Tiger: I know it's off blog topic but I need to pause today to pay loving homage to my cat Tiger who had to be put down yesterday.  Everyone loves their pets and they usually think there is something special about them.  In Tiger's case that was definitely true.  He was a good boy, very peaceful for a male cat, who almost never raised a paw or voice in anger or fear.  Since he was a kitten we had treated him with the same rights and respect as a person.   If he sat first he got to keep the seat.  If he didn't want to be picked up he was let be.  If we snacked he had the option of snacking too.  Anyway he learned and understood rights, granted the same to us, and had a profound sense of fairness for a pet.  With that came sympathy and empathy.  If one of us was crying he'd come to console, if we were sick he'd stay by us.  Although unable to talk his eyes and mannerisms communicated quite effectively and we often said he could speak without talking.  Such a sweet, intelligent, gentle soul.  Probably our one big mistake was we shared meat with him (people food) from his kitten age and he came to demand and live on that rather than cat food.  About 3 years ago he had a blood test which suggested something was going on with his digestion and the vet wanted to do shots twice a day, a colonoscopy, and put him on a restricted diet of minimal cat food.  We declined because we thought he'd find that more insufferable than death.  Anyway, over 3 years he went from normal, to slightly off digestion (constipation), and in the last month to diarrhea, so most likely the problem had caught up with him.  His last two days he was on baby food at vet suggestion and he had even thrown that up before his last trip to the vet.  So there was really no other choice but to put him down, and I'm sorry if his diet may have led to his inability to eat and poop right anymore.  Most likely his kidney was giving out.  But he was 10.5 years old.  In his heyday he was over 14 pounds (although he had dropped to 13 on his last day).  He had eaten every day of his life the yummy meats that other cats could only dream of getting, and he had literally dined with us thousands of times like true family.  We loved him dearly.  If there's a kitty heaven he's in it.  Goodbye Tiger.  I'm sorry I ended your life, although I, Nancy, and the vet all feel it was the kindest thing we could do.  Yet that doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye.

1) Simi, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 (Alexander Valley, California) - First this was a gift from a boss, co-worker, good friend, and wine enthusiast whose opinion and experience in wine I value.  Thank you.  I had 3 gift wines before the long holiday so I'm making a special effort to enjoy those 3 so I'll have them reviewed before returning to work.  The first I opened was this Simi wine.  It was a very nice cab.  Although from California it has the smooth sophistication of an Old World wine, with good balance of flavor and acidity, and not overdone red fruits.  It goes well with food.  Really it is a quality  wine and I'm thankful for the gift.  I'll give this a 7 out of 10 for better than average.

2) Salmon Creek, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2003 (California) - This was a gift from another co-worker who has a connection to the catering industry.  I note the back of the bottle says this wine is marketed to restaurants so it's a rare chance to try a wine at home which I could not have bought in any liquor store.  I'll confess I looked this wine up on the internet before trying it and if I read right the sale value (to restaurants) is around $5, but as we all know restaurants usually mark up their prices to about 3 times the cost of a wine, so it's intended to taste in the $15 range.  So I wasn't expecting this wine to blow me away.  However, this wine tasted and scored quite well with me.  First I enjoyed every drop of this down to the bottom of the bottle.  Although light bodied for a cab (almost built more like a pinot noir) it had a decent zing of acidity, decent red fruit flavors, and really did taste like a $15 wine.  In my heart I still feel this was a dressed up wine for the sake of restaurants turning a profit, but all that matters is whether we enjoy it and yes I did.  I'm grateful to my co-worker for this opportunity to try it and depending on what else was on the wine list in a restaurant I might actually order this.  Thanks.  5 out of 10 for standard average.

My 3rd wine gift is another red not opened yet so I'll open it tonight and review it in a few days.  I have one more non-gift for this list...

3) Josef Friederich, Rheinhessen, Niersteiner gutes Domtal, Riesling, 2006 (Germany) - This was a $10 riesling recommended by Best Cellars so I bought it for Nancy who prefers whites.  Actually this was very nice and I know I'll be buying more both for home and to give as future gifts.  It has a slight sweetness but not overdone, some exotic fruit flavors like a New Zealander white, and there's a slight hint of what I'd call a medicinal taste but not in anyway displeasing, if anything it adds to the foreign mystique of this wine.  As the bottle says - this is qualitatswein.  Well done.  I'll give it 7 out of 10 for above average.  And what a value at $10!