Old and priceless. The taste is frail and vibrant as a flower. Clearly quality with a 5% suggestion of earthiness, but without any filth. It is as real as it is red. Oaky, also dry, and also quite tannic. Perfectly taken with eggs, cheddar, and medium beef.
St. Martin: Vin de France, Rouge
Dry finish as an aftershave, wet start as a carbon filtered water, sweet at a zinfandel, and tart as half-sweet lemonade. You’ll forget this is wine until the spirits chase the strongest sensation: It tastes like “red pop” at the start of every sip. Wash down the jalapeño steak and havarti this red and it zips like bubbly.
Baron de Phantasie Pays D’Hérault 2015
Old and dry with a sleeper of water in follow. Without the unspeakable, this medalic red has an over-suggestion of forgotten earthiness. It’s finish isn’t too strong in the chest, but it feels frail and precious. The nose hits well before the tongue, the dry, fragile silk shimmers down, and all that’s left is a paper-thin memory of what we wanted to last forever. Taken with fried Taiwanese leak flatbread roll.
Cuvee Speciale: Barton & Guestier
Rudy and richly royal with one thought and a half of zinfandel. Not as cherry as her friends; she’s from the lane laced with cranberry for the bees. Oakily moist, leaving a dry tongue with wet cheeks. Yet, not to be found is evidence of tannin. Taken with spicy, Aussie beef prepped medium after a bath in Tabasco soy. Still, the almost Cajun beef cries up from the bowels for evermore to help digest.
Velas Marinas Tinto Seco
The best of medicine delish! Oaky on the tongue front, richly wet at the mouth back. Not so tannic as it is an oasis that comes with its own desert for dessert. Happy as cherries, tasteful and concentrated in flavor. This has all the things we secretly love about cough syrup, but don’t tell on the bottle.
Taken with medium steak, brie, and omelette a la kimchi. Who thought wine suited a late night breakfast. But, the brie—together with this red in your maw and you’ll forget which is which. Even if you could remember, you’d never never want to.