Yellow Tail Riesling, Aussie Style, $5

I bought this 2009 Yellow Tail Riesling from Walmart a few weeks ago. It cost just under $5 and was one of many Yellow Tail varieties offered there.

To start off, let me just say that I loved this wine. In fact, although it's a tough choice, I might go so far as to say that this one beats the Moselland German Riesling, and it cost about half as much.

The nose evokes an intense fruity aroma, and at first sniff, the acidity is obvious, but in no way offensive. Upon first taste, the acidity lends a light, refreshing note to the taste buds and is balanced out by just enough sweetness. Fruit flavors emerge in the form of apple, white grape, and a hint of pear. Yellow Tail also cites a hint of orange blossom that "may linger on the finish," but I can't say that I remember that particular flavor...Maybe my allergies are getting the best of my sense of taste too =(

To sum it up, this wine is definitely a crowd-pleaser. It would pair with a wide variety of different foods, and is definitely enjoyable on its own as well. I have to recommend it, and look forward to trying more of Yellow Tail's varieties in the future.

MY GRADE: ++

A Weekend With Two German Rieslings...and a Wedding Cake

This weekend proved to be a pretty eventful one. Not only did I pick up my wedding dress (which fits, thank goodness!), but the bakery also delivered our wedding cake and groom's cake. The wedding isn't until next weekend, but due to a stroke of bad luck, the entire staff at the cake company is going to be gone on a cruise this whole next week...so they had to come set up our cake this weekend, and we'll keep it in the deep freeze until the big day. Anyway, the girl assigned to our delivery got all five tiers stacked and ready to go, then she and my dad set about lowering it into the deep freeze using a couple of tie-down straps. My mom and I looked on anxiously, since all we could do was pray that the whole cake wouldn't come crashing to the ground on what seemed like the longest three foot journey in the history of mankind. I guess our prayers worked, because even though the cake was just a moment away from disaster the entire way down, it miraculously made it to the bottom of the freezer in one piece. Although the poor girl seemed calm during the whole process, as soon as the cake was safely in the freezer, she collapsed against the wall in relief. I think ours was without a doubt her most stressful delivery ever, but she handled it extremely well, and hopefully she isn't scarred for life from the whole experience!

Later that afternoon, my mom brought over some of the wine she had picked out from World Market, and we had a "tasting party," just the two of us. The night before, I had opened one of my bottles, a 2007 German Riesling called "bloom".

2007 bloom Riesling (Germany)
After swirling it, I took a lengthy sniff. It had a very acidic aroma, and smelled like a combination of green apple, white grape, flowers, and weeds. In accordance with Kevin Zraly's suggestions in his "Windows on the World Wine Journal," I took a sip, then waited 30 seconds before taking another in order to be able to properly take in its flavors after the initial "shock to the taste buds". Next, I began Mr. Zraly's 60-second tasting process. The first 15 seconds were overwrought with acidity, and provided no sweetness or fruit flavors. The next 15 were much the same, with a small decrease in the level of acidity and a small hint of green apple and white grape flavors. In the next 30 seconds, all of the flavors faded, and the sweetness I was searching for never emerged. Overall, this wine was fairly unoffensive, but unremarkable all the same. It seemed to need some more time to achieve a better balance between the acidity and fruit flavors, as the acidity was rather overpowering all the way through. I might pair it with an equally unremarkable dish, such as chicken or a mild seafood.

MY GRADE: +/-

2007 Moselland Ars Vitis Riesling (Germany)
Saturday afternoon, my mom brought over another 2007 German Riesling, Moselland Ars Vitis. This was the first wine I had ever opened with a corkscrew (the bloom Riesling was also a screw-cap variety), which turned out to be an adventure in and of itself! I used a corkscrew from my Oneida wine set, and removed the cork without any problem. I was feeling pretty proud of myself until I realized that I couldn't get the cork off the corkscrew...I tried twisting it off to no avail, and finally abandoned the task in favor of sampling the wine.

This variety turned out to be infinintely more appealing than the bloom Riesling. Its aroma was much more mild, and consisted primarily of white grape and a hint of green apple. After the initial sip, the first 15 seconds of tasting proved to be very pleasant; this wine was only mildly acidic, and the fruitiness (white grape)appeared much sooner. By the end of the 30-45 second time frame, the flavors achieved a pleasant balance: the acidity all but disappeared, and though there was still little residual sweetness, the fruit flavors showed themselves very well.

The bottom line? The Moselland Ars Vitis Riesling was much more appealing and ready to drink than the bloom Riesling, achieving a very pleasant balance between sweetness and acidity and a harmony of flavors, both of which the bloom very much lacked. The Moselland could withstand a more flavorful chicken or seafood dish than the bloom, and would undoubtedly appeal to a much wider variety of palettes.

MY GRADE: + or ++

Next, I'm planning on trying an Australian Riesling by Yellow Tail, which is chilling in my fridge as we speak. We'll see how the Aussie stacks up against the German varieties!

In the meantime, if you're looking for a great wine reference book, I highly recommend Kevin Zraly's "Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 25th Anniversary Edition", along with his wine journal of the same name. They're great reads if you want to learn more about wine, and Mr. Zraly is simultaneously thorough and accessible in his approach to wine.


Oh, and about that stubborn cork...After drinking a glass of the Moselland Riesling, I easily unscrewed it from the corkscrew. Apparently, that's the trick to successfully removing the cork after opening your bottle of wine...You just have to drink some of it first! =)

A Rose by Any Other Name?

While I was laying awake last night thinking the sort of random thoughts that only seem to float around in your head when you should be sleeping, it hit me that my blog about wine is, thus far, almost as much about coffee and beer as it is about the main topic. Which got me to thinking--should I change the name of my blog? After all, anyone hoping to read about wine would have to skip the first few paragraphs entirely before they could get to the subject at hand. So then I tried to come up with other names, but the best I could do at that hour was "The Pour Blonde: Adventures in Wine (and Other Refreshing Beverages) on a Budget"...Which is a tad too lengthy and distracting even for my taste. Therefore, unless a brilliant alternative hits me one of these days (or in the middle of the night), I've decided to leave it the way it is for the time being. If anyone objects, please say "aye"......

Okay, now that we've got that business out of the way, I thought I would tell you about our latest coffee and beer trials. =) This morning, I drank Green Mountain Nantucket Blend from the variety pack that came with our Keurig. And I did make it to the grocery store yesterday, so I got to add half and half this morning--yay for no more black coffee! Anyway, this one is okay...Nothing special, but definitely not bad. Yesterday, I tried the Gloria Jeans Hazelnut in the morning and Van Houtte French Vanilla in the afternoon, and I really didn't care for either of those. Both of them were too bold & bitter for my taste, and had that almost burnt taste that I could definitely do without. Out of all the different coffees I've tried so far, I like the Coffee People Donut Shop Coffee the best. It's just a basic, unoffensive, well-rounded coffee that would probably to appeal to almost anyone. I bought some Belgian Chocolate Toffee and some kind of Almond Something-Or-Other creamer at Walmart this afternoon, so I'm excited to try them. I also ordered several different sample packs of various flavored coffees to try, and those should arrive by next Tuesday. I figured I better try them before ordering a whole box of any of them!

Now for the beer update. Dennis tried Shiner Black from his variety pack last night, and he ended up liking it! If that isn't a surprise, I don't know what is...I never dreamed he would like the darkest beer of the bunch, especially since he's such a Bud Light devotee. The only other dark beer I've tried was Guinness (I was using it in a recipe), and I hated it...It reminded me of beer mixed with coffee! This one was nothing like any other he or I have ever tasted, but in a good way. It didn't have an aftertaste, and it was a lot milder than the color suggests. Although he plans to let his buddies sample it before making a final conclusion about it, I think we may have found a winner!

As far as wine is concerned, I used almost all of the rest of the Arbor Mist Blackberry Merlot to cook a roast in that I put in the crock pot this morning before I left for work. I seasoned the roast with pepper, the Original Blend of Mrs. Dash, and garlic and onion powder, then I mixed a can each of beef broth and golden mushroom soup with a little of the wine. It all went into the crock pot, and eight hours later, it should be nice and tender...I hope! I didn't go from a recipe, so you can never tell how those things are going to turn out. Last night we had orange marmelade & brown sugar glazed ham (another recipe from the confines of my head), and I have to say it turned out pretty good. I've about decided that all you can do is put a little love and effort into everything you make, and it never turns out bad in the end. It's the stuff that you throw together in a hurry from a box or the freezer that doesn't come out so great...

Anyway, while I was at Walmart today (which is 30 miles away), I ended up buying three more bottles of wine...I just couldn't help myself! My mom asked me why I was buying more, and I told her I was collecting it. =) I was joking (sort of), but strangely enough, she didn't question me further! The total wine bottle count at my house is now nine, plus a bottle of sparkling chardonnay for our wedding toast. My wine rack only holds eight bottles, so it looks like I've got some serious sampling to do!

Which reminds me...My wine books and tasting journal were delivered today, so I'm excited to get home and look through them. Then I'll get down to business. ;)

Different Day, Same Story...Almost

This morning, I'm drinking Gloria Jean's Hazelnut Coffee from our new Keurig and wondering why I still haven't bought any creamer! I've drank black coffee (with Splenda) for the past three days, and let me just say that although it hasn't been horrible (and if it was, would I still be drinking it? Who knows!), I'm just not a black coffee kind of person. I suppose I'll just have to make today's mission a trip to the grocery store, considering I'm out of milk, eggs, and bread too. It's too bad our [one and only] grocery store doesn't carry wine...our little town is dry, so we have to drive 30 miles in one of two directions to buy alcohol, and even then the selection is pretty limited. On a side note, I should probably say that I really don't drink very often, so even though this experiment revolves around wine, my experience with alcohol in general is limited. Case in point: My first glass of wine for this blog left me somewhat tipsy, even though the Arbor Mist only has 6% alcohol...This should be an interesting adventure!

At any rate, last night was much like the one before. After I made, ate, and cleaned up after supper, my fiance and I recommenced our respective "research". His next choice was Shiner Light--my mom got him a six-pack variety of Shiner because she didn't want him to feel left out during the bridal shower! He poured it from the bottle into a fresh beer mug from the freezer (which he was sure to put in as soon as he walked in the door!), and was exceedingly proud of his pouring skills--he achieved less foam than the night before! In the midst of his beer-pouring-professional glory, he took a more assured drink from the mug and didn't make any strange faces this time. His verdict? It didn't have the aftertaste that the Shiner Blonde did, but it "still wasn't Bud Light." I guess that once you find a favorite, nothing else can quite compete!

After I tried a sip of his beer (which still tasted similar to Coors Light to me), I picked a 14-ounce bordeaux glass from my new collection and poured myself another glass of the Arbor Mist Blackberry Merlot.

Okay, before I go any further, I have to say that the whole proper glass debate still has me confused. If anyone knows whether a merlot tastes better in a glass for a burgundy or a bordeaux, please let me know!

Last night's sample of the Arbor Mist tasted much like the one from night before, and as much as I tried to extend my senses, I came to the conclusion that my first assessment was about as complex as it was going to get. I thought I might have detected a hint of strawberry flavor in this glass, but it could have just been my imagination and the desire to find something more in there. The texture was also much the same; it was still a bright, refreshing wine until I let the remainder of my glass sit for a bit while I did some laundry--then it became slightly flat.

Speaking of laundry...I had decided to sit at my dining room table for last night's tasting, not considering that my dining room is connected by swinging doors to the laundry room. I had some towels in the dryer, and due to the lack of a seal on the connecting doors, the scent of laundry detergent and dryer sheets soon overcame any wine-related scent. At this point, I had already decided that I wasn't going to get any more complexity from this particular wine, so I just gave up and drank the rest of the wine without paying as careful attention to its characteristics.

I'm thinking of using the last of the wine when I cook my roast in a crock pot, so I guess this marks the end of my Arbor Mist Blackberry Merlot evaluation. As much as a true wine connoisseur would most likely dismiss this variety as nothing more than a typical low-end wine, I still stand by my opinion that it is a pleasing and refreshing (if quite simple) drink.

The Adventure Begins...Sort Of--Arbor Mist Blackberry Merlot, $4

As I'm finishing up a warm cup of Coffee People Donut Shop Coffee from my new Keurig Platinum Coffee Maker (which, by the way, is also a new venture for me, as I'm not normally a coffee drinker either!), I thought I would detail my experience last night with my favorite screw-cap Arbor Mist wine, Blackberry Merlot. I've worked my way through three or so bottles of this wine in the last several months, so I'm quite familiar with its more obvious qualities; however, I figured I might as well try to "properly" taste and describe it while I'm waiting on my wine books and tasting journal to arrive.

After unpacking and putting away the gifts we received at our wedding shower this weekend, my fiance and I decided to sit down on the couch and try one of our newly-acquired beverages of choice. Since he's more of a beer man (and wouldn't so much as take a sip of my wine), his pick was Shiner Blonde, a golden lager made by the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas. He slowly poured it into one of his new beer mugs (fresh from the freezer), careful to not create the oh-so-undesirable foam on top, and took a drink...immediately followed by a cringe and a face he doesn't normally make while drinking beer. At this point, my interest was piqued (if only out of amusement)and I was distracted from my wine endeavor long enough to sample his beer, which he said reminded him too much of Bud Light & Clamato. I can't say I know what that tastes like, but to me it tasted quite a bit like Coors Light, albeit with a markedly bitter after taste. It definitely wasn't bad, but not something I would want to drink much of. After a couple more sips, I handed his beer mug back to him and continued in my quest for wine bliss.

I pulled the bottle from my fridge, where it has been chilling for a few weeks now, and went about opening it. You would think that by having prior experience with this particular wine, I would easily be able to remove the cap, but embarrassingly enough, I wasn't. You see, although I did graduate with a 4.0 from Texas Tech University, I sometimes lack the more common sort of sense that is much more useful in daily life. It is now safe to say that a foil cutter is only useful for opening corked wine bottles, because the screw cap variety have a tab that you pull to remove the foil! But I digress...

I rinsed out one of the glasses from my new Libbey Vintner's 12-Piece Wine Tasting Goblet Set (a great wedding gift from my parents!), a 13 1/2-ounce burgundy, and proceeded to pour myself a healthy glass of the Blackberry Merlot...Nevermind that I later discovered that in my relative cluelessness, the 14-ounce bordeaux would have been the better glass for a merlot! Nevertheless, I sat down on the couch with my loving almost-husband and proceeded through the Swirl-Sniff-Sip routine, which seemed to amuse my sweet, mocking fiance. As he laughed at me, I explained that I was not trying to act like a "rich person" as he accused, but rather, was trying to enjoy my wine more--to which he responded, "My point exactly!" Nevermind that the wine in question cost less than $4 for the bottle...

Anyway, the first sniff gave the expected blackberry overtones (duh), as well as a good amount of alcohol, despite the fact that it only contains 6% of the latter. As far as the texture goes, this wine was very refreshing. It has a thickness similar to juice, but it's not so thick that it coats the mouth. I found that it was fairly acidic with a hint of carbonation minus the bubbles; however, it is definitely primarily a sweet wine. The foremost flavor, of course, is blackberry, but I detected a hint of raspberry essence in it as well.

After repeating the tasting process a few times to see if I detected any other aromas/flavors/other qualities, I came to the conclusion that Arbor Mist Blackberry Merlot is a simple, straitforward wine (if you could truly consider it as such) without the complexity you find in more expensive wines.

The bottom line: Although it is, admittedly, a true embodiment of a "cheap" wine, I find that Arbor Mist's Blackberry Merlot has an appealing taste and refreshing texture, and although I don't know if it would "go" with anything other than dessert or on its own, it definitely has a place in my wine world!

MY GRADE: ++

A New Journey

I'm a 21-year-old recent college graduate (B.A. in Anthropology, minor in Psychology) that grew up in a small town in Texas, so I suppose you could say that I haven't had a lot of "cultural experience" in my life thus far! Nonetheless (or perhaps due to this fact), I've decided to embark on a journey to learn about wine. I've always enjoyed the taste of wine, but my current knowledge of its nuances and attributes is rather limited...Let's just say that my repertoire up to now has consisted of screw-cap bottles, which should explain a few things!

I don't have an exact strategy as of yet to guide me through this mission, but the basic idea is to try as many different types of wines as I can get my hands on that fit within my also-rather-limited budget, and to experience the beauty of wine without the snobbery it often implies. I want to record my observations of each wine in a wine tasting journal and, of course, on this blog.

I'm hoping that through this adventure, I will be able to hone my palette and expand my horizons—wine, at least for me, is a window to the rest of the world beyond my own. Although I may never get to see the Italian countryside, I can curl up with a good book and a glass of wine and taste its splendor.

"Wine to me is passion. It's family and friends. It's warmth of heart and generosity of spirit. Wine is art. It's culture. It's the essence of civilization and the art of living."
—Robert Mondavi