Last night, the Oxford Liquor Shoppe family got together to celebrate the birthday of Dave’s nephew and resident webmaster.  We broke out a few great wines for the special occasion and all wines came from Oxford Liquor Shoppe. Two older Cabernets and a great Semillion.

The first wine was the 1997 Hess Collection Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown Mount Veeder. We decanted right before drinking and it gave off a rather large amount of sediment which is not unusual for a wine this age. The nose gave off nice cigar box and dried cherry aromas.  Wine was immediately accessible since the tannins had evened out from years of bottle age. Wine was deliciously smooth with tastes of black currant, mocha and tar. We hit this at the perfect drinking age!

Wine number two was from The Colonial Estate and is currently featured on our discounts page.  This Colonial Estate is the Expatrie Semillon. I find that Robert Parker is more in line with how I would rate The Colonial Estate’s wine than Wine Spectator. Spectator really underrated these wines! This one tasted as good as when I had it a few weeks ago. Nice mineral touch throughout to go with some citrus fruits.  I firmly believe this will be even better in 3-5 years.

The last wine was bought by the guest of honor himself. I have to admit I am not that familiar with this wine and have only seen it in the store but never tasted it. I was a bit bummed out when I saw the year because 1998 isn’t suppose to be the greatest year for California Cabernets. Luckily, it was from Washington and drinking great! We again decanted and drank right after. The Col Solare also threw a good amount a sediment. More fruit was present than in the Hess Collection, with licorice, black cherry and a hint of coffee.  A very nice wine and oldest I have ever had from Washington, proving their wine can age quite nicely.

Oxford Liquor Shoppe is proud to announce the launch of there new Facebook page.

We here at Oxford Liquor Shoppe are constantly tasting wine. Not only do we enjoy it but we also try to taste all types of wines we sell and don’t sell for the benefit of our customers. We are going to be posting a lot more notes on what we taste. This weekend, I got together with two friends who both enjoy wine. One friend, who works at Roma in Waterbury, brought down two great bottles.  The following were my notes on the wine.
 
We started off with the bottle I brought the 2007 Carlisle Zinfandel Rossi Ranch.  This wine took the top honors at a meeting last year for our personal wine club so I figured my two friends would enjoy it. We started with this wine because I remember at the meeting it didn’t need any time to open up so it would allow the other two wines time to get some air. The Carlisle did not disappoint! Big black cherry, strawberry and raspberry flavors and a nose that jumps out of the glass. Currently one of my favorite Zins but unfortunately not available for sale in Connecticut.
 
Next we tasted the Barolo but decided it need some more time to open up.  So we jumped over to the 2006 Justin Justification.  Made up of 64% Cabernet Franc and 36% Merlot, the Justification is a classic right bank blend. This wine exhibited aromas of tar, black cherry and spice elements.  Nicely balanced, it had nice blue and black fruits flavors along with some super silky tannins.  A very nice wine and available for order in the store.
 
After the right bank blend we headed back to the Barolo. The 2005 Pio Cesare needed about two hours of decant time to soften up the tannins but once it was ready it was fabulous. The wine exhibited aromas of leather and licorice with flavors of dried berry and plum.  Tannins are still very present so I suspect this has a very long life ahead of it. This will definitely be better within a few years. Also available to order but we also have the 1997 in stock.
 
If you have tried these wines, tell us what you think!
 
Matt