Wine Night W/ TakeDown. A Narative...Sort Of.

Its 9:05pm and I am pissed. My store closed 5 minutes ago and there is still a guy in here asking why they don't list the grape varietals on french wine bottles. I'm trying to be polite but I’m thinking, "Dude, DON'T YOU KNOW ITS WINE NIGHT". Its 9:12pm and I’m finally setting the alarm and locking the door behind me. As I’m sitting on an uptown 2 train salivating at what I'm about to put in my mouth, I somehow hit one of those magical patches of MTA underground cell phone service and receive a couple text messages. The first is from my buddy saying he will be 10 minutes late and the second asking me to pick up a couple of steak dinners at the Cuban place around the corner from his building. I realize I am starving, which is a good thing cause if the steaks didn't take my mind off him being late, I probably would have whacked the Puerto Rican dude sitting next to me reading the paper. 80th and Amsterdamn, Cafe con Leche (of course thats what its called), I’m sitting at the bar waiting for the order when my buddy, who shall be known as TakeDown, finally shows up. Just in time to split the bill so I don't have to put the whole tab on my depleted debit card. Our "Res con Cebollas, arroz, y frijoles negros" showed up, we payed, and headed out towards the wine chamber where we were about to give up the next 4 hours of our lives to the wine Gods.

What awaits us? 1997 Opus One Proprietary Red.
Will we drink it? OH HELLS YEAH!

For those of you who don't know, there’s this winery in Napa California called Opus One. It is the joint venture of Robert Mondavi (who hasn't heard of this guy) and Baron Phillip Rothchild of Chateau Mouton Rothchild. A 1st growth bordeaux house. (1st growth bordeaux = one of the top 5 wineries in the most famous wine region in the world). Needless to say, this wine is important and there probably isn't a person in the wine business who hasn't heard of Opus One. Its like the Charles Barkley of wine.

After some small talk with TakeDown’s roomates, one of whom I think is a great guy and always greets me with a smile and a hand shake, and the other who always seems like he wants to kill someone (someone = Me)... the cork is popped on the first bottle. TakeDown and I decided to book end the Opus with the 2 bottles of wine I have contributed to this monumental evening. First up is an '03 Shafer Relentless, and for what will constitute as dessert, a fantastic German Riesling that I would tell you what it was called if I could pronounce the name. Those silly Germans. I have had this particular Riesling 3 times before and has always been fantastic. I have been sitting on the '03 Shafer for over a year now, and it is the wine in my collection I am most curious about. The food at Cafe Con Leche is fantastic. I have to say that Cuban food is a really great paring for wine. You have to skip out on the spicy sauces but it always delivers and kinda just goes with whatever wine you throw at it.

The Shafer is probably the biggest wine I have ever had. Heavy and rich and just gigantic in the mouth. At first it was not showing like a Syrah (which is what it was, with some Petite Syrah as well) but more like a Cabernet Sauvignon with big Black Currant fruit on the attack. As it opened up, the dark syrah notes started showing and by the time we had the final glass we saved for the end of the night, it smelled and tasted like chocolate milk. By far the choclatiest wine I have ever had. TakeDown didn't approve, but I loved it. Hot in the back that really didn't allow it to linger long but the chocolate and blackberries were so delicious. My boy showed well and I was a proud pappa. Even TakeDown had to admit, though it wasn't his style, he shined. Some point about 2/3s through the Shafer, I heard the all too familiar, very dear to my heart, popping sound of a cork being yanked out of the neck to expose the delicous juice to its, hopefully, first breath of air. It was a clean sound, a good sound, a perfect sound. The cork looked and smelled fine, we were in the clear with a good bottle.

"Bordeaux" TakeDown said extremely confused. "It smells like Bordeaux". I agreed.

If you didn't see the label on the bottle you would not be able to guess it was from California. In the glass he had that brownish tint that age puts on a wine. The nose on this wine was unlike any nose on a wine I have ever had out of my home state. Insane nose. By the time I was done listing the notes on the nose this is what I had: Black Currants, Cherries, dried fruits, Spicy Toast, Licorice, Mushrooms, Dirt, Fresh Crispy Green Pepper, and season 1 through 3 of "24". HOLY CRAP!!!

In the mouth this guy was not as successful. Most of the nose qualities translated to the palate. There was a fantastic attack, Medium bodied but as it reached the mid palate it hollowed out a little. It continued to hollow out in the back and, weirdly, finished in the front of the mouth where we were left with some great grippy tannins. Don't get me wrong, this wine was great in the mouth, there was balance and it was delicious but there were structural issues. Overall this wine exceeded expectations, though it was the nose where this guy shined. For me expectations were high. For TakeDown, he liked it and made this comment on his facebook page "Opus is OK and its wierd". If you knew TakeDown, you would know that this is a positive comment. The Riesling followed and only furthered its argument as possibly the best varietal on the planet (I will post my notes for this wine in another entry). Riesling is just unbelievable. I see many entries on it in the future of The Bin End. This was an extremely successful wine night. Our last one ended with an undrinkable bottle of 1971 Barolo, so we needed a good showing.

Throughout the course of the night there was some good conversation, watching of College Basketball, TakeDown talking about his lack of take downs, awkward moments with TakeDown’s murderous roommate... but in the end the Opus prevailed and gave us the highlight of the evening. TakeDown even let me keep the bottle. Thanks TakeDown. A "Great Success" of an evening I say.

The End