Ex Umbris 2014 Syrah

The Winery: Ex Umbris
(produced and bottled by Owen Roe)
The Wine: 2014 Syrah
Retail Price: $21

Ex Umbris is produced by Owen Roe, who, interestingly enough, produce both Yakima Valley (Washington) and Willamette Valley (Oregon) wines. They have been around since 1999, so they must be doing something right.

The Ex Umbris Syrah is made from grapes from the DuBrul, Outlook, Red Willow and Union Gap Vineyards; all in Washington. Ex Umbris originally began from a wildfire in 2002, which, apparently, resulted in a phenomenal Syrah that year. They bottled it under the Ex Umbris name, and their fans have pressured them to continue the Ex Umbris brand. For those who are not up on their Latin, Ex Umbris translates to, "from the shadows," which is appropriate given the roots of this wine.

The bottle was stopped with a natural cork (and a wax seal at the top). It was decanted an hour before tasting. The wine is very dark burgundy in color. It has aromas of cherry, plum, leather and blueberry. This is a very big, juicy wine with delicious plum and blackberry flavors and an incredible cherry finish. It is very smooth and bursting with flavor! This is a very special Syrah that is very much worth checking out.

Zin-Phomaniac 2013 Zinfandel

The Winery: Zin-Phomaniac

The Wine: 2013 Zinfandel
Retail Price: $18.99

Zin-Phomaniac is a Sonoma County, California winery. I usually shy away from gimmicky labels and/or names.  But this one was very well done, and used embossed, raised accents, which is not an inexpensive upgrade.

Zin-Phomaniac sources their grapes from the Lodi AVA, and their grapes all come from old vine stock. All of their grapes come from vines that are 20-75 years old. Their wine is aged for 9 months in new and aged oak barrels.

The wine bottle was stopped with natural cork, and was decanted an hour before tasting. It is deep burgundy in color.

The wine has aromas of cherry, dark chocolate and vanilla with a hint of black pepper.

The Zin-Phomaniac has a bit of a pepper bite, followed by flavors of juicy cherries and raspberries, and finally a rich chocolatey finish. This is a really good wine...sexy, bold, and arousing. It is much better than I hoped for when I selected it for review. It is definitely a conversation starter - a fun wine to take to a party. Probably not a great wine to impress a woman on a first date, though.