A Sense of Wonderment

Matt makes me laugh.  When I went to CA last fall for the Wine Blogger Conference, I first spent a couple of days up in Calaveras County checking out some of the local wineries.  I’m going to do the same thing this year, as I only made it to 7 of the 20-some odd tasting rooms in downtown Murphys last year!  We agreed I could buy some wine, but we set a limit (hahahahahaha) of a case.  Well, I think I bought 3 cases in Murphys and I picked up 2 more in Sonoma, plus a few bottles I shoved in my checked luggage…ok, ok, I have a problem.  Anyway, I pulled out the 2005 Zucca Mountain Syrah the other night.  Matt grabbed a glass and said “Where’d we get this, it’s REALLY good.”  And then he sounded so bewildered when I told him I picked it out on my trip.  As if he doubted my ability to pick out good wines!! Silly man.  The wine had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.5% alcohol by volume, and I want to say I paid about $18….but I can’t find the receipt at the moment.

On the nose I found berries, plums, cherries, earth, spice, chocolate, vanilla cream, and orange rind.  Overall, I’d describe the nose as wonderfully smoky.  In the mouth, I found sweeter fruit, berries, cherries, spice, and pepper.  The wine seemed meaty, showed some tannins on the back palate, and displayed lots of very dark fruit.  We drank this with my favorite winter soup, Zuppa Toscana, and the wine seemed to do ok with the soup, but it really shined just being sipped as we sat around chatting.