2016 Cayuse Camaspelo wine review: Oh what a bad wine this is

 There is one thing to like in this wine: It has olive notes. But it's still a fairly poor wine, because you need much more than olives to make a good wine.  Please don't waste your money on this. Parker and Suckling gave it 94 points, but at just six years it hasn't aged well. I suspect if those critics were on truth serum, they'd have trouble scoring it in the 80s now. It's actually difficult to drink. It is so stridently different from any well-made Bordeaux blend that it's almost painful. By straining a bit, I could give it a "C." Meaning, 75 points. Save your money! There are THOUSANDS of good wines costing much less. Why pay into the Emperor's Got No Clothes? 

In fairness, Christophe Baron makes some very good wines, but you have to hunt for them. It's a poor strategy to just buy everything he makes. I finally wised up to that wisdom, and backed off-I only buy the superb Bionic Frog now. That is the ONLY wine made by Mr. Baron that performs well on the resale market. 

I say this too often perhaps, but it's essential information: Anyone can overpay for wine. It takes no skill. Do you really want to play in a game where everyone pretends that a wine is good, when it sucks? I wish I could've sold this bottle in the auction market, but the buyers understand that this is not a very good wine, so I had to drink it. Shame on me.

2015 Horsepower Sur Echalas Syrah - Review

 First, this is a well-made wine. I can see how it received 98 points. But I hated it.

I think that, as wines are made from grapes, and as grapes are a fruit, wines should taste like fruit. There is no fruit in this wine. But it is a fascinating cornucopia of aromas: Bitter coffee; bitter chocolate; blood; spam. Problem is, I don't like any of those things. That's why I don't like this wine. 

California wine buyers must agree-I couldn't sell this profitably at auction, so we opened one to drink, instead of selling it. Man, was it painful. I could not drink it. I know Christophe is an artiste, but I wish he would allow his wines to taste like winegrapes.

My grade on this wine: The bouquet is A+ but the palate is D-. Not a very good use of $140.

Update 2 days later: The wine is marginally better--I can even sense a faint hint of some slight bit of purple fruit--but it is so bitter on the palate that it's not drinkable. This winemaker has made many supremely wonderful wines, but this one is a failure in the mouth, where the bouquet is so wonderful that perhaps this product's best use is as perfume, not for drinking?

My Secret Squirrel was almost a bad wine

 2015 Secret Squirrel Cab Sauv: $27 retail. The appeal is that this is made by Corlis and Tranche, from the same fruit that goes into their $50-$100 wines (I don't personally now that bit is true-I found it online). Various online tasting notes are quite effusive, but this wine didn't do it for me. It's a lovely inky dark purple, but has no bouquet (if it has any, it's just alcohol). The Palate seems silky at first, which I appreciate, but later there's just no "there there." I swirled and splashed it, hoping it would wake up, but no dice. It's just bad. It's dead. Don't waste your money. I bet they knew there was something wrong with this wine, and they resorted to pushing it out into the market using an alternate name that wouldn't harm their primary labels' reputation. Not necessarily a smart plan. Two hours later, in the glass, it's still dead. Ugh.