People tell me that they think it would be so fun to go wine tasting with me. Well, I agree that I’m fun to hang out with and I’ll talk to anybody, but when it comes to serious wine tasting….I’m really boring and I get into a zone where I don’t like a lot of distraction. It takes a lot to get the old gerbils in my head to spin the “concentration wheel”. This is also one of the many reasons why I call my husband Sully, “The Long-Suffering Hubby”, because half the time, I don’t know he has left me at the tasting counter by myself and he has been gone for an hour!

So when Sully had to go out-of-town (unfortunately for his Uncle Ray’s funeral), our good friends and fellow wine geeks, Amy & Chris called to see if I wanted to come over for dinner and we do a wine comparison. Oh Goodness, Yes! So we decided on Cabernet Sauvignon from Corison (www.corison.com) in Napa Valley. I had a 2006 and they had a 2005.

Corison is one of my faves in Napa Valley and Amy & Chris are responsible for that.

Cathy Corison has been making wine since the 1970’s and I think her Cabernet has a lot of finesse and depth. It is not your typical over-blown Napa Cabernet with alcohol levels that are sky-high. Cathy’s are below 14% and are very food friendly.

We opened the bottles and immediately could tell we would not be disappointed. The smells from both vintages were delightful and different from one another.

The 2005 to me, had a soft mixed berry smell. Amy picked up a bell pepper smell and Chris thought fennel and maybe chipotle peppers and even got a jar of them to sniff so we could compare. Amy & I didn’t think so but maybe we could all agree on poblano?

The taste of the 2005 was a soft raspberry, plum, and anise. Amy thought even a bit of Cola. Chris and I thought Dr Pepper…but if we all agreed on that…then we never could agree on “plain ‘ol” Dr Pepper or was it Dr Pepper from Dublin, Texas that is made from cane sugar. We were all surprised that the 2005 started out soft but ended with a little citrus bite.

The 2006 smelled brighter and riper than the 2005. Chris was trying to figure out if he was smelling graphite or pencil shavings, so we all started sniffing pencils to see what was the best match and even scribbled on a piece of paper to see if we could pick up what we were smelling…I know…silly…but when you’re a wine geek, you will do anything to get the right description.

Tasting the 2006 was a bit of  a surprise. It started out a little tannic with a bit of lemon peel, but as it went over the tongue we could taste leather, dark fruits, and chocolate that ended velvet smooth.

Overall, both wines were wonderful and we had a blast talking about our visits to the Corison Winery and really didn’t totally resolve our differences. But it didn’t matter, we were just a trio of friends hanging out and discussing something that is near and dear to our hearts. I guess…can you call that a passion?