A White Zinfandel & A Sparkling Anniversary

For the past two nights, my hubby and I have eaten off ourbeautiful new ivory Waechtersbach dishware that we received as wedding gifts. The night before last, my mom and "little" brother (who is half a foot taller than I am) came over and I made Arroz con Pollo (A spanish dish--"Rice with Chicken") for dinner. My dad missed out since he was gone on business, but we had a good time regardless.

We ate the chicken and rice, baked beans, green beans, salad, and dinner rolls. I opened a 2007 Clear Bottle Bay White Zinfandel to go with our meal, although my mom and I were the only ones that drank any of it--my husband and brother opted for Coke instead.

2007 Clear Bottle Bay White Zinfandel, $7

I found this White Zinfandel to be just okay for my taste...It wasn't bad persay, but it's not something I'll buy again. As far as White Zinfandel goes, this fit the varietal to a T. It tasted very similar to the Sutter Home version I had over our honeymoon. That bottle seemed to improve after a couple of days of being open, but I'll have to rely on my mom's assessment on this one, because I sent the rest of the bottle home with her.

The Clear Bottle Bay White Zin was acidic first and foremost, and as sweet as it was, it somehow just didn't balance well on the palate. The strawberry flavors were nice, but the fruit tended to be overpowered by the acid as well. Overall, it was a light, zippy (though I'm not sure in a good way) wine that would probably taste better on a hot summer day.

My Grade: +/-

Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto 2008, $25

Last night was mine and my new hubby's one month "anniversary", so I made a nicer-than-usual dinner to celebrate. We ate off our new dishes again (which, by the way, make everything look more elegant!), and opened a celebratory bottle of Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto, which is a (slightly more expensive) sparkling wine from Italy.

My ever-so-helpful husband had to uncork the bottle, because I tend to have a deep-seated fear of things that go "POP" at unexpected moments, i.e., biscuit cans...I'm sure I'll have to get over it someday, but at this point in time, there usually seems to be someone around to enable me =]

Anyway, I poured a glass of the Banfi for myself, then offered a sip to my husband, who as most of you probably know by now isn't a wine drinker. At all. Surprisingly (after some coaxing to actually try it), he didn't make a horrible face, and although he said he'd still stick to his Bud Light, this was the best wine he'd tasted so far. I'll count that as a success any day, even though he went right back to his beer and didn't touch the wine again. Oh well...you can't make anyone love something just because you do, no matter how hard you try!

This sparkling cranberry-hued wine is brimming with fruit, both on the nose and the palate. It's sweet, but not too much so, as it has enough acid to balance it out. Rasberries and strawberries dominate on the tongue, with a touch of rose petals at the back if you take the time to really taste it. You wouldn't think rose petals could possibly taste good, but somehow they do, at least in this wine!

I think while drinking this wine, it would be impossible not to share in some of the joy it imparts. It's bright red, it's fruity, and it's sparkling with carbonation. How can you get more happy than that?!

My Grade: +++

2008 Watusi California Zinfandel, $7

Summertime in a Bottle

This fun, flirty Zin by Watusi is a delight to drink. It’s the first Zinfandel I’ve “formally” tasted, and it didn’t disappoint. Bright with prickly acidity and tannins, it provides excellent depth of flavors for a Zinfandel at this price point.

The Watusi Zinfandel is a medium-bodied strawberry red number that gives off aromas of red berries, florals, and a little oaky vanilla to round it out—in fact, I wrote down that it smells similar to a Cabernet.

On the palate, there are strong floral notes that dominate the first wave of flavors, along with strawberries and a trace of herbs. The floral taste lingers, but gives way to more red berries and a hint of peach, which gradually and subtly takes over and lingers on the finish.

This one may be too sweet for some (especially for the more exacting palate), but then again, Zinfandel isn’t a grape that conforms to French Bordeaux-loving standards either. If taken for what it is, this Zin is overflowing with joyous fruit flavors, and packs just enough acidity to balance out the residual sugar.

It turns out that this is not a very well-known wine, so it may be difficult to find; however, it just happened to grab my attention while heading for the checkout at World Market, and I’m glad I ended up buying a bottle of it. During what seems like a never-ending winter, this Zinfandel provides a glimpse of the bliss that is spring and summer!

P.S.--Sorry about the horribly blurry picture, guys...although I guess it kind of goes with this wine's illusiveness!

My Grade: ++++

2006 Beringer Founders' Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, $11

The night before last, I opened this bottle of Beringer Cabs for tasting. I let it sit on the counter during supper to allow it to come to room temperature (the "proper" way to drink cabernet sauvignon), then poured myself a glass.

After a good swirl, this ruby red wine gave off tantilizing aromas of red berries, spice, and oaky vanilla. According to Kevin Zraly's method of wine tasting, I took one sip to get over the initial "shock" to the taste buds before beginning my tasting impressions.

This cabs coats the mouth with a healthy amount of tannins, lending it an astringent quality at the onset. It immediately provides just the right acidity--nothing "too" about this one. The mouthfeel is rich and suede-like, with a slight "furry" quality to it. [By the way, I definitely thought that word sounded gross when I first read it in a wine review too, but you just have to experience it to know it's not a bad thing!]

The flavor is big, bold, and peppery, with an abundance of red berries and oak. It achieves superb balance in a short amount of time, and has great depth and length for a wine of this price.

As with any cabernet sauvignon, you wouldn't want to pair this one with a weak dish due to its full body and high tannin content, because it would overpower the food. This wine would pair well with red meat, pasta with heavier sauces, or even pizza. Or, of course, you could do like I did and just drink it on its own! Either way, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Speaking of disappointment...I poured another glass of this last night and left it on the counter to bring it to room temp, but since my hubby was much later getting home than I thought he would be, it got a little too warm, so I stuck it in the fridge. BIG mistake. I had set it on a shelf inside the door where the gallon jug of tea had been, and closed the door. After we ate supper, I went to the fridge to put some stuff away, and as soon as I opened the door, my wine came crashing down and splashed all over the floor, the inside of the fridge, and me. Luckily, my glass survived the fall, but I think that's because all of our glassware, from iced tea glasses to my wine glasses and my hubby's beer mugs (and juice glasses, and water goblets...) are all Libbey brand. I have never (*knock on wood*) had a Libbey glass break, and they're all I've used for the past three and a half years.

Anyway, I was majorly bummed that so much of my wine had gone to waste, especially since we're talking about a big glassful. Oh well...You live and you learn--and sometimes you spill your wine!

Barefoot Pinot Noir, $7

Barefoot's wines are among some of the most well-received bargain wines by critics for their relatively good quality-to-value ratio, and rightfully so. Their wines are "real" enough to pass muster with all but the hardest to please oenophile, and they cost much less than most decent wines on the market.

Billed by Barefoot as a "New Release", this one caught my curiousity at Walmart. I can't recall if I bought this wine at the same time or after the Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir (See my archive for its review) but I remember thinking it would provide a comparison point for the latter. At $7, it cost around $4 less than the Mondavi version.

On the nose, this variety is fairly diluted. There are hints of red fruit and flora, but it doesn't provide much to be sniffed.

This medium-bodied wine is similarly weak on the palate, albeit for the acidity, which is a little on the heavy side. Red fruit (cherry, raspberry) is predominate, but still doesn't provide much to think about. There is enough oak to add a touch more interest, but even it is vague in its perception.

I suppose it's because the Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir was so amazing in comparison, but I just can't seem to come up with much excitement for this one. It isn't bad, and it does go down easily with a smooth touch, but it doesn't have any length to speak of...In a matter of seconds, what flavors it does have to offer have already faded into oblivion. On the positive side, it didn't seem like the alcohol in this wine really affected me, but that's about all I can say...

When looking at the big picture, I would pay the extra $4 for the Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir in a heartbeat. There's just no way that this one can measure up to the pleasure that one provided, even though this is a good, basic, unoffensive red for a party or less discerning palates.

My Grade: +

2006 Colombelle Cotes de Gascogne Blanc, $7

This white wine is a "Vin de Pays" from France, which designates that it is a step above table wine, but is below the VDQS and AOC classifications. These designations signify that a wine is made according to certain specifications, with the rules being more stringent for higher classifications than lower ones.

I paid around $7-8 for this bottle from World Market. It was pale yellow in color, and gave off delicate aromas of flowers and citrus fruit. On the palate, it had nice acidity (not overwhelming), and was bursting with graprefruit and white peach. This medium-bodied white wine had a great balance between acidity and sweetness, with just enough of both. It had decent length, and a good harmony of flavors.

All in all, this is a white worth noticing. It had great flavor and value for the price.

My Grade: +++

2007 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Pinot Noir, $11

"Whatever you do, pour yourself into it."

--Robert Mondavi

I have to say, Mondavi et al really poured themselves into this one. It's a light bodied, dark ruby Pinot Noir with plenty of flavor to go around.

At around $11 at Walmart, this is an amazing wine for the price. Attractive aromas containing plenty of jammy, ripe fruit and a hint of vanilla from the oak lead into a beautifully complex palate bursting with fruit (blackberry?) and just enough oakiness to round out the edge.

Honestly, I would drink this wine with just about anything--or nothing! This bottle serves as proof that you don't have to spend a fortune to find a true treasure in the wine world. It has amazing balance and complexity, and the finish has impressive length for such a (relatively) cheap selection.

This was my first Pinot Noir, and it definitely set the bar high. I'm going to buy another bottle of this one for sure...It's a keeper!

My Grade: ++++

2007 Hayes Ranch 'In the Saddle' Cabernet Sauvignon, $7

"California Wines with a Western Spirit"

The tagline for this California winemaker seems to be the perfect description for the style of their wine. Everything about it screams "Western," from the label design to the stuff inside the bottle.

This is another wine from my first round of purchases last month at World Market, and it's a steal for what you get.

This dark red Cab gives off aromas of oak, vanilla, spice, red jam, and an unspecific vegetative bouquet.

It proved to be a supple, warm, jammy red wine with plenty of spicy oak flavor and just enough tannins to add interest. It has a nice complexity of flavors and is overall an extremely pleasing wine.

When I first opened it, it had a slightly chemical taste, but I think that it might have disappeared had I let the open bottle sit for a little bit before the first sip. After the bottle sat in the fridge for a few days, it seemed like the flavors only got better. As time went by, it got more complex, smoky, and I was finally able to taste the blackberry noted on the label.

Hayes Ranch 'In the Saddle' is a big, oaky wine with plenty of fruit for the tasting. It's great on its own (the way I've enjoyed it the last couple of cold winter nights), but also goes well with pizza. It has enough substance to stand up to a nice steak, but is gentle enough to enjoy with chicken.

My Grade: +++

My Wine Grading System

By this point, I've written reviews on several different wines, and I feel that there's a need to somehow quantify how I feel about them. I'm not going to go so far as to assign a number grade or devise a complicated scoring system for them, but I think I've come up with a way to give you a better overall idea of what to expect should you decide to take my reviews to heart and try (or not waste your time on) the wines I've reviewed.

Also, keep in mind that any wine review or grade should be taken with a grain of salt, so to speak, because in the end, only you can decide whether or not you like a particular wine--after all, the best-reviewed wine in the world has little personal value if you don't like it! Wine reviews are merely meant to provide a starting point on which you build your expectations, much like food descriptions on a menu. Sometimes, those descriptions hit the nail on the head, but other times, they bear little resemblence to what you actually end up with.

My goal in writing this blog is to provide a frame of reference for people like me--people who have a limited budget and a similarly restricted knowledge of wine--and to encourage those who want to learn more about wine to do so by simply "diving in," just as I have.

Grading System:
- and below
Not so great; probably wouldn't buy again, due to either a lack of flavor or too high a price, or both

+/-
Not horrible, but not very good either; might possibly buy again in another vintage or allow to age longer

+
A good, balanced wine with few flaws; would likely buy again

++
Superb balance and flavor; one to buy again

+++
Excellent flavor and value; above average complexity and length for the price; will buy again in the future

++++
Simply amazing; outstanding flavor and value; one for the books

A French Rose: 2008 La Vieille Ferme, $8

This is the first rose wine I've reviewed for this blog, and I have to say it proved to be a worthy one. I bought this bottle at World Market a month ago, and it cost around $8.

This is one of three varieties offered by La Vieille Ferme (the other two being a red and a white), and comes from Rhône Valley Vineyards in the Côtes du Ventoux AOC, which is located near the Côtes du Rhône appellation.

>>Appellation d'origine contrôlée (or AOC, for short) is a French term that certifies that a wine is made from specific grapes from the area stated on the label, and that it is produced in a certain way.

La Vieille Ferme Rose is made from Cinsault (50%), Grenache (40%), and Syrah (10%) grapes. It is a medium-bodied wine that is light red in color, and gives off aromas of red berry (strawberry, cranberry, etc.), grape, and a slightly earthy scent. It has very little sweetness or tannins and is moderate in terms of fruit and acidity.

On a side note, I finally figured out after some time that the word "Récolte" on the label means "crop or vintage," as in "Vintage: 2008", and is not part of the name of the wine itself! That just goes to show that you learn something new everyday, and more so, it seems, when it comes to the wine world! =)

At the onset, acidity overwhelms with this one, but slowly fades away and balances out as fruit flavors appear. In the 30-45 second time frame, harmony is reached as the flavors and acidity balance further, and from 45 seconds onward, this balance continues as the flavors gently reside.

All in all, this rose is a dry, delicate wine that is pleasant but nothing to write home about. It would be great with appetizers, or as a good compromise to offer a divided group of red and white wine lovers.

My Grade: + or ++

(I'm on the fence as far as the grade to assign this one...As I said, it's nothing terribly exciting, but it's also a good, strong, straightforward rose.)

Canyon Wind Cellars Wine Tasting

While we were on our honeymoon, I somehow convinced my husband (the obstinate beer man) to venture over to the Canyon Wind Cellars tasting room in Georgetown, Colorado. Canyon Wind's vineyard is located in Palisade, Colorado, where they produce a wide variety of wines using sustainable (eco-friendly) practices. While my hubby stood by (obviously bored with the wine talk), I sampled several of Canyon Wind's red varieties. Keep in mind that I only had a couple of sips of each and didn't bring my wine journal along with me, so I won't be able to go into much detail about the nuances of each one. Also, since I wasn't able to do a "proper" tasting of these wines, I'm not going to assign a grade to them--I simply don't remember enough about each one.

Merlot
Described by the maker as "One of our most successful and popular wines...The nose has nice scents of cherry and cedar. A medium bodied, balanced red with a soft full mouth feel. This wine is perfectly suited for a picnic or a black tie dinner," this was a fairly straightforward, balanced merlot. Nothing "off" about this one; it was pleasant to both the nose and the mouth. I'm sad I left without picking up a bottle of this one, especially since Canyon Wind only ships within Colorado.

Syrah

"A wonderfully intense version of this popular varietal with a deep, rich color. Coffee and fruit aromas abound. On the palate it is a well balanced, and richly flavored wine with a long finish. Perfect for hearty meats and stews." This wine had a much more powerful quality than the merlot; there was nothing delicate about it. That's not to say it was unpleasant in any way; it would simply require a similarly substantial food to stand up to its intense flavors.

Tempranillo

"This red wine is originally from northern Spain and has now found a home in Colorado. A lighter red with a nose of bright cherry, smoke, and spice." Although Canyon Wind only offers this short and simple description, this wine is arguably deserving of much more. It was a delightfully spicy red wine, and evoked the sultriness of its country of origin. The man behind the counter suggested pairing this one with Mexican or Italian food, both of which I can see this one working beautifully with. This one impressed me so much that I decided to buy a bottle of it to take home, so I'll be reviewing it in more detail in the future.

Petit Verdot

"One of the noble Bordeaux varietals. This wine is a dark, tannic, and rich with exceptionally deep color, great weight and structure. A must try...with great pepper overtones!" Out of all the wines I tasted at Canyon Wind, this one was without a doubt the most interesting one. The gentleman behind the counter instructed me to really take my time with this one, and rightfully so. He told me to imagine what a rose would taste like if it was melted into a wine...And that is exactly what this one tasted like! Now I'll be the first to say that eating (or drinking) a rose never sounded appealing, but against all odds, this wine pulls it off. It was a little too different for my taste, but it was definitely an adventure in and of itself!

Desert Rosé

"Based on our Cabernet varietal, this Rosé has a beautiful youthful color. Bright fruit aromas of strawberries and raspberries burst from the glass. On the palate there is an array of red berry flavors. The balancing acid provides a nice crisp finish making this wine a drink for all occasions." This was the last wine I tasted, and was also the sweetest by far. Marked as Canyon Wind's dessert wine, this rosé was intensely fruity with overtones of red berries both on the nose and the palate. Although it arguably lacked the complexity of the other wines Canyon Wind offers, it had an innocent appeal that can't be denied...I bought two bottles of this variety, one for myself and one as a gift for my mom!

A Wine-Filled Honeymoon

Obviously it's been a while since I've posted (over two weeks, in fact), but I'm not going to apologize this time around! My new hubby and I got back from our honeymoon in Colorado on Monday, and we've been getting our house set up since then. Today is my first day back to work in a couple of weeks, and I finally have full internet access again...Two weeks is a significantly long web hiatus for me!

Anyway, we had an amazing time in Colorado, and it turned out to be a relaxing and much-needed vacation for both of us. You just can't beat eight days of a private hot tub and a breakfast of fresh fruit and crescents delivered to our room each morning (through a window in the wall, nonetheless!). We were sad to leave our cozy room at the Hotel Chateau Chamonix behind, but I don't think we'll miss the crazy altitude changes anytime soon!

Since I last posted, I've sampled several different wines, and a pretty wide array of them at that. According to the best of my memory, here is a list of them:

Wines From Personal Collection:
--2009 Yellow Tail Riesling (Australia)
--2008 La Vieille Ferme Récolte Rose Wine (France, AOC Côtes du Ventoux)
--2007 Hayes Ranch "In the Saddle" Cabernet Sauvignon (California)

Wines From Honeymoon:
--[Bodegas?] Borsao Red Wine (Spain)
--Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon (California)
--Sutter Home White Zinfandel (California)
--Unidentified White Wine (Received upon check-in at hotel)
--Unidentified Red Wine (Drank with dinner on Two Below Dinner Sleigh Rides in Frisco, CO)

Wines From Tasting at Canyon Wind Wine Cellars in Georgetown, Colorado:
--Merlot
--Syrah
--Petit Verdot
--Tempranillo**
--Desert Rosé**
**Added to Personal Collection

I'll try to describe each of them for you in as much detail as possible in separate posts, so keep reading!!!