2007 Cateau Ste. Michelle Indian Wells Chardonnay

Hello!!

This was a rather disappointing wine. I roasted a chicken and served it with garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed snow peas. The meal was truly delicious, but the wine was disappointing. The tasting notes on this wine sounded very promising, and the wine was actually very true to the tasting notes. It just wasn't very well balanced. This wine couldn't decide what it wanted to be. The color ws a very pale straw. It was aromatically challenged with a faint nose of lemon and pineapple. The first thing that hit me on the taste was pineapple with lemon and maybe a hint of mango. It was very weak on the mid-palate. Al picked up a little minerality here, but to me it skipped right over the mid-palate. On the finish there was butterscotch with a bit of bitterness. From the tasting notes I expected a heavier, buttery chardonnay, but this wine just didn't deliver. It wasn't very good as a light fruity, tropical chardonnay either. It seemed unable to decide which style it was trying to emulate, "rich and buttery" or "tropical fruit". Frankly, it succeeded at neither. It wasn't terrible, but I certainly wouldn't get another bottle.

I do like both styles of chardonnay. I seem to be able to find the very lightly oaked fruity style fairly easily. Edna Valley is a good example. It's very refreshing and pleasant. It's easy to drink. But I also like the rich buttery chardonnays. I think they pair really well with roast chicken dishes like the one we had tonight. I suspect they are just hard to find in the less than $20 price range. I had a beautiful Pine Ridge Chardonnay about 6 months ago. I picked it up on clearance at McScrooge's, where it was originally priced at about $35 a bottle. Incidentally, McScrooge's has a big selection of chardonnays. It's almost too many to choose from. so, the search goes on for a good buttery chardonnay at an affordable price. I'll keep you posted.

Suavia 2008 soave classico

Hello all!!

I had this truly delicious wine a few days ago with Spaghetti and clams (just a light olive oil and wine sauce) . It was a very nice pairing as the brightness of the wine cut through the richness of the sauce. The Suavia was a nice clear dandelion yellow. The aroma was lemon zest , apricot and melon. The taste was similar to the nose. It started out with honeydew, apricot, and a little citrus. On the mid-palate there was a pleasant minerality (limestone), and on the back end, almond. It had a wonderful lingering finish with fresh acidity. Overall, a very nice, well balanced medium bodied wine.

I picked this up at Bob's for a little over $15 because I was planning on spaghetti with clams and didn't think I had anything at home that would quite fit the bill. I was wishing I could find another bottle of the Pio Cesare gavi that I liked so much. I saw this wine at 91 points (Wine Spectator, I believe) and decided to give it a try. Al and I used to drink a lot of soave 25 years ago, but then it kind of disappeared. And I can understand why. Frankly, it just wasn't that good. We'd try a bottle every now and then, but it would be very unremarkable. So, we quit drinking it. This wine is what soave is all about (or should be). I hope to see more soave of this quality. Anyway, I went back to Bob's and bought three more bottles. I also found this at Total Wine in Atlanta for $19 a bottle (and well worth it in my opinion).

2007 Ona Anakena Malbec Limited Edition

Hello all!! I should preface this by saying that I'm really not a big malbec fan. They tend to be a little too big for my palate. Also, we don't do a lot of barbeque, tending to eat foods and drink wines that are either Italian or French in style and flavor profile. But, my husband, Al, has always had a soft spot for the malbec and syrah wines that I tend to avoid. So, I asked my son, Mike, to bring one up from Atlanta Total Wine has a catalog, so I picked one out and Mike brought it to me on his last trip to Knoxville. We were having barbeque pork on Labor Day and I thought this malbec would be a good pairing. And it was good with the barbeque. I could also see having this with a big roast in the winter. The color on this wine was an extremely dark inky purple. There was a lot going on with the nose. It started out with some pretty heavy oak, but this faded within a half hour or so of opening. The nose opened into dark currents, mulch, and spicy cinnamon and cloves with a bit of violet in the background. On the palate there was the intense jammy dark fruit flavor of currents and blackberry. The tannins were firm and a little harsh. There was lots of bitter chocolate and a bit of tobacco, especially on the finish. It was weak on the mid-palate, which seems odd considering the overall intensity of this wine. I believe this wine would be much better after a few years in the bottle (I'm developing a preference for red wines at about 5 years or more), but I'm not convinced that age will solve the problem in the mid-palate. I think I'll try another malbec next time.

2005 Columbia Crest Walter Clore Private Reserve Red Wine

Hello!! This is one of my all time favorite wines. I actually got this by mistake when I was trying to order a Columbia Crest award winning cabernet on-line. This wine is a cabernet blend and is produced using traditional bordeaux techniques. The flavor profile will sound similar to other wines I've described, but the difference is that this wine is sooooo smooth, silky and balanced! It's elegant. It had a very nice dark garnet color. On the nose there was bright dark cherry, blackberry and blueberry with a little fennel (celery and licorice). It had a rather strong oakiness on the nose when it was first opened, but this dissipated after 20 or 30 minutes, leaving a little vanilla behind. The flavor was very much like the nose with fruit on the early to mid palate and the spicy fennel and vanilla on the end. There were also subtle undertones of leather and pipe tobacco. The finish was extended and very pleasant. This was very delicious, complex and so balanced and silky. I don't drink a lot of domestic wine, but I would if it were more like this! Also, I didn't pay all that much for this wine. We rarely drink anything over $30, and this is no exception. I think I paid $90 to $95 for 3 bottles of this with tax and shipping, so it must have been about $27 a bottle? I wanted to order more, but it was all gone. Alas, this was our last bottle. We had this with black and blue steaks, baked potato and salad. It was a very good pairing, but the steaks could have been less peppery, to really compliment the wine. I purchased this wine through J.J. Buckley. They are in California, and they do ship to Tennessee.

2007 Brazin Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel (red label)

Hello! I thought I had blogged this wine before, but no!! One month last spring (before the blog) the wine group did a whole dinner of Zinfandel. It was pretty interesting. There's a big world of Zins out there. They are typically California wines, and many of them are from some of the oldest plantings in California. Apparently it was a popular grape among the Italian immigrants who first planted vineyards in California. As a varietal it was overlooked for a number of years while cabernets became very popular. However, some of the old plantings still remain, and zinfandel has pretty decant following today. Having said all this, there are lots of zinfandels available, in a variety of price ranges. They tend to be big, bold and fruity with varying hints of mocha, pepper and sometimes a little licorice or leather. They pair well with basic American foods such as burgers, steaks, not too hot barbeque, and (our favorite) pizza. Some of the more expensive single vineyard zins are fairly complex and should age well, but in general zins are everyday wines.

Our favorite everyday zin is Brazin Dry Creek Valley, available at most local liquor stores (I've seen this at Ashes, Bob's, McScrooges, Cedar Bluff, and I'm sure it's at others as well). It runs from $11 to $15 a bottle. It has a nice deep color, and on the nose there is lots of cherry and a bit of oak and spice. It's very fruit forward with cherry, plum and blueberry with a bit of cinnamon on the finish. The label describes hints of mocha and vanilla as well. I would agree with this. Overall, not complex, but very tasty and enjoyable. We had it with our homemade pizza and it was delicious!! Brazin also makes a Lodi zin with an orange label. I don't care for it as much. The flavor profile is a little different and I didn't think it was as well balanced as the Dry Creek (both were 2007), but everyone's palate is different, so you might want to give it a try.

2005 Campo Viejo Rioja Reserva Tempranillo

Hello!! Thursday was a day off work for me, and I had picked up some baby back ribs on sale, so... I fixed ribs with a root beer glaze, polenta, and spinach with pine nuts. We picked out this spanish wine. It was quite good, although the ribs were a little sweet. This wine was $9 at Ashes. I saw someone carrying out a couple of cases of this a few weeks ago. He seemed to think it was an amazing deal. Well, it wasn't exactly a "change your life" wine, but it was pleasant and certainly very yummy for the price. The color was a dark garnet. On the nose there was a good bit of oak (this improved some with time). It also had aromas of cherry and plum with a bit of licorice and pepper. The taste was very true to the nose with a bit of leather added in. Overall, very nice. The tannins and acids were fairly soft. A light ot medium bodied wine. A little hollow on the mid-palate? This would be a great wine for a party! I've had more exciting wines, but honestly, for the price, very good.

2007 Val de Sil Godello Sobre Lias Valdeorras

Hello! We've been drinking a lot of old favorites (and some box wine), so not much to blog about. Last night we had a VERY nice white from our trip to Atlanta. It came from Murphy's in the Virginia Highlands area. It was about $18-$20. We had it with a chicken fajita salads. It was good with the salad, but we continued to sip it all evening. It was one of those wines that continued to improve as it opened. It had a nice pale yellow color. It had a very nice bouquet of lichee, pineapple, orange zest, nutmeg and mineral. The aromas carried through on the palate with a nice bright acidity (but not too much) and lime flavor. On the finishthere was limestone, nutmeg and finally almond. The finish was long and lingering. It had a pleasant silky mouth-feel. It was reminiscent of a torrontes, but more complex and full bodied. I'd love to find more of this.