Wine Notes

Dry Port? Not exactly, but the Symington group produced a dry Red from grapes grown on the Dow Port property in the Douro region of Portugal. Named Vale do Bomfim after Dow's best quinta or ranch, it really tastes like Dow's Port without the sugar - an interesting experiment, but does it work? Like Portuguese compared to Spanish, it seemed kind of flat. My son-in-law found it to be flat, but my wife liked it. I thought it was flavorful, but not exciting (about $12).

The 2004 Torremoron from Ribera del Duero in Spain is much more flavorful. This Tempranillo is balanced with good fruit, slightly rustic, with some tannin. This lively wine will go great with stew and virtually all Hispanic dishes.

The Marenco "Suri" Dolcetto from Kermit Lynch was so "corked", we poured it down the drain(We also called Kermit Lynch and got a refund). The "Paesan," a blend of Barbera and Nebbiolo from Guido Porro is a rustic brew full of tannin. The 2004 Sablet from Trignon, has great fruit up front followed by a fair amount of tannin. The 2005 Macon Villages is light crisp and delightful with fish or seafood. On the whole, I found this batch of wines from Kermit Lynch to be disappointing. It seems Kermit is having more trouble finding good values at reasonable prices.