Legs!

Legs are a term used to describe those tear-like drops that form on the side of a glass of good wine. By a good wine, I mean one with a high alcohol content because the droplet forms from the liquid that climbs up the side of the glass (due to surface tension) as the alchohol evaporates, leaving a more water-like teardrop that, when large and heavy enough, falls back into the main body of wine in the glass. Anyway, I'm cheating in the picture big time because we were drinking wine last night in -20 degree weather and wouldn't you know it, it started to feel a little slushy after about 10 minutes. No good as antifreeze, this wine. Don't worry, we didn't waste any good wine because it was a very average wine night. One bottle, a Wolf Blass Yellow Label Cabernet of a recent vintage was so BAD it got poured down the sink after two of us gagged our the first sips - it wasn't off or corked, just a crap wine. The best of the bunch was probably the Infinitus, Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot 2004 from Patagonia in Argentina. It was a good middleweight sipper, OK with food, got better with time (was best with lunch the next day). Not worth the $18 bucks though. The Miguel Torres, Cordillera, 2001 is a supposedly high end Chilean wine (high end because it cost $28). It was very ordinary, nothing special at all, a waste of money for the price they're charging. The Infinitus was better. The Goldwater, Wood Hill, Cabernet, 2002 from New Zealand was the worst value of the lot at $32. Again, so non-descript a wine I won't bother you with the details. Just don't buy it. The last wine was also a disappointment, but only because I was pleasantly surprised by it last week. I tried the Jacob's Creek, Shiraz, Reserve, 2004 only because the 2003 vintage got a 90 score in the Wine Spectator. The first bottle we tried was quite yummy, full bodied with nice integrated toasty tannins, I almost gave it a WOW rating. It was good enough at $19 that I went out and bought a half a dozen more. Well, there must be bottle variation (not surprising because they probably make tons of this wine and keeping quality uniform must be tough) because the second bottle we tried last night was very average..."OK" to good, but not worth the $19. Beware - buy only one and if you like it, go back to the same store and buy its siblings only, hoping they are from the same batch.
Cheers!!