Le Cigare Volant

2003 Bonny Doon, Le Cigare Volant ($18 for 375ml) -- Red Wine, California. 35% Mourvedre, 32% Syrah, 26% Grenache, 7% Cinsault. This is a Chateauneuf-du-Pape style from Bonny Doon Vineyards in Santa Cruz. I am guessing that they sourced the grapes from multiple locations which explains the California desigation. I did not find production notes on the 2003 vintage. Here is some really important details from the site:

History: Yah, sure we now occupy a commanding eye-level outpost in the Rhône section of your tonier fine wine shops, but ‘twas not always so, at least not in April 1986 when the first vintage—1984—was released. Le Cigare Volant®, the one, the original, the inaugural Cryptoneuf-du-Pape to rise from the vineyards of California, first alighted a little off to the side of the “Other” section in the domestic aisle of the American bottle shop. The initial epiphany which seemed so heretical, so alien, in those dark times now strikes as elementary, utterly self-evident: the California climate is far more similar to the Mediterranean coast than it is to Bordeaux or Burgundy. Named after the dirigible or cigare-shaped UFOs seen over the vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the southern Rhône Valley, Le Cigare Volant—literally, “The Flying Cigare”—pays homage not only to the wines of that celebrated appellation, but to all forays into the world of the magical and unknown.

This is a balanced, full-fruit wine with a smooth medium finish. An independent wine rep and I both declared this wine to be very "delicious" in a scholarly review of this wine. But I have to deduct style points here as the nose is lacking somewhat (this, while I watch the Men's Figure Skating Short Programs!)