Brassfield Estate Winery -Volcano Ridge Eruption 2005

Every weekend my local wine retailer does tastings. I'm not always available for these, but I try to catch as many as I can. A couple of weeks back they were tasting the Brassfield Estate Winery Volcano Ridge Eruption. My first thought was that they need to come up with a better name because that is quite the mouthful. My second thought was, who am I to say anything, I would call a wine "Stanky but Tasty". As you can tell, I'm not a marketing genius by any stretch of the imagination.

This wine is a 2005 vintage and is a blend of 69% Syrah, 18% Mourvedre, 5% Grenache, 5% Petite Sirah, and 3% Other. This wine is a beautiful deep purple in color with just a touch of transparency. When you first take a smell of this wine there is a strong odor of alcohol which isn't totally surprising as it is listed as 14.3%. The next smell let's you sneak a peek behind the curtain to the plum and black cherries that linger there. On the palate you can taste those black cherries with a hint of green pepper and a touch of lingering smoke.

This wine was very tight when first opened, it needed to be decanted and let sit for at least an hour before it opened up. The results were worth the wait though as this medium bodied wine was a delight to drink after that point.