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Tongue Twister(ed)

September 22, 2008

*Disclaimer: I received this bottle as a sample from Twisted Oak Winery

Arr me mateys! A little late, but in honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day (this past Friday) we drank this terrifying looking bottle of wine. The wine is the 2006 Twisted Oak River of Skulls. It's a special allocation only wine available only from Twisted Oak, made of 90% Mourvedre and 10% Syrah. It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.9% alcohol by volume, and is running about $29 in the allocation notice I got for being a Twisted Few member, but I'm not sure what it will cost if any is made available to non-Twisted Few members.....

My first thought on sniffing the wine, after sorting through individual aromas, popped into my head as: this smells like blackberries wrapped in leather grilled with baking spice then dusted with star anise. Individually I found blackberries, spice, black cherry, vanilla, earth, baking spice, fresh herbs, plums, tobacco, and something slightly meaty.


In the mouth, I got blackberry, black cherry, black currants, spice, plums, and star anise. The mouth came through as fruitier than the nose (or literally in the nose, as I accidentally put my nose a little too far into the glass and got a snootful!). The fruit showed as tart, like a blackberry plum crumble (I'm sure there isn't such a thing, I'm clearly just making stuff up at this point) with just the slightest hint of sweetness.

Overall, I thought the wine had the tannins to show it through years to come and I will definitely be sitting (figuratively folks!) on my second bottle for a few years to see how this develops. Skulls is dark and brooding and would love to be paired with your next pig roast.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    Never mind the informative review of the wine, how awesome is it that you admitted to sticking your nose into the wine! I have done that way too many times...but don't tell anyone, k?

    9/22/08, 7:22 AM  

  2. Cookie said...

    What a great bottle for Halloween! :)

    And where in the world did you get your cool wine glass?

    9/22/08, 3:51 PM  

  3. atomicvelvetsigh said...

    thats a totally cool wine glass indeed! gee i can only imagine absinthe with that kinda logo! haha.. deadly.. 8)

    9/23/08, 6:45 AM  

  4. Leslie Johnson said...

    I love the bottle!

    9/23/08, 6:35 PM  

  5. Leslie Johnson said...

    Thanks for the tip on this. Im on the list!

    9/26/08, 9:28 PM  

  6. DarkTrail said...

    We went to the Twisted Oak Winery in August and loved it.

    9/27/08, 1:03 PM  

  7. Sonadora said...

    I haven't got much shame Dan!

    Cookie, the glass are left over from a college formal dance, as a favor!

    Thanks for the comment Atomic!

    Great Leslie, it's a good one!

    Robb, I'm headed out there for the first time in October, can't wait!

    9/28/08, 1:07 PM  

  8. Anonymous said...

    Sonadora, I finally published my review of this wine at: http://www.DrinksAreOnMe.net

    10/25/08, 9:13 PM  

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