So, I had a birthday a month ago and since it did not end with a five or a zero, it was not a big deal. We had a few very good friends over for dinner,  had a couple of bottles of ten and twelve year old Brunello di Montalcinos, gifts, cake and ice cream…a very nice evening. A good friend, though, could not be there that night and he said that we would get together for dinner at a later date. Well, we checked our calendars a few weeks ago and found that last Thursday night was the later date. Dinner was at the Capital Grille, which meant much good food and, as always, terrific service, thank you, Meghan. My friend is very fond of good wine and, as usual, brought two wines that you don’t see every day. He always seems to find wines that are incredibly intriguing. Wines you may have read about somewhere and some you’ve ever heard of before.

 The first was a bottle of 2002 Fiddlehead Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills Fiddlestix Lallapalooza. A full-bodied Pinot that was as big a mouthful as saying the name was. Now, most times this would have been the highlight wine of the night, but the other bottle he brought for dinner was a 2006 Saxum Bone Rock, James Berry Vineyard. I have read about these wines from Justin Smith, in the Wine Advocate, Spectator and others, but had not had the pleasure of actually trying them. So to go with my four double-cut, medium rare lamb chops was the most wonderful Central Coast, Paso Robles, wine that I had ever tasted. The blend is 76% Syrah, 18% Mourvedre and 6% Grenache, which by the way, went perfectly with the lamb. At a hefty 16% alcohol, which was not obvious at all, this giant wine has a beautifully floral, fruity nose. Big, round flavors of ripe blackberries, minerals, pencil lead and an enormously long finish. This wine was a really great, large scaled, fabulous wine that just kept on going.

 And as the title implies, this is one that I can scratch of my “wine bucket list." That just leaves me with one thousand, two hundred and thirty seven others on the list to try. So much wine and so…well, you know the rest.

Ken Amendola, North Florida Wine Supervisor