There’s something special about a wine that comes with a built-in drip stain.  It’s sheer genius marketing.  You look at it, and it’s got this beautiful dark purple line right down the middle of the label.  We thought. . .no way, they could come up with such a cool idea.  If ever there was a way to market a product and add that enticing look of “you really want to know what’s inside, don’t you?”  The folks at Landmark are amazing.

Now, we know there are savvy wine drinkers out there who’ll see the drip label and think that the wine is cooked and the cork has leaked.  Uh yeah, but what happens when you pull the foil off and there isn’t a bit of red anywhere to be found.  Could it be the finest marketing minds in the viticulture world have created the ultimate ploy to create desire?  After opening this beautiful gem of a wine that Jean picked up on sale at Twin Liquor this evening, we were stunned.  So beautiful. . .so dark berry and cherry skin scents, along with cracked pepper and black olive. . .all there–all pronounced.  A tip of the bottle and the gorgeous color of the wine falling into the glass was a sight to behold.  We really love looking at that deep, dark purple color as it envelopes the glass, and with a little swirling the air helps open the wine to bring out its fullest potential.  This 2007 Landmark Steel Plow Syrah from Sonoma County is no slouch in the wine world.  It’s got serious pedigree and years of healthy reviews, so we knew that it was going to be something worth trying.  What we didn’t count on was the amazing taste of this wine. . .deep and sweet on the palate, with chewy dark fruity flavors, firm tannins and a late note of tobacco that was surprisingly sweet.  Another favorite of ours. . .the long finish was superb.

As we did some research on this wine, we learned that International Wine Seller rated this at 91 points and previous vintages rated as high as 94 points.  Wines like this typically don’t sell for less than $25 a bottle, but with the sale at Twin, it was more than worth the effort.  Steel Plow is a great name for a wine–no doubt referencing the heritage of harvesting, but we just think it is a great name for a wine–especially with a cool label!  And, one of the things that makes writing wine blogs so much fun is reading and posting what others say about the wine.  We found this little ditty from http://spikesvino.com, “A slight lychee aroma with a hint of blue fruit, carried a generally very cool climate type of characteristics. Some eucalyptus aroma here too. The wine has a very pleasant taste with cool flavors such as lychee, blueberry and cool blue mint. A very tasty and juicy wine.”  Now that takes the description to a new level!!

But it does reinforce that this wine is one to sit back and relax with on a beautiful Saturday afternoon on the deck or a warm evening at home with a plate of delicious pasta.  Either way you can’t lose–except that label!  Okay, we’ll come clean. . .Brian opened the bottle and poured the first glass and didn’t bother to check for drips; by the time we caught it, too late, the stain had set and dried.  (But, you probably knew this was coming.)  However, we still think it’s kind of cool that the drip line goes right down the middle–like it’s supposed to be there–like it was designed by the marketing department.  Hmmm, maybe we’ve started something.  Their next wine could be called ‘Drip Line’!!!

Alright, that’s enough for tonight, please enjoy your favorite wine responsibly and remember to recycle whenever possible.