photo © Linda Blakely 2007
We've all heard of "bad hair days", but have you ever had a "bad palate" day? I think I experienced that last night. Tom and I took the leftover wines from the store's wine tasting over to our favorite restaurant to have with dinner. We were both somewhat underwhelmed with the wines.
The Lyeth Meritage, which we both have really enjoyed in the past, was thin and lifeless.
The John Duval Shiraz Entity left us shrugging. This was a wine produced by the previous winemaker for the infamous Penfold's Grange. Don't get me wrong, it was good. Very good. But I think it had some big shoes to fill. Had we just tasted it not knowing that it was made by Duval, we might have enjoyed it for the wine it was. Also, the wine was from the Barossa region, which usually indicates a dense, concentrated fruit bomb. The Entity was more subtle and elegant, which I think was more like a McLaren Vale or Clare Valley Shiraz.
The Jim Barry McRae Wood was the best of the three, but it was still not as great as what it had been in the past.
All in all, we think we were just having an "off" night. The store is floundering, customers are losing interest and we are feeling the effects personally. We'll try the wines again in the near future under more happy circumstances. Heaven forbid we are just losing our taste for wine. I shudder to think.
