Sicilian Value

So tonight, I randomly grabbed off our wine rack a 2005 Colosi red wine from Sicily. I bought it a while back from LA Wine Co for $7. 100% Nero d'Avola grapes. Pretty darned good juice, especially for the price. A little musty on the nose - not sure if that's the right term, but it's all I could think of. Medium bodied, straight forward, cherry, red fruit, nice acidity, solid tannin, balanced. The musty scent on the nose also makes a brief appearance on the finish. Definitely a solid food wine. Great value.

Shining Wine

This evening I grilled a marinated skirt steak and wanted a big wine that would hold up to it. So I selected a 2005 Shining Hill Columbia Valley Red Wine. $30 at LA Wine Co.

This is basically the 2nd label of Col Solare, the joint venture between Chateau St. Michelle of Washington and Marchesi Antinori of Tuscany. Col Solare is a wonderful wine, but priced a bit high for us (about $50), so we've only had it once. It is made the same as Col Solare, but basically using the 2nd tier grapes. As I understand it, they intend to release this vintage a year before the Col Solare is released. This first vintage, however, was released at the same time as the 2005.

Very bold wine. Made of 58% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Syrah, 3% Petit Verdot. Big stuff, kind of crushed my palate at first, but great balance. Big medium to dark fruit, a little bit of spice and cedar notes on the nose and at the end. Long finish, nice complexity.

Really good stuff - some decanting may have helped to soften it a bit. Have to have it again!

What Happened?

Yeah, I kinda stopped blogging for a while. Not sure why, but I guess I don't have the "write every day" gene. Sorry. My bad. The good news is I never stopped drinking. Hope you have been drinking lots of wine, too. Let me know if you had anything good.

Had a pretty dang tasty wine tonight, Seghesio 2005 Home Ranch Zinfandel. Many of you have probably heard of or had the normal Seghesio Zinfandel. It runs about $16-22 and is very good - I think it made Wine Spectator's top 10 last year and you can find it in many grocery stores. This is one of their prestige wines, runs about $30, I think. Super good Zin. Tastes like Zin should... big, powerful, but not a palate-whomping super fruit bomb like many of the popular Zins. Great quality fruit, very complex. 15.3% alcohol - tasted slightly alcoholic, but more like 14%. Super yummy for $30. If you can find it, grab some. Think I got this at The Wine House, but they carry it at K&L Wines too.

Rachel and I actually visited the Seghesio winery up in Healdsburg, CA in 2008. Very nice winery and they make a bunch of wines you rarely see. They weren't pouring this one, but fortunately I had tried it several years ago as part of a wine course.

Hope to be blogging again soon!

A doubleshot of tasty

Yeah, Saturday night and we have two wines!  And we made fondue!  It was a good night.

First was a 2000 "L'Ermitage" Brut by Roederer Estate, sparkling wine from Anderson Valley.  This is one of Roederer's signature wines, a dry, fruity, balanced blend of 53% Chardonnay, 47% Pinot Noir, and 3.5% "aged reserve."  I don't know what "aged reserve is, nor do I know where the other .5% went to.  Hopefully my belly.  We bought this thinking we'd drink it this past New Years Eve, but did not have a chance.  About $41 from our local Pavillion's supermarket - have seen it from $38-$50 since.  Why they call it "L'Ermitage" I do not know - seems like they are trying to invoke the name of "L'Hermitage," a wine from the Northern Rhone made from the Marsanne and Rousanne grapes having nothing to do with sparking wine.  Weird.

Anyhow, it was a lovely start to our evening.  A tasty sparkly wine - very fruity and crisp and dry.  It didn't have that yeasty, creamy, biscuity character of some of the Champagnes. I must admit, I personally prefer this style.   Is it worth $40?  That could be debated, but it's pretty darn good.

Second up was a 2005 Newton Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon.  Wow!  We had the pleasure of imbibing this about 6 months ago at Capital Grill in Seattle with Rachel's mom and "stepfather."  (They aren't married on paper, but...)  And then we got a bottle from them at Christmas!  Yay!

Well, tonight was the night to retry this and it did not disappoint.  If you care, Parker gave it a 92.  So insanely yummy.  Great big flavors countered with nice amounts of oak and leather, yet not an oak bomb.  Nice length, great balance.  Just damn good Cab from Napa.  Anyone who thinks Napa Cab is overdone and over-oaked should try this.  It's damn good.  About $40-50.

This is "unfiltered" but don't be nervous - some wine folks feel that filtering removes some wonderful flavors from the wine - there minimal to no sediment - it's just darker and more opaque than some wines.  And in the Parker review I read that "the proprietress Su Hua Newton declassified the 2003 and 2004 vintages, as she was not happy with them."  I guess she takes this wine stuff seriously.  Glad she does so I can have fun!

Newton's Law of Wine?

Tonight is... 2005 Newton Napa Valley Claret; the blend is Cabernet Sauvignon 47%, Merlot 41%, Cabernet Franc 4%, Petit Verdot 4%,  Syrah 4%.  FYI, claret is basically another word for Bordeaux blend (a blend dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.)  I think it was around $19 - don't recall where I got it.

Decided we should try this after loving their 2005 Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon, which was outstanding, but is more in the $50 range.

Solid wine - nice blend - all the right grapes, that's for sure.  Big and bold, but not a palate crusher.  A bit musty and earthy on the nose.  But very easy to drink. Medium finish.  Dark fruit and earthy with a little hint of spice.  A fairly typical Napa blend.  Good tannin, but again, not overwhelming.  Really solid wine, but missing that "wow" factor.  But good!  Oh wine, why do you confuse me so.