On Friday Night, January 1st, 2010 amidst the noise of fire crackers bouncing off our roof top (seriously), bottle rockets firing off left and right, and a few star bursts to boot, we somehow found a way to sneak in some shabbos serenity.  My wife made pepper encrusted roasted chicken, a rice pilaf, along with a fresh green salad.  It was a nice off week, but absolutely not a quiet one!  Our neighbors were firing off so many fire crackers, it sounded like a gun range.  Mix into that all the other plethora of fireworks and it is a miracle that we ever got to sleep.  However, the craziest part was the sound of fire cracker hitting our roof!  Yep, it sounded like a hand grenade hitting a bunker roof in a movie, just crazy and absolutely surreal.  I suppose, the dude or dudette who tossed the hand grenade in our direction never imagined it would go that far.  Thank goodness there was no fire.

That was not the only madness that revolved around me that week.  The wine I tasted that week was bright and powerful and over the top.  However, another bottle of the very same wine a few days later was not nearly as good.  I had a third chance to taste this wine, a few more days later, and it was still not as good.  Man, I have heard of bottle variation, but this was crazy.  Still, I will say that in the end, my friends who drank the bottle a few hours after I did thought it was a bit more smooth and drinkable, while others thought it was thin as water.  I guess I will chalk it up to an experience.  The wines note below is of my Friday Night / fireworks experience.

The wine note follows below:

2006 Hagafen Pinot Noir Prix Reserve, Fagan Creek, Block 38 – Score: A-
The nose on this dark ruby colored wine is smoky, with nice mineral notes, black cherry, rich sweet oak, coffee, and cinnamon. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is spicy, with a rich mouth of dark cherry, raspberry with soft to integrating tannins. The mid palate is acidic, with tannin, sweet oak, and smoke. The finish is smoky and long, with coffee, cherry, integrated tannins, cinnamon, and a dollop of vanilla. The red fruit lingers on your palate long after the wine is gone. The mix of spicy smoky red fruit, nice extraction, and coffee, makes it all fun, but still not a classic Pinot Noir in any way.