Posted on October 1, 2007 by Sonadora
Yes, I served bratwurst with Roshambo 2004 Imago Chardonnay. Not an elegant match to say the least, what can I say? I’m not always going for the perfect pair!
The wine came in a club shipment, cost us $15.20, had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 13.9% alcohol by volume.
On the nose I found lemon, minerals, wet stone, and pineapple. The nose was crisp and clean. In the mouth, lemons, pineapples, sweet orange. Overall the wine was crisp in the mouth with a nice finish. In typically me style in my tasting notes, I wrote “me likey” as my final note What can I say? Eloquent I am not always.
Very good value wine for the price on this one. (Another non-oaked Chardonnay, seems to be the theme these last few months!)
Filed under: California, Chardonnay, Roshambo, White | 3 Comments »
Posted on July 19, 2007 by Sonadora
I swear we eat things other than crab legs and pizza. I know you can’t tell that right now, but I am really just behind in getting up posts. A virus infected my work computer so I have had no internet access during the day as I am sans computer at the moment and just haven’t been able to catch up on getting posts up!
We drank this 2005 Marry Me Roussanne by Roshambo with a dinner of snow crab leg clusters with fresh lemon and butter. (I will admit, this is one our favorite summertime dinners!) The wine came in a club shipment, had a real cork closure, weighed in at 14.1% alcohol by volume, and cost us $12.00.
On the nose I found lemon, honeysuckle, something tropical, pear, and white flowers. The nose was very aromatic. In the mouth the wine tastes a bit like a slightly heavy unoaked chardonnay, though it was a bit tart. Flavors displayed in the mouth were pear, honey, and apricots.
I thought this was a good effort from Roshambo and for the price point was a very good value. I also like trying new varietals, so that made my day as well.
Filed under: California, Roshambo, Roussanne, White | 4 Comments »
Posted on April 5, 2007 by Sonadora
The wine was a 2004 Roshambo Taylor Vineyard Zinfandel. It cost $28 in a club shipment, was 15.4% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure. I served it with cheeseburgers and corn on the cob in a celebration of grilling weather returning (though we will have to wait until we move to the house to actually grill, you can’t have grills on balconies in the county we live in). Normally I would pick a Cabernet Sauvignon with my burger, but we don’t have any that I feel are ready to drink right now.
On the nose of the wine I found blackberry jam, hints of vanilla, tart cherries and spices. In the mouth the tart cherries on the nose followed through and raspberries showed up in the glass over the course of the evening, along with nice spices that went well with the tart cherries. The finish was long and smooth.
I drank this one in my first blog tasting back in November and said I should cellar it longer. I think it’s drinking really well right now, the flavors are great; it’s easily my favorite Roshambo offering so far. It’s also interesting to see just what drinking wine nearly every night for 6 months has done to my palate. Picking out flavors seems much easier and it’s difficult for me to decide if that’s because I have more confidence now or if perhaps I was right and this wine did need to sit for a bit longer (can 6 months make that much of a difference?). Back in my first post on this wine, I said it tasted fruited and that I thought perhaps it was cherries. I also picked up on the spice, but thought it was pepper at the time. I was cautious in my review and was questioning myself. I still have ocassions where I question if I am actually tasting something that I think I am or times where I know there is a flavor in the wine but I simply can’t place it. However, I don’t find those times frustrating, I see them as a chance to figure out what it is and I often post them here to see if anyone else has had the wine and can help me put a finger on what I am tasting. Let’s see what the next 6 months of tasting does for me. If for nothing else, I hope my confidence in my palate continues to grow and that I get to taste many more great wines.
Filed under: California, Red, Roshambo, Zinfandel | 4 Comments »
Posted on March 27, 2007 by Sonadora
I attempted to serve the 2004 Roshambo Syrah from the Frank Johnson Vineyard with our dinner. It didn’t work. The alcohol and heat on this wine when I poured it just wouldn’t go away. It took well over an hour sitting in our glasses before the alcohol scent disappeared and I could actually attempt to drink this.
The wine was 15.5% alcohol by volume, had a cork closure and came in a wine club shipment, yet another one without a price list.
Eventually on the nose I found raspberries and cloves, plus a bit of earth and oak. I was trying to serve this with pasta, fresh tomato sauce and fresh grated parmasean, but that didn’t work out, so we drank it by itself after (long after) dinner. Perhaps food would have helped this wine out, but to be honest, I’m not so sure. In the mouth there really weren’t any flavors. It was very muted and all I can say is that the wine was bitter, astringent and thin. It really didn’t do much for me. I can’t find this online, but I really hope we it didn’t cost too much.
Ah, the benefits of signing up for WineQ, I can choose the wines I want when I want them. And I hopefully won’t end up with wines like this one that don’t do much for me, since I can read other user’s reviews before I queue up anything! (I have convinced Matt that we will be signing up when we get back from our upcoming CA trip! Woohoo!)
Filed under: Red, Roshambo, Syrah | 7 Comments »
Posted on January 31, 2007 by Sonadora
I’m a little behind in my wine reviews, which I suppose is fine because there won’t be any wine drinking tonight (I’m still recovering a bit from last night) so at least I have a few back-ups to post!
Anyway, on Monday we drank a bottle of 2005 Roshambo Gorey Gewurtztraminer. It had a real cork, cost us around $15 and is 14.1% alcohol by volume. I paired it with some more of the Zuppa Toscana because it struck me that it might be a good match with the spiciness of the sausage.
It smells like Gewurtztraminer……it’s aromatic, floral, lightly sweet with an undertone of spice. Honeysuckle especially seemed to jump out.
In the mouth, it’s a little greasy. Very heavy and palate coating and an odd kick of maybe petrol at the end? Also quite sweet. NMS.
Filed under: Gewurztraminer, Roshambo, White | Comments Off on Roshambo Gewurtztraminer
Posted on January 13, 2007 by Sonadora
Just kidding, but Matt once thought it would be really cool to make a movie about giants destroying Los Angeles. Then we saw it was already made, only about Manhattan. Totally off point except for the fact that last night’s wine was a 2005 Roshambo “The Rat” Carignane.
Cost us $17.78 in a club shipment, real cork closure and 14.4% alcohol by volume. On the nose and in the mouth, there was raspberry and pepper in this wine. It reminded me somewhat of a Syrah. The tannins were a little strong on the end, but mellowed considerably as the wine aired. I thought overall this was a really well done wine.
The rats are everywhere!
Filed under: Carignane, Red, Roshambo | 4 Comments »
Posted on December 23, 2006 by Sonadora
In honor of their new venture, we broke open a bottle of 2005 ‘The Obvious” Sauvignon Blanc. Cork closure and was somewhere around $15.
Crisp and clean flavors. Very citrusy and tart. That’s not a bad thing to me though. I love tarty wines. Some melon flavors too. Yum! Good mineral flavors and a lingering finish. An all around fun glass to drink. I imagine seafood and a summer day.
So raise a glass, and join me in wishing Roshambo the best of luck with their Roshambus!
Filed under: Roshambo, Sauvignon Blanc, White | 2 Comments »
Posted on December 21, 2006 by Sonadora
I was browsing on Pinot Blogger last night and saw that Josh had a post up about the sale of Roshambo’s tasting facility. I hadn’t caught the article in the news, so I was happy to get a heads up. We joined the Roshambo Party Army while we were visiting the winery this summer.
You can read all about it on the Roshamblog. For the time being, they will be operating out of an RV, which sounds incredibly interesting. I hope we make it back out that way to see it in operation. There have been a few articles in the Press Democrat about the news. You can also read some more over on Fermentation.
I hope this means even better things for Roshambo in the future. They were a ton of fun to visit and make some great and intersting wines. Best of luck to them!
Filed under: Fermentation, Pinot Blogger, Roshambo, Wine News | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 3, 2006 by Sonadora
Matt’s had a touch of a headache all day from the wine we drank on Saturday. Sometimes red wine does that. However, so that I could have something to blog about today I sacrificed myself and forced myself to drink some wine tonight 😉
Tonight’s choice? A 2004 Roshambo Rock Paper Scissors Merlot. Strawberries and cherries on the nose. In general, it doesn’t do much for me. The taste is bitter and tannic. And it dries out my tongue. I’m pretty sure this bottle came in our club shipment. Which kind of sucks cause that means I paid a lot to ship it across the country. It ran us $8.00 with the discount. 14.1% alcohol by volume, screw-cap closure. Not terrible, but I wouldn’t seek it out.
Filed under: Merlot, Red, Roshambo | Comments Off on A glass by myself
Posted on November 12, 2006 by Sonadora
Tonight we drank a bottle of 2004 Roshambo Taylor Vinyeard Zinfandel. This was our first bottle of this wine, though I think we have 2 more cellared. I suppose we probably tasted it on our actual visit to Roshambo though one cannot be so certain. We visited 26 vineyards in our 7 days in the Sonoma area. I did enjoy Roshambo while there. The atmosphere was entirely different from any other winery I have ever visited. Very modern tasting room, lots of young people, just a completely different vibe. We joined their wine club, and have received at least one, if not two, shipments from them so far.
Alright, back to the wine. I made an eye-of-the-round roast tonight with broccoli for myself and peas(yuck) for my husband and added a rice pilaf to finish out the meal. I’m still working on pairing food with wine, but thought a nice hearty red with the roast would work splendidly. And I was right! This wine is big and fruity to start, with a little peppery kick at the end. I did notice that as we worked our way through the bottle, the pepper finish was less noticeable and the fruity flavors (tastes a little like cherries to me) made an even bigger appearance. Very full flavored with lots of body, running an alcohol content of 15.4%, definetly not for a lighter meal! It probably could have stayed in our cellar for a little while longer. I will keep the other bottle hanging around. This cost us $28 minus the club discount. A great wine, but a little steep of a price tag to be an everyday wine for us. I’ll enjoy taking the next bottle out of the cellar.
Filed under: Red, Roshambo, Vineyards, Zinfandel | Comments Off on Jumping in
Yes, I served bratwurst with Roshambo 2004 Imago Chardonnay. Not an elegant match to say the least, what can I say? I’m not always going for the perfect pair!
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