how sad...i was waiting until today to buy this since i just turned 21 today and i promised my gift to myself (and first woot ever) would be whatever wine came up during this week

So I'm gonna do this as a series of replies to myself. First off, used the sweet little device they gave me to open it up, poured a little taste, GREAT nose. Seriously, make a candle of this. I can't pick out individual scents most of the time, but there's a lot of blackberry on this one. First taste, fruit fruit fruit. Very very tasty, no decanting needed, in fact I wouldn't recommend it, let this one open up in your glass. The steaks are going on the grill in five minutes. I'll report back after dinner. Though I already know I would buy this again. Even the DF likes it and the only other woot wine she's liked is Humbug.

themostrighteous wrote:... gimme a few mins...

... and here it is:

I got this as well, quite a nice surprise! Thanks LL

Cool certificate too, nice touch

superspryte wrote:

Any chance this might some day be a woot-off?

goobington wrote:how sad...i was waiting until today to buy this since i just turned 21 today and i promised my gift to myself (and first woot ever) would be whatever wine came up during this week

Why the long face? Congratulations. The very fact that you attempted to make your first (legal) purchase of alcohol on wine.woot on the very day of your 21st birthday is a sign certain that you are well on your way to financial ruin & vinous happiness! I toast a glass of the 2003 L&L Cab Franc in your honor! (Or at least I would if I had any left.)

CHICAGOANS, CITY DWELLERS & SUBURBANITES ALIKE, COME ONE, COME ALL!!!

At Imagine4vr's most excellent suggestion, I want to make sure that all of you who don't lurk in the community forums are aware that we wine.wooters of the Second City are organizing a wine tasting, w/ date, format, etc. to be decided. Wanna partake in the merriment? Then jump on board!

bhodilee wrote:So I'm gonna do this as a series of replies to myself. First off, used the sweet little device they gave me to open it up, poured a little taste, GREAT nose. Seriously, make a candle of this. I can't pick out individual scents most of the time, but there's a lot of blackberry on this one. First taste, fruit fruit fruit. Very very tasty, no decanting needed, in fact I wouldn't recommend it, let this one open up in your glass. The steaks are going on the grill in five minutes. I'll report back after dinner. Though I already know I would buy this again. Even the DF likes it and the only other woot wine she's liked is Humbug.

Dinners over, Ribeyes were every bit as good as they looked, well worth the six bucks. Though I gotta say, a sirloin, cut right and cooked right might be the best bang for the buck in the culinary world. I almost wish I had got one instead of ribeye. Anyway, the CS paired wonderfully. By itself it's wonderfully fruit forward, the blackberry really comes through from the nose. It's also REALLY enhanced the black pepper I had on the steak, I love my steak highly peppered and this CS turbocharged it. Just a truly delightful wine to pair with a ribeye. Cut through the chubby bunny, enhanced the pepper flavor that I love on steak and absolutelyl held it's own against that cut, no mean feat. I'm on my third glass already and I almost never drink more than two in a night. I might finish off the bottle. More later, I'll be Old Style'd up by then though, I'm already mostly drunk.

NEW FILTER:
Fluck is no longer smurf, it's style'd whatever

superspryte wrote:Ooooh, nice. Much nicer than mine. My corkscrew is so massively scary, it looks like robo-corkscrew. (I almost tried to shorten that name more. Whoops.)

Wow, now I need to shake your hand, that's AWESOME

LA'BRAT REPORT: 2004 L&L PETITE SYRAH

I'm ever so more than slightly tipsy, so this won't be the best of reports.

First off, thanks to everyone for "forcing" me to have this with a nicely seasoned steak. I cooked up on Le Grill de la Mr. Foreman the following:
1. Boneless Rib Eye Steak rubbed with Montreal Seasoning (with a tiny bit of olive oil both for seasoning and to keep the grill non-sticky)
2. 1 Portobello Mushroom
3. 1 Potato Patty
Plus in a frying pan, some frozen corn with some butter and McCormick seasoning & Mediterranean Sea Salt grinded into it.

The above meal was a great pairing to the PS.

I had the PS bottle open for about 10 minutes originally, then poured it into the W.W Decanter (see WineDavid's signature, though mine is the one with the oblong lip and not the straight lip) and it sat there for almost another 45 minutes while preparing and cooking.

Just before food was done I poured a glass, let it sit for a minute or to. Then followed my new favorite blogger Gary Vaynerchuk as best I could:
Poured a tiny bit into what I "think" is a Bordeaux type glass (I could be completely wrong on this), and tilted it. The wine is a nice deep dark cherry red, and swirling it a bit shows some nice long slow moving legs spread throughout the glass.

It has a bold non-sweet aroma of some sort of dark fruit, possibly blackberry'ish? I wouldn't really know for sure as I don't know what blackberries smell like. But it's definitely not simple cherry or strawberry or anything like that.

The initial swish around the mouth was surprisingly smooth. Knowing from LLmanyhats that it could use at least 2 years in the cellar, I was expecting a rather tannic and harsh feeling on my cheeks, but there was very little of that. This is most definitely a wine quite drinkable now, even if it might get better with a handful of years. (I will hold my incoming 2 bottles for at least a year or two)

With a quite dominant deep fruit flavor, it went quite well with my steak. To me, at least, it seems to have a bit of a smokey type flavor and aroma. Don't know if it's just that I seem to sense "smokey" and "fruity" in most wines, but whatever it is I absolutely adored it.

Once I finished the meal and continued drinking the wine by itself, I did notice what seemed to be a little bit of tartness/sourness?? I think. Plus a bit of spiciness as well, but none of it too overpowering. I originally planned on only drinking a "small" amount of the wine, but couldn't stop from pouring glass after glass and finished more than half the bottle. And as I sit here with some still in my glass I'm considering going back for more (even though I've already vacuum sealed the bottle and placed it in the fridge). Especially since I'll be working until at least 1 or 2am tomorrow night and won't get to drink more until either Friday or Saturday. (PS. If I make it to the NYC wine tasting party tomorrow night, I'll bring whatever is left...but it won't be enough for everyone, so ya'll have to fight over it)

The wine opened up even further after an hour, as well. I had a few glasses worth which were in the decanter, and my last glass and a half I poured from the bottle. It was really good at this point and I do believe better than it was when I first started drinking it. I just can't stop putting my nose into the glass to take in the deep aromas that enlighten my senses and the nice long finish after each and every sip is just wonderful. I feel like I'm in heaven....and this is a great way to end the night in preparation for my probable 16+ hour day of work tomorrow.

Thank you WD and L&L for this great experience. A beautiful bottle of PS was the best way to be a Labrat this week.

bhodilee wrote:Yeah, I could totally see how that could happen. We're almost identical. ^_- My first fancy emoticon.

Oliphaunts, Mordor, and Gandalf! that's exactly what happened!

I should probably not drink so much.

bhodilee wrote:So I'm gonna do this as a series of replies to myself. First off, used the sweet little device they gave me to open it up, poured a little taste, GREAT nose. Seriously, make a candle of this. I can't pick out individual scents most of the time, but there's a lot of blackberry on this one. First taste, fruit fruit fruit. Very very tasty, no decanting needed, in fact I wouldn't recommend it, let this one open up in your glass. The steaks are going on the grill in five minutes. I'll report back after dinner. Though I already know I would buy this again. Even the DF likes it and the only other woot wine she's liked is Humbug.

bhodilee wrote:Dinners over, Ribeyes were every bit as good as they looked, well worth the six bucks. Though I gotta say, a sirloin, cut right and cooked right might be the best bang for the buck in the culinary world. I almost wish I had got one instead of ribeye. Anyway, the CS paired wonderfully. By itself it's wonderfully fruit forward, the blackberry really comes through from the nose. It's also REALLY enhanced the black pepper I had on the steak, I love my steak highly peppered and this CS turbocharged it. Just a truly delightful wine to pair with a ribeye. Cut through the chubby bunny, enhanced the pepper flavor that I love on steak and absolutelyl held it's own against that cut, no mean feat. I'm on my third glass already and I almost never drink more than two in a night. I might finish off the bottle. More later, I'll be Old Style'd up by then though, I'm already mostly drunk.

NEW FILTER:
Fluck is no longer smurf, it's style'd whatever

Damnit, I forgot to describe the wine in color and texture, WD, I told you I was a bad rat choice. Let me rectify this by pouring another glass. The sacrifices I make I tell you. Okay, hold on, dog was violating the babies bambi doll, that's gonna need washed. Allright, so the color is a nice purply color, very nice. Also very smooth, I got a little heat in the nose but not on the pallette, or however it's spelled. It's opening up nicely, blackberry is still there a little, but now there's somethign else as well, whatever it is is pleasant. I'm gonna call it cassis, cause the bottle says there's cassis and I don't even know what that is.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:= A beautiful bottle of PS was the best way to be a Labrat this week.

Thank You Hak, I have been waiting for your report. Well Done... I am very glad that I got in while it was still giong bouncy, bouncie...
It sounds great and I cant wait to try it... Thank you, and well done.............

Loweeel, although I don't know what other PS's taste like, you are going to be kicking yourself for not ordering 3 of these sets. This is absolutely one of the best wines I've ever had and I'm kicking myself for only ordering 2 sets. I've already poured myself another glass because I can't get enough. Sorry NYCers, there won't be enough for me to bring leftovers tomorrow night if I make it. (in other words, the tiny bit that might fill one glass that's left I'll be finishing up on Saturday)
This may be the one winery of all the Woots (and WL's and WTSO's) I've bought that I may actually spend the extra moolah to order some more eventually straight from the winery. Even though it'll probably break the bank.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:Loweeel, although I don't know what other PS's taste like, you are going to be kicking yourself for not ordering 3 of these sets. This is absolutely one of the best wines I've ever had and I'm kicking myself for only ordering 2 sets. I've already poured myself another glass because I can't get enough. Sorry NYCers, there won't be enough for me to bring leftovers tomorrow night if I make it. (in other words, the tiny bit that might fill one glass that's left I'll be finishing up on Saturday)
This may be the one winery of all the Woots (and WL's and WTSO's) I've bought that I may actually spend the extra moolah to order some more eventually straight from the winery. Even though it'll probably break the bank.

Welcome to the PSycho Path . PS is smurfin' awesome. I got 2 this week, with the PS 2 weeks ago on that other site (I got 3), even *I* have a limit on PS (though only because I'm running out of space.) Seriously, sort my cellar on CT by varietal. I'm like 20% PS, and that's *before* the birthday gifts start rolling in next week.

As great as this stuff is, try some other PS before you order more from the winery -- you want to work on your PSalate .

mbecker wrote:I agree. However, if someone old enough to drink wine is being circumcised, I would consider gifting them a set out of pity...

You mean every bris done by a mohel? They put a wine-soaked rag in the baby's mouth. I think it was the only time I shut up in my first 8 days that I wasn't sleeping. I had some impressively healthy lungs!

bhodilee wrote:Dinners over, Ribeyes were every bit as good as they looked, well worth the six bucks. Though I gotta say, a sirloin, cut right and cooked right might be the best bang for the buck in the culinary world. I almost wish I had got one instead of ribeye.

Me, I like strip... but for value deliciousness, it's skirt steak/hangar steak all the way. So much umami/big meaty flavor. It's the PS of the steak world.

Damn. I knew this was gonna sell out after reading the first few LabRat reports. Debated with myself whether to order two or three trios and then got involved with other things (including the Pepperbridge Cab with a steak for dinner - mighty fine juice that!) and forgot about this. Oh well, I'm over budget anyhow.

Winedavid, any chance we will have another shot at this?

Quick question:

I submitted a request to be a Labrat several months ago and I have not heard anything. Are there going to be any future opportunities? Winedavid, reply when you get a chance. Thanks.

hld1970 wrote:Quick question:

I submitted a request to be a Labrat several months ago and I have not heard anything. Are there going to be any future opportunities? Winedavid, reply when you get a chance. Thanks.

It's an ongoing, every week kind of thing. I was finally selected to be a rodent this week, and I submitted my request in late Summer of '07.

EDIT: Just to be clear, you only have to submit your request once, and you have to purchase a given wine.woot by 10 AM CST on Monday to be eligible for that week.

themostrighteous wrote:It's an ongoing, every week kind of thing. I was finally selected to be a rodent this week, and I submitted my request in late Summer of '07.

EDIT: Just to be clear, you only have to submit your request once, and you have to purchase a given wine.woot by 10 AM CST on Monday to be eligible for that week.

hah, i thought it was 10am. I bought 2 sets 5 minutes too late this week. oh well, glad about my decision to finally step it up to 2 sets with the mid week sell out!

That went way too fast, I came back tonight to order another set for a gift. Great job Labrats! Now I really can't wait for my order.

Thank God that sold out and started bouncing while I wasn't paying attention. I really wanted it, but I just dont have the funds right now.

Nothing new yet .... I'm just glad I ordered 3 yesterday. Looking forward to my first Cab Franc. ;)

Any possibility of getting some more decanters up for woot'n ye ol WD?

superspryte wrote:If you're serious then I'm worried.

heh. no, not serious.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:Loweeel, although I don't know what other PS's taste like, you are going to be kicking yourself for not ordering 3 of these sets. This is absolutely one of the best wines I've ever had and I'm kicking myself for only ordering 2 sets.
This may be the one winery of all the Woots (and WL's and WTSO's) I've bought that I may actually spend the extra moolah to order some more eventually straight from the winery. Even though it'll probably break the bank.

Looking back at the Mandolina discussion and the lab rats reports for this one, I think L&L is moving it's way up in the ranks of best wineries to date on W.W.

Loweeel wrote:Me, I like strip... but for value deliciousness, it's skirt steak/hangar steak all the way. So much umami/big meaty flavor. It's the PS of the steak world.

Yeah, I looked at the strips, was gonna get that or porkchops, but these ribeye were fabulous. Glad I got them. Skirt steak is very good, but it's my vietnamese steak, not what I grill when I want a steak. That's usually a t-bone or porterhouse.

schuey wrote:Looking back at the Mandolina discussion and the lab rats reports for this one, I think L&L is moving it's way up in the ranks of best wineries to date on W.W.

Agreed, they have firmly entered into auto click for me now. Wellington, Madison, Ty, and Rassmussen, now L&L, whatever label it's under.

Edit: SakeOne would be on that list as well, but they don't deliver to Nebraska.

bunnymasseuse wrote:Any possibility of getting some more decanters up for woot'n ye ol WD?

Need a decanter?

http://www.winecountryconnect.com/Decanter.aspx

To comment and answer:

My favorite steak is a boneless sirloin, by far, unless I'm trying to be very healthy, then it would be a 1.5-2" thick london broil seasoned. The boneless sirloin can generally stand on its own without seasoning but the london broil needs a bit due to the lack of marbling, or any chubby bunny really.

Cassis = blackcurrant.

themostrighteous wrote:EDIT: Just to be clear, you only have to submit your request once, and you have to purchase a given wine.woot by 10 AM CST on Monday to be eligible for that week.

Did we ever get confirmation on the CST vs. PST time for the La Brat orders? There was disagreement amongst the rodents as to which time zone ruled, and I don't recall seeing anyone with a "woot" paycheck clarifying.

bmckenna wrote:To comment and answer:

My favorite steak is a boneless sirloin, by far, unless I'm trying to be very healthy, then it would be a 1.5-2" thick london broil seasoned. The boneless sirloin can generally stand on its own without seasoning but the london broil needs a bit due to the lack of marbling, or any chubby bunny really.

Cassis = blackcurrant.

ah, yes, i suppose that it was currant like. Good juice, that's all I can tell ya. And yes, Sirloins are awesome, 2 bucks for 8 ounces is hard to beat.

jwhite6114 wrote:Did we ever get confirmation on the CST vs. PST time for the La Brat orders? There was disagreement amongst the rodents as to which time zone ruled, and I don't recall seeing anyone with a "woot" paycheck clarifying.

Go back to the email, it says CST in it.

Edit: Which I of course don't seem to have a copy of; I would have missed the 10 a.m. cutoff for EST this week though and I was ratted.

jwhite6114 wrote:Did we ever get confirmation on the CST vs. PST time for the La Brat orders? There was disagreement amongst the rodents as to which time zone ruled, and I don't recall seeing anyone with a "woot" paycheck clarifying.

the email said CST, and further the wines always go up at midnight CST on monday. i'm sure woot isnt going to change the theme of things for labrats. i would guess any time stated by the "officials" is CST.

Just a reminder to any stragglers in the NYC area. Tasting is tomorrow night. PM or post on the board if you're interested.

cmfisher wrote:the email said CST, and further the wines always go up at midnight CST on monday. i'm sure woot isnt going to change the theme of things for labrats. i would guess any time stated by the "officials" is CST.

Ahh, well the e-mail makes sense. PST was the other option since this is where WD would be putting together the LB packages and from which they would be sent.

But you're right, the e-mail says: "Starting the week of October 7th, if you make a winery purchase through Wine.Woot by 10 a.m. Central time Monday, ..."