Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Ninety Plus Cellars Lot 101 Syrah 2009

Ninety Plus Cellars Lot 101 Syrah 2009 - A limited offer that continues to please

I wrote in this blog about Ninety Plus Cellars and their negotiant practice of buying excess grapes, bulk wine, or even bottled wine from growers or producers and selling it under their own 'private' label. And I've written several times herein about their Lot 101 Columbia Valley Washington Syrah. The following is an excerpt from an earlier blogpost.

As soon as I tasted this Syrah at the local wine merchant Malloy's store in Naperville, I knew they had a winner, substantiating their claims that they had landed a top rated Syrah and were able to sell it at a deeply discounted price. I probably should have bought as much as I could obtain. Well actually, I did clean them out, and then went back for more when their next shipment arrived the following week. But I did leave some for others. I may regret leaving it behind!

This is a 2009 Columbia Valley, Washington, Syrah that they market under the label Ninety Plus Cellars, Collectors Series, Lot 101. The label specifies simply '250 cases'. Interestingly it doesn't say produced. How many cases were sold under some other, perhaps well known, perhaps higher priced label?


So tonight, Linda and I opened a bottle of this label for a nice casual steak dinner at home. Since she is heading out of town for several days and it was our only evening together, I wanted to enjoy a special bottle, certainly one that I knew we would enjoy.

We opened this special limited offer bottling and enjoyed it immensely, as we have on several other occasions. After enjoying it (again) so much, I went back to the local Malloy's wine shop, not expecting to find this label since I cleaned them out, not once, but twice. Lo and behold, they had several more bottles which I promptly seized (again). The staff there and I both lamented that, no doubt, this will be the 'end' of this wine. Having added more to our holdings, it will extend our enjoyment for some time further.
 Consistent with earlier tasting notes, this was delicious again, only slightly short of a blockbuster high QPR release. 

Dark inky garnet colored, medium to full bodied, this full throttle Syrah reveals layers of blackberry and black currants fruits with tones of sweet vanilla, caramel and spice with hints of black pepper on a lingering smooth silky tannin finish.

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1742790

http://www.ninetypluscellars.com/wines/lot-101-collectors-series-syrah