Wannabe Wino

Reminder #1: WBW #42 Just 7 Words is coming up this Wednesday! So get your red Italian wine and your editing pencil ready, and be creative! I drank my bottle the other night, and I think I have crafted 7 words that capture pretty well what the wine is like.

Reminder #2: WBC #1 (Wine Book Club) arrives in the blogosphere on Tuesday, February 26. The book is Vino Italiano and it is a long one, so if you haven't started reading, get cracking! I am not very far along, but am making progress every day, so hopefully I will make it through by that date!

And finally, the 2nd poll of Wannabe Wino readers has closed. The question this time was "How many bottles of wine do you keep around?" The slight winner, with 8 votes and 23% of the vote goes to 40-100 bottles, with 0-15 coming in a close second with 7 votes and 20% of the vote. Apparently, quite a few winos read the blog, with 6 of you voting for "Please don't make me count, I don't have that many fingers and toes." 34 people total voted in this poll. Personally, we have between 150-200 bottles on hand in the Wannabe Wino house at any given time. That number dwindles drastically in the summer when wine clubs can't ship because of the weather, but we try to make up the difference with local vineyard and wine shop purchases!

I'm going to stick up another poll over in the sidebar, this time on what country's wine do you drink most frequently. As always, I'm very interested to see where my readers fall, and I thank you for participating!

My Dad was on a real kick of wines from the Francis Ford Coppola Vineyards while we were visiting CT. I think he had gone a tasting at a local place and that was what they were serving, so we had a least a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Rose while there. The Rose was better than the Cabernet, but I still stand by recommending the vineyard as a place for lunch and the views over the wine. In case you haven't tasted in the Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley, and Dry Creek Valley areas, there aren't exactly many food options for lunch unless you want to head into downtown Healdsburg and leave the tasting trails! We mostly ate lunch at the Dry Creek General Store, where Matt swears by the potato salad. However, when you are tasting for a week + in the area, it's nice to change it up and have something different!

In any case, the wine. The bottle was a 2006 Sofia Rose Francis Ford Coppola Carneros Pinot Noir Rose. It had a real cork closure and clocked in at 12% alcohol by volume. I didn't purchase it, but it looks like it probably cost around $16-$17. If I had this bottle, it would annoy the heck out of me because the shape would take up more than its fair share of room on my wine rack!

On the nose of the wine I found lime, bananas, and strawberries. In the mouth I got roses, strawberries, and a little tart citrus on the finish. The wine was smooth, but it was sweeter than I prefer in a Rose...I like my Rose dry!

I've hardly had any real Eiswein in my time as a wino, so I was very excited to taste a few different bottles over the Christmas holiday. The first was from Canada, and very good, however, this one from Germany took the prize.

The wine was a 2002 P.J. Vlackenberg Worms Au Rhein Rheinhessen Qualitatswein mit Pradikat Madonna Eiswein. (Phew, that was quite the mouthful.) My dad bought this at MV Wine and Spirit in Madison, CT, so I don't really know the price point, but it appears to go for around $30 for 375 mL. It clocked in at 8.5% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure.

The first thing I noted on the wine was the golden honey color. On the nose, the aromas were honey, apricot, a touch of lemon. The nose smelled sweet with a bit of bite behind it. In the mouth, the wine showed honey, apricot, orange, and a a stony minerality.

The wine was delicious, sweet, as you would expect from an ice wine, but with great acidity and backbone. I got the wine when it was around 6 years old, but I could see how this could be one you could tuck away in your cellar for years to come.

After my last post on Montepulciano, Tasters A and B of Smells Like a Grape were quick to email me and assure me that there are excellent Montepulcianos out there, as they had just done an enormous tasting of them. Little did they know that I rarely (if ever) fully fall off the horse with a wine grape and will almost always give it another shot. As I had already done with the Montepulciano, with much more success.

The bottle was a 2005 Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. It has a real cork closure, clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume, and ran me around $15 at MV Wine and Spirit in Madison, CT.

On the nose I found spice, leather, raspberries, oak, red currants, a little saddle room, and eucalyptus. In the mouth I found raspberries, eucalyptus, and leather. The wine was a lot lighter in the mouth than I had anticipated based on the color and nose, and had the bitter element I have come to expect from Italian varietals.

This bottle definitely leads me to believe that my previous bottle of Montepulciano must have been flawed in some way, either it was too old or perhaps it got cooked along the way.

Alternative title: I love Roederer. I really do. We first were introduced to Roederer in August of 2006 while out in Sonoma. The inn keeper suggested we stop at Roederer on our way up to Bodega Bay, and I am very glad we did. While there we picked up several lovely sparklers, including my perennial favorite, the 1999 L'Ermitage Brut. Sadly, I have trouble finding that one any more, but I still pick up a bottle of Roederer when we are in a fancier sparkling wine mood.

With that in mind, I scooped up this bottle of Roederer 25th Anniversary Brut the second I saw it on the shelf at The Winery in Old Town Alexandria, thinking it would be perfect for New Year's Eve. It cost me $23.99 minus a 10% case discount and had a traditional sparkling wine closure. We drank it out of the stemless Champagne flutes my Dad received for Christmas!

On the nose the wine was toasty and nutty. I also found aromas of apples and lemons. In the mouth, the apples and toasty notes dominated the flavor. The wine was tangy and dry, and very crisp in the mouth. The bubbles were tiny in the glass and there were tons of them.

Absolutely a great wine to ring in the New Year with and one I would get again, easily.

So there you have it. I drink what I want, when I want, regardless of the weather :) We drank quite a bit of Sauvignon Blanc over the last month or so, and particularly over the holiday season. The particular bottle for this night was a Nederburg 2005 Sauvignon Blanc from the Westeer Cape of South Africa. The wine clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume and cost me $11.95 at MV Wine and Spirit.

On the nose I found kiwi, gooseberries, tropical fruit, and flowers. I really liked the nose on this wine. In the mouth the wine showed gooseberry, citrus-particularly lemon and lime, and a hint of tropical fruit.

The wine was crisp overall, and tart, but not mouth-puckering like some New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, and softer than some of the bottles I've been drinking from Chile. I thought this bottle was a good value and one I wouldn't hesitate to pick up again.

One evening at my parents' house, a lot of wine was consumed in one evening. We had around 10 people at the house and the wine was flowing all evening.

I believe this was the second bottle of the evening. We started with a Sauvignon Blanc, but my Aunt didn't like it and requested a Merlot. I just happened to have a Merlot blend on hand!

The wine was a Chateau Rocher Corbin 2002 Montagne Saint Emillion. I purchased it for $18.99 minus a 10% case discount at The Winery in Old Town Alexandria, it had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume. The wine was a blend of 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon.

On the nose I found dark fruit, blackberries, oak, and black currants. In the mouth the flavors were of black currants, plums, and other dark fruit. The wine was tannic and a bit chewy in the mouth, this was definitely a wine that would benefit from being consumed with food. We finished the bottle up over a roast turkey and all the fixings, but I think it would be better with a pork roast.

I picked up this bottle of 2006 Babich Sauvignon from Marlborough, New Zealand at MV Wine and Spirit in Madison, CT for $8.95. It had a screw cap closure and clocked in at 13.5% alcohol.

On the nose I found gooseberries, citrus, and tropical fruit. The wine smelled crisp. In the mouth the wine was dry, crisp, and acidic. It showed gooseberries and citrus.

The profile was typical for a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, but it didn't seem right. The flavors were forced and it tasted processed.

That's about all you need of Ice Wine! While we were visiting the folks in CT, my dad wanted to try ice wine, which he had seen me drink at a restaurant a while back. So we went to MV Wine and Spirit one night and bought a bottle. Now, this is an actual ice wine, frozen on the vines, but it's not from Germany, but the Niagara Peninsula.

The bottle was a Peller Estates Limited Edition Founders Series 2003 Vidal Ice Wine. It clocked in at 11.5% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost $44.95.

On the nose of the wine I found honey, apricots, and golden raisins. These flavors all carried through to the mouth, into a gorgeous smooth concoction that went down very easily. The wine was sweet, as ice wines tend to be, but it had great structure with the acidic backbone.

This wine was the hit of the evening, and given the 6 bottles were consumed that night, that should say something. It met with universal approval and everyone asking for seconds! Too bad the ice wine bottles are so small!

I've heard a lot about Dr. Loosen Riesling over the years but just hadn't gotten around to trying it. While at my parents' house I found a bottle at the local wine shop and had to have it! I picked up this 2002 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Spatlese Riesling from the Mosel Saar Ruwer at MV Wines for $34. It clocked in at only 7.5% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure.

On the nose of the wine I found honey, flowers, minerals, petrol, and a stony note. In the mouth the wine was dominated by honey and apricots. The wine was smooth and drinking really well, but I could see how you could hang onto this one for years with the acidic structure.

This bottle may have been the hit of the Christmas holidays, although an Eiswein we had gave it a run for its money. I would definitely buy this wine again.