Well, to be fair, last month’s edition of “Rusty Sly’s Grape of the Night” was supposed to be Rhone – blends only.  But in my Thursday YouTube I said single varietals only, and, as I like to believe people really do watch these EVERY Thursday, it was what I thought was the reason we had a few.

This month – Yea, Rusty Sly was there! – and Four Brix winemakers Steve and Lora Simonsgaard, Don and Cheryl Dellepiane, Heidi and Chuck Wiedeman, Marlee Lauffer, Denise Lowe, John Dickey, Claudia Sheridan…were all well tended to by Gino at Valencia Wine Company.

We gave a quick toast to the quick recovery of DiMaggio Washington, owner of The Cellar, as he is recovering from hip replacement surgery…And then we were off!

There were more guests than usual = more wine.  And unless someone wrote them all down and sends them to me or comments on this blog, I was far too busy being a good hostess than I was tracking Every.  Single.  Bottle.  I tracked as much as I could of the three I liked instead:

07 Yves Cheron Côtes du Rhône Les Dentelles

100% Syrah (Per Gino at store but some web sources say blend.)
13.5 % alcohol
Approx. $20 from Valencia Wine company.
Color: Slight gold edge, ruby red.
Aroma: Floral, ripe cherry, not high in spice or pepper.
Taste: Medium tannins, fruit holding, some pleasant mint on the back palate.

07 Montage Grenache/Syrah (34% Grenache, 66% Syrah)
Central Coast
14.6% alcohol
Price:  Approx. $20 from All Corked Up
Aroma: Jammy/developed fruit, could smell the tannins just waiting…
Taste: Blackberry, tannins lessened within five minutes.

Four Brix Rhondezvous  
Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre 
And all I noted, through the haze of the evening, was “inviting fruit, young but excels.”

And new this month was a few bottles of Sun Tasti palate cleansing water that I received as a gift (full disclosure) and brought to share.  I like it, and my friends did too as they left me with zero, nada, nothing.

Questions about Grape of the Night?  E-mail me at ebushman@earthlink.net (And by the way, Pulchella’s Syrah was outstanding – yes I brought it and yakked it up about their new tasting room – but I reviewed their wines recently on this blog so I didn’t repeat it for you today.)