Toad Hall Cellars

Where is William Safire when you need him? I couldn’t get a hold of the New York Times “On Language” guy and my old Webster’s (1986) didn’t have a meaning for bodacious. Wikipedia.com says the word is used for a “full-figured female body shape.” And, a fierce bull called Bodacious, was infamous as “The World’s Most Dangerous Bull.” Bodacious is also said to mean “extremely cool” and “most excellent.”

In any case, Toad Hall’s red Bodacious blend (half Cabernet Sauvignon, half Merlot) is clearly not a full-figured woman, although its brilliant fruit makes it voluptuous. It most certainly ain’t a bull, but it does kick some ass. And it is cool and an excellently made wine.

The nose emits floral characteristics, and some coffee and baking spices such as cocoa. But there’s a hint of slate or iron, probably from the Windfall Vineyard’s (Rutherford) rocky soils. The wine is soft, round and balanced with some fine-grained tannin in the finish. Drink it now and over the next eight years. The wine spent 20 months in half French, half American wood. The stated alcohol is 14.2 percent and there were only 380 cases produced.

Reviewed September 6, 2007 by Alan Goldfarb.