I went to the movie theater to watch The Dark Knight yesterday afternoon. I'd intentionally skipped it the first weekend to avoid the madness, but it turns out that this weekend was also crazy and the show was sold out. So, I went over to Enotria - which I'd initially planned to do after the movie - and as soon as I walk through the door I'm handed a glass of red wine and everyone turns around and say 'hi'. I felt like an upscale version of Norm on Cheers.
Anyway, it turns out they were expecting me. Or at least so they thought. Tom and Kevin were sitting at the end of the bar (see June 22 entry) and Tom had sent me an email an hour earlier inviting me to join them. Well, needless to say, I hadn't seen the email so serendipity strikes again! We tasted a total of five different wines - all blind - and they were all very good, and two of them are particularly worth mentioning.
There is a well known Australian wine producer called Wild Duck Creek and their flagship bottling is called Duck Muck (for their Duck Muck Vineyard.) I've never had the chance to try it (it's very expensive) but, like Aussie shiraz often is, it's known for being massive and intense. Well, it turns out that for several years the owner let his young daughter, Bridie, make her own wine using one row of vines from the Duck Muck vineyard. The first year, 1998, she was 12 years old so he let her use the 12th row and make a Bridie's Row 12 wine.
Yesterday, Tom brought a bottle of the 2000 Wild Duck Creek Bridie's Row 14, and it was stunning! Unfortunately, the wine is almost impossible to find since it was made in such small quantities and never officially imported into the US. (Tom had bought the bottle directly from the importer of Wild Duck Creek wines - Dan Phillips.) So, unfortunately I may never get a chance to drink this again. I haven't found any production numbers, but Tom thought it was at the most one barrel which would mean ~25 cases in total. On the back-label, Bridie had written a message which included something like "the wine was aged in American oak for eight months before my dad needed the barrel and we had to move it over to a French barrique."
The other noteworthy wine was a Harlan Estate. Harlan - a Napa Valley Bordeaux-blend (same grapes as are used in Bordeaux: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc) - is one of the more famous California Cult wines that are both expensive and difficult to find. It's sold almost exclusively through the winery's mailing list and can be found in the after-market at astronomical prices. The only US wine that consistently demands a higher price is Screaming Eagle which routinely sells for thousands of dollars for each bottle. I've only tried Harlan once before - the 1999 vintage - and thought it was phenomenal.
I signed up for the Harlan wait list (to join the mailing list) several years ago and finally made it this year, but while I was waiting the price had increased from ~$200 to $450/bottle, so I did not buy any and summarily got kicked off the list. My original idea was to by 3 bottles - the standard allocation - and hopefully sell one for ~$750 on auction and essentially drink the other two for free, but with the price increase I decided to pass.
Well, Kevin generously brought a bottle of the 2003 Harlan Estate. It was very good but didn't live up to my previous experience. It was still very young and it will improve with age, but at the current prices I'd rather spend my money on other wines. But, I'm never complaining when someone brings one!
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