Tongue Twister(ed)

Posted on September 22, 2008 by Sonadora


*Disclaimer: I received this bottle as a sample from Twisted Oak Winery

Arr me mateys! A little late, but in honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day (this past Friday) we drank this terrifying looking bottle of wine. The wine is the 2006 Twisted Oak River of Skulls. It’s a special allocation only wine available only from Twisted Oak, made of 90% Mourvedre and 10% Syrah. It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.9% alcohol by volume, and is running about $29 in the allocation notice I got for being a Twisted Few member, but I’m not sure what it will cost if any is made available to non-Twisted Few members…..

My first thought on sniffing the wine, after sorting through individual aromas, popped into my head as: this smells like blackberries wrapped in leather grilled with baking spice then dusted with star anise. Individually I found blackberries, spice, black cherry, vanilla, earth, baking spice, fresh herbs, plums, tobacco, and something slightly meaty.


In the mouth, I got blackberry, black cherry, black currants, spice, plums, and star anise. The mouth came through as fruitier than the nose (or literally in the nose, as I accidentally put my nose a little too far into the glass and got a snootful!). The fruit showed as tart, like a blackberry plum crumble (I’m sure there isn’t such a thing, I’m clearly just making stuff up at this point) with just the slightest hint of sweetness.

Overall, I thought the wine had the tannins to show it through years to come and I will definitely be sitting (figuratively folks!) on my second bottle for a few years to see how this develops. Skulls is dark and brooding and would love to be paired with your next pig roast.

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Filed under: California, Mourvedre, Red, Twisted Oak |

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7 Responses

  1. Dan Leone, on September 22, 2008 at 7:22 am said:

    Never mind the informative review of the wine, how awesome is it that you admitted to sticking your nose into the wine! I have done that way too many times…but don’t tell anyone, k?

  2. Cookie, on September 22, 2008 at 3:51 pm said:

    What a great bottle for Halloween! 🙂

    And where in the world did you get your cool wine glass?

  3. atomicvelvetsigh, on September 23, 2008 at 6:45 am said:

    thats a totally cool wine glass indeed! gee i can only imagine absinthe with that kinda logo! haha.. deadly.. 8)

  4. Leslie Johnson, on September 23, 2008 at 6:35 pm said:

    I love the bottle!

  5. Leslie Johnson, on September 26, 2008 at 9:28 pm said:

    Thanks for the tip on this. Im on the list!

  6. robb, on September 27, 2008 at 1:03 pm said:

    We went to the Twisted Oak Winery in August and loved it.

  7. Dale Cruse, on October 25, 2008 at 9:13 pm said:

    Sonadora, I finally published my review of this wine at: http://www.DrinksAreOnMe.net

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