Wannabe Wino

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from Bin Ends Wine so I could participate in Twitter Taste Live

Ah, the last of the Hugels. I've written about the other 3 bottles we tasted for Twitter Taste Live, so it's time to round that out with the fourth Hugel wine from the Bin Ends Wine tasting. While this is the last wine I'll write about, we tasted it second the evening of the Twitter tasting. The 2005 Hugel Gewurtraminer may have been my favorite of the "regular" level Hugel wines that we tasted that evening. It either had Diam or a real cork, clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume, and you can purchase it for around $17.

In the glass, this Gewurztraminer showed as a very pale, almost translucent color with just the slightest tinge of a straw color. You shouldn't be fooled by the pale color on this one though, the aroma just wafted across the room, huge! I found lychee, ginger, mango, bread fruit, spice, and roses. Just a gorgeous perfumed nose. In the mouth, I got flavors of white pepper, orange, lychee, ginger, and honey.

Overall, I would describe this wine as dancing in the mouth and quite alive. I found the wine refreshing, fun, and very tasty. This could easily be a go-to wine at the price point, and would make a really good Thanksgiving wine.

*Disclaimer: I received this bottle as a sample from WineQ because I am a member of their Beta Club.

We were looking for an after dinner wine the other night, something light and low in alcohol. The 2006 Ceja Sauvignon Blanc fit the bill nicely. You can buy this bottle from WineQ for $25.99, it clocks in a 12.9% alcohol by volume, and it had a real cork closure.

I loved the color on this wine. It had a great pale straw hue in the glass. On the nose I found aromas of grass, citrus, lime, lemon, grapefruit. The nose showed an incredible bouquet of tons of citrus. I love the grassy characteristic that California Sauvignon Blancs often have. In the mouth I got flavors of pineapple, star fruit, melon, lemon, grapefruit, and a nice herbal element.

Well chilled, this wine went perfectly with the muggy weather that we seem to still be having here in the DC swamp. As I said, we drank this on its own after dinner, but it would be perfect to whet your appetite as a before dinner drink.

*Disclaimer: I received this wine from Michel Schlumberger as a sample to participate in the BinEndsWine Twitter Taste Line.

As you all probably know, I had the pleasure of co-hosting the most recent Twitter Taste Live with Michel Schlumberger and BinEndsWine in September. We had a great line up of wines for the evening, with the first being the 2006 Michel Schlumberger La Brume Chardonnay.

That's right folks, WBW crept up on us again this month. Our host for this golden birthday of WBW is a man who recently celebrated his own golden birthday, Russ, the Winehiker! In keeping with his interests and passions, Russ has set the theme for this WBW at Which wine, which wilderness? By this he meant he would like us to choose a wine we would like to drink after hiking a trail. He wants us to name the wine and the trail, and you get bonus points for choosing a local wine to the trail you select. You can get all the details here.

So here's the thing. On the scale of athletic to unathletic, I fall squarely in the "unathletic" camp. I force myself to exercise because it's good for me and with the amount of wine I consume I'd probably be the size of adult elephant in no time flat if I didn't. Sure, I've been on hikes. I hiked halfway up Mt. Moosilauke in NH before the altitude made it too hard for me to breathe and I got an asthma attack....but in reality I'm more of a "wine stroller" than a hiker.

Another notch against me is that within the Metro DC area, trails are simply not abundant. You'd have to drive a bit to get to anything remotely strenuous.

After considerable thought, I've decided that my trail is the Mt. Vernon Trail. We walk this one quite frequently as it's beautiful and very close to our house. The Mt. Vernon Trail goes all the way from Mt. Vernon to Roosevelt Island, all along the banks of the Potomac River. It's about 18 miles long, fully paved, and is open to both walkers/runners and bicycles. Matt and I like to walk back and forth along about a 4 mile stretch of this trail, through a pretty marsh land and up into Old Town Alexandria.

If I were to have a glass of wine at the end of this, I'd stop along the way at one of the many picnic spots along the scenic Potomac (you can see lots of the monuments from the trail) and pop the cork on a bottle of the 2006 Thomas Fogarty Gewurztraminer in honor of Russ himself and the wine hike he took me on a few weeks ago that ended with a tasting at Thomas Fogarty in the Santa Cruz Mountains!

The above picture is a Banana Slug I took a picture of while hiking with Russ. These creatures fascinated me and I'm sure it annoyed Russ to no end that I kept stopping to examine them and take loads of photos!

The Thomas Fogarty 2006 Gewurztraminer hails from Monterey County. It cost me $17 at the winery, clocked in at 14.5% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure. On the nose I found orange blossom, honey, ginger, lime, spice, tropical fruit, lychee, flowers, and something almost nutty. The nose on this wine kept going and going, so aromatic. You could smell your glass across the room. In the mouth I got flavors of citrus, oranges, tropical fruit, spice, and ginger.

Overall, the wine seemed light and sprightly. It had a great mineral quality, and the acidity really made it a refreshing wine. I would drink this at the end of a long hike/walk on the Mt. Vernon Trail because it it would be the perfect pick me up and would be a wonderful wine to drink while surrounded by great views of Washington, DC.

Many thanks to Russ for hosting us in this edition of WBW and as always, a tip of the hat to Lenn of Lenndevours, our founder who has kept WBW going for 50 iterations.

I picked the 2007 Nelson Family Vineyards Viognier for the wine of the evening. It had a real cork closure, cost me $16.80 in a club shipment, and Matt tossed the bottle before I could write down the alcohol content.

I have to say, this was one of the best Viogniers I have ever had and a terrific value at that. I wish I had more, I would definitely serve this bottle at Thanksgiving this year.


On the nose I found peach, flowers, prickly pear, honey, and apricots. The nose made you want to dive into the glass and take a swim. The aromatics wafted out of the glass and across the room and you couldn't wait to drink the wine inside. An absolutely beautiful nose. In the mouth I got flavors of peach, pears, honey, a touch of spice, apricot, and orange zest.

The flavors showed as clean and crisp fruits, but the fruits were well developed and gave a full mouthfeel. A well done finish, clean and tasty. The wine just blew me away at this price point. I wanted more to drink. I can easily recommend this bottle.

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from Bin Ends Wine so I could participate in the Twitter Live tasting.

We drank this bottle back in August as part of the Hugel Twitter Tasting Live with Bin Ends Wine. I'm a bit late in getting around to reviewing it, but at the time didn't want to overwhelm everyone with 4 posts in a row about wines from the same producer! Scheduled as the 2nd bottle of the evening, we drank the 2005 Hugel Pinot Blanc over the course of 3 nights. It clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume, had either a real cork or a diam closure (can't remember and didn't write it down), and looks to retail for around $15.

In the glass, the wine appeared to be paler than the Gentil, the first wine of the night. On the nose I found fig, spice, pepper, flowers, limes, lemon, grapefruit, stone fruit, and stone. The nose seemed light and quite delicate. In the mouth I got flavors of lime, wet stones, stone fruit, pears, peaches, and minerals.

Overall, I found the wine to be crisp, very refreshing, and excellent at the price point. I think this struck me as the most fruit driven wine of the night.

I plucked a bottle of the 2006 Navarro Pinot Gris out of the basement for the evening. We drank this on its own after dinner, as is our modus operandi these days given the nature of our schedules, no time to chill a white wine before we eat, so we end up drinking it mostly after dinner or at the very tail end of our meal. I picked this bottle up when we visited Navarro this spring, it cost me $18, clocked in at 13.4% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure.


The first thing I noticed about the wine happened to be the very pale straw color. I really liked the way this wine looked in the glass. On the nose I found aromas of melon, lemon (ooooh, anagrams), lime, honeydew, orange blossom, and citrus. I wanted to jump in and swim in the glass based on the aroma alone. In the mouth I got flavors of grapefruit, lemon, citrus, green apple, and wet stone.

Overall, I thought the wine had a great mineral characteristic. In the mouth, I found it to be tart, dry, and refreshing, with good acidity. I'd serve this with a light white fish in place of my normal choice of Sauvignon Blanc.

PS-How are you finding my attempt at two pictures of each bottle? I've been trying it out for a couple of weeks now.

The wine for the evening arrived on my doorstep via a WineQ shipment, coming from a vineyard I've now tried a few times with great results, the 2004 Hannah Nicole Fume Blanc. I purchased the bottle for $14.99 (free shipping!) from WineQ, it clocked in at 14.65% alcohol by volume (can't say I ever remember an alcohol content being brought out to the 2nd decimal place before), and had a real cork closure. The wine hails from Contra Costa County, CA.


On the nose I found cream, peach, apple, pineapple, vanilla, orange blossom, spice, and a touch of oak. In the mouth I got flavors of orange, pineapple, grapefruit, other citrus, and cream. I'm not usually a Fume Blanc fan, to be honest. I tend to find them overoaked, but this version may make me a convert! The fruits showed through as clean and crisp, and overall the wine was dry. It had great balance and acidity, I'd actually consider this as a Thanksgiving wine. (Wow, it's that time of year already, isn't it? I've already got people arriving to the blog via Thanksgiving search terms....scary.)

The wine for the evening happened to have a very strange name, the 2006 Navarro Edelzwicker. We picked this bottle up at the winery on our March Sonoma trip, it cost $12, had a real cork closure and clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume. Navarro bills the wine as "Mendocino Table Wine," and it's a blend of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Gris.

In the glass, the wine displayed a pale yellow color, which unfortunately, you can't see from my photo. Even though I got a new camera, I'm still working on the settings and actually taking good photos. Perhaps I should just give up and accept the fact that as a photographer, I suck.

On the nose I found perfume, spice, flowers, some underlying citrus, and 7-Up. Really, I said to Matt, "This wine smells like grapes." No, I don't mean to suggest it smells like the folks over at Smells Like Grape, though it could, I'll let you know after the Wine Blogger Conference as I'm sharing a room with Taster B. In the mouth I got flavors of lemon, lime, (so really, if I knew what 7-Up tasted like, this might be it in wine form), flowers, honey, and a touch of spice. The flavors and body of the wine were quite light, though it did have just a hint of a creamy texture. Overall, an excellent bargain for the price.

*Disclaimer: I received this bottle as a sample because I am a member of WineQ's Beta Club.

The wine for the night was the 2005 Vare Vineyards Bianco. It's a blend of Ribolla Gialla, Pinot Grigio, Tocai Friulano, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay. I love wine blends, I find them to be really interesting and I like to see how the different grapes work together. The wine comes in a 500mL bottle, has a plastic cork, clocks in at 14.5% alochol by volume, and can be purchased from WineQ for $22.49.

On the nose I found toffee, caramel, honey, oak, sandalwood, clove, lemon, tropical fruit. In the mouth the wine was creamy! I got flavors of cream, grapefruit, apple, lemon, pineapple, and tropical fruit. The wine had a medium body, was surprisingly tart, very crisp, and had a long finish. I thought it was quite tasty and totally different form any other wine I've ever had. I think I'm digging the Ribolla Gialla grape, this is now the second time I've had it from Vare vineyards and I really like it. I also love that the wine comes in a 500mL bottle, it's perfect for just a couple glasses.

Our hot days and even hotter nights are winding down here now that fall is approaching, however, I can't yet seem to give up my cheap and cheerful Sauvignon Blancs. For this evening, the wine was a 2007 Matariki Sauvignon Blanc from Hawkes Bay. It clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume, had a screw cap closure and was part of my last 12 under $12 case from Total Wine & More. In the glass I was struck by the pale color of the wine.

On the nose I found grass, grapefruit, lemon, peppers, and herbs. In the mouth I got flavors of grapefruit, other citrus, and green pepper. This was no complicated wine, but it was racy and refreshing, with a good amount of lip-puckering acidity that lends itself so well to our hot swampy climate here in the DC summers.

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from Bin Ends Wine for the Twitter live tasting.

The fourth and final wine (we're going a little out of order here...) that I tasted during the Bin Ends Wine live Twitter tasting was the 2004 Hugel Riesling Jubilee. It had a real cork closure (dhonig, I'm sure this one was one of the real corks!), clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, and runs about $49 from Bin Ends Wine. This was easily my favorite wine of the evening, though, I'd probably be more inclined to purchase the Gentil or Gewurztraminer given the price point.

My first note on this wine was: "Like nothing else I've ever smelled." And that's the truth. The wine had an aroma like no other wine. The nose showed peach, lime, flowers, fig, vinyl, green apple, caramel, a hint of petrol, and lemon. I would love to smell this wine in another 5-10 years. I imagine it will be nothing short of amazing. In the mouth I found lemon, peach, minerals, stone fruit, tropical notes, honey, green apple, banana, and lemon.

Overall, this wine was something amazing. I've never had another wine like it. I just finished the bottle 4 days after I opened it, and I did nothing but stick it in the fridge with the cork in it. It still showed really well. I'm impressed. The wine was tart, with some residual sugar, but not sweet or overpowering in any way. It had great acidity and a wonderful mineral finish. I'd recommend picking up some of this wine and socking it away for at least 5 years.

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample so I could participate in the live tasting from Bin Ends Wine.

As I mentioned last week, I participated in the Bin Ends Wine Live Twitter Tasting on Thursday. I will also be co-hosting the next round in September, more on that later. Additionally, I was on Wine Biz Radio talking about the experience this morning! Busy busy busy. With that said, I have detailed notes to share with you on the 4 wines we tasted live!

First up was the 2006 Hugel Gentil. It clocked in at 12% alcohol by volume, hailed from Alsace, had a real cork closure, and will run you about $10-$12. I asked the winemaker live on twitter what the blend for this wine was and he told me "It's roughly 20% Gewurz[traminer], 20% Riesling, 20% P[inot] G[ris] and the balance Sylvaner & Pinot Blanc."

The first thing I noted about this wine was the dark straw color. Next I moved on to the nose. The twitter tasting happened in split second timing, so I was typing notes as fast I could smell, and had to go back after the tasting was over to make sure I had covered everything! On the nose I found lemon, stone, spice, honeysuckle, flowers, lime, and orange blossom. I thought the nose was very nice and fairly complex for the price point. In the mouth I found apple, peach, lime, more flowers, nectarines, lemon, and more peach (apparently I really thought the peach was strong).

Overall, the wine was really dry, very refreshing, had a full mouthfeel, and was generally extremely well done for the price. I served it with our cheese course and it was great match. This is one I would definitely re-buy!

The wine for the evening was a 2006 Freie Weingartner Wachau Gruner Veltliner. My dad picked this up for me from Branford Wine and Spirits in CT, but I gather it sells for around $12, it clocked in at 12.5% alcohol by volume, and had a screw cap closure. We drank this on its own after dinner, and it was perfect that way.

On the nose I found almonds, peanuts, lime, white pepper, green beans, nutmeg, and crayon. Yes, you are reading that right, an aroma as if you were sniffing a box of a Crayola! In the mouth I got white pepper, exotic spices, grapefruit, lemon, and limes. Overall, I'd describe this wine as smelling like my garden. I often brush up against my tomato plants as I'm picking, pruning, or watering, and touching the actual plant has a very distinct aroma. That, mingled with the fragrant basil in my garden, was what this wine reminded me of.

A tasty little bottle of wine for the price, good structure and acidity, some of the typical varietal characteristics...not much more I could ask for in a $12 bottle of wine. Definitely one I'd snag again for a hot summer's day.

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear WBW, happy birthday to you! Today marks the 48th WBW, and thus the 4th birthday of the monthly wine blogging event created by Lenn of Lenndevours. Fittingly, Lenn is hosting this 48th edition of his brainchild and has chosen the theme "Back to your roots." By this, he meant to go back to when you first started drinking wine and pick up one of your first bottles again to re-taste now.

I thought about it, but I didn't want to. Like many others, my journey with alcohol in general started with the bottom of the barrel (no pun intended). I drank free beer (Natty Ice and Milwaukee's Best anyone), wine in a box (Dr. Franz, as we affectionately called it, was a good friend), and vodka out of a $7 handle (mmm, Granite State and Zhenka). I have no desire to go back to any of that, it was foul when I drank it then. So I thought a little longer, and contemplated going back to the first bottle of wine that made me turn away from whatever came in a big format bottle or a cheap box. And that was a bottle of 1999 Schmitt Sohne Riesling. It cost about $5-$6 a bottle at the time, and one of my very dear friends showed up with a case of it one day.

I'd never had a Riesling. I didn't know what Riesling was. But I knew I loved it. And from that day on, I bought wine for the sake of trying new things. I stocked my college mini fridge with random bottles that I picked up at the state-controlled liquor store and went for flights of wine with my friends at the one restaurant with a decent wine selection in town. I stayed mostly in the white wine arena for a while, like many new wine lovers, as it seemed an easier transition and red wine scared me a bit. Now, I also didn't want to go back and drink the Schmitt Sohne again. I've had it fairly recently. Maybe it's me or maybe it's the wine, but it's not what I remember.

Instead, I decided to to search my local stores for a bargain Riesling and go back to the grape and country that started my affair with wine. In that vein, I managed to located a bottle of Lucashof 2007 Pfalz Riesling from Germany. I picked it up at Grape and Bean, a new, to me, wine shop in Old Town Alexandria for $14.50, it clocked in at 11% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure.

Surprisingly, I don't drink much Riesling anymore. It could be because I get most of my wine from California and not many CA producers grow Riesling, or it could be because I drink a lot more red wine now than I used to, or it could just be that the stores I frequent don't carry a lot of Riesling (very true, my first shop didn't have a single bottle and the 2nd stop had 3.) But I really should, because each time I open a bottle of Riesling, I'm reminded of why I began to love wine.

The Lucashof showed honey, stone, apricots, lemon, and a beautiful flowery citrus on the nose. I could, as is the case with several wines I've consumed recently, almost smell the acidity, the structure that was going to be in the glass. In the mouth, more honey, peach, lemon, citrus, honey suckle, very dry fruit. It was delightfully light, and almost sprightly in the mouth. It brought back memories of the intrigue I found in my first glass of Riesling, a promise of how good wine could be.

Though of course, part of the experience in drinking my first Riesling was the company in which I drank it. I remember all those days fondly with my best friends from college, lazy days with no responsibility and the only pressing question of the day being what we would do that night. And really, that's what wine and Riesling are to me, a great memory, evoked with every glass. For this WBW, it didn't matter what Riesling I chose, or whether or not it was excellent, good, or just passable, it was the act of pulling out a bottle of Riesling and drinking it with good company, these days, my wonderful husband.

Many thanks to Lenn for the excellent theme, and for keeping WBW going all these years. I look forward to many more years of participating and I am excited to read what others chose for their wine.

The wine for the evening was the 2007 Michel Schlumberger Pinot Blanc. The bottle came in a club shipment, but it retails for about $21. The wine had a real cork closure and clocked in at 12.8% alcohol by volume. Pizza and white wine probably represent one of my least elegant wine and food pairings, however, I wanted homemade pizza and I REALLY wanted to drink this wine, so there you go. I first became acquainted with Michel Schlumberger after reading about the winery on Fork and Bottle before our 2007 trip to CA. We stopped by to visit and immediately joined the club as we were so impressed with the quality of the wines. Since then, we have visited again, and I chose this wine as part of my Summer Sippers pack for Domaine547.

I easily recommended the 2007 vintage of this wine based on past experiences with it, but here is my review of the vintage included in my Domaine547 Blogger Pack. On the nose I found pear, lime, green apple, pineapple, and honeysuckle. The wine smelled crisp and I could almost taste the acidity before I even got it in my mouth. With the heat we've been having I was salivating over the wine before I even took the first sip. And I was not to be disappointed. My first note for the taste of this wine was "woah tart!" In the mouth I found pear, lemon, lime, tart apple, a vein of minerality, and honey. The wine was cool, refreshing, and perfect for the weather. This is an easy one for me to recommend, though I'd suggest not pairing it with pizza :)

*Disclaimer: I received this bottle as a sample from Israeli Wine Direct.

A trend has formed here at Wannabe Wino. In the last 20+ days I've only reviewed one bottle of red wine. But the weather has changed slightly and it's not so sweltering, so in the last week, we've actually had 3 big red wines, a Malbec and two red blends. So fear not dear readers, I have not abandoned red wines!

However, the wine for the night was a white, a 2007 Pelter Sauvignon Blanc. The wine came from Israeli Wine Direct, a fairly new company whose mission is to import boutique wines from Israel and introduce them to US consumers. It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 13.1% alcohol by volume, and can be purchased from Israeli Wine Direct for $23.99. The winery is located in the Golan Heights, is family owned and operated, and produces about 30,000 cases of wine a year.

On the nose I found wet stone, grass, lemon grass, lemon custard, lemon drops, herbs, green apple, and peach. I realize that it sounds strange to pick out all those different lemon flavors, but I promise, they were there, and each was distinct. And my lemon drops, I mean those little yellow hard candies that used to come in tins....does anyone make those anymore? In the mouth I got flavors of lemon, green apple, peach, and pineapple. The green apple was particularly strong. I also noticed minerality running through the wine, perhaps connected to the wet stone I found on the nose.

Overall, this wine had nice acidity and good structure. It's a completely different kind of Sauvignon Blanc than the ones I drink from New Zealand. If I had to compare it, it tastes like some of the excellent Sauvignon Blanc coming out of CA. I served the wine with fresh snow crab legs, drawn butter, and fresh lemon. A perfect match! I love Sauvignon Blanc with sea food, and this bottle had the acidity to cut through the butter and the citrus that pairs so nicely with sweet crab. I'd never had a bottle of wine from Israel before, so I was very excited to get to try this!

The wine for the evening contained a grape I've not had before, nor had I ever heard of it. But then, that's not surprising given the enormous variety of grapes on the market. I picked the wine to drink that night mainly for the fact that it came in a 500mL bottle and Matt had gone out to dinner with some friends, so I wanted a bottle I could drink on my own in case he didn't want a glass when he got home!

The wine was a 2005 Vare Ribolla Gialla. I purchased this bottle from WineQ for $24.99 (free shipping because I spent over $35!), it had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 14.5% alcohol by volume. I gather that Ribolla Gialla grape is grown mostly in Friuli, Italy, and Slovenia and Vare Vineyards is the only US winery producing a Ribolla Gialla wine! Vare Vineyards is a small (less than 500 cases!) production family owned operation in Napa.

On the nose I got spice, lemon, lime, and a touch of oak. The wine smelled like it had great acidity. In the mouth I found sharp citrus at the front of the palate, which translated to lots of lime and lemon. Spice was prevalent throughout the wine, with a creamy mouthfeel in the mid and back palate as it warmed a bit. Overall, the wine was dry, smooth, and delicious. I was happy to add a new grape to my line up, and much look forward to the Bianco I have from Vare waiting for me in the cellar.

I drank this on its own, but I think it would be great with my parmasean encrusted tilapia, or with some of the fresh crab we've been feasting on this summer!

Farley, formerly of Behind the Vines and soon to be of....well, yet to be announced, but we all know that whatever she chooses to do next will be a great success, gave me and Matt this bottle of 2005 Thomas Fogarty Gewurztraminer last year as a house warming present! It hails from Monterey, California, had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 14.2% alcohol by volume. I doubt this vintage is widely available any longer since it's now 2008, but if the quality I found in this wine is an indication of future vintages, I can easily recommend it.

On the nose I found vanilla, ginger, floral aromas, honey, and tropical fruit. The nose was quite aromatic...I had to force myself to stop smelling it so I wouldn't lose my share of the bottle to Matt!. In the mouth I got peach, tropical fruit, honey, spice, and minerals. The wine had a very full mouthfeel, and was silky smooth. With the great acidity and structure, I can see how this would be a good match with spicy food as Farley suggested (though, my heartburn can't handle spicy food, so we just drank it on it's own!).

I described the wine as "yummy" and "very yummy" in my notes, so I guess that's a good vote about what I thought of it! Many thanks to Farley for sharing this with me!

And on a recurring theme here at Wannabe Wino, the wine for the night was both a Sauvignon Blanc and part of one of my mixed cases for under $10 a bottle from Total Wine and More. Hey, gas is outrageous, food prices are increasing, something's gotta give, so I'm trying to stretch those wine dollars further! This particular bottle was a 2007 Drylands Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, it clocked in at 13% alcohol and had a screw cap closure.

On the nose I found cantaloupe, honeydew, green apple, gooseberries, and lime. In the mouth I got grapefruit, green apple, gooseberries, and almost a hint of green pepper. The wine was tart, crisp and delicious. It also had the racing acidity I look for in these wines. I drank it and thought, wow! This is the first Sauvignon Blanc this year that really hit the mark with me. Perfect for the horribly hot and humid weather and a great deal for the price.