Wannabe Wino

*Disclaimer: I received this bottle as a sample from Bottlenotes as part of a blogger club trial.

Here's a hint to tell which photos I take and which ones Matt takes: 9 times out of ten I take photos on the table and he takes them on the counter!

The wine for the evening was a 2003 Calvulcura Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot Blend. It is composed of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, clocks in at 14.9% alcohol by volume, and can be purchased from Bottlenotes for $49.95. The wine had a real cork closure and hails from Argentina. The word "calvulcura" means "blue stone."

On the nose the wine smelled bitter at first, but that blew off...eventually, though it still left a deep dark wine impression with me. I also found vanilla, spice, cream, very dark fruit and berries. I found the nose very tight and unforgiving, it took forever for me to be able to distinguish any particular aromas. The wine was also bitter in the mouth, it was wound so tightly that I just had to set the bottle aside and left my glass out to air. After hours (I almost considered giving up on this one for the evening and trying again the next night) I found tart berries, spice, and leather. The wine had huge tannis and this overall bitter impression.

After about 4 hours, the wine was much better, but this is not one to be consumed now, it needs age, and lots of it. I think this may be the least approachable wine I've had so far, and at a 2003, it's not exactly a particularly new wine.

I picked up this bottle of 2004 Barricas Tempranillo from Chronicle Wine Cellar in Pasadena. It had a real cork closure, cost $6.95 and was 13% alcohol by volume. At this price point, I thought this wine was a fairly good value, though I'm not terribly familiar with Tempranillos, so don't have much to judge it by. I believe I had one at a Best Cellars tasting and I wasn't impressed. This one, for $6.95 was definitely drinkable and I thought it had good characteristics.

On the nose there was leather, undertones of bosenberry and a distinct barnyard aroma. I picked up on that when I opened the bottle, but didn't want to prejudice anyone who was drinking the wine so didn't say anything until everyone was drinking and laughing at me as I tokk notes. (Matt's friends from home again.) Then I said "barnyard" and they laughed even more until one finally stuck his nose in the glass and said "It is like a barnyard!" In the mouth I would describe this wine as being full of juicy fruit, mostly blackberry with hints of the leather from the nose. A tasty wine and one I wouldn't hesitate to get again.

I think I may have mentioned that we went to visit my parents recently. And while there, it just so happened that we have been married for 6 months. My parents, unbeknownst to us, had actually taken the top layer of our wedding cake home with them and frozen it for us, but had no idea how to get it to VA without it defrosting at least a bit on the trip. I decided that since we were there and it had been exactly 6 months, why not just eat it then? So we did, and then my mom packed the rest of the now defrosted cake in cooler for us and we took it home to finish it. Now, surprisingly, 6 month old wedding cake didn't actually taste too bad, though I can't honestly say how it compared to being fresh since I think I got the bite Matt fed to me and that was it.

At home we chose to open some bubbly to finish up the last bit of cake. And what did I have in the house, but a bottle the "could've been a contender" for my very first WBW, "Sparkling Wines." I actually did purchase it then, with the idea that it would be my entry, but decided against it at the time. The bottle is a Toso Brut from Mendoza Argentina. It cost me $10 for this and a split in a gift package at World Market.

It worked well with our cake, which Matt served with some fresh strawberries I had chopped earlier in the day. On the nose, this one is all yeast and a little toast. In the glass, it is very very fizzy. In the mouth, this is a dry wine, with no discernible fruit flavors, but more yeast and a nice bubbly feel. Overall, I would have rated this a "party sparkler" for the WBW, given the wallet friendly price and overall quality.

Cheers! And wow, 6 months went by so fast!

Tu necesitas beber esto vino si quieres vino blanco y barato. Sorry, got a little carried away with my Spanish there. Our second bottle of the evening last night was this little gem, Obvio, Vino Torrontes 2005 from Argentina. Synthetic cork, 13.5% alcohol by volume and cost me $9.99 at the Curious Grape. For those who don't speak Spanish, Obvio means obvious, so my title today is "It's obvious!" and the first sentence says "You need to drink this wine wine if you want white and inexpensive wine.

I almost titled this post "Deja vu" because I swear I've had this wine, or something quite like it in the past, yet I can't place when or where. Whatever the case may be, it's yummy. This is a light and simple wine, very floral on the nose. My notes say: topical fruits in the mouth, good acid holding it together. Easy to drink and I lurve it(apologies for the spelling, just a small joke among friends). Great value for the price and an interesting grape.

For the second time this week, I was sent scurrying off to learn about this grape in my Oxford Companion to Wine, and since I'm trying to increase my knowledge, I'll bore you with what I learned too. As usual, Jancis Robinson is both helpful and informative as I find that the Torrentes grape is parented from the Muscat of Alexandria grape. And I think that's where the deja vu came in, it is slightly muscat-like, but has just enough different characteristics that it didn't come to mind immediately.