2006 *%#&@! (Rhone blend)

Hi ... I bought a bottle of this wine at a tasting at Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine in Chicago. Just drank it with my son sitting outisde with a BBQ in our village in Hertfordshire, UK. What a stonkingly great wine!! Huige mellow plum! I live in hope that we can import some.

The *%#&@! on the label was enough for me to buy this as gifts for 4 superb charge O.R. nurses in a high stress environment. They raved about the wine, which is quite smooth by itself. It's so good that I'm not sure there will be any left to pair it with food!

The nose was a dark red cherry/blueberry with a touch of oak. The first sip was spicy and the tannins were balanced across the entire palate - top to bottom and side to side. Over the next half-hour as we enjoyed our skillet lasagne, the spices warmed and vanilla found its way into the nose. A rich and deeply satisfying bottle of wine that doesn't **%#&@! around in the glass!

Let me say I am not a wine expert. And I have a hard time describing flavors... but let me say what I like. Big Spicy Zins (like Turley), Petite Sryahs (like Turley!), Barbera's, Barolos, Barbaressco, floral Rioja's, and of French wine Rhone. What I don't like is most Cabs and almost all classic French wines. Too leathery, mineral, and tannic. Sorry I like a wine I can have with OR without food. This wine is a wonderful middle ground between American style wines and European wines. It has the character of both. Perhaps some of the best of both. We decanted a bottle and had bread and cheese for dinner, along with this wine. The wine was an excellent foil for the fare. Fruity but not to the point of jammy or grape juice (no where near that). Terrior but not to the point of a Cab or (worse IMO of course) a Bordeaux. Some tannins but not the cleaning fluid dryness of a truly tannic French wine. If you are like me, and are looking for a European style wine, without tasting like you would imagine a cellared old wine would taste like (stinky shoe leather), give this a try!

Took a chance on this and two other Twisted Oak offerings on wine.woot.com a couple months ago. Opened it tonight & all I can say is, "Lucky me!".

Went into my favourite wine store in Chicago (LUSH) to get a bottle of white and happened to see this was available for tasting. Tried it and very impressed, especially for the price point ($16 at the store)! A wonderful blend with great spice, dark fruit and almost raisiny notes. Very versatile and would be a great wine for parties - very agreeable and accessible for my friends not that acquainted with wine but also interesting and tasty enough for regular drinkers.

I took a bottle of this to a friend's house. When I popped the cork, it was the most fragrant wine I have ever smelled while still in the bottle. It quickly dissipated, but it was lovely for the first few moments.

Putting the wine through a vinturi, it recreated some of the initial aromas. Herbs, earth, spice, and pepper dominated, with fruit playing a secondary role. I quite like wines like this, and the two others did as well. We all agreed it was a nice change from the fruit-forward wines that tend to dominate the shelves.

All were impressed with the wine, and even more so when they heard the price. This is a wonderful wine.

This vintage (2006) is drinking fabulously right now, and will easily continue to do so for a couple more years. Flavors of blackberry, blueberry and spice, with a prominent mid-palate flourish that's wonderfully mouth-filling.

A very versatile wine, it drinks well on its own but complements the right meal as well. Most recently, I paired it with roasted vegetables with fig balsamic vinegar and it was outstanding.