In Handcuffs

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from the winery.

Not too long ago I reviewed the 2008 version of this wine. Then, poof, the other day the 2009 arrived on my doorstep. It’s like magic. My opinion of it remains much the same, a fun fruity wine on the cheap that’s great for the hot weather or to serve at a party. The 2009 Big House White had a screw cap closure and retails for about $8. Matt tossed the bottle before I could record the alcohol by volume.

On the nose I found pineapple, jasmine, white flowers, tropical notes, peach, and pear.  In the mouth I got pineapple, spice, white peaches, tropical fruit, and flowers. Overall it’s crisp and refreshing and could definitely knock a couple grapes off your Century Club application with the mixture of grapes it contains!

Filed under: California, White, Wine | Comments Off on In Handcuffs

Down By the Sea

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample in order to participate in a Taste Live event.

I guess it must have been about a month ago (yikes, I’m a little behind here…) I joined my fellow winos for a Taste Live event exploring Nautilus Wines from Marlborough. Color me excited, I love wine from New Zealand, especially Sauvignon Blanc. And lucky me, up first for the night was a Sauvignon Blanc! We tried the 2009 Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc. It had a screw cap closure, looks to retail for about $15, and clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume.

On the nose I got herbal notes, white grapefruit, lime, kiwi, and some other tropical fruit notes hiding below the citrus. In the mouth I found lime, grapefruit, kiwi, and tropical fruit. Basically everything I got on the nose except the herbs. I thought the wine had good acidity but definitely stayed away from the lip-puckering side of things.

Filed under: New Zealand, Sauvignon Blanc, White, Wine | Comments Off on Down By the Sea

Caught Again

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from the winery.

Nothing quite like a glass of nicely chilled Rosé in the summer. Not only does it play well with BBQ (my favorite summer-time treat) but it’s refreshing and I can drink it outside in the heat whereas red wine in the summer is best consumed in the cool interior with air conditioning. With that in mind, we pulled out a bottle of the 2008 Big House Pink.  The wine had a screw cap closure, clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume, and looks to retail for $8.

On first impression: This wine smells like hops. I also got a little cranberry, but overall, not much of a nose. In the mouth, more of the same to me, beer and cranberry, and that was not a good thing. I found it sharp and strong, and overpowering for its 13% alcohol tag. NMS.

Filed under: California, Rose, Wine | 1 Comment »

He’s Wily, Wily Jack

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from the PR folks representing the brand.

I tried out the Wily Jack Zinfandel a couple months ago and found myself pretty impressed with the fella. For the around $8 price tag, I thought the wine really delivered for a Tuesday night wine or a party wine. No one would say no to a glass. I’m happy to report that the 2007 Wily Jack Cabernet Sauvignon follows in in the same pattern. It had a real cork, clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, and retails for between $5-$12 online.

On the nose I found black currant, dusty chocolate, earth, cocoa powder, blackberry, black plum, pepper, and spice. The nose had a lot going on for this price point. In the mouth the fruit ruled the day. Blackberry, black cherry, and black plum with a touch of earth, spice, and pepper. Juicy, juicy fruit made this easy and fun to drink. A great $8 everyday wine.

Filed under: Cabernet Sauvignon, California, Red, Wine | Comments Off on He’s Wily, Wily Jack

Zin Time!

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Sonadora

I wrote last week about how all my thoughts turn to white wines during the DC spummall. That’s not totally true. My thoughts also encompass grilling out and bbq and all those good things. Usually to go with that kind of food, you’ll still find me reaching (as fast as I can!) for a nice spicy Zinfandel. We pulled the 2006 Nelson Family Vineyards Zinfandel from our basement tonight to go with the ribs I made. Mmmm. Ribs. I think it cost me around $19 in a club shipment, had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 15.7% alcohol by volume.

My first thought on sniffing this Zin was that it seemed pretty port-like with deep dark blackberry aromas and the stronger alcohol. It definitely needed some serious time to air. I also got cream, pepper, spice, and more brambly black fruit. In the mouth I found blueberries, blackberries, spice, pepper, and earth. Overall I found this to be a big, tight wine that really needed to be decanted for a couple hours.

Filed under: California, Nelson Family Vineyards, Red, Wine, Zinfandel | Comments Off on Zin Time!

My first time

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from Pasternak Imports.

I’ll get to today’s wine in just a minute. First, a little story. I bought my very first bottle of wine in 1998. In Spain. On my Spanish class’ school trip. I knew zero, zip, zilch, about wine other than the fact that adults seemed to like it and I had a bunch of adults at home I needed to bring gifts for because they had all helped me out with various parts of this trip in order to be able to afford it. My bosses at the antique store gave me spending money, family friends gave me a converter, a titanium umbrella, spending money, etc., and my parents paid for the lion’s share of the trip. Wine seemed pretty logical since I knew from studying Spain that one of its main products was wine. I went to the local wine shop in one of the towns we visited and I spotted a bottle that was wrapped in gold wire formed into diamonds. Being 17 at the time and not knowing anything, that’s what I bought. Had I been just a few years older, I would have been the target market who buys based off packaging! Why am I telling this story today? Because the bottle of wine we tasted last night is wrapped in hte same gold wire and I had a flashback to that first purchase 12 years ago!

So today’s wine. Thankfully it was much better than what I purchased that day in Spain. Turns out buying by packaging alone wasn’t a good idea, even in Spain 12 years ago.  We pulled the 2008 Guy Saget Estates Les Clissages D’Or Muscadet Sevre et Maine from the basement for Matt to drink with some crab legs. I don’t know what it retails for, but it’s made from 100% Melon de Bourgogne, clocked in at 12% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure.

On the nose I got melon, watermelon, honeydew, fresh sweet grass, honey, apricot, tropical notes, and flowers. In the mouth I found melons, lemon, tropical notes, and sweet hay. Overall I thought the fruit showed as slightly creamy, which would make sense given the winemaker made this wine sur lie, but it still had a crisp note that kept up with the rounded flavors and overall matched really well with the crab dunked in drawn butter!

Filed under: France, White, Wine | 1 Comment »

Tis the Season…

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from the folks at Maryhill Winery.

For white wines! Oh yes, the DC swamp has returned for the spummall. That would would be spring/summer/fall. Or what I used to call spring, summer, and fall when I lived somewhere with more distinguishable seasons. This year is felt like we got unburied from our 12 million feet of snow and then it was summer. Hot summer. Perfect for all those crisp, white wines that I seem to ignore in the winter. While I had to miss the Wine Blogger Conference this year (sob!) some of the lovely wineries in Washington State sent me some wines so I could taste from afar what my fellow bloggers would be treated to. We tried the 2007 Maryhill Winemaker’s White the other evening. This blend of 49% Chardonnay, 36% Sauvignon Blanc, 11% Sémillon, and 4% Viognier had a real cork closure, clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, and retails for about $12.

On the nose I found pear, flowers, apple, honeysuckle, spice, and white pepper. In my notes I wrote “Could it have Viognier in the blend?” before I went to look at the tech sheet to see exactly what this wine contained. To me it was strongly reminiscent of Viognier, even though it turned out to only contain 4%. In the mouth I got yellow apple, cider, spice, slight tropical notes, and melon. Overall I found the wine to be crisp with nice acidity and perfect for a DC spummall evening.

Filed under: Virginia Vineyards, Washington, WBW, White, Wine | Comments Off on Tis the Season…

Chile + Sauvignon Blanc =

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from the PR folks for Wines of Chile.

Yum, yum, yum. A couple weeks ago a giant box of Sauvignon Blanc from Chile arrived on my doorstep. Lucky me! These wines were intended for me to participate in the Wines of Chile Online Tasting event where we live streamed video of the winemakers in Chile to talk about their wines while we tasted through them. I believe this is my 3rd Wines of Chile Online tasting and they just get better each time. I love being able to ask real time questions of the winemakers as I taste through their wines, which I find to be one of the principal benefits of visiting a winery, which would be a little difficult to do with these since they are in Chile.  One of the wines we tried was the 2009 Ventisquero Queulat Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc. (That’s a mouthful and we haven’t even gotten to the wine yet!) It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, and I think it retails for around $17.

On the nose I found the wine to be chalky with lime, grapefruit, and pepper. The nose seemed rather simple to me.  In the mouth I got more citrus, with lime being prominent again, followed by green pepper, green apple, chalk, and a little salt. Overall it had nice acidity and seemed typical of the style.

Filed under: Chile, Sauvignon Blanc, White, Wine | 1 Comment »

Happy 4th of July!

Posted on July 4, 2010 by Sonadora

I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday weekend!

Enjoy some good wine and fireworks!

I’m on vacation this week, so no posts until I get back on July 12!

Filed under: Misc | Comments Off on Happy 4th of July!

Trumpets Blaring

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from Pasternak Wine Imports

This wine has it all for $8. I don’t drink much Malbec from Argentina. I often find them to be just a bit too brash and wild for my taste. However, this Malbec had everything I like about Malbec and a great price tag! The 2007 Trumpeter Malbec retails for about $8, had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume.

On the nose I got pencil lead, plum, blackberry, black fruit, earth, black raspberry, and spice. The fruit seemed bright and fresh.  In the mouth I got black cherry, spice, graphite, earth, black fruit, plum, and other dark fruits. This inky, dark wine delivered a dark, dense body in the mouth and a nose I wouldn’t to keep smelling, all for $8.

Filed under: Argentina, Malbec, Red, Wine | 1 Comment »