is good. Other then that, the finish is very short and light. I wish this performed better on my palate, but this is no Quinta da Cortezia Touriga Nacional. (88 pts.)

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• 2006 Franco M. Martinetti Gavi - Italy, Piedmont, Gavi (7/14/2008)
  This one is probably my new favorite white. Popped and poured then let sit for about an hour to open up. Nose: Initially it was nothing but Pineapple and pears. After a bit it showed incredible Honeysuckle and Lime along with the Pears and Pineapple. There is also some kind of candy from my youth but I can't put my finger on it. Very sweet and floral on the nose. Palate: It is like a very acidic Pear that someone poured Lime juice over, but not fresh Lime juice, instead it is the sweetened Rose's Lime Juice. Wow, this is good. Star fruit on the backend. Plenty of acidity to hold it together, and there is a little bit of fizzy-fizz on the tongue. 13% ABV and perfect balance and complexity. Martinetti Gavi FTW! (92 pts.)

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• 2004 Château Petit Védrines - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes (5/25/2008)
  Nice melon and mango on the nose plus a little petrol. Apples and mangoes with honey on the pallet with overwhelming green tea on the finish. Very nice. (90 pts.)

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Our Night At The Carnival

Our church hosts a carnival every June about this time. The carnival runs from Wed. to Sat. My wife works the carnival on Thurs. and Sat. night. This usually leaves Fri. night as a good night for the whole family to attend.

We arrived at about 7:00 last night and headed over to the Beer garden to see my father-in-law. He is head of the "Brew Crew". They are the ones responsible for distributing the crap beer and wine that the hundreds of carnival goers love so much. Anyway...

After downing a rather flabby and quite unappealing Placido Pinot Grigio we headed over to the rides. Bo (9) and Colin (3) went on one of the many rides that spin (it seemed that they all spun) and I received a call from my brother telling me he and his son, Michael (8), had arrived. We met up by the Zeppole stand and proceeded to watch the Yankee game on his Blackberry while my wife took the kids on the rides.

When the growling in my stomach came calling we embarked on the very difficult task of deciding what of the many food items to eat. Ribs? Pulled pork from the pig roast? Italian Hot Dogs served by the Mayor or Sayreville? Sausage? Fish? Zeppoles? Candy apples? Caramel apples? Pierogies? Clams? Fried Chicken? London broil sammies? More bad wine? I had an Italian Hot Dog served to me by Mayor Kennedy O'Brien, check him out here. He is a republican mayor in a very democratic town. Anyway... The kids had sausage sandwiches and my wife just picked. Instead of crappy wine, this time I had crappy beer. Michelob. Enuf' said.

After dinner more rides. And then a Yankee loss. And then... Zeppoles. Led Zeppoles. Good but heavy. They are still slowing me down this morning.

Kris (my brother) left with my nephew and we soon headed out too.

Here is Colin and Michael on the Tea Cups.

This is just a test to see just how extensive the blog posting with Jott. Just wondering how many lines you can do. I know it only gives you 30 seconds, but this would be test, a test, test, test, test, and test, test, test, test, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and test, and test. Hope this all comes out. Hope that I can see it, was wondering about the formatting, and now I will end this so I can see how my blog post in. That's test, test, blah, blah, blah, test, test, test. Thank you. listen

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This one will be real short and straight to the point...

Any questions?

It took 12 innings to get it done. 12 innings. Four and one half hours. But the Yanks have their first extra innings win. I don't have any nails left on my hands thanks to Mr. Oh-len-dorf. I was about to start tying the hangman's knot once I saw Hawkins warming in the pen. Thank you Bobby for keeping Hawkins far away from the mound in this one.

Mo has something special this year. He actually looks better then he did earlier in his career. At the rate he is going he could land somewhere in the neighborhood of 45-50 saves. He has posted 45 or more saves in only 3 of his 13 years in the bigs. Also at the rate we are using him he could wind up with 50-60 games.


I was a good night. First Chili's, then Rita's and to top it off, a great Yankee win.

Did anyone see Cano pour cold water on Abreu while he was talking to Yes' very own Kim Jones? These guys are finally having fun. (And their not to boring either)

Would you trust this guy with your palate?

Changing the wine world, whether you want peace or not!

Cerebus: One of my favorite comics...

During its run, it did not get any better then Dave Sims Cerebus. I guess not all things from Canada suck. Here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebus_the_Aardvark

Anyone else love the little gray Aardvark?