2006 White Hall Petit Verdot
Since unloading my bounty from wine storage last month, I haven’t had anything local to drink. Decided to change that, so I picked up the 2006 White Hall Petit Verdot from The Wine Market for $17.99.
I had a glass while cooking dinner. The wine is dark, slightly translucent deep red/purple. It smelled oaky, oxidized, leatherish and smoky. Nothing much positive to write about taste-wise. It had a little sweet tart in the back of the jaw, a little bitter up front. Bitter, astringent finish.
Sounds awful, sure. I asked The Wife to taste it and let me know what she thought. “Good. Strong.” she said. High marks. Perhaps the wine was improving.
I decided to soldier on and drink the wine with dinner (chicken breast paninis and roasted broccoli), after which I noticed something: I hadn’t even thought of the wine while I was eating. Usually, if I don’t like a wine then I don’t like a wine. This one warmed up to the point where it went with dinner well and played a nice role. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t not love it either.
So there you go: a good quaffer. The dinner pairing saved this one from blog obscurity as I wouldn’t have even written about it otherwise.
December 12th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I taste this wine frequently here at the restaurant. Your notes sound atypical. Consider perhaps that your bottle was corked or in some other way not sound.
Also, Petit Verdot wants at least five years in bottle to really bloom.
December 15th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Interesting perspective and thanks for commenting. It isn’t the first time someone has called my notes “atypical” I’ll find a bottle from somewhere else and give it another go.