2006 Principi di Butera Nero d'Avola

This wine was recommended to Allison the other day as we were shopping in one of our (new) regular haunts.  We've had Nero d'Avolas before, but just not from this producer.  

Nero d'Avola is the leading red grape variety in Sicily, and one of Italy's most important varietals.  Comparable in some ways to Syrah with big, bold flavors and hints of spice.  I've always found them to be a bit on the dusty side.  It was also interesting to learn that they play a part in Marsala wines.

The nose of this one had red plums and blackberries... a lot of them.  This carried over to the palate, which turned out to be medium-bodied.  Definitely earthy, with notes of wet stone, as well as come cocoa and green vegtable nuances.  There were some faint tannins, but very subdued.  The finish was moderate, with just a touch of acidity.

This wine to me needs some food.  We drank it alone, and it was okay.  However, put this together with some roast and root vegtables and I think that you'd have an excellent pairing.  

Bottom line: good, but not great.  At $15 a bottle, there are a lot of other wines that I would have preferred; but, again, with the right food it would have been much better.  Cheers!

2007 Legado del Conde Albarino

It is hard in my opinion to find white wines that get much better than really good albarinos.  They work great with food, they are easy to drink by themselves, they tend to have a lot of stuff going on without being oaky (ahem... Chardonnay!) and they are generally pretty medium-to-full bodied.  So, anytime I see a new one to try I get all excited.

And generally I am not too disappointed, but I have to say that this one pretty much let me down.  

I think what really disappointed me the most was the faux hue.  What?  This was deep golden, and looked like it was going to be really full-bodied but it wasn't; it was more light bodied than I care for in this style of wine.  I guess the old adage is true -- don't judge a book by its cover (or in this case, a wine by its hue!)

On the nose there were intermingled notes of... I'm not really sure what.  Certainly there were some floral notes, and maybe some herbs but there could have also been some melon and perhaps even some white pepper spice but it was all so muted that it was hard to really grasp.  The palate helped to clarify, but only slightly, by showing us some green apple but that was about it.  As I said, it really just sort of all ran together -- certainly not a well integrated or defined wine.

Don't get me wrong -- this was certainly drinkable, if you just want to have a glass of average white wine.  It just doesn't reveal what a great Albarino is capable of.  If you want to serve something for guests who maybe just drink Chardonnay, but (like me) you don't care for oaky Chardonnay then this would probably fit the bill nicely; otherwise, I'd recommend looking elsewhere.  Cheers!

Astoria Fine Russian & American Cuisine - Lakewood Ranch

In a previous post, I talked about our first venture with the Lakewood Ranch Wine Club this past Friday. After the wine club ended, we decided that we wanted to grab a bite to eat and so headed up the street to Main Street in Lakewood Ranch. We had originally thought that we would try some sushi or perhaps the local tavern but as we were walking we passed by Astoria Fine Russian & American Cuisine restaurant. Allison had talked about wanting to try this earlier, so we decided to give it a shot.

It was close to 9:30 PM and the posted hours indicated that they closed at 10:00 PM so we asked if it would be okay if we placed some orders. The place was deserted (which isn't normally a good sign at a restaurant!) but they quickly invited us in and made us feel at home.

I have had Russian food a long time ago (not counting caviar, which I'll take any chance I get) but didn't remember much about it. Allison had never had it, so it was completely new to here.

We decided that we were going to go with all Russian dishes, and since they also had Russian wines we went with those as well.

For appetizers, we ordered a plate of Pelmeni which is a type of dumpling filled with ground pork and onions. Yum! Even Allison liked these, and she normally doesn't eat dumpling type dishes. We also tried an order of Smoked Sardines, which was sliced toast with cucumber and sardine covered in garlic butter. These were a bit oily for us, although the taste was pleasant.

For dinner, Allison ordered the duck breast. The menu says that it is seared, and stuffed with feta cheese and apples however it appeared that the cheese and apples were simply placed on top. It was sat atop a sun dried cherry bur blanc sauce with roasted pine nuts. She thought it was fabulous. I ordered one of the specials, which was a broiled sturgeon with white sauce. I thought that I could find the details on the website, so I didn't take any notes about it but it was quite tasty as well.

Now to the wines... I had never had any Russian wine before, and honestly didn't even realize that they make any. Doing some research turned up quite a bit of information. It turns out that, much like the rest of the world, they grow both indigenous grapes as well as more common ones. Again, in keeping with our Russian theme we stuck with just the local stuff.

Whites

We tasted 2 different white wines. Both were made from Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane grapes. The first grape, Rkatsiteli is widely planted, though it is most common in Georgia. It has also been planted in the US, notably in New York's finger lake regions. It produces an acidic wine, with spice and floral notes. Mtsvane is typically blended with Rkatsiteli and adds a fruity, aromatic balance.

The first wine that we had was Tsinandali. It definitely showed some floral notes on the nose and was fairly sweet though it was balanced by some spice on the finish. Not particularly to our liking.

The second wine was Vazisubani, and comes from the Mildiani region within Georgia. This one was definitely drier, although there was just a hint of sweetness towards the end and reminded us of candied fruit. We both had a glass of this, but wound up only drinking about half of each.

Reds

We actually tasted two, but from reason I only wound up with notes on one of them... go figure, it was late and I think we were both tired.

The wine was a Mukuzani, though I'm not sure if the producer goes by the same or a different name. Mukuzani is a style of wine from Kakheti, Georgia so I suspect I just didn't catch the producer. The wine is made from the Saperavi grape. This same grape makes another style known as Kindzmarauli, the difference being that Mukuzani is aged for a minimum of 3 years in oak as opposed to a less length for Kindzmarauli. This wine had a lot of stuff going on - bold, dark fruit with a lot of spice plus touches of raisin and a smoky, oak finish. It was pretty full-bodied but not very tannic. We were both very, very impressed with this one.

We had an excellent time here, with a waiter who was fantastic (it didn't hurt that we were the only ones in there!). The food was outstanding, the wines surprising and the check was very reasonable so we will definitely be going back in short order. Cheers!

Lakewood Ranch Wine Club - May 22

As you know, Allison and I recently moved to Bradenton, FL (specifically to Lakewood Ranch).  Being new to the area, we were interested in finding tastings, events, etc. both to try new things but more importantly to meet some new friends.  When we first settled into our rental house here, we discovered that Lakewood Ranch has numerous clubs across a wide-range of interests.  We discovered that there were 5 different wine and food groups alone!  Without hesitation, we quickly sent out some e-mails to see about getting plugged into these groups.

This past Friday, we had the opportunity to attend our first Lakewood Ranch Wine Club event (which unfortunately was the last one until September, due to the summer schedules of a lot of the members).  Due to a last minute snafu, the club met at one of the member's house as opposed to the normal venue.  In talking to some of the folks there, we learned that the normal venue is arranged with tables and has a more formal tasting atmosphere whereas the one that we attended was a lot more relaxed, informal and, according to several, more entertaining due to the intimacy of the environment.

The stated goal of the wine club is to learn about wine with no experience needed.  I have to say that I was impressed with several of the presenter's knowledge and passion for the wines.  This is going to be a fun group for us to participate in!

We're not sure if the tasting Friday night was typical of the format or not, but there were 5 wines tasted and each wine was selected and presented by a different individual.  There wasn't a stated theme, just a wine that they liked and wanted to share which lead to a range of tastes from around the world.  Overall, the wines were very good but as is expected not everywine suited our tastes while others we liked a lot.

The wines tasted were:

Freixenet NV Brut Sparkling (Spain)

Allison found it "unremarkable" according to her tasting sheet.  She has never cared for this particular one, so I'm not too surprised by her lack of enthusiasm over it.  On the other hand, I found it a bit better than I remembered.  I found a very sharp, acidic nose with notes of melon.  Tastes included honeydew melon and a touch of yeast, and it was much mellower on the palate than the nose would suggest.  A medium body, and average finish.  We didn't have flutes with us, and the wide bowl of the Riedel Overture Red glass definitely impacted the tasting of this one.  An average sparkling wine in our opinion - it wasn't bad, but we both feel that there are better ones at or near this price point (about $9).

2007 River Road Chardonnay, Reserve Select (US - Russian River, CA)

We are not big Chardonnay fans to begin with, and we were a touch concerned that the presenter of this wine seemed to have an aversion to steel fermented Chardonnay.  Too often, oak fermented Chardonnays from California wind up being extremely oaky and not too our liking.  We were pleasantly surprised by this one.  While there was definitely a good amount of oak, it was balanced nicely with the fruit.  I picked up hints of vanilla and pear, with a bit of a candied finish.  Allison noted that it was very buttery.  A very good Chardonnay for about $13.

2006 Zenato Valpolicella Superiore (Italy - Valpolicello)

Now we were getting somewhere.  I love wines from Valpolicella, particularly Amarones.  Unfortunately, most of the good Amarone nowadays is just priced way too high for everyday consumption.  However, there are a lot of great Valpolicella's out there as well, and Zenato is one of the best producers in my opinion.  Of course, Allison loves Italian wine so she was excited by this one as well.  She noted an earthy nose, with some spice and a tannic finish.  She also thought it was fairly light bodied.  I thought it more medium bodied, though it was still  lighter than some.  I found touches of chocolate, leather and some black currant in the mid-palate.  There was some acidity on the finish.  About $14.

2006 Sasyr Toscana Rocca delle Macie (Italy - Tuscany)

We both thought that this was a good Tuscan red, but at $23 a bottle we were somewhat disappointed.  A blend of 60% Sangiovese and 40% Syrah, the alcohol was a little hot and nearly masked the black fruit underneath.  Medium bodied, with a short finish.  Neither of us took much in the way of notes on this one.

2005 Bois de Menestrel Vacqueyras (France - Rhone)

A blend of 70% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre.  Allison summed it up very succinctly; her entire tasting note for this one is "delicious".  I tried to be a little bit better with jotting down some characteristics, though I certainly agree with her.  I found it to be medium-bodied, but certainly leaning towards the heavier end.  The nose was earthy, with touches of spice while the palate showed raspberry and plum with tons of peppery spice and silky smooth tannins.  A pretty length finish to this one nicely completed the evening.  About $13.

We are looking forward to the resumption of the wine club come fall.  Talking to some of the regulars, it sounds like they already have some very interesting events coming up!

Cheers!

2008 Pigmentum Ugni Blanc/Colombard

Ok, I had to do a bit of research on this one because you just don't see much Ugni Blanc or Colombard. Ok, that's not entirely true so maybe I should clarify that you don't see much of it labeled as such. Here we go...

Ugni Blanc is the most widely planted white grape in France and is important in the production of both Cognac and Armagnac. Most of the table wine produced with it is rather uninteresting, and is frequently blended. The grapes are also used to make industrial alcohol... go figure! Once you get out of France and head over, to say Italy, you are much more apt to recognize it because it is also known as Trebbiano and makes some pretty decent whites over there. In the US it is used a lot for mass production of jug or box wines.

Colombard is an early fruiting white variety which is better known as French Colombard in the US. It too is used in the production of Cognac and Armagnac. Colombard tends to be high in acidity, and is used as a blending grape to give wines some backbone.

Situated in Gascony, the designation Cotes de Gascogne is used for a Vin de Pays (country wine) produced in the Armagnac region.

Pigmentum is a blend of 60% Ugni Blanc and 40% Colombard, and is produced by Georges Vigouroux. We found it to be a nice summertime white wine, with crisp citrus and apple notes on both the nose and palate. Also on the palate were hints of honeysuckle. It was fairly acidic, as a result of the Colombard, but nicely balanced. We were disappointed with the short finish however.

This would pair up well with a summer salad or some fresh grilled seafood. Cheers!

2006 Valley of the Moon Zinfandel

I had not tried any Valley of the Moon wines in several years, and remembered that they were good but I did not remember them standing out to me.  I may have been wrong.

On the nose there was tons of coffee, black cherry and spice.  This one let us know that it was going to be a serious wine from the get-go!

On the palate, black cherry was predominant but nicely balanced by peppercorn spice and a hint of cedar and oak.  The finish was decent, but somewhat short considering the depth of the nose.  Some light tannins rounded everything out quite nicely.

We picked this up for $11.99 and it was a darn tasty zinfandel that will wind up on our short list of everyday wines (and I am adding a new tag to denote Everyday wines with).  Cheers!

2007 Cruz Alta Reserve Malbec

It is not too common to see a bottling of "Reserve" malbec, and it is even more rare to find one at $12.99 but that is exactly what we did.  On a recent excursion to Total Wine and More, Allison found this one tucked away almost forgotten.

When we first opened it up, there was not a lot of stuff going on but that quickly changed as a little bit of air hit it.  As it opened, it revealed a bold smoky nose, which reminded me somewhat of a campfire, along with hints of leather.  You could also note black fruits, but they were not as pronounced on the nose as they were on the palate.

As we sipped it, we were immediately struck by the assertiveness of the fruit, notably blackberry and cherry.  There was some dusty earth notes and faint hints of licorice spice.  Unfortunately, all of this was somewhat subdued by firm tannins which were almost harsh.  And the finish dropped off very quickly.

Notwithstanding the tannins, this was a complex and delightful wine which I'm sure we'll have again.  Cheers!

(For the more technically oriented folks, this one is 100% Malbec which spent 8 months in the barrel - 50% new barrel, of which 50% were French and 50% American).

2008 Norton Malbec

A light, easy drinking Malbec from a reputable producer in Argentina.  

The nose had light notes of plum and red cherry which carried over to the palate, which was light-to-medium bodied with absolutely no detectable tannin and an extremely quick finish.

This was $6.99 so I think in this case we got what we paid for.  We will be moving on to other wines...

2009 Forks and Corks Grand Tasting

We are big fans of locally owned restaurants for a variety of reasons.  Why locally owned as opposed to say chain restaurants?  Obviously, without the constraints of a big corporate office somewhere that is dictating the menu and probably sourcing the ingredients, the chef is able to use fresh, locally acquired ingredients which lends itself to greater creativity and a menu that isn't the same year round.  Plus it helps the local economy.

During the course of researching the area, Allison came across a website devoted to local Sarasota/Manatee county restaurants (Fresh Originals).  Needless to say we were excited to find this website and look forward to our culinary adventure based on what we find there.  And we have already gotten off to an excellent start thanks to the 2009 Forks and Corks event that was held this past weekend.

The event run from Thursday through Sunday, with a variety of activities including wine dinners, a trade tasting, some educational activities and finally the Grand Tasting.  We were only able to attend the Grand Tasting, but expect next year to be more involved with the entire event.  This was an opportunity to try some dishes from over 20 of the local restaurants as well as wines being poured on more than 60 tables!  We had a blast!

First, it was intention to take a lof of notes since we expected to be trying a lot of new wines.  Unfortunately, that just didn't happen.  The event was obviously crowded, so being able to spend time talking to the proprieters and distributors was at a minimum.  Also, just the sheer number of wines and the amount of good food to be had in a short period of time (3 hours) meant staying on the move.  So, what I'm left with is some highlights that stuck in my head...

From a food perspective, we were both wowed and disappointed.  The wow factor is that we discovered some truly incredible dishes that included a shrimp and crab serviche, totilla with roasted duck and a braised pork with picked daikon.  These are the ones that stood out in my mind as being the most enjoyable dishes.  The disappointment factor was several tables that were serving salad... I mean, c'mon - that's the best you can offer for an event like this?  And there was a lot of dishes with cheese... which for me is a problem, since I don't eat cheese.  Maybe Allison had some other dishes that stood out for her.

For the tasting aspect again it was both a wow factor as well as some disappointment.  The disappointment was that it was crowded and hot... the event was held outside, so it was really hot.  Which makes tasting some of the heavier reds much less enjoyable.  And, as is typical with events like this, there are invariably people who will stand right in front of table for what seems like forever and monopolize the time of the person there pouring the wines making it difficult for others to get to sample the wines.  (I'm off my soapbox now)  However, there were a ton of excellent wines being poured and we got to sample a lot of them.

Some of the ones which we really enjoyed, and look forward to seeking out in the near future, included: 2006 Lewis Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, 2005 Ch. Rauzan Segla (always a favorite!), 2006 La Spinetta Langhe, 2004 Ciacci Piccolomini, 2007 Ponzi Rosato, 2007 Mer Soleil Silver (another favorite), Tuck Beckstoffer Vinifera Cabernet Sauvignon (I think the vintage was 2005), several Ridge Zinfandels (Geyserville, Lytton Springs and Paso Robles), and 2005 Neal Cabernet Wykoff.  There were a lot of other ones that were good, but these are the ones that really stood out.

We also met a lot of people both working (sales reps, winemakers, etc) as well as participating.  One of our new friends also has an online magazine devoted to "Good Food, Good Wine, Good Living with just one click".  Check her out at Gourmet Girl Magazine.

So, that's a very quick and high-level recap of a fantastic event.  We are certainly looking forward to next year!  If there is a similar event in your area (Taste of the Nation is another outstanding event that is nationwide) I encourage you to attend!  Cheers!

2001 Castillo d Clavijo Gran Reserva Rioja

Allison visited her brothers in Spain a couple of years ago, and while there learned that 2001 was a superlative vintage for Rioja.  Since then we are constantly on the lookout for wines from this vintage, and so far we have not been disappointed.

Recently, while shopping at Total Wine & More, we happened on a Gran Reserva from Castillo d Clavijo which we had never had.  Being from the 2001 vintage, we immediately pounced on it.

The color was brick red, with orange tinting along the edge of the glass.  The nose had clean, earthy notes with hints of blackberry.  On the palate, there was some plum, blackberry and a touch of raisin.  This was, as is typical, medium bodied but leaning towards full-bodied with a nice balance of fruit and acidity.  The tannins were extremely faint, almost imperceptable.  

At $19.99 this was a great bargin on a really good Gran Reserva.  Remember that these spend 5 years aging (first in the barrel for at least 2 years and the rest in the bottle) before they are even released!  If you happen to see this wine, or any Reserva or Gran Reserva from 2001, I suggest you try it.  Cheers!

2008 Young Meg Sauvignon Blanc

Yesterday was a busy day of tasting for us.  We had lunch at Sarasota Vineyard, a unique tasting bar in downtown Sarasota.  If you are in the neighborhood I highly suggest trying it out.  The owners got to know Allison when she was down looking at practices earlier this year, and they are a super nice couple.  We will definitely be regulars here.

Afterwards we went to 3 tastings - at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, Total Wine & More and Fresh Market.  Whew!  I'm not going to try and review everything that we tasted because... well frankly, I wasn't in the mood to try and keep up with everything, write notes, etc.  Rather, we set out primarily to find some new wines and meet some new people.

From the tasting at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, we brought home two bottles and we drank one of them last night.  I'll review the other one when we actually drink it.  

The white that we purchased was Young Meg 2008 Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand.  This is another wine that is exclusive to ABC.  In the store, we were impressed by its citrus and green hay notes, the crisp acidity and bright floral overtones.  We were very impressed.  The bottle we had at home though was somewhat less impressive, leaning a bit more towards a touch of sweetness but still very very good.  This was definitely a New Zealand style, which we like a lot.  $12/bottle.

2007 Thorn-Clarke "Shotfire" Shiraz

Allison told me that we'd had this one not too long ago, but I could not find any notes on it and frankly didn't remember it... Seeing it a lot here in Florida, I'm not sure that she didn't have some on one of her trips down earlier in the year.  In any case, we picked up a bottle on her recommendation and I have to tell you that it was pretty darn fantastic!

Anybody who knows us well knows that we like big, full-bodied wines with some good spice in them.  In fact, one of our favorite descriptions of red wine (which came from a friend of ours) is "inky and brooding".  This wine was all of that and then some.

The color was very dark, inky purple all the wine to the edge of the glass.  It looked like a big wine.  The nose was rich, with plum and black fruit.  On the palate, there was a lot of the fruit as well as peppercorn, a touch on cinnamon and firm, but sweet, tannins.  This guy fills up your mouth and the taste lingered for well over a minute.

This one came in at $20, and I think that was even a sale price, but it is worth it and then some.  Cheers!

2008 Wishing Tree Unoaked Chardonnay

A lot of Chardonnays nowadays have far too much oak to be enjoyable in our opinion.  This is definitely true of domestic Chardonnays and to a large degree Australian and South American.  It even seems to be becoming more common in France.  Which is a shame because Chardonnay can make some incredible, complex white wines when it is allowed to show itself rather than being overoaked.  In any case, we typically steer clear except when we either know the producer or it is labeled as "unoaked".

The other day, we were shopping for a case of everyday wines and I noticed The Wishing Tree Unoaked Chardonnay amongst all of the other Australian chardonnays which I know are pretty oaky.  Having enjoyed other wines from The Wishing Tree in the past, we decided to give it a try.

The color in the glass was very pale yellow, almost to the point of being clear.  I thought that this was rather remarkable for a chardonnay, even one that is steel fermented.  On the nose there were citrus notes, notably kiwi and perhaps some lime.  There was also a faint whiff of jasmine.  On the palate, notwithstanding how clear and thin it looked, this wine had a big, fat chardonnay feel -- it really filled up the mouth.  In addition to the cirtrus notes, there also was a bit of something I don't think I've ever gotten in a wine -- poundcake.  I think it was the subtlety of butter notes.

This was a quite tasty wine, and a nice change from all of the sauvignon blanc and other acidic whites that we've been drinking of late.  Definitely will be picking this one up again.  Cost was $11.  Cheers!

2007 La Manarine Cotes du Rhone Rose

This was an unexpected find as we unpacked from our recent move.  When we left Birmingham for Cincinnati in 2008 we had a small E-Wave 50 bottle cooler that we used for everyday bottles in addition to our 250 bottle Eurocave for long term cellaring.  Unfortunately, due to problems with electrical in our rental house in Cincinnati, we were unable to use the E-Wave so we left it unplugged and sitting in a corner.  When we got to our new home in Bradenton, I was hooking up the E-Wave again and noticed a bottle sitting in it.  So, we are not sure if the bottle came with us from Birmingham or if we picked it up early in Cincinnati and then forgot about it.  In any case it had sat in the back of a United Van Lines truck for at least several days in the May heat and humidity, and maybe as much as a week if it did come from Birmingham (which we think it did) -- needless to say, we were not thinking that this was going to be worth the trouble.

Fortunately though, we decided to take a chance and try it.  After chilling it down, we took the capsule off the neck of the bottle fully expecting to see the cork be stained from being scorched.  But, the cork looked perfect - better in fact than a lot of bottles we've had.  We poured it in our glasses and...

The color was a medium garnet, with no signs of oxidation on the edges.  The nose hinted of cotton candy and caramel apples.  On the palate there were some notes of strawberry and melon, while it finished with a crisp acidity.  Amazing!  This was quite tasty.  

The moral here, at least for us, is even if you think that it could be bad the only way to know for sure is to open it up and try it.  Had we not done so in this case, that would have been a $18 bottle of wine gone to waste!  Cheers!

2004 Concannon Cabernet Sauvignon

What a nice surprise from our new neighbors... a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to welcome us to the neighborhood (plus the fact that we've been giving them all of our moving boxes since they are getting ready to move).

The nose on this one was pretty shut down -- it had a distinct alcohol profile but gave away nothing in terms of other flavors.  The palate initally was also closed down but it opened up with some aeration.  Initially there was a good bit of damp earthy overtones, with a slight vegetal taste.  As it opened up, after about 30 minutes or so, we detected some black cherry fruit along with a strong chocolate aftertaste.  The finish was pretty acidic, with hints of white pepper.

I've had Concannon wines before and thought them to be pretty good but this bottle had me scratching my head.  It certainly was not impressive, and likely was on the edge of being corked.  I don't remember other vintages of Concannon cabernet being notably ageworthy so it could also have just been past its prime.  In any case, it was an acceptable quaff at the right price (for us!).  Cheers!

2006 Marechal Vouvray

Vouvray is typically 100% Chenin Blanc, though some can contain small amounts of Arbois.  They are less popular now than they have been in the, which is a shame because they are quite tasty generally.

This one comes from Marechal, which unfortunately I was not able to find any real information on via the Internet.  It was not as crisp as some, being somewhat more reminiscent of a chardonnay - sort of "fat" feeling in the mouth.  

On the nose there was a lot of herb and flower overtones which carried over into the palate along with ultra-ripe melon and some chalky mineral notes.  It is listed as 12% ABV but it was fairly sweet even at that.  Not a bad wine by any stretch, but not that great either.

Allison didn't like it at all, while I thought it was okay.  We probably won't buy it again.

2006 Vina Cremaschi Carmenere Reserve

Allison went to Fresh Market last Friday to pick up a couple of steaks for dinner.  While there she ventured into the Friday evening tasting that was being held and came home with two bottles, one of which was this.  She really liked this one a lot; however, I was less enthusiastic about it... although it was still very good.

Carmenere used to be pretty prevalent in the Medoc (Bordeaux, France) and was used to produce its own wine as well as being used in blends but it is now pretty scarce there.  That being said, it has gained a lot of traction in Chile much like Malbec has become predominant in Argentina.

This 2006 Vina Cremaschi is 100% Carmenere from the Maule Valley, which is part of Valle Central - Chile's most productive and well known wine region.  Dry and earthy, with notes of mushroom, at first as it opened up there were hints of red cherry and cocoa with a undercurrent of spice.  Rather interesting overall.

As I noted, Allison picked up 2 bottles - one of which was $10.99 and the other $12.99; unfortunately, I didn't notate which was which but in any event it was still a very reasonably priced wine.

2007 Tres Lagunas

Allison was a Spanish major in College as well as having relatives living in Spain, so it's natural for her to be fond of Spanish wines. As for me, I love the bold and spicy flavor profiles of a lot wines including those made with Grenache.

This is 100% Grenache from the Campo de Borja region. There are some really impressive wines coming out of that region right now that are extremely well priced - most for less than $10 a bottle. This one is towards the low end of the scale at $7.99 and we got 10% off of that as well, making this an excellent bargin for everyday sipping.

Initially there was a lot of bright red fruit on the palate, but it quickly opened up and showed the black pepper and chile spice that I like. There were some firm tannins, but they seemed to be pretty well integrated and didn't give any harshness to the finish.

This will be one that we turn to on a regular basis -- great flavor and an incredible price! Cheers!

2006 Bramblewood Zinfandel

Once again I've been a bad blogger... but I couldn't help it.  The past couple of months have been a bit hectic -- we relocated from Cincinnati to Sarasota in late April, so what with the work getting ready to move plus the move plus the getting settled... well, hopefully you get the idea and will cut me some slack ;-)

Anyway, we are (mostly) settled in now and are very excited to be finding lots of new wines for us to try and review here.  With that being said I'll get right to the fun stuff.

First up is 2006 Bramblewood Old Vine Zinfandel from Amador County.  Our new friend Steve, who is the wine consultant for the ABC store down the street from us, recommended it to me as we were discussing the pretty slim pickings in Zinfandel.  I told him that we prefer the racy, spicy zinfandels as opposed to the big fruit bomb style that seems to be more and more common lately.  He promised me that this definitely was not the fruit bomb but that it might not be spicy enough...

Well, he was mostly right.  The nose hinted that this could be more of a fruit forward style than we care for, showing notes of bright red fruit and a hint of eucalyptus which was unexpected.  The palate definitely gave up some fruit - black cherry predominantly - but certainly not a fruit bomb.  Allison said she got some pretty heavy black pepper but to me it was pretty faint.  The interesting thing to both of us was the amount of earthy mushroom and cocoa that we got -- very atypical for a zinfandel.  Interesting, but not unpleasant.  The finish ended with some mild tannins and a hint of acidity.

We both liked this one a lot and would definitely buy it again.  According to our friend Steve it is bottled exclusively for ABC in Florida, but I couldn't find anything to confirm or refute this so I'll just leave it be.  $15.99/bottle here.