Wannabe Wino

I hope not, because the summer weather is in full swing here and I will be downing bottle upon bottle of the crispest, most refreshing Sauvignon Blanc I can find until at least the end of September...unless of course someone wants to point me in the direction of other really refreshing summer whites! I do occasionally break it up with an Albarino or Viognier, so don't despair yet!

This bottle was a 2006 Brancott Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand (sensing a pattern in my consumption habits yet?). I picked this bottle up on my recent Total Wine trip for $7.99. Overall, it, like my other Total Wine Sauvignon Blancs, was an excellent value and I would certainly recommend this bottle.

On the nose there were tropical fruits including pineapples and various citrus fruits. I would describe the wine as smelling tart, if you can imagine that. In the mouth the wine was crisp with racing, tongue prickling acidity, just the way I like my Sauvignon Blanc. I found green apples, citrus and pineapple in the mouth.

We drank this on its own after a very long day working on our house. The weather was dripping hot and the wine was the perfect pick-me-up after toiling in the sun all day!

It is most definitely the season for crab legs, whole she-crabs and other light seafood to match with light summer whites here in VA! We actually went to our first crab-feast of the summer this weekend, thanks to a gracious invite from Leah of DC Gastronome.

The wine I chose to pair with these Snow Crab leg clusters was another bottle I discovered in our move that I purchased from Unwined back in November. The bottle was a Domaine de la Croix Senaillet Vin de Bourgogne Saint Veran. It cost $14.99 and was 13% alcohol by volume.

The nose of this wine was incredibly aromatic, I could smell the citrus as I poured it into my glass! The nose displayed tangerines, mandarins, and white flowers. In the mouth, the citrus flavors can only be described as tangy. Specifically there were oranges and other orange citrus fruits. Additionally, I could find melon, which I thought was cantaloupe. I also noted that the minerality of the wine was excellent and the finish was very long.

A perfect match for our crab dipped in drawn butter and topped with fresh lemon juice. I'm sure we will be enjoying many similar meals as the summer progresses!

So we drank this 2004 Twisted Oak Silvaspoons Vineyard Petite Sirah with cheeseburgers and Doritos. See, I don't make gourmet meals all the time!

I got this bottle of Petite Sirah in my latest WineQ shipment, though I've been eying it for quite some time now! However, if you want your own bottle, you'd better hurry up and order it, last time I heard El Jefe told us Twisted Oak was nearly sold out, though WineQ had their own personal stock!

The wine. I may be a bit biased as Petite Sirah is one of my absolute favorite wines, but this was simply a delicious bottle of wine, I highly recommend it and if it weren't for the fact that is absolutely too hot to ship wine to VA at the moment, I would be buying up what I could because I would love to see how this bottle develops in the next 2-5 years.

The wine! It had a real cork closure, was 13.5% alcohol by volume and cost me $23.99 with free shipping from WineQ!

The nose was very aromatic with blueberries, oak, vanilla and cloves as the most prevalent aromas. However, it kept developing as it sat out (and you should let it sit out a bit to aerate before you drink it as it appears to be a really complex wine, in both the mouth and the nose) and I eventually could distinguish nutmeg, allspice and chocolate. In the mouth there were gobs of fresh dark berries, mostly blueberries, though a bit of blackberry with plums as well. The allspice and cloves showed under the fruit and after an hour I found vanilla cream and velvety chocolate.

Overall my impressions of the wine were that it was a dark, juicy wine that stained my lips purple! It needs time to open up, but you will be glad you were patient as the flavors keep appearing and showing a very complex and well-made wine. And it even goes well with Doritos and cheeseburgers!

who always gets tagged. Actually a fairly accurate description of my childhood, running was not my thing. Technically I wasn't really allowed to run as I was born with turned in feet and had to have shoes to correct that for the first 8 years of my life. So sports for me as a kid didn't so much involve tag as they did gymnastics and other activities that would help my form and posture.

Anywho, brings me to me being tagged again in the blogosphere, this time by my friend Bobby of Revellian. Bobby writes an excellent blog that touches on just about every subject imaginable and he is a wonderful writer of poetry and short stories as well as thought-provoking posts on friendship, love, job satisfaction, etc. I've been tagged to tell you 8 random facts about myself.

1.) I used to play beer pong with Boone's Farm apple wine. It was better than the swill that passed as beer in college, if that's saying anything.

2.) I played the violin for 18 years and once won a fiddling competition.

3.) I'm allergic to cats and think they are evil because I'm convinced they know I'm allergic and purposefully come to jump on me and no one else when I am at a house that has them.

4.) My mother just sent me a picture I drew when I was 7 about what my future would be. It said "When I grow up I will be a lawyer, married and have a fish tank." Apparently I was a boring child and possessed the ability to see the future. I'm now married, a lawyer, and I have a 10 gallon fish tank with a bunch of fish in it.

5.) I'm a touch obsessed with old Nintendo systems. I still have my NES from when I was a little kid and still play it.

6.) I hate bananas.

7.) My very first job with a paycheck was scooping ice-cream. I didn't eat ice-cream for a year after working there.

8.) I collect teapots.

So, random enough for you? Apparently I now get to tag 8 other bloggers to tell us 8 random things about themselves.

Let's go with:
El Jefe of El Bloggo Torcido
Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20
Marshall of WineQ
Nate of Vinvenio
Farley of Wine Outlook
Shantanu of Traveller's Tales
Catie of Through the Walla Walla Grape Vine
Tim of Wine Cast

And just for kicks, me as a kid:

More Sauvignon Blanc for our hot, sticky weather here in the mid-Atlantic region. I found this bottle of 2006 Fauna Sauvignon Blanc at my recent trip to Total Wine in Alexandria. It had a screw cap, cost $6.99, was 13% alcohol by volume, and hails from Marlborough, New Zealand (my favorite region for Sauvignon Blanc these days.)

I love the label on this one with the pretty bird which I at first thought was a parrot, but now I'm not convinced. In any case, it's cute. Sometimes I can be a sucker for an animal label. Though this time, the stuff inside was pretty darn tasty.

The nose of this wine was a fruit bowl. I got melons, green apple, gooseberry, and citrus. I would describe the nose as smelling very vibrant and fresh, as if the fruit were just picked and put in my glass.

In the mouth I found mainly green apple and limes. The wine was crisp acidic, but not not tart to the point you pucker. Although the fruit was really pronounced in the mouth and on the nose, the finish was quick and refreshing. I thought this was an excellent buy for the price point and I would definitely get it again. I've been very happy with all my Sauvignon Blanc purchased from Total Wine so far.

I'm still uncovering wines from our move that I misplaced, if that's the right word, while living in our apartment. Yes, even though I had entered it into CellarTracker, I still managed to lose track of parts of my stash. It happens when wine lives in every empty nook and corner you have.

Anywho, the wine! The evening's bottle was a Tarara 2004 Pinot Noir, from Virginia. Somehow we ended up with a quite a few bottles that managed to escape our gullets from our day trip to VA wine country last fall. The wine cost $20, was 13.5% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure.

At first on the nose I got candied cherries. After a while they turned into sweet red cherries, which I swear is different than candied cherries (I think I mean marachino cherries) and spicy oak.

In the mouth the wine was smooth, though it had a hint of spice and a bit of a kick in the finish. Oddly enough, the cherries were much tarter in the mouth than on the nose. This is a light-bodied Pinot Noir and overall I would describe it as fruity. A different kind of Pinot Noir than a CA one, but a very nice light summer red overall. I served it with grilled lamb chops, 2 cheese risotto and broccoli. Not the best match, the lamb needed a heavier bodied red.

I saw via my Twitter sidebar that Michelle, aka wine-girl, of My Wine Education has announced the next WBW!

In case you are unfamiliar with WBW (Wine Blogging Wednesday) the idea is that once a month, a wine blogger gets together with Lenn, of Lenndevours, the creator of WBW and picks a theme. Then, on the selected Wednesday, lots of wine bloggers and wine lovers raise their glasses to drink a bottle of wine that fits the topic.

In any case, this month's theme is Passionate Spain. And by that, Michelle means go find a bottle of Spanish wine, preferably under $10, red or white. She says she'll give us a little leeway with the price, but not too much! Additionally, she'd love for you to seek out lesser known areas of Spain in your hunt!

Report back to Michelle with the details of your wine by July 11! You can find all the specifics here.

My Dad came to visit us over Father's Day weekend, though not for fun, but to help us around the house. Which leads me to the wine we enjoyed while he was here after dinner at a new restaurant we tried, Farrah Olivia in Alexandria, review to come later.

As a present to celebrate the new house he brought us a bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Champagne. It weighed in at 12% alcohol by volume, had a traditional champagne cork closure and I find it online anywhere from $23.99 to $31.99.

The nose smelled tart, but then gave way to honey, toast, and almonds, with a bit of yeast. At first it was slightly sweet in the mouth, which I found a little odd, with bits of an almost peachy flavor. It quickly became a dry brut as it moved across the palate, but I really enjoyed the transition from slightly sweet to dry.

I thought it was a great little champagne and a good value for the price point.

Cheers to a new house!

That's right folks, here I am, drinking from my WineQ again. The wines arrive, I drink them.....it's a vicious cycle ;) The night's wine was the 2004 Lava Cap Reserve Zinfandel. Lava Cap hails from El Dorado, California.

The wine weighed in at 15.6% alcohol, cost me $19.99 (free shipping!), and had a real cork closure.

My photography skills are not fabulous, but I hope you can gather the translucent ruby color that this wine presented in the glass. I found it very pretty to look at.

The alcohol on the nose was a bit strong, but blew off to reveal black currants, blackberries, spices...nutmeg and cloves I believe and oak. In the mouth there were big dark berries, with hints of the spices that came through on the nose. It also had an earthy quality. However, I wouldn't describe this as a full-bodied wine, despite the high alcohol. Overall the wine was a bit tannic and left a spicy finish in the mouth.

I was recently tagged by my new friend Foodette to do a new meme. Foodette writes the blog Restaurant Review World, all about restaurants around the Los Angeles area. Since Matt's family lives in the LA area, I will be certain to check out her picks on the next trip out there, and if you live in LA or are visiting, be sure to stop by her blog!

So this meme asks me to pick my 5 favorite restaurants in my city. I had to think about this one for a while. DC and Northern Virginia have a ton of fantastic restaurants and I love lots of them for different reasons. To combat that, I've decided to stick to restaurants that are affordable on our everyday budget and offer great service and food for the money. My first pick was easy:

1.) I love Pizza Paradiso. There are two locations in DC and each one has its charms. The location in Dupont Circle is tiny, really tiny. If you go on Friday or Saturday night, be ready to wait for one of the 8ish tables or to sit at the bar (which is actually great as it's right in front of the oven and you can watch them toss and cook the pizzas in the open brick oven). In Georgetown, the location is much bigger, but be prepared for lots of college students to be there. My favorite thing to eat there is the Pizza Paradiso with fresh buffalo mozzarella and fresh tomatoes. Be sure to check out the huge beer selection (sacrilege, I know, but it's seriously good) and try the tiramisu!

2.) My second pick is also Italian (I love Italian food, my grams is a tiny little Italian woman who is the best cook!) and would be the Odeon Cafe. It holds a special place in my heart as we ate there the night we got engaged. (Insert sappy moment here.) The food is always excellent, the portions are big and the service is great. The Odeon Cafe is also located in Dupont, we used to hang out there quite a bit when Matt first arrived in DC. I recommend the bruschetta, but be sure to request it with fresh mozzarella as it is billed with just tomatoes! The olive oil dip on the table is to die for to put your bread in and the four cheese fettucini is my favorite. Good prices, always a seat available, and a special memory for me, I can't ask for more.

3.) Next would be the Lebanese Taverna. The first time we went was to the one in DC near the National Zoo. Matt had to drag me kicking and screaming but now I can't get enough. I love everything we have there, we even went twice last week! My favorite appetizer is the Jibneh Halloum, which is salty, delicious Lebanese cheese served with olives, tomatoes and onions. My favorite dish is the Shwarma, the house special, perfectly cooked slices of lamb and beef over a bed of rice pilaf. There's always a seat available and the service is impeccable.

4.) It hasn't gotten such great press, but Bebo Trattoria in Crystal City, Arlington certainly makes my list of great affordable places to eat. Our bill here is the best part. We rarely spent over $60 for 2 meals, an appetizer and a bottle of wine. For DC, that is fantastic! The wine list is pretty good, the service is really the most attentive I have ever seen and I really like all the pastas I have tried. Go for the sausage in orange sauce with cheese appetizer and be sure to stock up on the yummy bread.

5.) Last but not least is a recent affordable and fun place, one that's perfect for a quick, cheap weeknight meal. Mackey's Public House in Arlington. Things I love about Mackey's: the first time we went we had 5 pitchers of beer and it only cost us $30, they have dart boards and pool tables, and the food is actually really good for pub grub. I recommend the nachos, the homemade mac and cheese, and the mozzarella sticks. Delicious, open late, actually an okay wine list for a bar and plenty of beer, sports and games.

Thanks for tagging me Foodette! If any of these bloggers care to indulge, I'd love to hear about the best restaurants from David of Cooking Chat, Winedeb of Deb's Key West Wine and Gardening, Leah of DcGastronome (I bet she has tons of great ideas for my area and I'd love to hear her picks!), Brooklynguy of Brooklynguy's Food and Wine Blog, and John of Brim to the Dregs. Hope you will play along!

We got this bottle of 2006 Michel Schlumberger Pinot Blanc on our recent trip to the Sonoma area. It was a perfect wine for the night we drank it, the thermometer was hovering around 92 degrees, but thankfully the humidity had not yet descended upon us.

The wine had a real cork closure, cost $21, and was 12.5% alcohol by volume.

On the nose the wine displayed pineapple, limes, lemons and tangerines, a veritable fruit salad of scents. It actually reminded me of a tropical drink and I could picture myself sipping it poolside....if we had a pool. A very aromatic bottle of wine.

In the mouth, the wine was citrusy, showing lemons and grapefruit, very crisp and clean flavors. I noted the excellent acidity and structure of the wine and additionally the very clean and pleasant finish. I served the wine with parmesean encrusted baked tilapia, white corn and parmesean cous cous. It went perfectly with the fish.

I wish I had another bottle for the hot days that are approaching!

That time of month has rolled around and wine bloggers all over the world (well hopefully, I'm not sure how easy this theme will be for those outside North America) are raising glasses of Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon, our theme for this month. This month's lovely and gracious host is Catie of Through the Walla Walla Grape Vine, no surprise that the theme is Washington-centric!

I've been a WBW slacker for the last two months, though I think I had very good reasons for my absence from the festivities. However, I'm back in the saddle for this month, though even being here in the US, it was no easy feat to find a Washington State wine that was not Chauteau St. Michelle or Columbia Crest. I ventured to Total Wine and More in Alexandria, VA to find my wine this month. To my utter surprise, they actually had two Cabernet Sauvignons from Walla Walla, but Matt would not have been pleased if I brought home a $52 or $34 bottle of wine. Other than that, in the nearly 1000 bottles that must have been Cabernet Sauvignon, there were only 5 options...2 of which belonged to the aforementioned wineries. I finally settled on a bottle, after literally examining every bottle to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

My entry for this WBW is a $12.99 bottle of 2003 Bridgman Cabernet Sauvignon from the Yakima Valley of Washington State. It had a plastic cork closure and weighs in at 13.9% alcohol by volume.

On the nose there was alcohol at first. That eventually blew off. Underneath were aromas of bell pepper with an herbacious note, blackberries, blueberries, oak and something oddly sweet. Overall, I would say the fruit was very sweet on the nose. In the mouth there were candied blackberries and overall it was sweet in the mouth though it had smoky undertones.

I served the wine with brautwurst on the grill and homemade macaroni and cheese. It was a fairly good match, though I think perhaps it would have been better with a steak.

Overall, an okay foray into Washington Cabernet, though I wish I could have justified the ones from Walla Walla!

I finally got around to visiting Total Wine and More this weekend. Nate from Vinvenio has been urging me to check it out for a few weeks now, but it's sort of out of the way and actually kind of difficult to get to, so I'd been hemming and hawing about it. However, I wouldn't be a very good wino if I didn't eventually go to this behemoth of a wine shop. And besides, a coupon arrived in my welcome wagon mailer for $10 off a purchase of $50 or more. I'm a sucker for coupons.

Upon arriving at Total Wine and More in Alexandria, I thought my eyes would pop out of my head. I have literally never seen that many bottles of wine in one place before. I think they claim to have 8,000 different wines. I was overwhelmed. I was even more overwhelmed when I realized that there was an entire aisle of just Cabernet Sauvignon, my main reason for this outing was to procure a bottle for this month's WBW with the theme of Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon. It took me nearly an hour to just get through the Cabernet aisle so I didn't have much time to closely examine everything else as we were drywalling yesterday and Matt needed me to hold stuff.

The good: Lots of wine in all different price ranges. Lots of wine accessories. They also sell all kinds of beer, so this would be a great stop if you were throwing a big party.

The bad: Very few sales staff. And no one I talked to seemed to know wine at all.

The ugly: I am all for finding cool things hiding in wine shops. However, those wine shops usually do not have 8,000 wines that need to be looked through to find that gem. And that was the problem here. I'm sure there must have been some really good stuff in the Cabernet aisle. But it was IMPOSSIBLE to find anything as there was no rhyme or reason to the organization. A $3.99 bottle sat next to a $54 bottle. Australia, then CA, then Uruguay, then CA again and so on. Finding the very few bottles from Washington State took me forever!

The results: 1 bottle of Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon. 2 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, 2 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, 1 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa. (I'm on a huge Sauvignon Blanc kick as it is hot and humid and sticky here.)

The total: 6 bottles of wine for $54. $44 after my $10 off coupon. Possibly the best deal ever.

Would I return? Yes, for the purpose of gathering many inexpensive bottles for either everyday drinking or if we ever get around to having a housewarming party. If I were looking for a very specific bottle or even for another WBW bottle, I doubt I would return. Without knowledgeable staff it was very difficult to find what I was looking for and the lack of any organizational system made it that much harder. A good place for a mixed case of everyday wine or a cheap case for a pary.

Be prepared- I love crisp white wines in the summer and Sauvignon Blanc often fits my perfect idea of what to drink in the 95+ degree humid summer days of Virginia. That's right folks, it appears that summer weather has arrived and is here to stay. Apparently we don't believe in spring in this area of the country and jumped straight from frigid to boiling.

Which brings us to the night's wine. A 2005 Passalacqua Sauvignon Blanc the we picked up on our last CA trip. The wine cost $16, had a real cork closure and clocked in at 13.9% alcohol by volume. I believe we have two more bottles in the basement, though my organization structure got all rearranged with the move and hasn't made it's way to the top of my priority list to redo yet.

I tend to jot down not very specific things in addition to flavors and impressions as I'm drinking my way through a bottle of wine, as I did with this wine. My first descriptor in my notes is "Yum." And really, that pretty much sums this bottle of wine up.

The wine showed lemons, apricots, and honeydew melon on the nose, leading to a wonderful tropical aroma wafting out of my glass. In the mouth, there were lemons, but on the sweet side, not tart, grass, and melons. Overall the wine had a very slight sweet note. The mouthfeel of this wine was quite smooth and the fruit really showed well, both on the nose and in the mouth. I clearly really liked this one as I wrote "Yum" again at the end of my notes.

I served this wine with over baked chicken (done in breadcrumbs), rice pilaf and green beans. A very good match, I liked the way the wine played with the spices in the chicken breading. Overall, the wine was a great deal, I felt like I got a lot out of this wine for the price tag.

Or at least the 2005 De la Montanya Tina's Vineyard Pinot Noir seems to not have cooked on it's arduous journey from CA to VA. This despite being stuck in a UPS truck for 2 full days and sitting for 3 full days over a long weekend in a warehouse! I'm hoping since this once is fine the other 5 bottles in the shipment are as well, though only time will tell, clearly.

The wine came in a club shipment (as you may have realized given my ranting about this wine over the past weeks), cost $25.60 for the bottle, has a real cork closure, and weighs in at 14% alcohol by volume.

The nose of the wine displayed spicy cedar wood, oak, spices and raspberries. In the mouth were more raspberries, tart cherries and spices. Overall the wine had what I would call a smoky characteristic, mostly imparted by the wood aromas on the nose. The wine was very light in the mouth, with the fruit feeling very fresh.

It was actually a great match with dinner! I'm experimenting with our new grill and purchased a cedar plank to cook on. Using that, our dinner was cedar-planked salmon steak with lemon, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. Now, I know you are thinking that the cedar quality in the wine was my nose playing tricks on me with the cedar planked salmon, but I assure you that I opened and tasted the wine before the salmon was even brought in the house. And, if I do say so myself, the salmon was delicious, especially with the wine. The light body of the wine and its smoky quality paired incredibly well with the heavy salmon.

This wine needs to come with a warning: decant before attempting to drink or risk lighting yourself on fire with the fumes. The wine itself is a 2002 Mazzocco Merlot.

Weighing in at 15% alcohol by volume, the bottle had a real cork and cost us $25 at the winery. (One of our purchases on our recent trip.)

After the alcohol blew off the nose (really, trust me on this one, decant) strawberries showed through. Then, and I realize this will sound incredibly odd, chocolate leather. Neither simply chocolate or leather, it was honestly a combination. In the mouth there were more strawberries and the wine was earthy overall.

I would describe this as a big wine. Big flavors, big alcohol, big aroma. The wine was the darkest wine I think I have ever seen. Not a ray of light was getting through this deep purple wine. The wine was also very tannic, it could certainly age for quite a while longer and I think it would develop into an incredible wine in another 3-5 years. It took several hours for the flavors to smooth out.

I served this with bbq pork chops, parmesean cous cous, and white corn on the cob. It was an excellent match for the bbq and I would definite suggest a bbq pairing for this one!

Again with that whole moving thing, I uncovered wines that have been hanging around for quite some time in corners and under books and such. This was another one I found while moving.

It was a 2004 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Cabernet Sauvignon. I *believe* I picked this up for around $10 at Costco in August, 2006, but I could be horribly off on the price. Whatever the case may be, I remember buying it because I was in Costco picking up cheap bottles of wine for a large group of people we were having over. As is turns out, none of the wine actually got consumed that day and I ended up with a mish-mosh of cheap wine hanging around. Such is life.

On the nose were berries, mostly blackberries, with maybe a little blueberry perhaps from the Petite Sirah blended in and alcohol, despite the bottle only being 13.5% alcohol. After that blew off, there were aromas of vanilla and oak.

In the mouth I found mostly blackberries. However, after it had been sitting out for a while, there were other dark fruits present, pretty much indistinguishable, but perhaps cherries?

I served it with keilbalsa off the grill, rice pilaf and green beans. It was a quick meal that I threw together after a long day spent tiling and grouting and I didn't want to open a pricey wine with it. For $10 the wine was simple, fruity, and drinkable, though the strong alcohol scent and presence really surprised me given the low level.

As you may know from reading, we've recently moved into our first house from an apartment. In our apartment, wine was squirrled in corners. While I have set-up CellarTracker to manage my wine, some of the bottles managed to escape me as they were hidden too well. Back in November I made a trip to Unwined for a mixed half-case of everyday wines. I thought we had consummed them all, but some had managed to elude their destiny for 7 months. No more I say!


Since I love Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, I'm drawing a blank as to how I let this one sit around for so long! It was a 2005 Scott Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. The bottle cost $14.99 at Unwined, was 13% alcohol by volume and had a screw-cap closure.



The nose on this one was reserved, though I did pick up a bit of vanilla (odd) and a slight hint of gooseberry. In the mouth was gooseberry with a ton of citrus. Mostly lime all over the place, though there were hints of other citrus, grapefruit and lemon. Overall, the wine was light and crisp with good acidity. Not quite as crisp and tart as some others I've had, but it sure did the trick for us as we were exhausted and hot after moving all day.

I have a problem. When new wine comes in my door I get this nagging little voice in the back of my head telling me I should try it right.then. Such was the case when my latest WineQ showed up at my door. I managed to wait all of 3 days before jumping into this bottle of 2005 Lava Cap Reserve Sauvignon Blanc.

The wine cost $11.99 (free shipping since my order was over $35 total!!), was 14.6% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy getting free shipping from WineQ? It's the shipping costs from my other wine clubs that kill me when I realize I could have purchased at least another bottle, maybe two for the price it cost to ship the wine!

In the glass this Sauvignon Blanc wass straw gold in color, it really struck me as a pretty wine. The nose came wafting out of the glass with vanilla, lime and orange citrus flavors. A very aromatic wine overall. In the mouth I would describe the wine as creamy. I got flavors of lime, melon, oak and clementines in the mouth.

The oak aging really lent a different characteristic to this wine, much different from most of the Sauvignon Blancs that I drink, so I had to adjust my expectations to appreciate this wine for what it was: a very well-balanced, inexpensive, aromatic and flavorful white, with good citrus and melon flavors tempered by the oak aging. I think it would do wonderfully with an herb-roasted chicken dish, though it was great on its own as we drank it.