Big wine sale going on right now at one of my stores right now. I’ve got three wines to report on. I need to get my comfy wine drinking pants on and get a glass poured. I’ll be back in a short while with my first two reports.
Anyone else have a glass going yet?
No, but I bought a little bottle of Jim Beam on the way home. I may pour a bit later on. Cheers!
It’s been a bitch of a week.
Ahhh…spaghetti for dinner, so I have a glass of 2000 Mandolina Nebbiolo at hand. A quite nice California redition of an Italian varietal, made by my favorite Santa Ynez winery. Smooth, succulent, with cherry notes and a tanned leather midrange. Not as good an All-Around as their Toccata Sangiovese blend, but more than adequate. 
The glass I’ve got going now is Chateau du Tasta 2003 Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux. I bought it strictly on the recommendation of this guy. He’s never given me a bum steer. At the 20% sale, the bottle cost me $8.79. At that price I had pretty low expectations, but was very pleasantly suprised at how full and well rounded this wine is. I picked up one bottle yesterday and after tasting it, ran back and bought a case this afternoon. I don’t think I’ve had a better wine at this price level.
Next up…Vincent Girardin Cuvee Saint-Vincent 2003 Bourgogne.
The previously mentioned Burgundy. I took a total flyer in buying this one, knowing not all that much about Burgundy to begin with. The appellation is simply Bourgogne.
Of all the Burgundy I’ve had (not very much), this is the closest to the American Pinots that I’m only slightly more familiar with. It’s pretty light in body, and it’s got the cherry fruitiness that I like. There’s more tanin than I’m used to in a Pinot. It’s a nice wine, but I don’t think it’s quite my sytle. I’m going to chew on it for a while longer before making a final decision, but I don’t think I’ll be headed back to buy any more of it.
2004 Smoking Loon Pinot Noir. I’ve enjoyed their Merlot in the past, but am less than overwhelmed by this. Is “thin” a word you can use to describe wine?
I was looking for a Pinotage for tonight (it’s my new favorite), but the packy I visited had no S. African wines at all.
good evening friends,
tonight i have opened a bottle of francis ford coppola’s lovely black diamond claret. it is smooth as silk, very flavorful and has a lovely fragrance.
i started buying this from a sort of a reccomendation from c.l. werner, c.e.o. of werner trucking company. i test the fire alarm at his hunting lodge, and there was a few cases of this in the kitchen. i figure that if it is good enough for c.l. it should be o.k. by me.
It’s been one bitch of a week in my neck of the woods as well.
I was thinking of going red tonight, but decided to pull a white from the rack after picking up dinner at Trader Joe’s.
Tonight’s wine is a 2004 Viognier from the North Coast of California - William Roan. ($8.00 or so at a local grocery store I think.)
As the bottle was chilling a bit I whipped up some candied walnuts and cut a few nice hunks of Cowgirl Creamery’s out of this world Pierce Pt. Oh good lord, this cheese is not to be believed. Creamy, with incredible flavors, yet still very subtle. And the rind is just gorgeous. Pieces of herbs of every shape, size and color are embedded in it. It’s truly beautiful.
Popped open the wine and enjoyed the first few sips on its own. Could be a little more aromatic but has very nice flavors. Honeysuckle, peach, apricot, citrus. Nice mouthfeel (medium to not quite full), smooth, clean finish. Pretty light straw/wheat color.
Enjoyed some of the nuts and the cheese with the wine and, while it was all very nice together, each item was so wonderful on its own, I decided that I was finished with the cheese and nuts and stuck to my glass of wine while I prepared (ha!) dinner. But oh, that cheese will not last long.
Dinner was a lemon and dill infused salmon thanks to my good buddy Trader Joe. All marinaded and loaded with dill in a neat little bag that I just had to stick in the oven for 15 minutes. Along with herb roasted new potatoes as a side. Ok, now *this *with the wine was a major winner. Absolute bliss in my mouth. The weight of the wine matched the weight of the salmon perfectly. The mild acidity cut through the richness and the flavor of the fish and the dill, as well as the starch of the potatoes, cleansing my mouth for the next bite, yet complimenting the bite I had just taken. So, so good.
Now, I’ve had better Viognier, but I’ve certainly had worse, and for $8, this was a surprisingly good treat. And with the dinner it was even better.
I have a 375 of a Sauternes - 2003 Chateau Gravas - waiting in the fridge for dessert, but I’m afraid to pull it out after such a wonderful meal and wine. I don’t want to be disappointed. Besides, this Viognier has a nice kick to it with 15% abv, I might be too tipsy for that dessert pretty quickly. Not to mention still full from dinner.
I always drink Bolla reds… I’m particularly fond of Merlot, and least fond of Sangiovese. I’m in-between bottles right now and am already over my daily calorie allowance… (sighs and holds up glass of diet cola in a toast)
This past week, I think on Monday, I had a nice and affordable bottle of 2005 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau which, using my limited wine parlance, was nicely and subtly fruity. I’ve enjoyed every Beaujolais I’ve ever tried. It also went very well with the ravioli I made, I just need to remember to stop drinking wine while I cook: it ends up leaving my confused by what I’m doing when everything’s coming to a finish
Additionally, this week I applied for a weekend job as a tasting room attendant at a local winery (whose wine tastes like apple juice with everclear, but I need a job, so eh).
friend meursault,
many years ago, the first “flavor” of boone’s farm wine was their apple. it was sold out of the cooler case at sixty nine cents a bottle. we would start a friday evening by stopping at a liquor store and tell the clerk to give us all the cold boone’s farm he had. we would ice it down in a washtub and drink it for teh rest of the wekend.
a boone’s farm hangover was an awful thing.
My best recent find is a non-vintage Australian Shiraz by the name of Mark Davidson. Cost per bottle is around $9.99. It is a great red and one of the first that I can actually taste the grape as it hits the back of my tongue.
We started with a bottle of Argyle NV Sparkling Wine. This has always been a bottle we enjoy, but it usually get relegated to “second bottle” status after a French champagne or something. It was big and rich and fruity - definitely a good first bottle in a different style than the typical dry-as-a-bone champagnes we usually drink.
We had that fairly early in the evening, so when we found ourselves with another hour of “Bleak House” to watch and an empty bottle, we opened up the Annie’s Lane 2003 Clare Valley Riesling. Another big surprise! A dry riesling, but with a huge amount of fruit. Right away it was BIG strawberries and kiwi - I told Mr. Athena it smelled like a strawberry lifesaver. Bits of lime came in as well. I really liked this Riesling. The notes on the back suggest aging it 5 to 8 years, and I’m considering getting a few more bottles to put up and see how it changes.
We’ve got half the bottle left (which is another plus - we have no self control and it’s SO GOOD that we didn’t just drink that whole bottle). I’m thinking salmon tonight, with a good beurre blanc would go specatularly with this wine.