Petite Sirah

I am keeping this post simple, as I completely forgot about it! We opened this bottle last weekend, and I did a very rough draft (wine name, a couple tasting notes, website link) which I intended to complete the following day.

Hah! (This was written 2 Mar. However, the Blogger date has this at 25 Feb, when I did the rough draft)

That was almost a week ago, so here goes.... We have a small wine fridge, maybe holding around 50 bottles when full. Every so often, we reach way in back and pull out a surprise bottle. When the hell did we buy this?! Last weekend's wine was one of these surprises, and it was good.

Trentadue Winery 2002 Alexander Valley Petite Sirah. We are still familiarizing ourselves with this varietal, so excuse the very basic notes. This wine was bold and dark. Inky. It stained our teeth. It had a similar boldness to a big cab, and we love big, dry reds so this impressed. Excellent. We'll continue to try more Petite Sirah.

And that's it. Not a very good write-up. I try to write our impressions the same night we open a bottle and usually with a glass of wine at hand.

Happy sippin'!

Good whites

We're back, for this weekend, at least. It's been snowy and cold recently; we've spent a lot of time at home in front of the fire or watching movies. We've also tried two tasty whites.

ZUANI vigne (D.O. Collio) Blanco 2005. An ass-kicking wine, to quote Daryl. At 13% alcohol, this wine surprised us. It tasted light and refreshing, complementing our chicken and spinach pasta, but wow.... A glass-and-a-half each knocked us out. Our wine store owner recommended this, and we thank her! It's fruity and dry, but not as light as a pinot grigio or even a sauvignon blanc. For a much better description of this wine (we drank this a couple weeks ago and didn't take notes), please click here.

Fun With Mac and Cheese--that's been the theme of our meals this week. It's just one of those weeks where I hit the pantry and skim through the Kraft magazine to come up with dinner. Last night, it was taco-flavored macaroni, tasty with sour cream and lots of cheddar cheese. Daryl stopped at the wine store on the way home and picked up the following (again, recommended by the owners): Loosen Bros. 2005 Riesling "Dr. L" (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer). Ooh, very nice! Light, fruity, sweet--the tiniest hint of syrup but not enough to make it "thick". Low alcohol at 8.5%. We enjoyed a glass but didn't feel sleepy afterwards. We have enough for 2 glasses tonight (it might be a little light for the minestrone soup) and we're looking forward to it.

When it comes to whites, we almost exclusively drink Rueda or N.Z. Sauvignon Blanc. These were nice surprises, and we'll look for them again.

Cheers!

I hate titles...

..but I love good wine! Which is why not much thought has gone into this week's title. Pfffttt... On to the wine.

Anyway, it's been a good wine week, thus far. Last Friday, we opened the second bottle of William Hill Aura 1997 Cab (see previous post for review). Second time around it was perfect. But, at $80, we're all done. For now. It was worth it, and we highly, highly recommend this wine.

Tonight, I wasn't in the mood to cook, save for mac-n-cheese for the kids. Daryl ordered subs and stopped at our wine shop to pick up a bottle. McLaren Vale Kangarilla Road 2004 Shiraz ($21). We love strong, dry Shiraz and this was excellent. Peppery--as one would expect--exciting (Daryl's words), delicious.

This weekend, we're having dinner with friends...enjoying a quiet weekend before the upcoming Colts vs. Bears event. Our friends, who are moving to California (close to Napa, lucky!), are opening a special bottle. Looking forward to that.

Until Saturday...

Comfort wines

This week, we've been drinking tried-and-true wine: familiar wines from familiar producers, old favorites from new wineries.

Rueda/Verdejo: One of our favorite whites. Brilliant, sparkling, zesty. A little citrus, a touch acidic. We opened a bottle two days ago from a winery we've never tried. Unfortunately, we already recycled the bottle, and we didn't record the name. It was good, as we expected. We haven't tried a bad one yet, and we drink this often, especially during the summer.

Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc: Our other top white! Daryl picked up a bottle this afternoon from our wine shop. Matua Valley 2005 S.B. Excellent wine--crisp, clean, fruity. Delicious! We served this with honey mustard chicken and fried rice.

And for our table wine during the week, we drank Two-Buck Cab. It's a decent wine, but after last Saturday's William Hill...

Go Pats!

Some great wines

New Year's was fun--we drank prosecco and cava and watched "Extras". So much for wild and crazy times, but hey, we have little ones at home...

Last night, we had some fellow wine lovers over for chicken parm (Daryl's specialty). We opened a special bottle: William Hill Winery Aura, 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley)*. Gorgeous, gorgeous wine! We aired it upon opening, not sure how well it had aged. At first sip, it was a little dry, a little tight. As we ate, the wine opened in our glasses--a perfect, dry cab, mellow yet rich. Just perfect. Special significance here: We met in 1997, and the first bottle of wine we ever shared together, back before we had any idea what we were drinking, was from William Hill. Daryl found the '97 at our wine store and picked up two bottles. The other we're planning to open on 19 January, our actual anniversary.

Our friends brought their favorite bottle of champagne: Mario Lanza California Champagne. Another wonderful bottle! Not too dry, not too sweet. Very nice following dinner and before the chocolate cake.

*If you check out the William Hill site, they ask for your birthdate to enter.

Go Patriots! Go Giants! Go Buckeyes!

Until the next...

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

We're enjoying the lazy down-time in between the two holidays. Daryl is working half days, and the weather has been mild enough that the kids can get out to ride their bikes in the afternoons. We haven't done too much wine drinking lately, save for the usual glass at dinner.

Christmas dinner was excellent. We visited some friends, who prepared a wonderful feast. We drank sparkling wine from California--hand-carried from their trip to Napa. For dinner, we brought a Santa Barbara Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir. Good eating, good drinking, and wonderful company!

We opened a bottle of Garnacha (Grenache) from the Carinena region of Spain: 2002 Vino Tinto Castillo de Monseran. Very nice, and a great bargain at $8. We're enjoying it with dinner this week.

Daryl promised to pick up some Prosecco for New Year's Eve. Cheers!

Our Weekly Wrap-Up

What can we say? It's the holidays--busy, busy. Another round of The Crud is going through our house, too, which always puts a damper on wine tasting and other amusing activities. Kath is trying to come up with entertaining things for the kids to do over vacation that do not involve eight hours in front of the television, and Daryl is pushing through the final round of office Christmas parties (Chili cook-offs! Pizza buffets! Sugar, sugar and more sugar!).

We're still drinking our cheaper stuff. After Thanksgiving, our cellar is somewhat depleted; the remaining bottles are either too fancy for ordinary nights or possess some sort of sentimental value that prohibits their opening. We'll probably head to Trader Joe's this weekend to get another affordable case.

We opened a red table wine from our 2005 trip to Prince Edward Island. Ummm...not the greatest wine but not the worst. Very strong--grapey, peppery. One glass was enough, so it sits in our fridge for now. We also tried Kendall-Jackson 2002 Vintner's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Now that is a good bottle! A well-crafted, delicious cab. Daryl picked this one up, and he's pretty sure he paid well under $20. Nice choice!

We've been asked to bring the wine for Christmas dinner: turkey and all the trimmings. We're unsure what to pick up: a Pinot Noir? Chardonnay (but not an oaky one)? That'll be something fun to look for in the next week.

Cheers!

Disappointed

We hate when we open a bad bottle! On Saturday, we were in the mood for a white, and we dug deep into the cellar to find a Pinot Grigio from Ohio. We had tried this back in June at the Ohio Wine Fest, and obviously enjoyed it, as we purchased a bottle.

The top of the cork was damp and discolored. Uh oh. We uncorked it, and the entire cork was discolored, moist and crumbling. It reeked of vinegar. Ugh.

The wine didn't smell bad, and we hoped that it had somehow survived. Nope. It was very, very acidic. That one went down the drain. Too bad--this was a wine from the Lake Erie region of the state, and we haven't seen it in local shops.

Last night we opened Nobilo 2005 Marlborough Savignon Blanc. As always, it was delightful--lots of citrus and peach.

We took a picture of the cork, as we had never seen one this bad. Don't know if its poor condition is obvious in the above shot.

Bragging Rights

Woo hoo! It's done...sort of. I got my 50K and I still have a chapter to go.

Long live NaNoWriMo.

Reflections on Thanksgiving Wine

We drank quite a bit of wine this holiday week (and some beer, too)...opened some old favorites and tried some new stuff also. Here's a little summary of what we sipped:

Kath's parents spent some time in Italy earlier this fall, and they brought us two wines from Castello Il Palagio. We shared the very nice red table wine, and we are saving the 2001 Chianti Classico Riserva.

Liz brought a lovely semi-sweet red wine from Georgia, which we served with Thanksgiving appetizers. Aptly named Scarlett, this was a pleasing bottle--and the first from Georgia we've ever tried. Good stuff!

With dinner, we drank Fetzer Chardonnay and Ortman 2005 Syrah Rose. Those are two of our favorites. We also opened several Charles Shaw wines throughout the week.

Finally, we decided to open our 1996 Quintessa to enjoy Liz and Colleen's last day with us. This was our first foray into the world of cult wine, and we weren't disappointed. It was a lovely, delicate red--very pretty. We did agree that it was probably past its peak--there was no noticeable finish and it tasted a little pale, so to speak. It was good, very good, but not phenomenal. Lesson learned--we'll open our 2001 before the ten year mark.

It was an excellent week--good company and good wines!

Updating

From Kath: We haven't been doing much wine drinking these past few weeks, save for our usual Two Buck table wine during the week. Reasons? A nasty cold has run its course through our house, pretty much making all of us miserable and rendering our noses and taste buds useless. Not good for trying new wine. Also, we've been busy with a variety of activities, and we haven't been around much.

NaNoWriMo has kept me very, very busy this month. I'm happy to report that I'm at 43K words--not bad with less than two weeks to go! I pretty much did marathon writing sessions the first part of the month, knowing that I wouldn't get much done over Thanksgiving. It's been fun.

We've been thinking about our Thanksgiving wine. Daryl already picked up a 1.5L bottle of Fetzer Chardonnay for our table wine. We are considering opening our 1996 Quintessa--that'll be fun to try, and we'll write it up here. Kath's family may bring a couple of bottles to share, and we're looking forward to their selections.

That's it for this Saturday. Go Buckeyes!

This is especially funny...

...after a couple glasses of wine.

Shave the Yeti, here.

Enjoy!

Late, Again

Really and truly, we did sip on Saturday but never got around to posting our little review. My excuse (Kath speaking as the usual poster)? I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so I've been a little busy attempting to write a 5oK word novel in 30 days...less, actually, when you consider that I'll be taking time off over Thanksgiving to play hostess. But anyway, FWIW, here are our impressions of this past Saturday's wine.

Silver Syrah 57% Mourvedre 43% (Santa Barbara, 2002) was this month's wine of the month selection from our local wine shop. It has a beautiful appearance: dark, rich, opaque red with just a touch of brightness when held up to the light. (Daryl noted that this hint of clarity meant it would be more of a medium-bodied wine, as compared to a full-bodied like a Cab...and he was right!) We both smelled blackberries. It was smooth in taste, hitting the front of the palate and mellowing at the finish. We both noticed that familiar Syrah pepper, but it wasn't as sharp. Influence of the Mourvedre blend, no doubt. The alcohol content was high at 14.6.%, but we couldn't smell or taste the alcohol.

We picked this wine up for around $23. A very good red!

Island Memories

So, this is where we were, five months ago! Hard to believe how quickly the time has passed.

To remind us of those fine Mallorcan days, we opened one of the bottles we brought back:

Jose L. Ferrer Veritas Anada 2003, D.O. Binissalem, Mallorca. It's a blend of local grapes Mantonegro and Callet with Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo. The taste? Unusual.

"Cranberries. Fermented cranberries." Daryl's first response. Kath took a sip and agreed. Not much aroma to this wine, just the slightest hint of cranberry. In appearance, it resembled a Pinot Noir--clear red. Taste: almost exclusively cranberry. Light-bodied, different. It's probably something we wouldn't ordinarily drink, but as it holds much sentimental value, we enjoyed it.

Salud!

The French Journey Begins...

So, at Saturday Sippin', if we say we're going to learn about a new wine, we stick to our word. While out running errands, Daryl stopped by our local wine shop and requested a French wine that would go well with Chipotle burritos (our dinner). He came home with a semi-sweet white for under $10 ($9.99 actually).

J. Moreau & Fils 2004 Vouvray Demi-sec. For starters, Kath loved the fact that there was a little map of the Vouvray region on the front label. Also, the varietal was listed on the back label: 100% Chenin Blanc. Very nice. This wine was sweeter than what we normally look for in a white. Lots of fruit and a little honey. Very supple--but not syrupy--texture. Quite tasty with our smoky, spicy chicken and pork burritos.

Next week, a French red, perhaps?

(Oh, and check out their website, linked above. Funny how seeing pictures and reading detailed explanations of winemaking can lessen the intimidation factor.)

A Discovery

We love a bold Syrah, but we rarely drink Petite Syrah--don't know why, just never think to pick up a bottle. We added this bottle to fill up a case, and we were very pleased with what we sipped. (For more about Petite Syrah, see here and here.)

Dashe 2002 Petite Syrah (Ripken Vineyard, Lodi): Daryl picked out the finer nuances of this wine, so we'll use his tasting notes for a more complete overview. Aroma: black raspberry. Taste: slightly peppery start; smooth chocolate finish. Interesting to note that when Kath tried this, we had just pulled it out of the cellar, and she tasted cinnamon instead of pepper. She also noticed a subtle hint of thyme.

This is an excellent wine, and we have a new varietal to explore.

Cheers!

Kath's Thoughts on French Wine

French wine intimidates me. That sounds like an odd reaction to what is essentially bottles of fermented grapes, but I cannot drink French wine because I'm afraid of it. Maybe it's a language thing: I had no problem learning Spanish and use that language to help decipher Italian and Portuguese bottles. French--I see names of regions, chateaux, rivers, etc., and I feel I need both a dictionary and an atlas.

Maybe I'm too American when it comes to wine. I like knowing which varietal I'm drinking up front. When I open a red, I want to know if it's a Cab or a Zin or some sort of blend. However, Spain, Portugal and Italy use the D.O. in labeling their wines, and while I don't always know which grape I'm drinking, I have a general idea what the wine will be like. For example, I know that Italian Barolos and Barbarescos are excellent (and generally out of our price range), but Barberas, produced in the same region, are generally tasty and affordable. So maybe it isn't a grape versus region issue after all.

I don't want to be intimidated by wine, and as a wine lover, I feel that I should develop at least a basic understanding of French wine (and, yes, I know that Burgundy and Bordeaux are supposed to be tops).

So, starting soon, I'm going to try to select French wines for our Saturday Sippin' selection. Since I tend to shop in the under $30 bin, I'm not quite sure what I'll find. But isn't that the fun of wine: opening a bottle and seeing what you get?

Until Saturday...

A Little Late...

So, we actually drank this past weekend's wine early (last Thursday), and we kept meaning to do the write-up. Alas, things have been busy, and we're finally getting to it. We did take notes, so we're not just relying on memory.

Monticello Vineyards 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley):Very nice cab! Rich, dark red in color; typical full-bodied taste, with a tiny undernote of smoke. We were nervous upon opening the bottle. A strong aroma of alcohol wafted from our glasses, and we wondered if we'd end up tasting vinegar. Nope! Just a good cab.

Only a few more days till Saturday!

Wonderful White

This weekend's wine is Cinnabar Mercury Rising Blanc 2005 (Paso Robles, CA), a delightful, fruity (but dry, of course) blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and Semillon. We picked this up at our local shop and are thoroughly pleased with what our $20 bought.

The color is gorgeous--a pale, delicate straw. Aromas of grapefruit and kiwi. Kath thought this wine tasted very close to her favorite New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc but with some unusual undertones, like honeysuckle (yes, really...). Daryl couldn't pick out individual flavors but liked the brightness and noted that the acidity is very low. It went well with our lumpia and fried rice.

Cheers!

Rueda Rose

One of our favorite summer wines is Verdejo from Rueda, Spain. This light, fruity (but not sweet) white wine has been at the top of our list since we tried it at our very first tasting in October, 2002. It is becoming more popular -- and therefore easier to find -- and overall, the quality of this wine remains high.

We were delighted to find Rose from Rueda on our last visit to our local wine shop. Vida Nueva, 2005, is made from 100% Tempranillo and is a fun, light wine. Like a white Rueda, it is bright and clean with berry tones...but definitely dry, much to our liking. A nice end-of-summer wine, we served it with a fall meal: grilled pork, roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli, and homemade applesauce.

Our very first review (here) was a Syrah Rose, and Vida Nueva compares favorably to that wine. An unexpected find!

Until the next...