We opened a Bogle Merlot the other day. I had mentioned to Aaron a Bogle wine I remembered having over a year ago that I liked so much, but couldn't recall what varietal. It was a wine that has stuck in my head since then. When I went to look for a few months ago, all I could find at the store was the Bogle Petit Sirah, and after trying that, I knew that wasn't quite it. So we opened the Bogle Merlot the other night and, although it was good, it wasn't at all like the wine I remembered liking so much.
It finally occured to me to look in my wine journal, which I was much better at keeping a year ago than I am today. I wondered if I had been smart enough to write down this mystery Bogle wine that I liked so much so that I would remember down the road.
Phew...sure enough, I was! Good job, 2008 Ashley! I pulled out my wine journal, which I started keeping very loosely in 2006.
And I flipped through the pages until I found this page below. Yes! I was so smart...I even kept the label from the Bogle bottle and pasted it in the book along with notes from the night we drank it!
Bogle Phantom 2005, a blend of
Petit Sirah, Old Vine Zinfandel and Old Vine Mourvedre
In my notes I wrote that we drank it when we had my sister and brother in-law over for dinner on December 28th, 2008. We drank it with our chicken stir-fry, which is a Schram specialty. It was a very complex and full-bodied wine, with lots of flavors from each of the three different grapes blended together. It was oh, so good! And if my memory serves me correctly, this was shortly after I got over some nasty flu, so it only took a glass for me to be feeling pretty good. No wonder I liked it so much! Adding to its appeal was the fact that we drank it with good company. Since my sister has six children, a dinner with just the four of us is extremely unusual. The ambiance in which we drank it came into play.
I also found in my wine journal, notes on my introduction to wine making that Aaron set me up with a few years ago. We made a Sangiovese from a kit. It was my first wine making experience and Aaron said it was important to take careful notes, which are quite humorous as I read them now...
And I also found some cards in there from the 2007 Wine Expo we went to early in our dating relationship. I picked up the "cards" of the wines I really liked and put them in here.
After reading through several notes in my white wine section, it was in here that I documented in late 2006, a Chardonney that I actually liked. Chardonney is normally too buttery for me and is usually my last pick on white wine list, so I am glad that I noted one that struck my fancy in here. I wonder if I will like it just as much if I try it again today?
It is my new goal to keep up with my wine journal this year. With the amount of wine we drink, this is something that should be easy for me to track...quite frequently. Now that I've rediscovered all this valuable information, I now have a wine shopping list. We'll see if these wines I liked a few years ago have withstood the test of time.
And if you don't already, I encourage you to keep a wine journal too. What do you like? Has your palette developed over the years?