Otherwise known as: Making room in the cellar because you buy too much cheap wine and never drink it.

2012 CONSILIENCE Grenache SBC 14.5 Big huge nutty lecithin nose, nutritional yeast and almost headed corked–but not. That sharp vegetal piquantness of tired pinot, punctuated by a mouthfeel sweet and chubby–actually quite good, but you can’t get past the nose.

2015 P.S. ‘it’s Silky’ GR/SY 65/35 Paso Robles 14.8 Dark garnet brown, a nose of macerated cardboard and pickled olives. Thick, sweet and rich in the mouth–even with a bit of tannin lurking–heat and syrup taking their toll.

2009 CLOS DU BOIS ‘Marlstone’ Cab/ME/Bec/PV 79/15/4/2 Alexander Valley Sonoma 14.5 A bit of a surprise here, as I have a stiff vert of these–all secured from clearance since restructuring. With a little air, this thing becomes much less *gone* than initially pronounced. Dark, completely impenetrable garnet. A vegetal nose rich with disgustingly thick cherry and burnt leather. Soggy and syrupy in the mouth, all cloying and maderized. Rich early beauty did this thing in.

2009 ‘Red Wine’ McGinley Vyd. Happy Canyon SYV SBC 14.5 My last bottle of a beloved brand and vineyard which for of recent faults will never get another drop of ink from me as long as I live. I gave your samples to non-wine passers-by on the street BTW. Distinctly bricking. Heavy, dusty, plodding concentrated nose, feeling a bit balsamic and Jerez-ed. The fruit a jammy puddle, mired in drear. Actually quite beautiful in the mouth–there are positive points to be made. Thickly raspy, fruit a maraschino drearyness but spiked with points of chalky light.

2006 SAWYER CELLARS ‘Bradford Meritage’ Rutherford Napa Valley 14.0 Musty, muddy nose out of a ridiculously ruby glass. Porta-potty in the sun; first-plow after a cabbage-picking. Thin and vapid on the palate, it’s not *bad*, just survives in a sort of root-beer, Pepsi wash where the carbonation has run out and the syrup-box needs replaced. Chalky and dry: perhaps the best finish here, because it hasn’t got the memo the front half is GONE.