2004 Stella’s Garden Lost Highway Project Shiraz

(no winery page found)

Jeff and I both got bottles of this from Garagiste. I had one about a year ago and thought that it was pretty good. We were cooking dinner and Jeff offered a free pass to his wine shelf and I suggested that we kill one of his bottles of this.

Before I discuss the wine let me frame the meal for you. I got a 1lb beef tenderloin tip, and we rubbed shaved habenero on it as well as a mesquite rub. And then we threw that on the grill and ate it with the vino.

Let me tell you, that Stella’s garden was sensational. It is a wine in exactly the style I love – full of rich black fruit flavor, nice terroir and full of body. This is not for the faint of heart (16.5% alcohol) but it carries itself extremely well (I had it pegged at only 15% or so based on taste). I might just have to source more of this stuff because for the price point it is an incredible drop.

I also want to point out that this wine always reminds of the “Streetcar named Marge” episode of the Simpsons and causes me to spontaneously burst into song, channelling Flanders yelling “Stellaaaaa!”.