Frenchman in the House

Yesterday we were happy to invite our friend Francis Brouillard in for an impromtu wine tasting.  Francis is an esteemed wine consultant, and so naturally we took it upon ourselves to test his skills.

We started with the aforementioned Chardonnay and then moved onto it's darker brother Shiraz.  Francis described this right on the money;

'It's like a woman wearing makeup'

There is nothing wrong with wearing makeup, it's just no natural beauty, like say a Grand Cru French wine. I thought that was a pretty good analogy.  Add that to your next New World wine conversation.

Heavy on the red and black fruits, the Shiraz packs a woody finish.  If you're a fan of big fruit and new world wines, you'll for sure dig this. 

Then we got our guest. Oooh got him good.  He predicted Italian, but twas another Australian Shiraz, this time with some Cabernet thrown in for good measure.  Sinclair Estates' 13.5% alc, 2010, was definitely heavy on the alcohol, but hey who's complaining.

We finished off with the group's favorite:

Basilisk

Shiraz Cabernet

14% alc.

This wine was very jammy with hints of raspberry.  Big fruit flavors which support a looooong finish. 

Soo excited for our new wines!  Sound good to you, too?  Give a ring, stop in,and we'll pop a few open!  Cheers!