Happy New Year!

Wow... a great night last night to close out 2006... Quite a lot of great wine... Where to begin... the 1995 Mastrojanni Brunello di Montalcino was good, not great, but lots of dried cranberries and a sweet, oaky finish. The 1995 Mastrobernardini Radici Taurasi is so earthy and dried (as Aglianico is) but with a good bit of power. Pretty. The 1995 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill is as it was the night before. The 1999 Louis Roederer Cristal is finally showing some age... this wine has started to soften and the tightly-wound character and harder-edges is gone. Brioche and spiced pears... amazing length. The 1998 Ornellaia was good, but I'm not upset this was the last bottle... The 1996 Opus One is fading... still a pretty wine with plenty of anise and blackberries, but the cedar and brown-earth notes are starting to become more prevalant. If you have some, I would drink up. We had two bottles (again!) of the 1995 Araujo Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, giving us four bottles in the last two days. I thought it the night before, but last night confirmed it. This wine is amazing... still massive at 11 years old, this is just starting to show signs of opening. Simply gorgeous with a long life ahead... both bottles were similar, and this now makes it onto the list... Finally, we did a mini-vertical of Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon - 1994 and 2002. While I thought this was the weakest of the 1994s we've had so far, it was still gorgeous, but the 2002 simply overpowered, out-finessed and completely blew away the 1994. The 2002 deserves its spot, while the 1994 makes the list as well. Cheers, and thank you for reading.