Wine of the Week

 

I tried this over the weekend and it's as good as this Wine House marketing plug suggests. So buy it. There's only one place you can...

Straight from my Wine House e-mail newsletter:

WINE HOUSE EXCLUSIVE! Only Wine Store in the Country to Get an Allocation! 2004 TENSLEY SYRAH SANTA BARBARA COUNTY ONLY $17.99 A great everyday wine from one of our favorite winemakers in Santa Barbara. Most of the fruit comes from Tierra Alta Vineyard, which is right next door to Purisma Mountain. Big, rich, and bold for such a low price! Flavors of blueberry, pepper and cassis with thick richness and a silky finish. Robert Parker writes,"Joey Tensley, formerly a serious soccer player who played for an American team while living in Bordeaux, is a self-taught winemaker. His philosophy embraces basic artisinal winemaking techniques, including hand-harvested fruit, fermentation in small one and a half ton fermentors, punching down, some cluster usage depending on the vintage conditions, and little racking or intervention until the wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. Tensley's 2003's are very good, but 2004 looks like a killer year for this estate."