Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Out with the Buttonwood, in with the New

My girlfriend and I have decided to drop the Buttonwood Winery club membership. It's not so much a matter of no longer liking their wine as wanting to explore different wines. However, their current vintage of Marsanne was definitely not up to par (watery, metallic), while their Syrah Rosé is also not as good as last year's. We have a few of their reds tucked away and are ready to move on, at least for a while. Another shipment of three reds would be too much of one thing even though I like their rustic, Old World approach and varietal Cabernet Franc.

Perhaps most importantly, the synthetic closures they employ really don't cut it, and I've been disappointed by a few library wines that seemed to have aged rather hastily. Their current run of '04 reds could definitely use some time to evolve, but that's too risky with a rubber cork. When a winery's library wines may be past their prime and their current releases aren't bottled to age, there's a severe consumption conundrum.

So we'll be on the free agent market for a while. Longoria Winery is the top contender for a cellar club membership, but this will be a good excuse to try out a few new places we haven't visited yet.

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