Upscaling It A Bit

This morning being a grass widower today I decided to go to the weekly Saturday tasting at WineSellar & Brasserie, one of the best restaurants (and wine merchants) in San Diego. Today's tasting was "Cabernet Confidential" and featured six lovely wines that you can purchase on site. If you haven't been, they pour the wines blind and give you tasting descriptions of the wines so you can play a guessing game of which wine is which on the list. Here are the wines not in pour order or price (just for the record, the most expensive was the one I liked least but it just needs time) but in the order that I liked them:

Camellia Cellars 2002 "Dry Creek Valley": Deep, right color. Nose a little closed at first but opens to a lovely bouquet. Juicy, deep flavors, soft tannins fantastic acidity with a lovely long finish.

Laird 2006 Estate: Fruit-forward nose, deep purplish color. Smooth. Black cherries and currnts, dusty tannins, nice acide blending to a medium-length finish. Lovely.

Old River Road 2005 "Ponderossa Vineyard": A little lighter in color than the others, strong but pleasant cherry on the nose. Lovely hints of cherry and herbs in the mouth, almost explodes in the mouth with flavor.

Fontella 2006 "Napa Valley": Something "old world" on the nose that was absent from the others. Good black and red fruit blend with soft tannins making this a pleasant drink.

Fritz 2005 "Dry Creek Valley": Nose not as proniyubced as some of the others but nice. Blackberry, cassis and coffee with firm tannins and moderate acid. This one is a blend with Malbec (not sure of the percentages).

Caymus 2006 "Napa Valley": Powerful, definitely needs some time to rest. Deep rich color, seductive nose of blackberry, cherry, and rose petals. Low acidity, very firm tannins. Nice now but not at its peak.

Wines Reports On In 2009: 103