I’m down to try 3-6 of these if any socal friends want in!

CNY split? @NatasG @ecanada
SWMBO loves a good Syrah. And, Gary V!

I was granted the opportunity to preview this offer in the form of the 2014. The evening we received the wine we were hosting another couple and I’d already selected a menu of sous vide pork topped with macerated apple, almond green beans, and spinach salad with cherries paired with a 2015 Sunce Teroldego. With that in mind, I went ahead and let this bottle of just-received Cougar Crest rest until we’d all finished the meal and were preparing to settle in for some board games.

And this is when I presented the first game of the evening to the group: to taste and experience this other wine which what met with enthusiastic approval. To add a little structure, I chose to walk us through the De Long tasting notebook format making basic notes. It took us about forty minutes from cork pull to last note, so there was a lot of time to talk about the small pour and for second observations and even a little evolution.

Visually: Deep color, darker garnet, and quite clear (and legs for days)
Aroma: Moderate aromas of cocoa, mineral, wet gravel, plum, and a sweet dark berry
Taste: Dry, fully body, with crisp acidity, medium-high tannins and very good balance. One group of tasters described vanilla, “chai latte” spice, and a feeling of warmth.” The rest of us agreed with the vanillin hints, but got more berries that started dark and sweet but quickly tended toward tart, minerality, and even noted that the taste was more developed with a slightly larger pull. Several of us noted the way it “floated” across the tongue with a coating feeling.
Results: Everyone enjoyed the wine a lot. My SO, a devout CS lover, decided she could easily drink this in its place. I loved the complexity of the drink as it brought together a richness that filled the senses, and lingered much longer than expected. This was an incredibly comfortable wine to drink, and I mused very quickly about finding enough space to store it when it came up on offer.

But the story doesn’t end there! I had set aside around half of the bottle to wait a day and see how things changed. I simply stoppered the bottle, and let it sit on the counter, so nothing fancy. The next day the aromas were stronger and a bit more developed in my senses; I picked up a meatiness, maybe hints of peppercorns, dark cherries, and the tiniest hint of tobacco. Similarly, the flavors had also morphed, while the overall complexity of the wine remained: now I tasted newly-developed plum, green peppercorns, and perhaps cedar along with the vanilla and dark tart berries of the previous day. The acidity was great, and I was really impressed with the weight of the wine on the palate.

I managed to save aside a glass for a third day but didn’t take detailed notes for that last sampling. By this point it was a bit flatter, losing a lot of the interesting notes and the finish was reduced. The aromas were pretty flat by this point. I could still pick out some of the sweeter cherry that I’d gotten the day before, but the peppercorn was more pronounced, as was the tobacco and mineral earthiness.

As it happened, another CM in my area also happened to get a bottle of the same and I am very interested to hear his notes as he didn’t share much of them when I was celebrating the recent holiday with him (I shared a portion of my second-day with him since he had the same). I do know that I put a number on this bottle around $25 where I’d probably have to buy at least a couple, but at this offer price, I’m picking up the case and will probably share a little, storage-space be damned!

Last Sunday I invited @drhellknow to my house for an Independence Day barbecue and Monday he had exciting news: he had gotten a Golden Ticket and his Lab Rat wine would be delivered in time for me to be his Lab Partner! Tuesday brought more good news: my email from Ariana announcing my first Golden Ticket. We had been upgraded to LabMates. Our plan was that he’d taste his bottle the night before and leave it on the counter to evolve while mine would remain sealed until he arrived on the Fourth, affording us the unique opportunity to taste an aged bottle side by side with its youthful cousin.

I received the Cougar Crest 2014 Reserve Syrah from Fedex at 3:01pm on Wednesday (July 3). Left bottle upright on the counter after opening. Put in fridge for 30 min before opening on Thursday. Pop-and-pour: dense cork, a little bit of light purple stain. Very little, honestly. Fairly light garnet, lighter than expected. Garnet limb, suggesting neutral aging (not old, not young.) Heavy vanilla on the nose, whiff of alcoholic heat, touch of bramble fruit. Long slowly developing legs. Flavors are somewhat muted on the palate but it is incredibly thick and rich. I mean, really thick. Finish is incredibly long with a touch of tart fruit (cherry?) Wow, amazing.

As I mentioned in my pre-ramble, @drhellknow brought over his aged-on-the-counter bottle and I got to taste in just after recording my initial impressions. I found that the nose is very different than the freshly opened bottle. Less alcohol, more vegetal (but in a good way.) It has evolved nicely, still some vanilla, something woodsy, and the fruit is more well defined (the freshly opened bottle tasted like ‘all the fruit at one time.) A little better, but still tastes “true” to the day 1 flavor.

After recording my initial impressions, I poured for a few of the other guests. My long-suffering wife noted ripe raspberries and tobacco on the nose, plum and cedar (fresh cut wood) on the palate, light vanilla on the finish. She found it “very forward, but the finish is light and lingering.” The better half of @drhellknow, a lover of all things Cabernet Sauvignon, described it as having “Vanilla, really long finish, creamy.” My friend who would rather drink wine than talk about it thought that it “tastes bitter, no fruit.” I pressed him and he decided what he called “bitter” was actually “tart”, which made more sense to me, and that he doesn’t usually taste fruit in wine.
After recording these initial stream of consciousness impressions, I put the bottle on the counter, unsealed, to taste the next night.

Friday evening, I put the bottle in the fridge for 30 minutes before pouring a glass. Still dark garnet. The nose now has deep red fruit, like raspberry licorice or blackstrap molasses. No vanilla or heat. Nice prickly acidity on the long, long finish. A little bit sharper on the palate today, a little bit ‘hotter’ but fairly true to my initial impression. My wife noted “toasted pecan on the nose, like sherry (but in a good way), from plum to raisin. Plum is brighter, raisin is more earthy. Still musty tobacco and is little more ‘astringent’, more acidic than yesterday” She said that astringent is too strong of a word and has negative connotations. She thought that “it drank better the first day, it is less rounded today.”

I then tried the wines with a range of meats and cheeses. A simple cheese stick made the fruit dance while cutting the acidity. Other great combinations included prosciutto, goat gouda on a pita bite, and plain lettuce; I surprisingly think that this wine could go with a simple green salad. The star of the show was the dry rubbed smoked chicken. It brought blackberries out of the delicious fruit mélange and the acidity made it sing. Sharp cheddar on a triscuit and kalamata olives didn’t work so well; the wine just disappeared under a barrage of strong flavors. Somewhat surprisingly, smoked brisket completely overwhelmed the wine. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t there.

Overall, this is a well-made, ready to drink Syrah that fits neatly between the rustic Rhone interpretations of the grape and the bombastic, fruit bomb Shirazes from Down Under. It is a complex, fruit forward wine that is enjoyably swirled and sipped on its own, with enough acidity and tannic heft to complement a wide range of foods. Thanks a lot to Cougar Crest and WCC for the opportunity to taste this wine and to Casemates for providing a venue to discuss (and purchase) this wine. Also, I’d love feedback on how I can improve your customer experience.

@ecanada @FritzCat @NatasG - where are you guys located in CNY - I am located in Binghamton

Love me some Syrah and with @ScottW58 endorsement a no brainer!

Any PDX interest? I’ll get a case - could split in half or three ways

/giphy exultant-sexy-pony

DFW split?

Hey Seattle Casemates : anyone interested in a split??

It appears the corks are some sort of agglomerated product? I’d be concerned for aging if that’s the fact. Just going by the rat pics provided.

Crap!! From the email it sounded like this launched tonight and I waited to open my bottle of the 2013 up with my BFF until just a bit ago… My apologies and I hope the sale has longer to go

I was pleased to see a Walla Walla Syrah, as that’s more atypical for this region that I’m already a fan of. I also liked that it’s had a few years in the bottle at this point.

I’ll preface that wine tasting is now a hobby for me instead of a profession, and that BFF does not discriminate with wine as long as it’s Red (so you’ve got kind of a spectrum?).

On first taste I found it to be more the smoky/meaty type of Syrah that I don’t normally enjoy anymore, but that it’s also a lot lighter bodied than those (in my experience) tend to be, which felt like a better balance and I think more enjoyable.

BFF’s notes (my attempts to clarify in parentheses):

• Spicy Good!
• Taste lingers in a good way
• I feel it on my tongue in front center (when pressed to elaborate… she could not)
• Nice, warm feel (interesting, since I accidentally left it in the fridge all day)
• Smolders in the chest in a good way (she mentioned she was reminded of how it feels in the chest when she drinks whiskey, which she also enjoys)
• Smooth and fruity, but not too sweet (she mentioned something about she wasn’t looking for it to be a dessert wine, so that was good, and went on to say it’s almost too sweet, but not…?)
• I want more! (I should probably give her another pour now)

Back to me - I’m a little confused by her sweet-leaning comments, because I’m not getting that at all… But I do agree with liking it! I think it’s more dry, again lighter bodied (especially for a Syrah), and the “lower” alcohol content of 13.2% is nice - not overpowering like some of the US fruit bombs can be.

Ummm… what else? I appreciate a subtle complexity from it and thoroughly enjoyed being offered the chance to 'rat for the community. I really hope I wasn’t too too late, that there’s some sale time left, and that someone might find these notes of benefit.

Cheers!

I haven’t tried these vintages, but I fondly recall the older vintages that were made available on that other website that rhymed with FineBoot. They were SOLID. Very good juice, and the guy that ‘found’ them back then was a fine fellow to boot.

They don’t call it the rocks for nothing! Just like CDP

Can I just say again that this is an absolutely insane case price for this. (though again have not tasted this specific, but know the winery and trust the rats!).

Anyone in Minneapolis up for a 2 or 3 way split?

Damn it’s hard to sit on the sidelines and obey the SIWBM I have in place, and I’m guessing the same is true for @pjmartin @chipgreen and @boatman72

Dang it, WineDavid, I thought I’d been clear in asking for some consistently crappy offers so I could improve our cash flow. But then library Rocks District Syrah appears for under $20. But no, I held firm. But then upon finishing a Meeker Reserve Zinfandel late last night I read “On first taste I found it to be more the smoky/meaty type of Syrah…” from the last rat and I was in trouble. Case ordered. Love Rocks Syrah. Love the savory/meaty/briny notes mixed with dark blue fruit sometimes mixed with stone fruit notes from co-fermenting. At our house we commonly refer to the “Reynvaan nose of death” which is our way of trying to describe the crazy complex funky noses on some of these Rocks wines that often have a strong roast beef element tossed in there. Looking forward to trying this.

Dang it, WineDavid…

Anyone in Denver area want to split a case?

Any WNY folks want to split, @ddeuddeg, @bahwm, @schristopher524, @noodles, @lamplighter?

Nobody around NYC looking to share this?

Last chance to make this a sell-out!