Friday night wines...

Last night we had friends over for dinner and we had some good wine. I wanted to share my thoughts on three of them with you.
We started of with the Talley Vineyards Arroyo Grande Valley 2004 Pinot Noir. I am a big fan of Talley Vineyards. They make some really excellent Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The Talley Family made their first wine in 1986 with a production of 450 cases. They are now producing around 18,000 cases annually from five vineyards with a total of 185 acres in Edna and Arroyo Grande Valley. All the wine under the Talley Vineyards label is grown, produced and bottled by the Talley Family.
This wine has cherry, raspberry and spices on the nose. Rich in the mouth with black cherries and nice tannins giving it a long finish. This wine is a more elegant style pinot but still has really nice ripe fruit. Very good! ($32 at http://www.wine-seacher.com/)
We continued with a bottle from a winery I had never had before. The Black Kite Cellars Anderson Valley 2005 Pinot Noir. This is a small production winery in Anderson Valley, owned by the Green Family, that only produces Pinot Noir.
This Pinot is very different from The Talley Pinot. Slightly cloudy, dark red with a hint of purple in the glass. Dark ripe berries on the nose with a floral tone and some burnt match stick. Super rich, plump black cherries and dark berries on the palate, over shadowing the tannins in the back ground. This is a fruit bomb of a Pinot Noir, very good, but almost to powerful fruit at this point. Being so young I think a year in the cellar will do good and show a more balanced wine. I am looking forward to revisiting this in a year or two... ($32.95 at http://www.wine-searcher.com/)
Our friends had brought a bottle of Rodney Strong Sonoma County 2002 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and we moved on to open that. This wine was pretty much what you would expect from a Cabernet, no surprises here... Nice dark red color in the glass with black currant and dark berries on the nose with a hint of oak. The same berries/fruit carrying through to the palate with good tannins supporting a lingering finish. A good quality Cabernet. Find it at http://www.rodneystrong.com/ for $40.

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