Winey Thoughts

Skype Wine Night - November

2011-11-21T17:31:00.001-08:00

We may have failed a little in keeping this blog updated. Don't get us wrong, we've been drinking wine, but we just haven't been writing very much. However, there is a new feature we're going to start (at least for a few months or so) where Crymson and Miranda will have a monthly skype wine night. Basically we're trying to catch up and drink some great wine 2,000 miles away.

And as all things necessary in a civilized society there are a few rules:

1) We each drink the same type of wine

2) We each prepare a recipe

3) Guests are both welcome and encouraged

This past weekend we had our first organized Skype date and we decided that we would also try to cross of one of the wines on our 'Wines To Try' list. It's surprisingly harder than you would think to be able to find the same wine to try in Illinois and California. We resorted to the Internet and UPS to be able to help us out. Now the one downside to ordering wine online (if there can even be such a thing) is that the price of shipping can be nearly as much as the bottle of wine. So we'll have to do some good searching to make sure we're both drinking the same wine.

The Details:

Wine - One Hope Winery's Pinot Noir (featured on Drinking for a Cause post)

Amy's Recipe - Brie En Croute

Miranda's Recipe - Apple Crisp with Dried Cranberries

Amy's take: It was a nice wine, a lot lighter than the pinot noirs I'm used to. But the flavors were nice and smooth and sweet. It went down fast. I'd probably give it 4 stars...any other wine would have probably only gotten three but since this was One Hope and it's a charity that ups it. Kinda fun that we ordered the wine too. At least until we noticed the shipping rates. I made baked brie or if you want to get fancy like Paula Deen, Brie En Croute. It was good and super easy to make. It was more than the three of us could handle though, very rich. I'd bake brie again for a bigger group and I think I'd use an unusual jelly to top it instead of the candied pecans.

Miranda's take: I really enjoyed the wine. It was not nearly as dark red as I thought it would be, but it still had a pretty rich taste. So two thumbs up for One Hope. One for donating 1/2 the profits to charity and one for having a yummy pinot. Overall I'd rate it a three star wine.

Now let me just say that my apple crisp is freaking delicious. I accidentally misjudged the recipe and the size of the pan it needed. I thought a pie plate would be enough so I had to make two batches. And I had nearly finished the first batch prior to wine night. Oops! But seriously I give the recipe like 4 stars.

Does anyone else have skype dates? Any suggestions on a good, but readily available wine? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

dinner and drinks

2011-07-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

Last night's dinner was full of all sorts of lovely things that were wine. I decided to try my second attempt at braising a roast in wine. My first attempt was good but the meat wasn't as tender as I'd heard it should be. This time I didn't follow a recipe. I had a roast and browned it on all sides in olive oil and added salt and pepper. Then I put that in my dutch oven threw in some potatoes, cut up onions, carrots and celery. I dumped a bottle cabernet savignon on stop, covered it up and put it on my stove to bring to a boil. Once I got to a boil I turned off the heat and put it in my stove set at 275 for 4 hours.

After about 2hrs the entire house smelled like cab sav. I didn't think it was possible, but it was lovely. Now came the decision of what to drink while making the rest of the meal and while eating. It sorta of seemed that since I was cooking with a cab sav I should be drinking a cab sav. But I've been more in the mood for Syrah's lately. I'm not sure what the rules are or if there are rules about what wines to drink when cooking with wine. I went with the syrah and had a bottle of Cycles Gladiator Syrah. It was yummy

I've had Cycles Gladiator pinot noir and it is a standby for me and good pinot noirs. I enjoyed the syrah just as much. I had opened it the day before and thought it was good, but with dinner and being open for a day it was delish. I had planned on just a small glass. C and I shared two large glasses. I would have finished the bottle except R hasn't been letting us sleep much lately and any more wine would have forced my eyes shut by 8 last night.

Dinner turned out wonderfully. The meat cut like butter which is how I've heard it described on top chef. That's the essence of braising, long and slow under low heat in an acid environment. I've read you can also braise in beer. The wine turned the onions a lovely purple color as well as the other veggies. It was such a nice dinner. I can't wait to eat the leftovers for lunch today!

Toast of the Town Chicago

2011-06-28T03:34:00.001-07:00

After two years of talking nonstop about wanting to attend this amazing event we splurged and bought VIP tickets. This is Wine Enthusiast's Toast of the Town event, taking place in 5 cities across the country. In Chicago it takes place at the Field Museum, my personal favorite of the city's museums. I was in love with the idea of tasting delicious wine and tasting fancy food underneath Sue. That experience was everything I had hoped it would be.

Over 500 wines were available for tasting. I didn't get through half of them but I did taste some wonderful wines. 35 local restaurants were there each supplying a single bite of something delicious. And it was all wonderful. I even found myself at one point focusing more on tasting the different foods than the wines. It was fun trying new things and different flavor combinations. I would totally go to a foodie event like this. I'm not sure they exist but they definitely should.

Favorite wines tasted are Twisted Old Vine Zin and J Lohr's Pinot Noir. I think they were both reserve wines which could be hard to find. But they both have their non-reserve wines available at local stores and I plan to pick them up soon. I can't really pick a favorite food that I tried. It would be difficult to choose from lobster sandwiches, fried octopus, spicy sushi, lemon ginger gelato, deconstructed upside-down pineapple cake (amazing) and many more. Everything was really good.

It was a fun event and C and I both said we'd do again. M was wonderful enough to come out to Chi-town to join us this year. One of the other city's this is held at is in San Fransisco. I think that sounds like an excuse to head to California for a weekend!!

Scott Harvey Barbera 2007

2011-06-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't been around much mostly b/c life has been busy and taken over any extra blogging time. Also b/c early summer tends to be beer drinking time for me, so not a lot of new wines have been tried. Until recently...

A few weeks ago we drove up to Chicago to visit the fam and stopped by my favorite wine shop. It was a chilly weekend and rainy, I wanted something red to warm me up. So I asked the wine nerd who worked their to recommend a syrah to me and he recommended Opolo's syrah. I haven't tried this out yet but I'm very excited to. Then I asked him what his fave wine was in the store right then and he immediately went to Scott Harvey's Barbera.

I'd never had a barbera before, in fact I'd never heard of it. An Italian grape that produces good yields and is known for it's deep color, low tannins, and high acid. It's definitely low on tannins, didn't need much air to smooth it out. And the next day the wine's still good and tasty. It's a good wine and I'm glad that I tried it out. I paid $20 for the bottle and I'd get it again. Although it was good it's not on my favorite list I give it 4 stars.

Paso Robles Wine Tasting

2011-04-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I went on a great getaway to the Central California Coast. As with many of my trips, wine was near the top of the agenda. We drove down on Saturday morning and spent the day wine tasting in the Paso Robles wine area. We didn't have any specific wineries to visit, we would just drive and see where the day took us. With 250 wineries in the area, we didn't have far to look. Here's the wineries we visited and some of my favorites.

Doce Robles - The first winery we stopped at. I don't really remember anything standing out about this place. I blame the fact that we got up so early to drive down. Definitely will have to stop again when drowsiness is not a factor.

Summerwood - As you pull up to this winery, you notice the gorgeous wisteria overhanging the porch. The Vin Rouge wine was a big favorite here.

Peachy Canyon - I'm always a fan of Zins. And when a winery has six available for tasting, I am hooked. Plus the tasting was waived with bottle purchase. So I *forced* myself to bring some 2008 Westside Zin home.

Veris Cellars - You know my favorite kind of wine tasting? Free Wine Tasting. Combine this with cheap bottles of flavored sparkling wine (Peach, Raspberry, and Almond) consider me in love.

Eagle Castle - Not one of our favorites for wine, but the location is just awesome. There were two weddings being held at the castle that day and I couldn't imagine a cooler place to get hitched.

Dark Star Cellars/Brian Benson Cellars - I didn't actually taste any wines here, but I was excited for two reasons: 1) Any where you can try different wineries without having to drive to another place is already tops in my book and 2) the incredible bottle designs at Brian Benson Cellars.

Niner Wine Estates - Another place I didn't try very many wines. But it's a great space and when you look out towards the hill you see the most awesome tree design. I <3 it.

Donati Family Wineyard - Our last stop of the day. The people were super friendly even though some of our crew were feeling the effects of visiting 9 different wineries. Was a fan of the Sorelle Per Sempre wine ('Sisters Forever') and might have to look to get some in the future.

Nine wineries in six hours. Definitely one of my best tasting experiences and it's just getting me prepared for a couple of more weekend tasting adventures in the next month. So have you visited Paso Robles or tried any wines from the region? Any great places we missed?

Wine in Hollywood

2011-04-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

Miranda blogged recently about some fave links of hers that she wanted to share. One of those was a link to wines in films by Wine Enthusiaist magazine. They took a look at movies that featured wine in either a lead or supporting role in the movie. I was intrguied by the movies they came up with. Lot's I hadn't see or heard of before. Others are classics that I've been meaning to watch to ages. I did some other searching and came across another article at SFgate.com with their list of the top 10 wine movies. I'm combining the lists and looking for more movies that feature wine in them. I'm actually hoping to find some foreign films where wine has a role. I enjoy foreign films and would love to see some new ones. Here's the list so far:

Casablanca 1942 apparently there's lots of champagne drinking in this film. Just another excuse to see this classic.

Notorious by Alfred Hitchcock in 1946

An Affair to Remember 1957 A couple falls in love and agrees to meet on top of the Empire State Building to drink pink champagne.

Gigi 1958 A young girl in training to become a courtisan learns the arts of flirting and wine drinking while practicing a rich playboy.

This Earth is Mine 1959 about a wine company stuggling during Prohibition

Dr. No 1962 I have not see any of the Sean Connery James Bond films. I'm very excited to watch this and maybe a few others. Apparently this is before Bond switch to martinis, in this film he mostly drinks champagne.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria 1969 the main character schemes to find a way to hide the town's wine from the approaching German army

Theres a Girl in my Soup 1970 recommended in the comments section. He's a food/wine critic who takes a very young Goldie Hawn to a disaterious wine tasting.

Killer Bees 1974 A strong willed woman not only dominates her wine making family but also has a strange hold over the colony of bees in the vineyard.

The Muppet Movie 1979 Steve Martin's cameo is how this made the list. He plays a sommelier to Kermit and Miss Piggy during a fine dinner scene and they order some bubbly.

Silence of the Lambs 1991 Theres no wine in this movie it is responsible for one of the most famous wine pairings in cinema.

Year of the Comet 1992 a comedey about the discovery of an almost 200 year old bottle of Bordeaux

A Walk in the Clouds 1995 I've heard this is bad, but it's a love story and her family is has a vineyard

French Kiss 1995 romantic comedy with Kevin Klien and Meg Ryan. She travels to France to win back the boy. He a son of a wine maker finds her stranded and offers to help her win back the boy.

Blood and Wine 1996 Jack Nicholson plays a Miami wine shop owner in this mystery

Sideways 2004 I love this movie and can watch it again and again. Sort of a dark comedey about relationships starting and ending and drinking wine to find their way.

A Good Year 2006 I hadn't heard of this movie until now, about a New York tycoon tamed by the romaticism of the vineyard while visiting after an Uncle's death.

Bottle Shock 2009 based loosely on the true story of how the world found out California can make good wine.

Have I missed anything worth seeing?

Charles Krug Cab Sav

2011-04-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a really good cabernet sauvignon? One that just melts in your mouth its so smooth and just gets better as it breathes. The color of these cab savs are an amazing deep red like gazing into a ruby. And probably as precious as that ruby. I haven't done a lot of experimenting with cab savs. I know that a really good one is worth its weight in those rubies. I also know there are a lot of bad ones out there.

Charles Krug cab sav which is part of the Peter Mondavi family wines is one of those really good cabs. I would never have picked it out myself, with the bland label and I've seen the price range from $24 (what I paid) to $30 a bottle. It was actually recommended to me by a fellow vino lover who has similar wine tastes to me. I threw it in my cart next to my cigar zin and palo alto and left a happy camper.

This is the first and only wine drank at our lil slumber party that I can review. It had the perfect amount of oakiness, a small bite that smoothed out as the air hit it. The flavors where strong and complex. This is not a light berryish wine. I would drink this wine with a big meal or while nibbling on dark chocolate. Or by itself. I give it 5 stars, a lip licking good wine. I'll have to get it again just to see if another bottle will bring as much satisfaction.

CigarZin

2011-03-29T06:01:00.001-07:00

Back in December I posted about a search for CigarZin. I'd tasted it at a local restaurant called 309 and very much wanted a bottle. In January I took C back to 309 and ordered a glass but was told that the Cosentino winery had been bought out and that they didn't have any of the cigarzin left and weren't sure if they were going to continue making it. I was bummed. We tried their normal zinfandel and it was good but not as spicey and wonderful as the cigarzin.

Then a couple weeks ago while at the wine tasting at UFS I ran into bottles and bottles of cigarzin. Another quick check of their website shows that they did merge with Vintage Wine Estates early this year. But their wine shop very much looks like they will continue to make and sell the CigarZin. The website lists the bottle at $22, I paid $14 or $15 at UFS a local discount store (with a huge liquor section).

I do perfer that good wineries stay small and family owned. Not that I know a lot about this but I love the romatic idea of it. Large wine companies that take over all the smaller ones ruin that dreamy perception. But I know that can get sorta political and I'll stick to more of what I know...good tasting wine.

CigarZin is yummy and yes that is now an official term to describe good wine. It has a nice rich berry flavor thats followed up by this spicey bite that makes me say hmmmmm. I could drink this wine by itself but it would be supurb with a nice meal. I will be buying more of this wine in the future. I give it 4 stars!

wine shopping

2011-03-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago was the semi annual wine tasting at UFS a local savers store. I know lots of people that go there for their booze but you can also get pretty much anything at this store. I'd heard about these tastings, free wine and spirit tastings and usually a fairly good selection. So C, R, M, and I went to check out the hub bub.

Apparently it wasn't as big as it usually is but it was still a good time. I tasted a bunch of wines and a margarita in a can. The margarita in a can tasted like Sprite, which was eh at the time but it's still in my head. I may have to pick some up. We tasted good wines, and bad ones. One bad the guy said had hints of grapefruit, I'm pretty sure it was grapefruit juice. We left with 3 lovely bottles plus M picked up a red Greek wine for us to drink. I don't remember what the name of it was but it was pretty good. Not too dry not sweet either. A nicely balanced wine. I should have kept the bottle for a real review.

One week later we had a slumber party that destroyed my wine stash. 6 bottles were emptied between 3 of us. My beautifully stocked wine rack reduced to 2 meager bottles. 2 that were more expensive and didn't want to waste on our drunkenness. Good times good times. That's what wine nights/slumber parties are all about. =)

Echelon Pinot Noir

2011-03-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

Echelon pinot noir was the other bottle I bought at World Market up in Chicago. I paid $10 and had high hopes. I hate to blog this, but this wine was a disappointment. C and I opened it while cooking dinner. It was harsh and very alcoholy. We poured large glasses and swirled and let it breath while we cooked dinner. The thought being air and food would tame it a bit. Unfortunately not, we still found the wine undrinkable and ended up dumping the bottle. Perhaps the bottle was contaminated with cork rot, but the cork looked to be in good condition. Doesn't matter though, I cannot give it another chance. I give it 1 star.

Oscar Night follow up

2011-03-18T14:04:00.001-07:00

Yep it took a while to type up the Oscar night follow up, I've been sick again. This has been one heck of a year for colds, flus, and infections. At the moment everyone in my house is one the mend, and I'm playing blog catch up. With Miranda in town and tonight's wine slumber party lots of wine will be had.

So....

Oscar night was fun. We skyped across the country and drank together. There was a slight lag so California knew who the winner was about 5 seconds before we did but it was still fun. Unfortunately we had a big storm pass through and the we lost the channel showing the Oscars for a good part of the show. This kinda sucked but we did make do by watching Daniel Craig as James Bond, which sorta makes up for anything.

The first bottle opened for the red carpet and beginning of the show was Four Vines 2008 Old Vine Cuvee Zinfandel. I bought it at World Market a few weeks back when I was up in Chicago visiting the fam. I think I paid $10. This was a decent wine for the price. Smooth and fruity tasting. It's great for an every day cheap wine. It's good for I'd buy it again." On a side note while visiting their website I found they are doing a 4V Drink Naked Tour. I kinda wish their blog was updated.

The second bottle opened was Gnarly Head Pinot Noir. I've had their Old Vine Zin before and remember it being good. The pinot noir was $10 and I figured worth a try. It was ok. Not a lot of depth of flavor and it didn't get better w/ air over the next few days. It wasn't offensive or bad, but didn't stand out to me. I give it two stars.

Academy Awards Wine Night

2011-02-27T14:04:00.000-08:00

Miranda often credits me on her blog for getting her addicted to things like photography, cooking, and sometimes even wine. Although the wine thing is silly we each got hooked on that together. When she lived in town we had a wine night every week. We'd buy based on label, price, or at one time whether or not the bottle had a real cork.

Well the road goes both ways and she's left her impact on me as well. She's gotten me hooked on Liberty of London scarves and their target collection. She's officially hooked me on West Wing, Six Feet Under, Project Runway, and Brothers and Sisters. And she's gotten me hooked on watching the Academy Awards. Now I'd always been kinda interested and would watch here and there. But the last few years I've found myself seeking out date, times, and channels it will air on. And now I can't watch it w/out watching at least an hour of the red carpet before hand. What makes this event even better is a bottle of wine. This year we are stepping this up a bit and watching it together through skype. It's a cross country wine night with lots of wine and red carpet celebs. I'm super excited about tonight. I have no idea what I'll drink but I went wine shopping so I'd have a selection to choose from.
Do you watch the Academy Awards? Does it involve wine? Are there any events worth cross country skyping to watch together w/ a bestie?

Testaroassa Palazzio 2006 Pinot Noir

2011-02-24T17:53:00.000-08:00

About a year and a half ago I discovered the wine shop in Naperville I mentioned in the last post. They had recently bought out a wine shop that had been there since I'd met my hubby. At first I was a bit hesitant since I tend to be loyal to the shops I enjoy. But then I discovered first their huge variety of wines, and second the glorious sale they have every year around my birthday. Every year they have a huge sale, a buy one bottle get another for a penny. Any bottle as long as you buy two of the same. The owner happened to be there when I discovered the sale and was wonderfully lost and overwhelmed in a sea of wine trying to figure out what to buy.
He steered me to some wines that were higher priced and I hadn't heard of before. We chatted about what we enjoyed to drink and he told me about how his wife had the daunting task of tasting all the wines and figuring out what they should sell/stock. She happened to particularly like the Testarosa 2006 Palazzio Pinot Noir. They were priced at thirty something dollars a bottle but with the sale I figured that was reasonable and I wanted to try something new and exciting.
I opened the first bottle not long after I purchased them and found it to be strong and very bitey for a pinot noir. This was probably the first pinot noir priced over $12 that I'd ever drank, and so I was not used to needing to let a pinot noir breath. Of course at the time I didn't realize this and figured it was kinda a eh wine. More of what I would expect from a cab sav, which was not what I was wanting then. The second bottle was put on the rack and forgotten about. And then I got pregnant.
It took until the babe was near 9mo old and my wine supply freakishly low before I thought about opening this second bottle. This time I let it breath. I poured it into my decanter and then poured a glass and let it all sit in the air for at least an hour. The first sip is still sorta bitey for a pinot noir but that bite goes away after the second sip. And then by the third it turns into a sigh of contentment. Not many wines let me make yummy noises w/ every sip, this one does/did. It's a beautiful crimson red wine with complex flavors. I can't pin point the fruit in it and that makes me happy. And its oh so smooth, how air does wonders for some wines. Or maybe maturity of my pallet but this wine is definitely 5 stars, lip licking good, and won't be forgotten for quite some time. You definitely can't just a wine by its label or even its first taste in this case.

Hayes Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

2011-02-22T17:34:00.000-08:00

Peterson Wine Cellars is an awesome wine store in Naperville IL, only about 5min from my inlaws house. I visit this shop almost every time we're in town. C enjoys their beer selection and I always find different wines here. They have some fun and amazing sales. They have a top sellers area where they show the top 10 bottles that sold the best that week or month. I bought their number one to see how the tastes of Napervillians compare to my own. So I got their number one sold bottle, Hayes Ranch In the Saddle Cabernet Sauvignon.

I let this bottle breath a half hour to an hour in my decanter. It's really a yummy wine. You can taste berries in front and then you get a bit of the oak and the sauvignon bite at the end. It's a nice bite, not too much. And then I got sick, a cold which turned into the flu, and I was out of commission for a while. 2 and a half weeks later feeling better and craving a little wine I poured a glass of the remaining wine. It's still a decent wine! A little bit more of a bite than when fresh but it was definitely still drinkable and delicious. I give this wine 5 stars, lip licking good, both fresh and two weeks later.

two passions margaret river 2008 chardonnay

2011-02-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

Produced by the Wildberry Estate in Australia. I haven't dabbled much in Australian wines, although I've had a few New Zealand ones, all of which are red. This is the first Chardonnay I've had in a while. I chose it exclusively based on the pretty label and the price $15. It also had a wine spectator sign next to the price saying it received 91 points but that was more icing on the cake.

C and I drank this together, sipping on it after R went to bed after the big snow storm. I had even chilled in in a giant pile of snow outside. I did not care for this wine. I thought it tasted like really old apple juice. Which then reminded me that that's what I've thought of other Chardonnays. Maybe that is the draw people have to this variety, or I just haven't had a good one yet. I didn't get any complex flavors or even any oak. C liked it alright and finished the bottle. I give this 2 stars.

I'm looking for suggestions/recommendations for a good chardonnay? Anyone have any faves? Or how about some good Australian wines? I'm always looking to add to my list of to drinks!

Spanish Wines - "Mederano" and "Navarrsotillo"

2011-02-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

Apposite to my previous entry with the partly Spanish quote, I would like to bring Spanish wines to your attention. My long-term favourite has been the Spanish Mederano Tinto (Freixenet). At a price of about 4 Euros, it is a reasonably priced wine and nice for this price (I would rate it 4 stars). Recently, I have made the experience that red wines below 4 Euros are usually kind of awful.

On Friday, we ran errands at the local organic grocery store. At a special price, I bought "Navarrsotillo Joven 2009 Rioja Noemus".
http://www.navarrsotillo.com/en/index2.html
(For a picture, click products - see products - Vino Doc Rioja Joven - Tinto)
Special price was about €5.50, regular price should be about €7.00 - 8.00.
And boy, was it tasty. It was fruity and slightly sparkling from the beginning and it was just as good the next evening. Well, I am not so good at wine tasting/testing. The website says:
"A young Rioja wine, balanced and with body, obtained from a skilful mixture of varieties. It has an attractive cherry red colour with violet glints, very clean, with a medium to high robe. It has a sound, whole nose wrapped in spicy clove and vanilla tones. It has the typical acidity of the grapes used, giving it freshness and good persistent finish, and a meaty, tannic mouth feel.
Noemus: The Israeli patriarch Noah, said to be the first man to get drunk on wine."
I would love to drink this one again. For the time being, I would rate it 5 stars but then I am rather unexperienced. So do not take this too seriously. ;)

I cannot wait to try other Spanish wines as well as Greek ones.

"Tome y Traiga"

2011-02-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

"Tome y Traiga (Give and Take): things in life come and go; drink the wine and let me drink some too."

~ booklet of the CD "El Chango: the Very Best of"

I found this quote in a booklet of an album by a musician with the name Chango Spasiuk related to a traditional song called "Tome y Traiga". I had never heard or read this quote before and liked it.

I Work and Drink in Cubes

2011-02-10T22:19:00.000-08:00

My town has two Targets. The one that is 5 minutes from my place and the one that is 20 minutes from my place. Now of course the one that is 20 minutes from my place is the we'll call the 'classy' Target (aka Targét). The one closest to me is let's say less classy (aka Target).

I had four places to stop tonight: the library, Target, Michaels and Office Max. That meant I didn't have the time to spend hours shopping and so I settled on going to the close/shady Target. Of course this Target has a very sad wine display with not a lot of variety. And I didn't want to make another stop. So while looking at bottle after bottle of Mondavi, I decided to take a risk.

I. bought. a. cube. of. wine.

If I have to choose, I think cubes are cuter than boxes. Everyone says so. The cube also pointed out that in Europe (yes, Europe) wine is often offered in nontraditional packages.

I went into this experiment wanting to hate the wine. But a quick glance of my rosy cheeks in the mirror says it all. As far as cheap wine goes, this isn't bad. Plus two bottles at $10 is kinda awesome.

I'd give it 3 stars meaning I'd buy it when I've run out of wine but I know my wine club is going to be coming due in a couple of weeks so I need to make my dollars stretch. Or if I have a big fancy dinner party and need to impress my guests by having expensive wine (meaning I buy the empty bottles and fill them with box wine, ala Raising Hope this week).

Have you ever had box/cube wine? Am I a total wine snob? Or are wine cubes the new black? I'd love to hear what you think!

Tiz 2004 Red wine

2011-02-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

I bought this wine to have around Christmas time and just now got to drinking it. It was cheap about $7.99 from Fresh Market. Between the price and the pretty label I was sold.

It was an ok wine. A blend of merlot, cab sav, and syrah, that's not too bad. You get a bit of the fruit up front then a bit of bite to behind but nothing too bad. It tasted better when I drank it with dinner than it did while I was cooking dinner. By the third day it had smoothed out a bit and was actually quite tastey. The fourth day was a rapid down hill. A little air definitely helped but the decline is sharp so drink her up quick.

I'd rate it a 3 "eh." I wouldn't go out and buy this again but if its on hand its not too bad a wine to have.

Sale Wine is the Greatest Wine of All

2011-01-31T23:52:00.000-08:00

If I were to list my favorite types of wine, I think my list would go something like this:

10. Moscato

9. Anything with Petit in the name

8. Syrah

7. Cheap Wine

6. Pinot Noirs

5. Cabarets

4. Expensive Wine

3. Zinfadels

2. Old Vine Zinfadels

1. WINE ON SALE

So, imagine my excitement when strolling through the aisles of Safeway a couple of weeks ago and found Firefly Ridge 2008 Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon on sale for $6.99 regularly $16.99. I consider anything that is more than half off a winner already. Plus I love the name Firefly - consider it a side effect of my obsession with all things Whedon. It already had two things going for it. It was wonderful $7 wine and I would totally stock up on it for that price. I doubt that I would pick it up full price, but that's the danger with sales right? Cause I'll be honest when shopping, I look for the little yellow tags telling me how much I'll save on it this week and I can't remember the last time I bought a full priced bottle. I may be a wine sale slut.

What's your thoughts on sale wine? Does it ever prevent you from buying at regular price? Or does it make it so full price bottles that much more special?

Overall rating: At $7 it is 4 stars meaning "pretty good I'd drink it again" and at $17 it is 3 stars meaning "eh".

time out for immune systems

2011-01-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

All of us are recovering from head colds, stomach viruses, or something or other. Wine has been put on the shelf while recovering and drinking beer during football games. C did buy me a good Cab Sav to review while up in Chi town for the weekend. So new reviews to come soon. In the mean time enjoy a photo of some antique decanters. I love them, they are my mom's. I want to go antiquing just to look for some cool old decanters.

Blackstone Merlot

2011-01-14T04:40:00.000-08:00

Merlots elude me, seems like every one I've tried is different. I don't remember any that have really stuck with me as I gotta have that again. A few months ago I ordered a glass of Merlot while out for dinner and really enjoyed it. I remember it being dry but with a wonderful plum flavor that really won me over. I really thought it was a Blackstone Merlot, so I picked up a bottle to see if I would like it at home.

I opened this bottle as a sipping wine which could be my first mistake. Some how I'm thinking merlots are more a wine you drink with dinner. I didn't taste any fruit the first day this was open. It was bitey and very dry. I slowly sipped a glass, poured the rest in the decanter. The next day I sipped another glass with dinner and it was better. I still didn't taste the plummy flavor from the restaurant so maybe it wasn't Blackstone that I had. I finished the bottle with C on the third night while cooking dinner. It was still ok. Not a fave. And I would rate it "eh."

What are some good Merlots I should try? Anyone have any faves?

OZV lodi zinfandel 2007

2011-01-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

After a long day at work coming home to a baby who's starting to learn separation anxiety. We cooked up a supper that turned out so-so, but opened this bottle of wine. OZV, old zin vin, from the Oak Ridge Winery in Lodi California.

This wine was good right from uncorking. The first sip had sweet drips on the tip of the tongue in the beginning. And then the wine turned rich and jammy and smooth. Delicious. And got better as it breathed in our glasses. Both C and I polished the bottle off after baby went to bed.

The rating was unanimous between the two of us.... Lip Licking Good wine. It's a bottle we'd definitely buy again. I'm not sure how much it cost since it was a Christmas gift. But no matter the cost I'd get it again for both a gift and for us. I'd be curious if a second bottle is as enjoyable as this one. In fact after looking at the Oak Ridge winery website I'd look for and try any of the wines they make.

2011 winey goals

2011-01-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

A New Year, a new look, and more wine. That's my plan for 2011. More specifically I'd like to explore some cheaper wines. I kinda already do this but I'd like to make it official. The whole you get what you pay for is definitely true when it comes to wine. But at some point I have to wonder really how wonderful is a $500 bottle vs say a $100 or a $50 bottle. I can't afford that experiment this year, but I know you can get some decent wines for under $20 bottle. So I'd like to explore price range and grape. Is there a major difference in a $20 bottle vs a $15 or under $10? Do certain grapes make better cheaper wines than others?

This will also contribute to my second winey goal for the year. Branch out of my normal wine buying habits and look for other varieties I may like. I tend to buy zinfandels, pinot noirs, pinot grigios, and an occasional petite syrah and riesling. Seems like a good selection but really there are tons of other types of wines out there. I tend to stay away from merlots and chardonnays. And they could be the two more popular wines made or sold in the US. My figuring is that there are too many bad ones to find the good. But I'm turning a new leaf. I'm out to find at least one under merlot and chardonnay that I like and would buy again.

Finally I've come up with a rating system to rate the wines I review.
It's a 1-5 system.
1=ugh it was vinegar
2=not my fave
3=eh
4=pretty good I'd drink it again
5=lip licking good wine

Happy New Year!

2010-12-30T05:12:00.000-08:00

"Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!"
~ Dom Perignon, at the moment he discovered champagne

cigarzin search

2010-12-30T05:07:00.000-08:00

I've found another wine to add to the "to drink" list. Cigarzin Zinfandel from Lodi California. I was at dinner last night with some friends and they ordered a glass. I'd heard good things and tried a tiny sip. It was yummy. Smooth, and fruity, and smooth. After some googling I'm pretty sure it comes from the Cosentino Winery. The 2007 vintage is supposed to be lovely which is what I sipped. Now to find a bottle is a nother mission/adventure.

Wine Soda

2010-12-26T22:20:00.000-08:00

Last week, I went with a friend to the Oakland Museum of California to visit see the Pixar exhibit. While waiting to make it into the exhibit, we decided to take a trek around the cafeteria. There we saw bottles of Vignette Wine Country Soda. Since my friend doesn't drink and we were in too big of a hurry for me to sit to sip a beer we decided to try these non-alcoholic drinks.

We tried the Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay. And let me say, this may be the first Chardonnay that I actually liked. The drinks aren't as sweet as sparkling grape juice (or grape soda), but still have a bubble. I'd even go so far as to say 'light'. We didn't try the Rosé, but next time for sure. I highly recommend for when you want a change from your normal sugary sodas. I don't know that I would say it was like drinking a glass of wine, but it was kind of nice to ditch the normal sodas (but for around $5.00 a bottle I might just stick to the real thing).

Have you ever tried a wine soda? What'd you think?

food and wine top 2010 wines

2010-12-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

I've been flipping through the December issue of Food and Wine magazine lately and came across a small article with the top bottles of 2010. The list is 4 bottles long and picked out by F+W's wine tasters.

1. 2008 Alice et Olivier De Moor Chablis Rosette ($38) slightly higher than my price range but if I ran across this I'd pick it up b/c it made the list.
2. Chateau Palmer Historical XIXth C. Wine ($250) way out of my price range. Once wine's get this expensive it blows me away, I mean I've had some wonderfully glorious wines but how good can they get? I may never know.
3. 2008 Man O'War Syrah ($22) This brand sounds familiar, I may even be able to find it at my local booze shop.
4. 2007 El Pecado ($80) Seems that I've been hearing more about Spanish wines lately.

a new look

2010-12-18T08:09:00.000-08:00

The old look was slowly driving me bonkers so Winey Thoughts is going through a face lift. It's going in stages basically when I get a spare moment I do some tweaking. So far I'm happy w/ the banner but not happy with the title color which may mean I need to tweak the banner. I did add a second page with lists of wines that we want to try. Feel free to leave any recommendations in the comments. Thanks for being patient during reconstruction, more reviews will come soon.

Drinking for a Cause

2010-12-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

Over at my other blog, I recently wrote a list of things that I wanted for Christmas this year. One of the items on my list was (Fledgling Wine). This wine raises money for Room to Read which is a great non profit that works for worldwide literacy. This made me start thinking about other wines and wineries that give back (besides that headache the next morning).

Here's a list of wines that I found that are making a change, one bottle at a time:

1) Macchia's Victorious Zinfandel (nicknamed Boobylicious) - $5.00 of every bottle sold is donated to American Association for Cancer Research

2) One Hope Winery - Winery has a variety of different wine options and 50% of profits are donated to causes such as autism, AIDS, our troops, breast cancer, planet and children's hospitals

3) Greater Purpose Wine - 55% of the wine profits benefit abandoned and orphaned children

4) Cleavage Creek Winery - Each winery label features a breast cancer survivor and 10% of purchase is donated to breast cancer research

5) Lookout Ridge Wine - Donates one wheelchair for every bottle sold of their new releases

6) Philanthropie Wine - Percentage of the sales from bottles of wine goes to six Oregon animal charities

7) Mutt Lynch Wine - A portion of sales goes to support local animal rescue operations

I'm definitely going to add some of these wines onto my 'To Drink' list. How about you? Do you know of a winery that gives back with their wine? If so, please leave a comment so we can check it out.

Fire + Wine

2010-12-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Lodi wineries, Harney Winery, opened the winery tonight for "Ladies Night". They offered lots of fun stuff like tasting, drinks, food samples, and shopping for holiday gits. Instead of dealing with the crowds, we just grabbed a glass of wine and sat by the fire pit and toasted to life. Mine was the Old Vine Zinfandel ($9.00), hers was the Petite Sirah ($7.00).

Sometimes it's nice to just kick back and drink some wine. I hope you all do the same this week!

wine and cookie party

2010-12-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

Tonight we had a small get together with some friends, a wine and cookie party. Tis the season for cookie swap parties and I figured we'd spice that up a bit and include some wine. Friends brought homemade cookies and wine and we sampled them all and am quite proud of our graveyard of empty wine bottles. In fact there are more left over cookies than wine. I'm not going to review the wines I tried and I didn't try them all. But I'll list what we had and maybe some general thoughts.

Ravenswood Zinfandel 2008
Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir 2008 I've reviewed this before but I don't remember what year it was. Still a reliably good wine.
2006 Bordeaux Superieur Chateau Virecourt Pillebourse a French wine my inlaws gave us, I'm pretty sure my SIL picked it out last time she was in town. I know nothing of French wines but this was pretty good. I'd get it again for a review.
Da Vinci Pinot Grigio 2008 I don't remember if I'd had this before or not but I've had their chianti before and it was good. I'll have to do this one again for a review as well.
St. James Winery's Country White A local winery that I haven't tried before.
Cranberry Wine from Tomasello Winery. Made from 100% cranberries this was an intriguing wine that proved quite good for a "sweet" wine. I say "sweet" because it tasted like cranberry juice, so it's not a true sweet it's that wonderful bitter bite that cranberries have. And I have a soft spot for cranberries so I very much enjoyed this wine.

beer obsession

2010-12-03T07:56:00.000-08:00

I'm not winey snobby enough to only be a wine drinker. In fact I love a good beer and tend to have a beer regularly. Beers are great, like wine different beers can go with the season, or the mood. One of our fave beers in the house are from Leinenkugel's. It's a brewery in Wisconsin that we discovered years ago.
Our first Leinie obsession was their honey weiss, a summer beer that has become available year round. It's light and flavorful, and we very much enjoy this in late spring and summer. The first time we tried Leinie's Oktoberfest was about 3 years ago and we were in love. A seasonal beer that comes out in mid August and by October most places were sold out. It was about all we drank for those few months. Since then we've tasted lots of oktoberfest beers from other breweries, but this one has a special place for both of us.
2 years ago we tried one of their new seasonals, FireSide Nut Brown. A warm darker beer with spice flavors. It comes out after the Oktoberfest and we fell in love with this for around the Thanksgiving season as well as through out the winter. The spices and hazelnut flavor reminded me of holidays and cozy fireplaces. Last year I was pregnant so not much beer obsession was had by me. Although I did smell a few and look longingly at Chris a few times.
This year the obsession is Leinie's Creamy Dark. They've had this beer for a long time and we've just now tried it. It's similar to the Nut Brown but w/out the nut flavor and the spices are toned down slight. The beer isn't as dark as a stout but it's still a sipping beer which is perfect for this time of year. We're very much enjoying it and it's just about all we've bought over the past month or so.

mocking the box

2010-11-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

Yes I am a growing wine snob, most of the time I try to keep that to myself. I don't think any less of anyone if they only prefer the sweet wines, that is their opinion and taste. I don't think any less of anyone when they drink wine out of a box. I just make a mental note that they don't have the same wine preferences as me. I did have a hard time not mocking the box of wine I discovered at my parents house this holiday. I think I may have raised an eyebrow and they quickly went to defending this wine and insisting I try.

It was an Old Vine Zinfandel so I figured I had to give it a try. I'd never seen old vine zins in a box before. In fact I'd never heard of Bota Box wines before. They have quite an array of wines in a box. Each box is the equivalent of 4 bottles of wine and sold for $18. It's quite a deal. The wine was ok. Less concentrated as the beloved old vine zin's from Lodi California. Bota was also lighter in color and a bit fruitier than most zins as well. But all in all it was an ok wine. I wouldn't get it just for me to sip on. But if I were hosting a large group of people for a holiday this would be really perfect.

I had many, many First Sips

2010-11-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

I love going to Lodi, CA for wine tasting. Now everyone talks about Napa and Sonoma when they mention California wine areas, but Lodi has a special place in my heart because 1) It's super close. Seriously 10 minutes and I'm there; 2) It's far less pricey than the Napa and Sonoma areas (usually); 3) It's the first place I ever tried Old Vine Zin.

So, when my friends mentioned that they have a weekend called First Sip, I knew that it was going to be great. The wineries had only started storing the wine in the last few days, so it was a great chance to go an experience newly barreled wine. There were 40 wineries offering food, tastings and drinks, so what a great way to spend the weekend. Here's a run down of the places that I went and my thoughts (if I can remember them......we went to a lot of wineries):

Berghold Estate Winery - Recently my parents mentioned they were interested in getting an old school bar put into their house and I was super impressed with the huge one on display at Berghold. The place has a lot of cool antiques. The cabs were our favorites there.

d'Art Wines - Our first stop of the day and also our first barrel tasting. It's fun to taste the barrels, cause it's still so much like juice. This place also had some delicious lemon olive oil. One of my friends bottled his own bottle, however, it was just basically filling up a bottle and using the machines to put the cork and label on.

Harney Lane Winery - One of my favorite. The wine is seriously so delicious, I can hardly stand it. It's one of the newer wineries and I have a bottle of their zin waiting in my wine rack.

Jessie's Grove - I know they probably hear this all the time, but when I went there, I couldn't stop seeing Jessie's Grove to the tune of Jessie's Girl. I don't remember a lot about this one, it was near the end of the first day. But they make the Earth, Zin and Fire wine that I've had before.

Macchia - My friend is a wine club member here. They have a ton of yummy zins with cool names like Mischievous, Ambitious, Voluptuous, Victorious, etc. They also have a wine that raises money for breast cancer research called Boobylicious. They have a delicious sweet muscat called Sensuous, that I have waiting for a day when it isn't so could outside! Can we also talk about how they had a taco truck on premise and had delicious $3.00 burritos. Seriously, I kind of dream about those burritos to this day.

Michael David - Amy has already shared her love of the Petite Petit and I'm a wine club member here. A favorite of mine.

Periano - Amy recently talked about The Other wine. These are my everyday wines. They have a bunch of decent relatively cheap wines. We bought a case to split and the grand total was $6 a bottle. Awesome.

Dancing Coyote Wines - They had a moscato barrel tasting which was so super sweet and yummy. They also have some very cool labels. This was a second day stop so I didn't buy anything that day, but I'm definitely going to have to next time.

Vino Piazza - Again this was another stop, but holy cow they have a ton of wineries all nestled together. They had a really cleverly named wine that I cannot for the life of me remember that I totally wanted to buy. However, my 9 bottle purchase the day before made me a little gun shy. However, that just means I'll have to go back.

I so should have kept better notes, cause I know we made it to like 4 other wineries that I don't remember! Which just goes to show you how awesome it was right? Now I've just got to get prepped for the next Lodi Wine Event. Will it be Wine and Chocolate or Zinfest? Stay tuned.

Tollinger mit Lemberger

2010-11-19T09:16:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year I received an awesome happy baby gift from a good friend in Germany. She sent a small bottle of German wine. She picked a kind that she had not tried with the great idea that we could try it on the same week and discuss. Later we came up with the idea that we should try it together via skype. Last Saturday Nordwolke and her husband sat in front of their computers in Germany and 7hrs and a gazillion miles away me and Chris sat in front of our computers while the four of us sipped wine and beer and chatted the night away.

She sent a small bottle of wine from the Felsengartenkellerei Beigheim winery. It's the Trollinger mit Lemberger the name of two grapes blended together. It was a good wine, something different than I'd ever had before. It was the color of cranberry juice, darker than a blush but lighter than a normal red wine. It tasted sorta like a concentrated blush. Strong fruit flavors but it was dry wine. Definitely not too sweet. I can't really think of anything to compare it to that I've tried before. I enjoyed this over a blush. It is a great table wine in that you don't have to eat to enjoy this wine, or it would go great with just about any meal. I would try this again, or maybe try another from the same company.

My Weekend

2010-11-12T22:06:00.000-08:00

When I first traveled to California to see if I wanted to move here, I made my way to the Lodi area and tried my first Old Vine Zinfandel. Ever since then, I have been hooked. And while I didn't move to California just because of the wines, it sure didn't hurt.

So you can imagine how excited I am to be spending the next two days hitting up the Lodi Wine region for The First Sip. There are 40 different wineries that are giving tastings, food, music and other awesome activities (barrel tasting, grape stomp, music). I'm really excited to get some of the first sips of the 2010 vintages.

Now, the key is to keep the number of bottles I purchase under control. Fingers crossed. I hope to keep good notes and to offer a great writeup after the event. However, I've got me a designated driver.......so fingers crossed.

A Very Good Year

2010-11-07T17:26:00.001-08:00

At dinner one evening at a friends house I mentioned wanting to read a book about how wine is made. The story behind the wine. Wine lovers they are they recommended and let me borrow A Very Good Year by Mike Weiss.

It's an interesting read in that he literally takes you through all the steps of how a wine is made from the vineyards in early spring through the harvest and on to the wine making process. We meet the owners and get a vague idea of what these millionaires are like. Mostly we get a feel for the field workers and the wine makers. We meet the head guys and we meet the grunts, the Hispanics that migrate up and spend 10 months of the year doing hard labor in the fields. I enjoyed these parts of the story. Learning the smaller details and I can't think of any Mike missed. At one point he goes into detail about how corks are made and picked out by each vineyard, and the quality control measures Ferrari-Carano takes.

At times I found the writing annoying with too many similes for my taste. But more than anything I found it informative and interesting. The book de-romanticizes the wine industry and explains how much the wine industry thrives on that romanticism. How vineyards make a Story and how important it is for them to keep this story alive even if it isn't reality. Which I think they have a point. I knew wine making had to be hard work, I was surprised by the drama between the farmers and the wine makers. Or the the scoring system that could make or break a wine or even that vineyard. But when I'm drinking a glass of wine I tend to forget that and look at a pretty bottle, with a fun label and just enjoy the drink. Now I might drink a glass and think a little deeper now and then. But I think its more enjoyable to just listen to the story.

All in all I did enjoy the book. I'm glad I borrowed because it's not a fave. I do want to go out and get a bottle of Ferrari-Carano's Fume Blanc (Sauvignon Blanc). I'm curious after reading so much about it. Knowing the vineyard names and the personalities in it. The vintage won't be the same but it'll be close enough.

labelpalooza

2010-11-05T06:08:00.000-07:00

For a long time a wine's label was solely how I chose what bottle to buy. Now after sampling many bad and good wines I can kinda look at a description and think if it would be good or not. I'm in no way above picking based on label and still do. This just means I'll now get a boring label now and then. Picking based on label is purely subjective. What strikes my fancy won't many others. To me I don't like to think of wine as hoity toity and in an upper class, I like to think of wine as fun and hence I'll choose a bottle like Michael and David's Petite Petit over the Francis Ford Coppola design. Even though I enjoy both bottles immensely. Alright I'm rambling....the purpose of this post is that Miranda sent me this link this morning that I found interesting. It's a list of 30 Creative and Unusual Wine label designs by theCoolest.com.

I'm curious... which of these 30 designs would you buy based on label design?
I would get the
Matsu Organic Wine
Shefa Profusion Wine
Vine Parma Wine
Lazarus Wine's Braille Wine bottle

'The Other' Red 2008

2010-11-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Label was everything with this wine. I'd seen it before in the wine store we visit while in the Chicago area, and this time I impulse purchased based on the theory that wine with a naked lady on the label's gotta be good. The Other is made at Peirano Estate Vineyards in Lodi California and is a blend. 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and 10% Syrah.

I thought this wine was ok. I haven't tasted a lot of blended wines to say whether this one particularly well blended. It definitely benefited from breathing. I sipped after 10 min in my glass and it needed to sit for another 20 min or so. The bite mellowed out a bit and I could taste a bit of plum or fruit to it that I think comes from the merlot. I associate plum flavors with merlot. Two days after sitting in the decanter and the wine is still good. I can taste the beginnings of oxidation but the initial bite is still there but much mellower than the first night.

My theory of naked ladies on the label has so far panned out. This wine wasn't bad, although I'm not sure I'd go out and buy it again.

What's in a label?

2010-10-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

One of the most important things I look at when I select a bottle of wine is the label. I'm such a sucker for wines with a great name and a vivid label. Classy wine drinker, I am not. This past week, I was looking for a bottle that I could take tailgating before a recent concert. I was looking for a wine that was 1) a screw top (save me from having to remember a wine opener) and 2) inexpensive. I ended up bringing Bear Flag's smooth red blend. The label was designed by Eduardo Bertone (take a look at his website here) and is so freaking awesome. The bottle and label are lovely and scream California. For less than $7 the wine was as advertised smooth and easy to go down. I wouldn't pick it everyday to drink, but I know I'm going to have to pick up the other blends to view the labels.

Anyone else choose wine based on the label? Isn't this label super awesome? Anyone else tried this wine, what'd you think?

Dry Creek Fume Blanc

2010-10-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a while now since I tried this wine. I had high hopes for it, maybe they were too high. When first opened I found it had quite a bite to it. After letting the glass sit for a few minutes that seemed to mellow out a bit. I could taste a slight fruity quality to it but it was pretty hidden behind that bite. I corked the bottle and stuck it in the fridge a bit disappointed.

A couple days later I came back to the bottle to finish her off. Like the last bottle I found that the fruitiness in the wine was a lot stronger 2-3 days after uncorking. I enjoyed it much more this time around. I did some quick research about letting white wines breath or decant and mostly came up with the result that they don't need it. Although apparently some people will decant whites. This is the first I've come across that benefited from a little air. Has any one else come across the need to decant white wines? or have any opinions on it?
In general this wine was ok. Even after a few days it's not a great wine but a good one for the price which was under $15.

Francis Ford Coppola Pinot Noir

2010-10-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our 4 year anniversary and our first date without R. We choose to go to a local restaurant called the Fish House. Fine dining without having to dress up too fancy. Looking forward to this celebration all week long we decided to say the heck with it and take fine dining seriously. Which to us means lets order a bottle of wine with dinner. They had a decent wine selection. The waitress recommended her faves which were a Chardonnay or a Merlot. I wasn't in the mood for white wine, and I wasn't in the mood for Merlot. We chose the Francis Ford Coppola Pinot Noir and we were not disappointed.

Typically if you order a red wine and heartier meal would compliment it more. While whites supposedly go with the the more delicate meals. To heck with that, I think that good wine will go with good food. The pinot noir wasn't an over whelming strong red wine like cab savs or zins. So it worked well with my pan seared scallops with pesto and Chris's filet mignon two ways.

The wine was a very lovely ruby color. It was smooth and I could taste berry flavors. It made both of us make yummy noises after each and every sip. I would definitely drink this wine again. And even better news, after talking w/ my mom, I found out she's been drinking it fairly regularly. She gets it for $15 at her grocery store. A great price, and I look forward to enjoying it again.

She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge (or wine)

2010-10-19T23:02:00.000-07:00

This past summer, I made a trip to Greece. I tend to fall in love with things easily and it was of no surprise that I fell in love with the Greek wines. The wines are rich and potent, just like I like my wines..... and my men. I tasted several different house wines and find myself lingering still when I go to visit the liquor store in the Greek wines section.

One of our stops was to Minos Winery on the island of Crete. Even at 8 a.m, I was ready for wine tasting. One of my favorite things is cheap, well made wines and Minos had several options. I picked up this Medium - Sweet Table Wine for about eight euros. I tasted it tonight and it was just as delicious as I remembered and instantly took me back to the Mediterranean. I wish I had the kind of refined palate that I could tell you the different flavors in the wine, but years of killing my taste buds with hot sauce and super sour candy have limited my ability. But I can tell you that it's strong, jammy and delicious and that's all I need to know. I'm just upset I couldn't cram more of these bottles into my luggage (Although, I have a tiny bottle of Rose saved for later).

Food and Wine recently had a whole section dedicated to Greek food and Greek wines. I ended up tearing out the entire section of recipes and wines and added them on my to drink and to cook list. Seems I'm going to recreate the Greece experience in my kitchen and my glass for the next few months.

Anyone else have any knowledge of Greek wines? Do you have a wine that reminds you of a favorite place to travel? Let me know and I'll add it on my list!

UnCorked results

2010-10-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

What a fun event. There was a live auction as well as a silent auction. I'd never been to auctions before so this was interesting to watch. Booths of wine and beers were set up for tasting. Local restaurants also had booths set up with small meals or hors'd'oeuvres. I got to try salmon tartar which made me real excited. I see it on top chef all the time and now I've tasted. I was under the impression that the salmon would be raw and the chef said it was cooked just a little bit. It tasted pretty cooked to me, but it was very good.
I mostly sampled wine while there. Not too many stood out. I tried Bogle's Pinot Noir which I'd heard of before but had never bought a bottle. It was ok. Not too exciting. The unseasonal warm weather put me more in a white wine mood. I sampled a couple pinot grigios that were ok as well. What I really remember enjoying was Giesen Sauvignon Blanc. Something about the sav blanc's lately, I must be in a mood. This bottle has made the list to buy in the future to do a real review of. From what I remember of it now is that it smelled very fruity but had that nice sauvignon bite that toned down the fruit just right. I guess back to the liquor store to see if I can get it locally.

UnCorked

2010-10-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

I'll be attending thison Friday with a neighbor. Should be fun! I'm going with a neighbor who is interested in trying new beers. I'm up for both really. I just hope everyone is healthy enough for me to leave for an evening.

Dry Creek Fume Blanc

2010-10-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

A week and a half ago my inlaws came to town to visit us and spend some time with R. The plan was to go to the art fair in town and eat dinner there. Unfortunately it rained and the baby was quite grouchy. Instead the guys went shopping for grub and booze. They came home with lovely ribeye steaks, potatoes, some octoberfest beers, and my FIL bought Dry Creek Fume Blanc for my MIL. She opened it and had a glass. I opted for finishing off a bottle of red I had laying around.
Two or three days later we found the opened bottle in the fridge and Chris and I polished it off. It was good. Three day old wine and it was very yummy! Just the right amount of fruityness. I have not been in the mood for whites, mostly b/c the weather is chilly, it's prime red wine time. But I am glad this was left over in my fridge. My next outing to the booze store I'll pick up a bottle of this so that I can do a proper review on how the wine tastes fresh.

My Dirty Little Secret

2010-09-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

I have a secret to share. Sometimes I need a break from the delicious, powerful Zins and Cabs that sustain my wine drinking existence. And I do that with some of the sweetest, delicious dessert type wines that I can find. I went to visit St. Supery winery about six months ago and after a tasting fell in love with their Moscato wine. It's fruity (with hints of apricot and pear) and so smooth, I tend to drink it like it's liquid candy.

Imagine my joy then when I found out that they have a Moscato only wine club (plus joining the club meant our tastings that day were free, it's like I saved money - as if I need additional encouragement). That's eight delicious bottles of Moscato a year.

A couple of weekends ago St. Supery had a great event for their wine club members. They brought in a traveling wood burning oven and served us lunch and wine. The lunch was a variety of different wood burning oven pizzas and salad and glasses of delicious cabs and chardonnays. It was really the perfect day.

So, does anyone else have a wine drinking guilty pleasure?

Menage a Trois vs Goats do Roam

2010-09-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

Friday we had Akabar and AZombie over for dinner and drinks. The guys had beers and we decided to sample two red wines that are reasonably priced. I provided the Goats do Roam red that is priced at $8/bottle. I think I'd sampled this a while back but couldn't remember what I thought about it. And Akabar brought the Menage a Trois for about $12/bottle. She's been a fan of the red and I hadn't tried it, although I've enjoyed their white before.

Menage a Trois was opened first. At first sip it had quite the bite. But then I put it down to get the food cooking and by the time I came back for another drink the wine had smoothed out. Smoothed much better than I normally expect for inexpensive wines. This was definitely the fave wine of the night. More was definitely drank from this bottle than Goats. Plus as Akabar suggested the true test of a good table red is how it tastes the next day. Menage was just as good the next day as it was the night before after breathing. I even finished the bottle off Sunday and then I could faintly taste the beginnings of oxidation.

Goats do Roam was not a bad wine, it just wasn't as good as the Menage a Trois. The bite that comes with the Goats wine comes late. So you take a sip and it tastes almost watery until after you swallow and then you get the flavor. Which is sorta not my fave. This wine didn't smooth out after breathing either. This might have been more enjoyed with a bigger meal such as a steak or roast. I did take a small taste of it the following day and it seemed to have the same flavors. I haven't had any more though and now after 4 days I'm sure that the third of a bottle that is left is oxidized and not very good.

a year in the waiting

2010-09-14T05:07:00.000-07:00

Last August while on vacation in Michigan I stumbled upon a bottle of Petite Petit by the Michael and David vineyard in Lodi California. I reviewed this wine earlier that summer and needless to say it was wonderful. I haven't been able to find a place in Illinois to purchase this particular wine so I grabbed a bottle and brought it home. And then I got pregnant. So the bottle sat on display in my dining room for a year and two or three weeks.

Friday night I got a craving, we called up some fellow wine drinkers and invited them over, and cracked it open. Poured it into the decanter to let it breath for about a half hour. Then divided it up and sipped it's goodness on the deck on a cool summer evening.

This wine is still good stuff. I was worried that the pregnancy changing my tastes preferences. No worries here. It's so different when you drink a really good wine. I'm glad I had this before I started reviewing wines again. It raises the bar and reminds me that there is another level of wine wonderfullness.

It's a smooth wine and full of flavor. You can't take a sip without sighing with content or saying mmmmm. We nibbled on fresh berries and dark chocolate which worked well, but I think a good steak dinner would really be enjoyable with this wine. Hopefully I won't have to wait so long to enjoy this one again.

and we're back!

2010-08-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

There's one small but very good reason for the year long break in the Winey Thoughts blog. It's gotta be the longest I'd been w/out wine in years. Well worth it, but now I'm ready to dive back into the world of wine and taste them all!

My thoughts for the blog are pretty general, I'll keep tasting new wines and blog about how I like them w/ whatever I'm doing or eating or being at the time. I thought I'd do some repeating to see if after pregnancy my tastes have changed. And I'm curious as to whether it was the pregnancy that caused any changes or the lack of wine drinking. I did find that my palette for the stronger wines has grown weak but is quickly recuperating. I'm also in talks with a friend about starting up some Wine Wars. Not exactly sure where this will go but I'm very excited to plan dates to taste wines and then talk about them. So that's what's in the works. Stay tuned!

Red Truck, Pino Noir

2009-08-11T12:59:00.001-07:00

One of the first wines I started to drink regularly was Red Truck's red wine. I haven't had it in a while so I don't want to officially review it. I was under the impression that Red Truck's brand was relatively small. I'd seen their White Truck white wine and their Pink Truck's blush, and I thought that was the extent of their selection. I was wrong. This past weekend I found out that they have a huge selection of just about every kind of wine you can think of.

We tried Red Truck's pino noir and their syrah. I'm only going to review the pino noir since that's what we drank first. Although I remember the syrah was ok and I'd try it again.

It wasn't the best pino noir I've had but it definitely wasn't the worst. It had some fruity flavors and was fairly smooth. I'd drink this again as it was a good wine for the 10 dollars, and it's nice to mix up the selection. And for anyone out there collecting corks I've always enjoyed red truck's.

Cline 2007 Zinfandel

2009-08-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we had some unseasonably mild weather for July. And the we went up to the Chicago area to see family it was a bit chillier and I was glad to have brought this bottle with me. I tend to like reds more in chilly weather although I can always drink a good red wine...pino noir, syrah, zin. I already knew Cline vineyards makes a decent zinfandel, but I haven't had it in about a year so this was a nice refresher.

It's a nice smooth zinfandel, with rich fruity flavors. It reminds me of fall and I want to nibble on cinnamon apples while sipping this wine. Or even while camping on a chilly evening while sitting around a camp fire. I would drink this again and again.

Three Stones Sauvignon Blanc

2009-07-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

While doing some last minute prepping for this past weekends art show I had a couple friends over to keep me company and this was the bottle of wine they brought. I'd seen it before b/c I thought it was a pretty label. It is also the wine of the month at our local liquor store. It's about a $10 wine and was definitely on my list to try.

We sipped this while nibbling on cheese and crackers with some cut up fruit. It was light and summery. Had a nice full fruity flavor with out being overly sweet. Sauv blancs can really be quite tastey and a wonderful alternative to pinot grigio (which is my standby when I want a light white wine.) I would definitely buy a bottle of this to bring to someone's house or sip out on the deck in the summer sun.

Petite Petit

2009-07-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

phew I'm so completely falling behind in my reviews. I guess it's a good thing that I haven't been drinking too much wine lately! Other wise it would be a lost cause. I purchased the Earthquake Zin at Michael and David vineyard and Miranda purchased the Petite Petit.

At the time (wines here are so good so I can see my faves changing w/ my mood) these were the two fave wines we tasted. (At that point in time I was more in a zin mood, if I were to choose right this second I would pick the petite.) This was a smooth, bold, lovely petite petit. We drank ours w/ take out chinese while catching up from not seeing each other in months. The bottle disappeared quickly, but every drop was thoroughly enjoyed. I would definitely get this again. Not only is the label fun but it has an awesome cork.

Earthquake Zinfandel

2009-07-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

I am back from California although I still might be on California time. Ugh and the fact that it's Thursday is still confusing me. But I am back and have a couple of wines to share.

After being picked up at the airport, Miranda and I headed straight for Lodi to visit the vineyards on our list. First stop was Michael and David vineyards. I've reviewed several wines by them before, and Miranda is also a member of their wine club. We tasted a variety of their wines, a couple white, a rose that was interesting, and then several of the reds. Earthquake Zinfandel was my fave of the day and I quickly purchased a bottle.

This delicious zin is smooth and bold and full of flavor. I've said before Lodi zins are the best, and this lives up to that. The label and cork are both fitting for the name. And to quote the vineyard's description of the wine, "it will rock your world." Although heed my warning, with over 15% alcohol sip this one slowly.

off to California

2009-06-25T05:26:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow I'm off to the land of wine, redwoods, beautiful coast line, and Miranda...California. By mid afternoon tomorrow we'll be visiting wineries in Lodi sampling lots of wines. Then we'll drive up the California coast line into Northern California to see the redwoods. It's supposed to be a gorgeous drive and I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm sure we'll find plenty of wines to sample and drink along the way!

cheers!

Hey Mambo, swanky white

2009-06-25T05:01:00.000-07:00

The heat of summer has set in and the last time I was at my fave wine store I was browsing the whites. I stumbled across this fun bottle name which immediately made me start singing the Rosemary Clooney song. So I picked up a the bottle and read the back of the label. It's a description of a lady in a dark bar/restaurant. And toward the end of the ladies description it implies that the wine tastes as good as she looks. I was sold. My only dilemma was to choose between the swanky white or the sultry red. I went w/ swanky.

The wine was surprisingly good. I was expecting sort of an eh flavor. California white wine can go either way. I could taste a light fruity flavor which was nice in the hot weather. We drank it during wine night while watching TV and catching up. I would get this again for a gift or to bring to a party. And I definitely plan to try the sultry red.

Cycles Gladiator Pino Noir

2009-06-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

Surprise Surprise, I first bought a bottle of Cycles Gladiator based on the label. It's an impressive label! It's now become a decent standby. When I know I want a decent wine and don't want to gamble or spend more than 10 bucks this is where I turn. I've tried their pino noir, syrah, and pino grigio. All are good.

Most recently I had their pino noir. Next to their sryah the pino noir is my favorite. This past bottle I had was ok. I think Mirassou's pino noir has surpassed this in my cheap go to really good pino noir. But that's ok because there's nothing wrong w/ having two go to bottles. =)

Thomas More

2009-06-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine.

~Thomas More

Gabbiano Pino Grigio

2009-06-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

A few years back Castello Di Gabbiano chianti and pino grigio's were one of my go to wines. It still is for chianti but I haven't had chianti in a long time. I'll have to pick some up soon. It's prime season for pino grigio so I picked up a bottle. The only reason that I'd stopped buying this brand was two back to back bottles that were ruined w/ cork rot. Which is bascially when the corks get mouldy and the wonderful wine tastes like acid/vinegar. This is where the move toward plastic corks is becoming popular but that's a whole nother post in the works. Anyway after experimenting w/ other pino grigio's I soon forgot about Gabbiano.

Now several years later I remembered it while brainstorming good white wines I'd had before. I picked up a bottle and opened it over the weekend. It was perfect after a day at an art fair in pleasant weather. It was light and refreshing. It would have been perfect with some cheese and crackers. I would definitely pick up a bottle of this again.

Luzon red

2009-06-05T06:31:00.001-07:00

I am apart of our local liquor store's wine club. Which means that once a month they send me a coupon for what ever bottle of wine they choose that month. It's unusually an inexpensive bottle that gets decent reviews. So I picked up a bottle of Luzon for the whopping price of $6 and some cents. It took a while to get to opening the bottle and giving it a go.
I opened the bottle up a couple weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised. A little bitey but that decreased as the wine breathed. I enjoyed a nice glass in the evening then recorked to have some the following night. The next night while cooking dinner and sipped on another glass and the wine was already very rapidly oxidizing. The bitey flavor was very strong and not decreasing this time. I was a bit bummed.
This wine is from Spain and I believe the bottle I bought was the 2007 vintage. So if you find this bottle in your wine rack make sure to finish it off the night you open it!

the best kind of research

2009-06-03T05:15:00.000-07:00

I leave for California in 23 days! And in preparing for our trip Miranda and I have been looking up area attractions that we want to see and visit. Our plan is, the day I fly in to visit Lodi and taste some wines. I mentioned before last summer when we visited her we stopped in Lodi which brought on my 6 month Zinfandel obsession. I think I'm ready to bring it back! Then the next morning we start our road trip North up route 1 along the beautiful coastline.

Today's research is to narrow down which vineyards to visit that first day. We can't get slobbery drunk since the next day will be full of driving narrow windy roads and attempting to look at the scenery. So M sent me this list of links and I'm to narrow it down to 6ish. Has anyone out there been to any of these? Any must see ones?

1) https://www.abundancevineyards.com/
2) http://www.bergholdvineyards.com/
3) http://www.macchiawines.com/macchia/index.jsp - Love the names of the wines
4) http://www.oakridgewinery.com/ - Look how cool that tasting room looks
5) http://www.dartwines.com/
6) http://www.e2familywinery.com/
7) http://www.harmonywynelands.com/index.cfm?id=77802&fuseaction=browse&pageid=1
8) http://www.stamantwine.com/
9) http://www.vrwinery.com/
10) http://www.vinoconbrio.com/conbrio/index.jsp
11) http://www.jgwinery.com/

Eric's Red, 2005

2009-06-01T05:09:00.000-07:00

Mackinaw is a beautiful 45min drive away and the Mackinaw Valley Vineyard has been one of our fave places to go and enjoy some wine and a picnic over the last couple summers. This past weekend they had a grand opening of their new pavilion and to do so hosted a Music and International Beer and Wine Festival. You pay 10 bucks to get in, get a free glass, 5 free tastings of international wines and beers, enjoy a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, and listen to great live music. We weren't sure if we were going to go at first but the day was too beautiful to not go. We got there around mid afternoon tasted some wines, walked in the grapes, took some holga pics. Chris found a couple of tasty beers we hadn't tried before. And I tasted several wines but when I'm at the Mackinaw winery, their Eric's Red always seems to be my favorite. So I bought a glass their to enjoy the music with and then got a bottle to go.
Their wine's are tend to be named after their kids. It is a semi sweet red although it's up on their dry list. It's hard to do a dry wine in Illinois. But it's just the right amount of sweet. It works great with a light meal like cheese and crackers or a heavy meal of pasta or steak. I've had quite a few of these bottles between all our visits to the vineyard. And am always looking forward to more!

Vino de España: Mederaño

2009-05-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

Today, I would like to recommend a white wine. In fact, it is one of my favourite white wines. It is from Spain and great for mild summer nights. The brand Freixenet is well-known for its high-quality sparkling wines. However, this wine from the same brand is even a little bit cheaper than the sparkling wines. A bottle of Freixenet Mederaño is about 4 Euros. What I like about this wine is that it is quite refreshing, just like a white wine should be. Since, I am not a conoisseur of wines, I will translate the description of the German Freixenet Mederaño website about this wine for you. It says:

Fiery fizzy temperament
Mederaño shines stray yellow in the light. After the first sip, you will be surprised by its fizzy-fresh attack. Its grapefruit taste will remain on your palate for a long time [nina: I would never have thought it tastes like grapefruit BTW]. At the same time,it tastes fruity and has a plesant ratio of sweetness and sourness [nina: a wonderful description, total agreement on my side]. Enjoy this fresh, light white wine - just without many words.
These flavours tickle the nose
A display of fireworks of fruity flavours: freshly spicy scent of pear, banana, a little bit of white pepper and mirabelle [nina: so, no grapefruit anymore? These fruit comparisons do meet with my approval :) ].
Sommelier recommendation
Highly recommended as a soloist. It goes well with light meals like fish, poultry or salads like tomatoe-mozzarella.

Mmmh, tomatoe-mozzarella salad and pesto! I can imagine that very well now. :)
Watch out for this wine or brand. It seems like you can buy Freixenet wines, at least the sparkling wines, in the U.S., too. Look here. I can only recommend those as well!

*edit* Listening to the Desperado Soundtrack goes also well with the wine! :)

Fourplay 2004 No1

2009-05-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight my friend Pratt came over armed with a fave wine of hers. She's normally a sweet wine girl, but a few years ago went on a merlot kick and discovered Fourplay. She's been talking this wine up for the past year and finally found it at a liquor store to share. It's by no means a sweet wine and I'm not even sure it's a merlot. It's made of four different grapes from Sicily.

It's a dry wine that has a bit of a bite to it at first. I'm not sure if letting the wine breath or if numbing up the taste buds is what lessened the bite but it definitely went away. After it did the wine was fruity and rich. A beautiful dark smooth red. It would have been excellent with a meal, but worked just fine as a sipping wine. We sipped the bottle dry!

slacking

2009-05-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

I have been severely slacking in my reviews of wines I've been drinking. I have at least two bottles to review and a wine stash of a half dozen to drink and review. It just hasn't' been wine drinking times lately. I see myself picking up the pace soon. A trip to California to see fellow author, Miranda is booked for the end of June. Lots of wine will be tried and reviewed on that trip!

geranium

2009-05-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

taken 5/2/09 with Nikon d70, while playing w/ aperture settings

Kaleidoscope White Wine

2009-05-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

Kaleidoscope white table wine was another one of those bottles purchased b/c of the label. I feel for good reason, b/c this is a really pretty bottle! Unfortunately, the wine was kinda eh. It was ok, it was drinkable, and inexpensive ($10). I'd drink it again if it was given to me as a gift or if someone else purchased it b/c of the pretty label. I probably won't buy it again.

I couldn't find a link to the vineyard that produces this wine. I'd be curious to see what grapes were used and it that would explain it's "ehness" to me. To me it was a white wine trying to be dry or semi sweet, but was just too fruity and sweet for my taste.

In searching for the vineyard's website I found the designer responsible for the label. Check him out here, I also borrowed the pic from him. Bravo on the label, you officially sold at least one bottle of this companies wine!

Bob Dylan

2009-05-08T05:14:00.000-07:00

Businessmen they drink my wine, Plowmen dig my earth, But none of them along the line, Know what any of it is worth.
~Bob Dylan

I'm not not drinking wine, I'm just drinking repeats. La Crema Chardonnay and Mirassou's Pinot Noir have been quite tastey lately.

Vignoles

2009-05-03T16:31:00.001-07:00

One of the last bottles to open from the So. IL trip was our favorite of the entire trip. We actually purchased two of these and had an entire bottle while down there on the deck above a lake w/ the vines just beyond while listening to live music and being attacked by cheese craving cats. Yes there was a cheese craving cat there and it was determined.
I brought this bottle up to Chicago for Mom's birthday and we enjoyed it on her deck, w/ Gram, while taking pictures of non attacking birds. It was just as good as I was building it up to be in my head.
The vignoles grape is a hybrid grape made from a cross between Seibel and Pinot de corton. The wine is light and fruity and yet not sweet at all. It didn't have the dry oaky after flavor either. I can drink like juice but it doesn't really taste like juice. It's a beautiful champagne color that was gorgeous in the sun. I took it's picture a lot. This is a must try if you are at StarView and if you're in So. IL you must try StarView!
While up in Chi-town we stopped by World Market to diversify our wine stock. So soon we'll get out of the IL wines and start trying new flavors from all over.

Aristophanes

2009-04-29T06:14:00.000-07:00

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.

~Aristophanes

Misterioso, Blue Sky Vineyards

2009-04-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

We visited Blue Sky vineyards on our trip to southern Illinois. We weren't there long and didn't do an extravagant tasting. It was a warm day and this was the first wine both Pratt and I tasted. We liked it and each bought a glass and then after that a bottle. Blue Sky is a really neat winery, it's different than the rest in the area in that it's more trendy and bar like. The place fills up quickly, sells beer as well as wine, college kids are behind the bar, and they're open later. And it's beautiful. It is completely painted and decorated with a Tuscon atmosphere, the grounds outside are gorgeous and comfortable in warm weather. It's a really nice place to visit.

I'd forgotten about Misterioso until the other day while digging through my wine box. The wine rack is still not fixed so my wine is all in a box. I thought about opening it last night when I was thinking white, but I remembered this being sweet and that didn't sound good. Today was a bit warmer outside and after a nice sushi dinner I opened up Misterioso. It's a blush, which I'd forgotten, and it's sweet. Sweeter than my normal taste, but it doesn't' seem to be bothering me, I'm on my second glass. I'm not sure I would buy this again unless I was actually at the winery. There was something about the atmosphere and fun we were having that made it perfect. And right now it could be the storm rolling in, or the sushi in me, or just a warm day that's making it perfect now.

Red or White

2009-04-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

Never, never trust anyone who asks for white wine. It means they're phonies.

~Bette Davis

The weather has finally warmed up, spring flowers are beginning to bloom, and the craving for white wines has begun. Today at work I actually had the conversation with a friend of how we're in the mood for white wines. We were recommending each other bottles that we might like. And yet I get home from work, play in the yard for a while, had dinner and prepared for Lost....and I opened a bottle of red wine. =p

Schwarze Mädchentraube: Red wine from Romania

2009-04-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

Schwarze Mädchentraube 2007 (Original Schwalbenkranz)
So, this is my first try to review a wine! Let's go. This is not the wine I intended to review in my first entry. But tonight I was in the mood for a red wine. This is a remaining bottle of my birthday more than a month ago. It's a Romanian wine. Maybe you can translate (online) the only link in German I have found about this wine. It's a reasonable priced wine (less than 5 Euros if I remember it correctly) and the link says: "'The Original with the Schwalbenkranz' [the label] is produced, with love and care, in traditional Romanian wineries and mirrors 50 years of experience and enthusiasm for Romanian wines." ("'Das Original mit dem Schwalbenkranz' wird in traditionellen rumänischen Kellereien mit Liebe und Sorgfalt hergestellt und spiegelt 50 Jahre Erfahrung und Begeisterung für rumänische Weine wider."). Schwarze Mädchentraube can be translated as "black girl-grape".
Now my attempt of a review. It smells like red fruit/grape juice in the glass. In my opinion it tastes kinda zippy and is a good wine for parties, feasts or nice evenings with friends. Or for any occasion. ;) It tastes fruity-sweet in the beginning (but not too sweet in my opinion) and is dry in the end. A medium-strong cheese (e.g. an Italian cheese produced in the Alps) is a good choice for accompanying the joy of this wine. Cheers! Prost!

~Mark Twain

2009-04-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

My books are water; those of great geniuses are wine everybody drinks water
~Mark Twain

Wiener Dog White

2009-04-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

Some times it's all in the name. That's what sold me on this bottle, that and I was already buying a bunch from Alto anyway. The label does the name justice and I bought it with the intentions of sharing the fun w/ friends on a warm spring day.

Yesterday was the perfect day. Misty and Trina came over to watch Lost and it was our first real 60 something day with the sun out. A perfect day for some wiener dog wine. This wine was more of an impulse buy, an ok wine compared to the reds we were sampling at Alto. For a semi sweet Illinois wine this was pretty good. It is a blend of three Illinois grapes, Vignoles, Villard, and Chardonel. It has the fruity flavors but without the over whelming sweet, and yet it lacks the oaky dryness of a true dry white wine.

Thumbs up to this wine and it's fun label. Too bad they don't have any fat cat reds!

Woop Woop Shiraz

2009-04-12T16:13:00.001-07:00

I've had some really good Australian wines and some really cheap not so good Australian wines. Woop Woop's Shiraz has proven on several occasions to be a good wine I can depend on.

This weekend we had some friends over for pizza and drinks. The guys had some Indian beers that were really tasty, and we had some wine. The first bottle we opened was not so great. So we ditched those glasses and opened up the Woop Woop I had around the house. It goes great with pizza, pasta, and roast. It's a smooth wine with a the lovely shiraz kick.

The label is pretty and the name, woop woop, can't be passed up. For anyone that enjoys a shiraz at a decent price ($10.99/bottle) this is a staple for your wine rack.

Speaking of wine racks, this weekend was not such a good weekend for my rack. I placed a bottle of wine on the rack that hangs on the wall, went to the basement just to hear the bottle crash to the floor. The bottle survived, but my pergo is dented and the shelf left two huge holes in my wall. Totally sucks, but the silver lining is I get to go shopping for a larger floor based wine rack, and a new piece of art to hide the patch work we'll do to the wall!

~Homer, The Odyssey

2009-04-10T05:20:00.000-07:00

The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken.

~Homer, The Odyssey

Corks

2009-04-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

When you drink lots of wine you end up with lots of corks. Some of the corks you get are worth keeping, whether it's b/c it was a really good bottle of wine or it's just a cool design on the cork. For a wedding gift we received a kit in which you can make a bulletin board w/ wine corks. This was a hit! I collected corks with Miranda and my Mom for a year and this was the result. For a birthday gift I gave Miranda the same cork board and she just completed her board this week. See it here.

I've still been keeping my corks even a year after I've finished my board. I put them in a bowl or hurricane around candles I have around the house. I've been keeping my eye out for the next project or idea to come to me w/ what to do with the corks. Recently I found this new cork kit from wineenthusiast.com. It's a cork kit where you fill in the corks in a wine barrel ring. I like this idea a lot and I like the idea of using it as a center piece on my dining room table. It's on my current wish list in my noodle.

Other idea's I've found are to make a wreath from corks, use the corks as mulch in potted plants, cover a wall in corks. I really love the thought of the last idea. Unfortunately I have no where near enough corks yet and I'm not ready to invest that many corks in a house we may not stay in forever. I have toyed with the idea of covering a table or bar in corks. We have a bar, but it is solid oak and I can't bring myself to cover such pretty wood. A bistro table would be awesome and perfect but I don't have any place for one, except outside. And I wouldn't want the corks to rot.

The pics are taken from a blog I found about cool things to do w/ corks.

I love the cork chair. It looks interesting and I wouldn't even know where to start. It seems to be solid corks which I have to wonder how comfortable that would be. It does look awesome though. Oh well, I'll continue to keep my corks for the next project, be it wall, table, chair, or another cork board.

2003 Rosso Classico

2009-04-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

There are times when the world is turned completely upside down and wine isn't the right drink of choice. Those are the times where martinis taste the best. Then there are days when the house is quite and my mind is anything but. That's when a glass of wine is the remedy of choice.

I choose a bottle from Alto Vineyards down on the Shawnee Hills wine trail. The Rosso Classico is a blend of their two driest wines, the Chancellor and the Chambourcin. It has a rich berry flavor with a nice dry kick at the end. Smooth in the beginning and the appropriate bite after you've swallowed. A wonderful wine that goes well with food or by itself.

quotes

2009-03-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

For Christmas this past year I received a book called the Quotable Wine Lover. It was from my friend Misty who is also a big fan of enjoying a glass of wine. I think that now and then between reviews I'll post up a quote from the book. enjoy!

I like sweet wines. My idea has always been that when you're young, you like sweet wines; and then you get sophisticated, and you drink dry white; and then you get knowledgeable, and you drink heavy reds; and then you get old, and you drink sweet again.
~Sally Jessy Raphael, wine collector and enthusiast

2007 Chardonel

2009-03-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

Last night we celebrated Chris's website going live, and to do that I cooked up a lobster dinner and we opened up a bottle of wine from our recent adventure.

The wine is the 2007 Chardonel from the StarView vineyard on the Shawnee Hills wine trail. As said before StarView was one of our faves. Even the labels, which were designed by a local artist were our favorites!

Chardonel is a dry white wine similar to a nice chardonnay, although it doesn't have that dry after bite to it. That's because the Chardonel grape is a hybrid of the chardonnay grape and a grape called the seyval. Seyval grapes are also grown in the So IL region.

We devoured this bottle with our dinner and supplemented with another wine that was already open and a few weeks old. I won't review that one b/c I think it was past it's prime. The Chardonel was delicious, it was dry enough for the chilly weather and yet springy enough that it was hard not to guzzle. I'd buy this again, and recommend dry white wine lovers to at least taste it if they're near the winery.

PLEASE STOP YELLING AT ME!

2009-03-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

Miranda Life Lesson #2: A hangover on expensive wine is similar to a hangover on cheap wine. True story.

2006 Lust Zinfandel

2009-03-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

I needed to ship a box of wine home for Christmas for my alcoholic Illinois friends. So, I selected the Michael-David winery in Lodi, California because a) it's only 12 miles away and b) dude, it's delicious! And the best part if I signed up for the wine club then I got a big discount on the case plus I'd get shipments of wine throughout the year. Consider me sold!

This winery is known for their 7 Deadly Zins wine and their Old Vine Zins which I've become really obsessed with. The wine club I signed up for contains quarterly shipments of 2-3 bottles of red wine. This month's shipment was 2006 - Lust Zinfandel and 2007 - 7 Deadly Zins.

I uncorked the Lust tonight, which is easy the most expensive bottle of wine I've ever bought. Yikes! But holy cow is it worth it. Consider me hooked. I can just supplement my big purchases with 2 Buck Chuck in the meantime. That's classy right? Right?

Shawnee Hills Wine Trail

2009-03-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Chris and our friend CP rented a cabin in southern Illinois with the intention of hiking and hitting up the Shawnee Hills wine trail. Chris and I were down there last year and stopped by two of the wineries and had a blast. This year we were ready to taste some wine.

Illinois wines tend to be very sweet. We can't grow the same grapes that grow in California and other prime wine areas. So vineyards make do with what will grow. There are some grapes, the Chambourcin, and the Norton grapes that will grow in IL. And when a vineyard knows what it's doing great dry wines can be created. I prefer the Chambourcin wines to the Nortons. The Norton wines are very strong, bold, and dry. They would be lovely with a steak dinner. Chambourcins done well are smoother than the Norton's that I've tried. They still have a nice bold, fruity, dry flavor, just not as much bite to it. This weekend I sampled some combination wines of the two that were really wonderful as well.

There are some great wineries in southern Illinois and I found that the ones I liked it wasn't just good wine, they had great service as well. It made a huge difference when the bartender was friendly, accommodating, and really knew their wines. CP is a sweet wine drinker where as I'm a dry...if the bartender could wait on us both and recommend separates to us both it was really a good place. Two places turned out to be our faves, SkyView vineyard and Alto vineyards. Both had quality bartenders, glorious wines, a comfortable atmosphere, and didn't charge for tastings! All in all we tasted at 8 wineries, purchased 12 bottles each, each brought home 10 bottles, with for me 7 bought from our two favorite places.

My wine racks are now stocked. I'll have plenty to review over the next few weeks. And I'm really looking forward to enjoying some of the wines that I only just got a taste of over the weekend. And no I didn't just buy dry reds. I did really well mixing it up with some semi sweet whites for the upcoming spring nights.

Mirassou Pinot Noir

2009-03-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

This isn't the first time that I'd tried the Mirassou Pinot Noir but my tastes were confirmed over the weekend when Chris, Chris, and had a couple of bottles. Yes I was in southern IL wine country this weekend, and yes we bought a couple of bottles of this. It was dinner time, we were having meaty meals that required a smooth pinot noir. Pinot grapes don't grow well in IL...so this is what we went with.

This really a decent pinot noir for it's price. It has all the right flavors and smoothness of a nice pinot. It's not quite as complex as some that I've had...but that's where the price difference comes in too. I've had Mirassou's reisling as well and I remember that being good too. Not quite the best...but still nice. So far in my list of favorite cheap pinot noirs...this comes in second. I'll blog my number one choice the next time I buy a bottle.

return of wine night/Formula 2

2009-03-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

Last night we had our first Lost wine night since before Miranda moved to Cali. It was great, and much needed after a long week for both of us. Our friends Misty and Katrina joined us for food, wine, and Lost!

Wine night originated 3 or 4 years ago when we would go over to Miranda's apartment to watch the Sapranos. We decided that wine would be appropriate for the show and then discovered that we were the only ones that really enjoyed wine out of our group. Once the show ended we kept up our weekly tradition of drinking wine and watching whatever was on the tube at the time. Watching Lost was just a given and we would bicker about who was cuter and brainstorm about the million questions the show leaves out there. This is also where I became hooked on Top Chef and Project Runway. =)

Our methods for choosing wines aren't too far off from how I choose a wine now. By lable! Sounds corny I know...but if it has a good lable it definitely draws my eye. And over the years now I'm starting to remember which lables where good and which to stay away from. So when Theresa was over a couple weeks ago and we were in Peoria Heights at a wine shop my eye was immdiately drawn to the bottle of Handprint Merlot. The Merlot was a bit out of my price range but we got to talking to the guy that was working there and he mentioned that the zombie wine we'd noticed earlier was from the same winery, Meeker Vineyard. The zombie wine which is actually called Formula 2 is a seasonal wine that wine club members could purchase. It is a mix of a bunch of grapes but he assured us it was good stuff. Because it was seasonal for Halloween they were on sale. So I spurlged for zombie/frankenstein wine, and we opened it up for wine night last night.

Formula 2 was really good wine. The perfect amount of sweetness mixed in with other lovely winey flavors. I wasn't in the mood to analyze yesterday. It was the sort of good wine that I could easily drink half a bottle in one glass. I browsed their website and most of their wines are a reasonable price. It would be a fun vineyard to do some tastings at, and perhaps even become a club member.

Village Vitner Zin

2009-03-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago our friends Jon and Theresa came to visit. Theresa is on her way to becoming quite the wino herself and found the Village Vitner, a small winery in Carpentersville Illinois. I believe she has even joined the wine club. She brought their old vine Zin down for us to sample and enjoy.

I'd never heard of old vine Zin's in Illinois, and was surprised by it's flavor. It's definitely not a Cali Zin, but not in a bad way. It had a very deep smokey flavor to it, something I'd never tasted before in a wine. At first it was just different and odd. It made me kinda think about it. But it was good, would have been really great with food, like a roast or some sort of meat.

This would be an interesting place to stop by to sample the rest of their wines.

Bottle Shock

2009-03-11T05:05:00.000-07:00

Although no wine was drank while watching this movie or even while I type this...I figure a review of a movie about wine fits this blog just fine. Recently Chris and I watched Bottle Shock, a light movie loosely based on the story of how California wines beat French wines in a blind tasting. A British wine merchant (Alan Rickman) sets up a blind wine tasting in France. He travels to California to sample wines from many vineyards and hand picks a few for the tasting. Two California wines, a Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena, and a Cab Sav from Stag's Leap beat out the French wines to the shock of the french judges. At this point in time French wine was the only wine that was considered good wine. The tasting blew open the doors for the rest of the world, and certainly gave California a name in the wine industry.

At times the movie is silly and corny, but worth it anyway for the hilarious 1970's clothing and who doesn't love Alan Rickman?

While discussing the movie w/ Miranda we decided the next time I'm in Cali we'll check out the vineyards that made the movie. That would be awesome, although I was at a high end wine shop w/ Theresa over the weekend and we found a couple bottles of Stag's Leap wine. The cheapest bottle was $70! So visiting the vineyard itself could be a bit pricey as well. Better start saving now!

Hidden Jewel Old Vine Zin

2009-03-04T04:05:00.000-08:00

This bottle here is the reason for my 4 month binge of Zinfandel's. =0) We bought this when we visited Miranda out in California. The first night we went out to Lodi to find a winery that was open past 4 and found Hidden Jewel. Lodi California is known for their zinfandel's and for good reason....they're fabulous. After this vacation every time I went to the wine store I'd look for Lodi zins...they are always wonderful. This was the first bottle I had that was old vine zin. The flavors are slightly more rich but still smooth. It's a pity Hidden Jewel doesn't distribute around here.

Cabernet Sauvignon with Red Chile

2009-03-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

In December my parents went on vacation to New Mexico and Arizona areas. While they were there they checked out a few of the local wineries. They brought me back a bottle from the Anderson Family Vineyard in New Mexico. It was a Cabernet Sauvignon with Red Chile.

When I first saw this I immediately thought of the chili beer we'd tried before that was awful! But my parents assured me that this was good. They recommended drinking it with a meal. So I made a fancy taco dinner and Chris and I opened this bottle. It was really good. A nice smooth cab sav that didn't need much breathing, and an underlying spice. At first you're not quite sure if the spice is there or if it's from your food. There isn't a pepper flavor it's just a spice and at just the right intensity. Drinking it with the meal worked very well. I had another glass after dinner and the spice definitely got a little stronger. Although for the record I am a wuss when it comes to spice. So don't be afraid of this wine. I'm pretty sure we can't get this wine in Illinois, but if we could it would be an excellent compliment to any and all mexican meals. And a great conversation bottle at a wine party or tasting.

La Crema 2007 Chardonnay

2009-02-28T07:33:00.000-08:00

I like almost all wines, but normally chardonnay is not my favorite. I don't buy it often and so I bet I miss out on a lot of good finds like this one. In January we had some friends over to drink wine and nibble on cheese and crackers. One couple brought this La Crema 2007 Chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast that she'd been enjoying. It was barely chilled when we opened it and that didn't matter, it was a really nice chardonnay. I could drink an entire glass in a blink.
My friend recommended it with spicy foods. She had first tried it with a dinner of spicy shrimp and said it was really great. This is definitely on my need to try again list.

Windmill Estates Old Vine Zinfandel

2009-02-19T10:55:00.000-08:00

I have a back log of wines I wanted to document and this is the first of them. Since visiting Miranda in California and tasting some zinfandels from Lodi CA I became hooked. For about 4 months that was all I would drink. I'm branching out again now...but I still LOVE an old vine zin from Lodi. Lodi is not far from M and so she brought back some yummy zins for Christmas presents this year. I got a 2006 Windmill Estates Old Vine Zinfandel pictured here. This is from the Michael and David vineyards in Lodi. They also sell the well known Seven Deadly Zins..which is also very good but that's another post. I would actually really like to try the rest of their selection of wines...just for the shear genius of their names! =)
Windmill Estates is a nice zinfandel, although not my absolute favorite. It didn't seem to be quite as rich as other "old vine" zins that I've had from the area. It's actually only 76% Zinfandel and 24% petit Sirah, which is a nice combination but explains why it wasn't quite up to the other old vines I've had. I definitely enjoyed the wine and would have no issues having another bottle. It would be perfect if you were going to share it with a wine drinker that is just starting to enjoy a nice zin.

French House Pinot Noir

2009-02-18T15:34:00.000-08:00

I picked up a bottle of 2007 Pinot Noir from the French House vineyard at the grocery store a week or so ago. The last couple days have been cold and dreary so I opened this up last night to relax and enjoy. I was really in the mood for a nice smooth and not overly strong wine, so a pinot noir seemed idea.

It's not my favorite pinot noir. It was ok. There was a bit of a bite to it, it almost tasted a bit like a zinfandel. Not exactly what I was looking for but it was still tasty. I plan to have another glass tonight while watching Lost.

Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio

2009-02-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio is my stand by favorite pinot grigio. I know it'll be a good bottle of pinot. And this is what we had for our Valentine's dinner. We ordered carry out sushi and wanted a nice light white wine. It's a bit pricey, $22 here in P-town, but for a special night it's worth the splurge. We bought a 2007 bottle and as always it was tasty. Pinot Grigio is about the sweetest I like to go in wine any more. This one is definitely not too sweet. There is a nice fruity flavor which brings a sweetness. But it's not like the sugary sweet that some wines can have.

a begining...

2009-02-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

Over the last few years I've become more and more of an avid wine drinker. I'm not sure of the official definition of "wino" is...if it's someone that only drinks wine then I am not a wino. If it's someone that loves a nice glass of wine and is learning from experience which ones she likes and discovering their complex flavors...then that's me. Either way it doesn't matter b/c this blog is here to document the wines I have and have tried and my opinions on them. It's basically my wine journal in blog form....and now for a glass of wine.