pop & pour

So I’m still sick, making this currently the most wine-free wine blog on the Internet.  Since I can’t DRINK wine right now, I’m doing the next best thing, which is THINKING about drinking wine, and to pump up the anticipation for my triumphant return to vino I thought I’d get your input about what bottle I should crack on that illustrious occasion.  I have picked four wines that have been tangentially featured or mentioned in previous PnP posts, and now it’s up to you to decide which one will get top billing in my next review…whichever one gets the most votes by the time my illness goes away (hopefully sometime this weekend if there’s any justice in this world) will be the lucky winner.  Without further ado, the very first Pop & Pour Wine Poll:

Here’s a little additional info about each of the four contenders and their PnP history:

1. 2008 Mercer Estates Dead Canyon Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon:  I reviewed Mercer’s $30ish Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington State at the end of March (see the review here) and liked it (88 points), but to me it actually didn’t live up to Mercer’s own significantly cheaper $20ish Dead Canyon Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon.  I’ve had the DCR multiple times before (I tend to pounce on wine that good for that price), but I’ve never written it up on the blog…yet.
2. 2007 Amavi Cellars Syrah:  I had the 2005 vintage of this wine in mid-March and absolutely adored it (see the review here) — I gave it 92 points at the time, and in retrospect I might even want to bump that up another point.  It was everything higher-end Syrah should be:  fruity, meaty, savoury, long, lingering and endlessly complex.  I’ve now obtained the 2007 version of Amavi’s Syrah and am dying to see if it lives up to its predecessor.
3. 2008 Enzo Boglietti Dolcetto d’Alba:  I TRIED to review this wine once before, back in mid-April, but it only took a sniff and a sip to force me to change plans and write about how to detect corked wine instead — yecch.  I saved my ruined bottle, and the Ferocious Grape was good enough to take it back and give me a replacement, no questions asked.  I now sort of feel like I owe Enzo a mulligan and have been waiting for the right time for a take two on his Dolcetto.
4. 2009 Loosen Dr. L Riesling:  When I reviewed Charles Smith’s Kung Fu Girl Riesling in early April, I suggested that the only entry-level (sub-$20) Riesling that I’ve had that could go toe to toe with KFG was Loosen’s Dr. L, which is available at Superstores everywhere for around $15.  At some point I will do a Dr. L vs. KFG head to head taste-off, but I figure I owe Dr. Loosen a starring role in a review first.