Two rare tastes

I was lucky enough recently to be at a tasting that had two wines that are unusual and that you wont find every place you look. If they interest you, digging will have to be done and on the 2nd likely you wont find someone willing to do a tasting at all...

Edi Simcic 2005 Tocata (Italy) - Say it slowly now - SimChich - and yes his first name is pronounced Edee. I was very interested to try this Tocata since it essentially the same as the tocai grape in the prior tasted '99 Radikon Olsavje. That's such a fascinating wine I had no idea what this might be like. Without going into the legal grape naming issues and wine politics its not called Tocai though. It was a light golden colored wine that when swirled seemed to take on a deep golden reflection of what could only be called doubloon gold. It was that deep and shinning. The nose was creamy and of almonds and perhaps a understated peach. In the mouth this is again a full bodied white. Big taste of almonds and fig fruit meat near the pit hit first, moving towards an amazing spiciness that faded to an earthy dusty leave. This is a very nice and dry wine that is a great palate cleanser. In fact the pairing to food was a conversation no one could really figure out - perhaps it is best as a between dishes wine. The wine taste certainly gave me the visual image of almond trees growing in light brown dusty earth. It was quite an experience that I look forward to again. $$ (35/bottle)


Sin Qua Non '05 Rose (California) - recently I've been hearing about these impossible to find wines of Sin Qua Non and the very high prices they command. I perhaps heard more of that even than how good they were supposed to be. After trying their Sryah, Grenache Rose I went online to see how bad it could be - ouch! These are premium wines. Given all the more attention since receiving some 100 point scores from the famous or infamous Robert Parker. Now I've come to like true Rose (see prior postings on Rose) but am not sure any Rose is worth well over 100 per bottle. However this simply was a stellar wine to my tastes. Great aroma of rasberry and light flowers and earthiness; it drank more like a red than a rose and almost had some mild tannin quality. It certainly had the most structure and body of any Rose I've had (though thats not saying a lot with my limited Rose experience). The flavors were of red berries and cassis but on the light side and not bold. Still excellent acidity and long leave of deeper red berries and leafy floor nicely finish this wine off. I look at this Sin Qua Non and any other this way after trying this one. Its a wonderful wine and even more excellent if you find someone opening a bottle for you. ;) $$$$