Friday, June 27, 2008

2006 Stefania Haut Tubee


This is a nice blend made from grapes grown in Paul and Stefania's yard at their house. Per Paul, it's a blend from 10 Grenache, 20 Syrah, 4 Mourvedre, and 3 Zinfandel plants. This wine was popped and poured tonight at Oliver - A Bistro in Bordentown. The nose on this wine really reminded me of Orin Swift's The Prisoner, but I am sure that was my nose just being funky. Maybe some of you will agree. This wine has some nice red fruits to it, and you can definitely taste the grenache in there, making this very reminiscent of a Rhone styled blend...it actually had some very similar features to some of Andrew Murray's wines that we have enjoyed over the years!
Back to the nose, lots of nice dark red fruits, plum, black cherry, and raspberry, with a bit of spice and herb. On the palate, this wine would be hard for me to pick out in a blind tasting looking for varietals. I would guess that maybe it is a Rhone styled California syrah, but I could also see confusing it with a zin. It would be tough! More of the same on the palate however, with lots of dark fruits.
I think that this wine is a lot of fun, and it will definitely benefit from some time in the bottle, and I would recommend a nice decant before popping one. Next time we open one, I will give this at least a 2 hour decent to give it some time to mellow out. Regardless, it's a great wine and worthy of 89 points. Cheers!

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