vin rouge

reading myself to sleep about rated wines. referencing some I have and writing the ratings in the top right corner of the label. also, writing drink before year and drink after year. knowing more now than when I purchased some of these, in France and Spain, i've discovered I am pretty lucky at picking wines. I chose some 2000 bordeaux wines while in france. It turns out one is rated a 90 and most of the others 88 or 87... not too shabby. also, discovering that 2000 is the best year for the bordeaux region in many years, some say decades.

this brings me to also discover the port we drank on our last day in Spain was the best we have sipped for a reason. we thought we would drink that bottle since it was the youngest year and it turns out that 2000 was also a superb year for ports. It was extremely cheap. the brand was taylor fladgate. a ruby. excellent!

the cava, on the other hand, doesn't look like a winner.

when it comes to descriptions, I tend to avoid those that state the flavor has...meaty aromas and flavors of toast, lead pencil, and dust. a little musky. then they say... "finishes with liveliness." does that mean... the more you drink the drunker you get and the more you can't taste the lead pencil?