The Prisoner
2010 Napa Valley Red Blend:
44% Zinfandel 26% Cabernet Sauvignon 18% Syrah 9% Petite Sirah 2% Charbono 1% Grenache
Get your handcuffs, ladies & gents. I will start this WabW by saying I feel a little bad about talking about the Prisoner because it is very hard to find and get a hold of. With my hubby having an “in” within the wine & liquor industry, I was lucky enough to enjoy it. It is not completely unavailable, so for anyone that could get their hands on it, do yourself a favor and buy the entire stock at the store or restaurant. Not kidding.
This story starts like many, my husband brought home this wine. He basically said, hold onto your corks because this wine is gonna knock your heels off. The ratings were phenomenal, the wine is from the always lovely Orin Swift, and the awesome artsy label had me hello. During dinner we opened it and poured it into our glasses. The color? GORGEOUS purple velvet that you would see on royalty in some sort of Cinderella re-make movie. We swirled it around…and wow, I am 5 foot and 7 inches tall and this wine had longer legs then me! {Wine Quickie: “Legs” are the "streams" you see fall on the sides of the glass which signifies alcohol content. Sweeter wines with lower alcohol won’t have hardly any…higher content will...etc.} I took a look at the back and sure enough, 15.6% alcohol, wow.
Here we go for a sip. (Cue that noise when there is a huge build up just to be let down…something like “Wa wa waaaa”) I just looked at him extremely unimpressed as he glanced back me with the same type of confused look. One of the main things was it was very HOT. {Wine Quickie: If someone says a wine has “heat” or is very “hot” it means the wine has a high alcohol content or you can really tase the alchol content..if a wine with a low alcohol content has heat...it probably isn't made very well!} You could not taste anything else other than that the very high alcohol. It was extremely tight and nothing special. {Tight means it needs to have some air hit it for the flavors to open up. Good bottles of wine often need this. Use a decanter or wine aerator.} I, very disappointiedly, moved it to the side and brought my water to the front.
Dinner was finishing up and we decided to take one more sip since it had 20 minutes to breathe. (cue the angelic choir!) My eyes grew big and I am not the proud that I actually said the phrase, “OMG”. Fig, sweet toastiness, currant…and I will even say hints of mocha and chocolate! Once it had time to breathe, this quickly became the best wine we have tried in years. The tastes were not just there, they swooped in like levels like in an elevator in your mouth. First floor-Cedar, Second Floor-Fig, Third Floor-Women's lingerie..wait got confused.. The finish was lonnnng and smooth. Even though you could still taste the heat, it was subtle and perfectly balanced. The first 25 minutes we both took 1 or 2 sips, but after we re-tasted it, the bottle was done in ten minutes…that good! One of those wines that are sooo perfect you need to drink slow and savor but is too good you simply can’t.
