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Sauvignon Blanc Now With Yeast
2008-04-16 13:58:00
The wine for the night was a 2006 Quivira Sauvignon Blanc Complete. I believe they call it complete because it was left on it's native yeast lees for 7 months. Quivira is a Biodynamic certified winery, as of a couple of years ago, and I believe all of their wines are now Biodynamic.The wine had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.2% alcohol by volume (a little high for a Sauvignon Blanc), and arrived in a club shipment. I don't know what it cost because the mailing didn't break it down and I haven't seen the bottle available on the website. I would really appreciate it if the wineries would include a breakdown of the cost of each bottle in the shipment (especially for reordering purposes). I know I've ranted about this before, but is it that hard to shove in a card that says: Sauvignon Blanc, $xx.xx?Anywho, on the nose of the wine I found lemon, pineapple, cream, slight cedar with a bit of oak, and star fruit. In the mouth the wine was full of tropical fruit, lemon, star ...
More About: California , White

Main Reason We Went to the Anderson Valley
2008-04-15 13:55:00
Don't get me wrong-we tasted a lot of great wine while there for the day, but the impetus behind driving up there to spend the day was to return to Roederer Estates for some fantastic sparkling wine. We first visited Roederer on our honeymoon almost two years ago and fell in love with the 99 L'Ermitage Brut. We only bought two bottles that time, so I had to have more! Thus, our first day in the area found us making the trek up a very windy road to discover more of what the Anderson Valley had to offer.We tasted through the menu they were pouring that day, which sadly did not include the '99. However, they still had some for sale, and while they warned us that it had aged and was perhaps toastier now than what we had purchased in '06, we went for 2 bottles anyway. I would have liked to have gotten more, but the price had soared to around $60 a bottle. But for nostalgia purposes, it was worth it this time.Brut MV: $21. Crisp, apple, citrus, lively.Brut Magnum: $43. Creamy, to...
More About: California , Main , Reason

More Mystery Wine
2008-04-14 13:44:00
The wine for the night was a 2005 "La Colombaia" Valpolicella Ripasso. I'm scratching my head to figure out where this one came from. Apparently I paid $18.99 for it, which leads me to believe that perhaps it came from the Wine ry in Old Town Alexandria. It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14% alcohol by volume, hails from Italy , and is made from Merlot .The nose of the wine showed raisins, currants, spices, plums, earth, and cherries. In the mouth I found tart cherries, raisins, earth, and spice. After a little while a touch of plum showed through. The wine continued to open up in the glass, showing a lot of depth. This was an easy drinking wine, very yum, and incredibly food friendly. A quick search reveals you can find it online for about $15.99.
More About: Mystery

WBW #45-Old World Riesling
2008-04-12 17:50:00
Our host for this month's edition of the virtual tasting known as Wine Blogging Wednesday is Tim of Winecast. Tim has chosen a fabulous theme, one of my absolute favorite white wines, Riesling . However, his stipulation is that the wine must come from the "Old World ." So choose a Riesling from Germany, Austria, or the Alsace region of France. He'll give you a little leniency if you want to go with Northern Italy, the Czech Republic, or Slovenia too. You can read all the details here.This month's WBW deadline is May 7. Get shopping and tasting and post your review on May 7 or if you don't have a blog and want to participate send your notes to Tim at "winecast at gmail dot com" with WBW 45 in the subject line.

Pinot Blanc. From Connecticut!
2008-04-11 14:24:00
We picked up this bottle of 2006 Chamard Pinot Blanc while visiting the winery in Connecticut . It cost us $17.99, clocked in at 12.5% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure. On the nose I found pineapple, tropical fruit, lemon, and minerals. In the mouth, apple showed through the most (odd because I didn't get it on the nose at all!), then some lemon and other citrus with underlying tropical fruit. Overall the wine was lively and acidic with good structure. We actually didn't get to taste this one while at the winery as they weren't pouring it that day, but I was really curious to try a Pinot Blanc from Connecticut so we took a few bottles home with us. Since the overall quality level of the wines were tried while there was very good, we didn't think it would be that big of a risk to take home something untried. A good gamble in my opinion, this wine was very well done.
More About: White

Seven Year Old Sangiovese
2008-04-10 20:21:00
And boy does it taste good! I purchased this bottle of 2001 Deerfield Ranch Sangiovese from Wine Q in one of my recent club shipments. It costs $21.99 through WineQ (free shipping if you spend $35!), had a real cork closure, and clocks in at 13.6% alcohol by volume. It hails from the Clear Lake area, specifically from the Roumiguiere Vineyard. The winery made 645 cases of this bottling and it has swept up a ton of awards!Cherry, strawberry, flowers, leather, spice, and earth jumped out of the glass. The wine was very fruit forward and the nose was definitely dominated by the cherry and strawberry. In the mouth the wine was also full of fruit. The cherry was the prominent flavor, with roses and strawberry also showing up.The wine had just a little tannin, it's drinking perfectly right now and was incredibly smooth after very little time in the glass. I really enjoyed this bottle of wine, and were it not for the fact that I can only get a few more WineQ shipments before it get...
More About: California , Year

Farrah Olivia+ The Next Iron Chef
2008-04-09 13:39:00
We first visited Farrah Olivia in Old Town Alexandria with my dad. We didn't know anything about the place, but it was late, we were hungry, and it looked open. So we walked in around 9 at night and were seated immediately. I can say that such an occurrence is no longer a possibility since after we had been there, the owner and chef, Chef Morou, appeared on the Food Network show: The Next Iron Chef. It has been impossible to get reservations there ever since it aired, though I must admit, we were strangely excited when we saw that he was a contestant because we could actually say we had been to his restaurant. Though ultimately he did not win, his restaurant is still top notch in our book!We started the evening with one of the cheese course, this time the Vermont Cheese selection which came with bread crisps, several blue cheeses, honey, and popcorn. Our first wine for the night was a 2006 Stellenbosch Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa that had a screw cap, clocked in at 13.5%...
More About: Restaurants

Purchasing Futures
2008-04-08 13:47:00
On our 3rd and last day tasting on our recent CA trip, we met up with Russ the Winehiker at Bella first thing in the morning (more on Bella later.) We enticed Russ (well, really, it didn't take much arm twisting....) to come out with us for a few stops on Wednesday before he had to head back home by dangling Bella and David Coffaro as stops in front of him!Our second stop of the day was at David Coffaro. Three other people were at the tasting bar when we sidled up and I whipped out my notebook and started writing. Steve, who was pouring our tasting, took a look and decided I looked serious, so grabbed a wine thief and offered us a barrel tasting. Apparently this was to be the trip of barrel tasting! We tasted everything David Coffaro had in barrels and purchased a case of futures which will be bottled later this year and shipped to us when we decide the weather is good enough!David Coffaro sells the vast majority of his wines through his futures program, so you pretty much have ...
More About: California , Futures

On a Domaine547 kick
2008-04-07 13:52:00
I recently got around to finishing up all but one of the last 6 wines I purchased from Domaine547 in my quest to search out some new and interesting grapes from countries I tend not to turn to frequently. This wine fell squarely in both categories, I rarely drink wine from Portugal (mainly because not much is carried in my local stores) and I had never even heard of the grape!The wine was a 2006 Quinta do Alqueve Fernao Pires, from the Ribatejo DOC in Portugal. It's a white wine that clocks in at 13% alcohol by volume, has a real cork closure, and cost me $9.99 from Domaine547 (apparently I'm also on a bargain wine kick!).The best way that I can think of to describe this grape, the Fernao Pires grape, is that it seems like a cross between Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. It's crisp and refreshing like the Sauvignon Blanc, but has the aromatics and slightly heavier oily characteristic of a Viognier.On the nose I found citrus, lemon, pineapple, and peach. In the mouth, the wine was...
More About: White , Kick

Homage to Pinotage
2008-04-06 20:48:00
*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from Bottlenotes.Or rather, to a Pinotage/Shiraz blend. I received this wine quite a while ago as a part of a blogger trial of Bottlenotes. For the trial, I was given a credit at Bottlenotes which I could use to try out any of their wineclubs. I chose the Dinner Party club, and received this Pinotage/Shiraz in a shipment along with a bottle of Petite Sirah Port that I have yet to try.The wine was a 2006 Seven Sisters "Dawn" Pinotage/Shiraz from South Africa . It can be purchased from Bottlenotes for $14.99. It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.5% alcohol by volume, and was a blend of 60% Pinotage/40% Shiraz.This wine was honestly fabulous. It's been a few months since I drank it, but I can still remember what it tasted like, and what an incredible value it was. I'd never had a Pinotage before and I was happy to try one and was delighted to find a new grape to love. I will certainly seek out Pinotage again. The nose of the wi...

Tempranillo (Tem prawn eee yo)
2008-04-04 14:06:00
I purchased this wine a few months ago in a 6 pack of interesting wines I ordered from Domaine547 in my search for different things to review. The wine was a 2006 Dehesa Gago Tempranillo from Toro, Spain . The wine cost me $12.99 (a steal), had a real cork closure and clocked in at 14.5% alcohol by volume. I also want to try the Tinto de Toro that Domaine547 has available from the same producer!The nose of the wine showed currants, dark cherries, and pepper. The nose was slightly sweet smelling and very fruity. In the mouth I found blueberry, currants, dark fruit, and spices.Overall the wine was smooth and dark and very yum. We drank this by itself, but it seemed to lend itself well to being food friendly and could easily match with lots of different things. Especially at the price, this is a great every day wine for dinner!

Local Vino
2008-04-04 01:44:00
A quick review this morning (have to go to work super early today!) of a local wine from Rappahannock Cellars. I owe you a review on our tasting experience at Rappahannock, which I will get around to eventually, along with a million reviews from Sonoma and the DC Wine and Food Festival!The wine for the evening was a 2006 Rappahannock Cellars Vidal Blanc. We see quite a bit of Vidal Blanc and Seyval Blanc here in Virginia, both grapes grow fairly well in our climate. I'm pleased to notice that the quality has grown in leaps and bounds in the 5 years I've lived here and been drinking VA wines. The wine had a nose of pear, honey, apricot, and tart tropical fruit. In the mouth, apricot and spiced pears dominated the flavors. The wine was tart, with good structure and solid acidity to keep the sweetness that this grape can demonstrate in check. Oddly enough, I can only find information about the dessert variety of this wine on their website, and the bottle appears to have disappe...
More About: Local , Vino

WBW #44 French Cabernet Franc
2008-04-02 13:34:00
Our host for this edition of WBW, the brain-child of Lenn of Lenndevous, is Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. He chose French Cabernet Franc as theme for this month (ostensibly as a result of his recent trip tasting in France !). You can watch his vlog about the event here, but the jist is pick a French Cabernet Franc and post your link by April 2, 2008 in the comments to the entry on his website.I'll admit straight up that I sorta cheated on this one. Having been in travel mode since before Gary's theme announcement, I really didn't have much of a chance to pick up a bottle for this month or shop around. I popped into my favorite local shop, The Winery in Old Town Alexandria, and sadly could not come up with a full on Cabernet Franc. So I went with a 25% Cabernet Franc, 70% Merlot , and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon Bordeaux style blend.The wine is a 2004 Chateau Quercy Saint-Emilion Grand Cru. It clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost me $25.99. T...

Playing with Schmancy Glass Things
2008-04-01 13:55:00
I broke out both the fancy Riedel stemless glasses and this decanting/aerating contraption called the Soiree to drink this bottle of 2005 Mauritson Zinfandel from Dry Creek Valley. Mostly because I wanted to play with them, as decanting a Zin is definitely not something I do on a regular basis (if at all.) I'll tell you more about the Soiree another day, but I picked it up for $20 at the DC International Wine and Food Festival and the idea is that the unique shape will perform the same task as decanting your wine!The Zinfandel clocked in at 15.1% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost us around $25 in a club shipment.On the nose of the wine I found blackberry, spice, boysenberry, and cedar. The fruit was very fresh and just jumped out of the glass (perhaps due to the Soiree? I have another bottle of this, perhaps I'll taste it sans Soiree and compare my notes!). In the mouth, juicy blackberries, dark fruit, and pepper. The wine was spicy and a bit tannic on the ...
More About: California , Glass , Things

My First Barrel Tasting!
2008-03-31 13:39:00
So does that belong in a scrapbook next to "My first steps" and "My first birthday cake?" As a wine enthusiast, I certainly think it might take a place among those milestones ;)While in Sonoma, Matt and I were lucky enough to be shown all over town by Patrick (more about Patrick, his wife Genevieve and their wines later) of Iridesse Wines. We were also joined by Russ, the Winehiker himself, for all of one day and part of another. It was so much fun to meet more wine folks, and especially to finally put faces and voices with people's internet personas. We couldn't have asked for a better host, and I find it to always be great to go out and about with someone who lives in the area you are visiting...not only did we have great wines, we also went to fabulous restaurants! We met up with Patrick and Russ at the Flying Goat in downtown Healdsburg, and Patrick quickly whisked us away to Chateau Felice, where we were fortunate enough to be offered the chance to taste everything (and I...
More About: California , Barrel

Filling the Basement
2008-03-31 02:21:00
This is what our basement looked like before our 2008 Sonoma trip and before the great Reorg of 2008.During our reorg. We pulled out all the wine that was there, and opened all the boxes that arrived yesterday.We organized everything into varietals so that we would find things easier...well, that's the idea.And after! We completely filled up the 9 racks we had, plus a styrofoam case we had been previously using, and had to add 6 more styrofoam shipper halves to contain it all!!Hours later, we are done, and exhausted!
More About: Wine , The Basement , Misc

Gnarly Friends
2008-03-29 17:29:00
I am fascinated by grapevines. These gnarly old Zinfandel creatures were living on the side of the driveway up to Christopher Creek Winery, though they apparently belong to the lady next door!
More About: Friends , California

Bud Break!!!
2008-03-28 19:13:00
So I guess this confirms my status as a total wine geek (as Lenn just asked about), but I have never seen bud break before so I was super excited to be in Sonoma for it this year! We didn't see any on our first two days, but finally, on the 3rd day (March 18) we witnessed it! These shots were taken at Acorn Winery where Patrick told us we should definitely not miss a tasting (and I agree, highly recommend the place.) These are, if I remember correctly, the Sangiovese vines.
More About: Break

Literally In the Saddle
2008-03-27 13:08:00
*Disclaimer-I received this bottle of wine as a sample from Wine Q because I am a member of their Beta Club.The wine for the evening was a 2003 Sky Saddle Zinfandel from Twin Oaks Vineyard in Sonoma County. It clocked in at 14.5% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and can be purchased from WineQ for $25.99.--heat had to blow offI would suggest opening this bottle a half hour or so before you want to drink it, it needed to open up just a touch before I really got the full aroma and flavor from it.On the nose the wine showed perfumed spices, lavendar, rosemary, other spice, earth, dark cherries, and blackberries. The nose had a floral characteristic and lots of fruit came shining through. I thought the aroma was really complex and layered for a Zinfandel, in addition to being quite enticing; it made me want to jump right in. The mouth followed through on the nose, complex and layered, the flavors kept coming. I found black cherry, blackberries, chocolate, spice, earth, le...
More About: California , Literally

Drinking Local
2008-03-26 13:06:00
The wine for the evening was the 2006 Rappahannock Noblesse Blanc Table White from a winery we visited in Virginia recently. The bottle ran us $16.50 minus a 5% discount, had a real cork closure and oddly didn't list the alcohol content on the label.The wine smelled sweet, with aromas of apricots, tropical fruit, and pineapple dominating. In the mouth, I found mandarin oranges, pineapples, and other tropical fruit. The wine had a tangy element to it, a bit prickly, almost like the sensation slightly overripe pineapple leaves in your mouth. It had good structure and acidity and would be really nice chilled for a summer quaffer.
More About: Drinking , Local

Saddles Up
2008-03-25 21:48:00
Sorry for the silence around here! I had no way to hook my computer up to the internet since Wednesday and am just getting back online today! We should be back to your regularly scheduled wine programming from here on out, no vacations for the Wannabe Winos for quite some time! I have lots to report on from our Sonoma trip, great new wineries, restaurants, more wine....! All in all, an excellent time was had by all and I really enjoyed getting to meet some of the wine bloggers I've been chatting with for a couple of years now! More on that later.As for the wine of the night, it was a 2006 Twisted Oak Verdelho from Alta Mesa Silvaspoons Vineyards. The wine arrived in my very first Twisted Oak club shipment, along with Bob my chicken :) It can be purchased from Twisted Oak from $16, clocked in at 13.4% alcohol by volume, and had a screw cap closure.On the nose I found cream, white pepper, tropical fruit, cantaloupe, peach, and flowers. The wine was very aromatic. I also love...
More About: California , White

Grower's Reserve
2008-03-19 14:26:00
Giving away a little bit of how behind I am on posts, we drank this 2004 Mauritson Grower's Reserve Zinfandel from the Dry Creek Valley on Super Bowl Sunday. This will also show that while in theory I like the concept of pairing food and wine, really I just like the drink what I like with what I like to eat, though I will occasionally comment on whether or not a pairing worked for a wine. Point in case: I served this Zin with a mish mosh of Super Bowl type appetizers- cheeses and crackers, various chips and dips, bourbon chicken, etc. It didn't work, but no one much cared as the wine was good and the appetizers yummy!The wine clocked in at 15.5% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, cost us $26.40 in a club shipment, and only 275 cases of it were made in a mix of grapes from 3 vineyards.My first note on the wine was that the juice was not as dark as I thought it would be, based on it being a Zin and all the other Zins I have consumed. On the nose I found pepper, jammy bla...
More About: California

It's Magic!
2008-03-17 15:00:00
The bottle for the night was the 2006 Hocus Pocus Syrah . I picked this bottle up from Domaine547 for $17.99. I know it had a real cork closure, and I didn't write down the alcohol content, but I believe it was somewhere in the low-14% range. The wine hails from the Central Coast of California .On the nose I found cobbler, both blueberry and blackberry, with cedar spice (and by that I do mean spiced Cedar wood, neither one nor the other), vanilla and pepper. In the mouth there were dark berries, especially blackberries, and it was a woody wine, in the sense of a dark forest. The wine was dark, silky, and well balanced.I thought this wine was an excellent value for the price tag, and I loved the cobbler on the nose!
More About: Magic

Blogging From the Road
2008-03-16 23:58:00
AKA-Live in Sonoma County! Our bed and breakfast (at least the one we are in tonight) has free wireless so I am able to keep blogging for you while we are away!The wine for the evening was the 2003 Lava Cap 2003 Reserve Merlot from El Dorado. It clocked in at 15.1% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost us $19.99 from WineQ (free shipping!).On the nose I found berries, plums, spices, dark fruit, currants, and chocolate. In the mouth, more berries, currants, and plums. The wine was fruity with a bit of a darker earthy undertone, and still had a bit of a tannic edge.I thought this was a really fun, fruity Merlot, and another great effort from Lava Cap. For this price, I would definitely get this again and consider it as a staple for serving with pizza or tomato based pasta dishes.
More About: California , Blogging , Road , The Road

Wine from Connecticut
2008-03-14 13:51:00
Despite having lived in Connecticut for the vast majority of my life, I had never had a chance to taste wine from the state before this Christmas. While spending a lengthy holiday visiting my family, Matt and I decided to hit up a vineyard in the town next to my parents' house to see what CT wine is all about. Now, I've heard of others reporting back on CT wine, even Dr. Debs on the west coast has had some! So it was high time I got my act together.We went early one morning to visit Chamard Vineyards in Clinton, Connecticut. Chamard is one of the oldest vineyards in CT, and benefits from the cooling effects of Long Island Sound in growing their grapes. They also source some of their fruit from Long Island.One of the bottles we brought home was a Chamard 2003 Chardonnay American Table Wine . It clocked in at 12.5% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost usOn the nose of the wine I found pineapple, toast, cedar, and lemon. The wine was oaked, but that was not the pr...
More About: White

WBW #43-Round up posted and a Contest!
2008-03-14 03:52:00
Joel, of Wine Life Today has posted the round-up from what may shake out as one of my favorite WBW themes in the past year or so since I've been participating in WBW. Now, of course, I loved my own theme of Petite Sirah, but I really enjoyed the challenge of thinking about what a wine means to me and why for this WBW. You can read all the details of the round up here, and be sure to click through and read the personal stories that came along with this month's WBW.I also wanted to point your attention to El Bloggo Torcido, where once again the Twisted Folks at Twisted Oak are hosting a contest. You may recall this one from last year, the premise is that the readers get the opportunity to write the back label for one of Twisted Oak's wine bottles! This year it's for Ruben's Blend, the details of which you can find here. The deadline is soon, March 18, so pull out those pens and get cracking. Now, I played in this contest last year, and submitted a lovely ditty about a drunk...
More About: Contest , Round Up , Round

Wannabe Winos on the Road!
2008-03-12 20:06:00
Well, we are headed off to our annual trip to California . I had hoped we were going to be able to visit another part of CA wine country this time, but we've decided on one more trip to the Dry Creek/Russian River/Alexander/Anderson Valley area, due to time constraints and a few other factors. Plus, we do really love the area, and it brings back nice memories of our honeymoon.We will be in the area this Saturday evening through Wednesday morning, so really 3 full days. I'm trying not to plan too much this time, and I'm avoiding making appointments on this trip. Any you would absolutely say are MUST SEEs that don't require appointments? And if you have any restaurant recommendations in the area, I'd love to hear them! I'm fairly set on stopping in again at Roederer, so we will be up in the Anderson Valley, and I would like to try to run by Bella and David Coffaro again to taste their newer line ups and restock my cellar with some of their offerings. With that said, here's a...
More About: Wineries , Road , On The Road , The Road

Mmmm....Welch's
2008-03-11 12:36:00
It's not often anyone describes a wine as tasting like grapes. In fact, I've heard and read that it's considered poor form for a wine to taste like grapes. But since it's made of grapes, it just doesn't seem wrong to me for wine to actually taste like grapes on occasion, rather than the myriad of other fruits, vegetables, meats, leather, earth, spices, etc., that can be found in wine.The wine was a 2006 Rapphannock Cellars Norton . We picked this bottle up at Rappahannock Cellars early this winter for about $17.50, it clocked in at 13.3% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure.It literally smells like Welch's Grape juice. I know grape juice is made of Concord grapes, but if I didn't know this was wine, I would have thought it was Welch's. In case you don't know, Norton is a grape that is actually native to North America, and is grown primarily here in Virginia and Missouri, I believe. I've seen it at a few vineyards here and I haven't been such a fan, but I reall...

My Kind of Blend
2008-03-10 12:51:00
The wine was a 2005 Alderbrook Confluence from Dry Creek Valley. It takes two grapes I really like and combines them in one blend, so what's not to love? The wine is a blend of 60% Zinfandel and 40% Syrah, it has a real cork closure, weighs in at 14.8% alcohol by volume, and cost us $24 in a club shipment.On the nose I got blackberry, currants, spice, pepper,vanilla, and blueberry. I could almost smell the tannins on this one. In the mouth the wine showed blueberry tart, blackberry, and earth. The fruit was really dark on this one, and very tart.A very tasty blend.
More About: Blend

Polls Closed...
2008-03-09 23:45:00
a while ago. But like some states, it takes me a while to count votes, even if they are staring me in the face whenever I pull up my blog!I realized after I posted the poll that I forgot to include Germany as an option, something several people pointed out to me. This was not meant as a slight at all, it was simply a by-product of me not being thorough enough when I created the poll.Not surprisingly to me, given my personal leaning to the US for most of my wine, 38% of voters (17 votes) chose the US as the country from which most of their wine hails. Coming in second was France with 7 votes and 15% of the vote. Italy and Australia followed closely with 5 votes each. In all 44 voters participated in the poll this go around.If I do a completely unscientific survey of the wines I've blogged about (meaning I quickly added up in my head the ones from the US and the ones from outside the US) about 60% of my wine is from the US with about 25% being from VA, roughly 70% from CA, and 5%...
More About: Polls , Closed