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I just had a religious experience.  This wine left me completely prostrate, surrendering myself –  prosate and all — to the wine Gods.  It was so good that I almost cried when the bottle was empty.  Actually, I’m lying.  I did cry.  Like a baby.  To tell you the God’s honest truth, it was so good that the last sip left me wanting more so much so that my wife had to beat me with a stick to keep me from opening the other bottle (our last) in my cellar. She won, so… thankfully, I’ll get to enjoy this stuff again.

But I think there’s something to be said for timing.

Now, I absolutely love Kanzler wine, and I had this wine a year or so ago and liked it.  But it didn’t jump out at me.  In fact, I remember thinking it was a little bit big, maybe a little tight.  Suffice to say, the last year was very kind to this wine.  I honestly can’t imagine any wine being better tasting, richer or more balanced than the bottle I just drank at 7:00pm on January 19th, 2009.  If this wine isn’t peaking right now, then the next time around I won’t be surprised if it induces an hallucination featuring me, 4 naked bisexual women and a hot tub.

Being in Northern California is pretty much a Pinot lover’s dream.  There are simply so many small wineries like Kanzler that you’ve never heard of but produce outlandishly good wine.  Kanzler is a small, family-owned-and-opererated operation.  I have no idea how much wine they produce, but it can’t be much.  They sell some fruit to Kosta Browne, which is how I discovered them back in 2004, and they make their own wine with the rest.  But, I have to say, winemaker Greg Stach’s expression of Kanzler’s fruit is truer and tastier than the much-hyped Kosta Browne variety, in my sometimes humble opinion.

I’m not going to get into the traditional “ripe black cherry and spice” aroma and flavor wheel breakdown here.  The wine is simply this:  Amazingly tasty.  A phrase that’s such a no-no in the wine-descriptor rulebook that you’ll never hear Robert Parker say it, but dammit, that’s just the way it is.  To use an over-used phrase that is allowed in the rulebook, it explodes in your mouth.  I’ll even skip the obvious porno segue here, out of respect for the glorious flavor explosion that is this wine.  The mouth feel is super velvety, which allows you to just hold it there endlessly, letting it fire off round after round of glorious… flavor.  The finish lasts forever.  I mean, 10 minutes later I could still taste my last sip as clear as a bell.  I just followed up my last glass with 4 cookies and a sausage and I can still clearly envision the flavor of my last sip of 2005 Kanzler.  Really.

I’m going to give this bottle the highest review I’ve ever given:  200 points, no deductions.  It’s perfect.

(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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