EAST COAST PALATE

Recently, Dawn - the publisher of City Living magazine - recommended that I stop in and visit a brand new store down in the Adams Morgan area.  A.M. Wine Shoppe has a beautiful display of wine lining an entire wall.  When I walked in there were a few bottle open, waiting to be tried.  They had cheese and salami samples as well.  There wasn't a huge amount of different wine (while there, I heard someone come in and ask for Virginia wine, and there is none there), but what they lack in extensive selection, they make up for with their service.
Okay, the wine: 
2008 Mader Pinot Blanc... The nose on this Alsatian white wine is fresh, loaded with citrus and a sweet honeydew aroma.  I picked up a slight nasal burn from the alcohol, and there's a floral component layered into the fruity aromas.
If you like sorbet, or Starburst, or just good crisp wine that wakes up your tongue, this is a wine for you.  It is light, but full of flavor, with the lemonpeel leading the way.  The tartness stretches out the finish so that if you take a sip and walk away from your glass, you will honestly carry the flavor in your mouth for a few minutes.
This is a B+ wine for $14 (I've seen it at Rodman's, as well).  It would balance out a strong cheese or cream sauce, or work as a perfect compliment to a fruit salad.
2007 JK Estates Cabernet Sauvignon... Krishna, thank you for this wine.  No, I'm not converting to any religion, Krishna is the guy who gave me this California Cab to try out.  It is a $15 bottle, hailing from an Estate winery in Lodi.  The aromas are what made this wine stand out so much for me, while the body is rather light weight.
This bouquet is full of the beautiful weirdness that gets me excited about wine: pickled okra?  check.  capers?  check.  Imagine you have a dish of blackberry preserves, and then somebody reaching over drops a bit of green pepper, cippolini onions, and pickle juice into the mix.  Sound delicious?  The greenness of this overall aromatic blend may be a turnoff for some, but the onion and green pepper are known to make cameos when it comes to Cabernet.
Despite the olfactary circus going on, the wine is light in tannin, feels fresh and smooth in the mouth, and for me gets a solid 85. 

My second stop of the evening was Barrel House liquors down on 14th st. NW.  I opened up three wines from one of Washington state's biggest producers, Columbia Crest. 
The 06 Chardonnay, 06 Cabernet Sauvignon, and 05 Shiraz were the samples being poured, offering a diverse range of flavors.  The Chardonnay was oaky, buttery, and for me a little bitter.  I really don't like it, even for $9.  The Shiraz and the Cabernet were both low B wines for me.  The Shiraz has that peppery spice with some jammy fruit leading the way in the flavor profile, but there isn't much structure or finish.  I liked the Cab a bit better.  It's a cherry dominated wine with some oaky aspects, but for me it was the smoothest and most balanced of the trio.  These two reds were also priced at $9. 
Having just returned from living in Walla Walla, WA, I'm familiar with the Columbia Crest label.  I'm also familiar with some of the higher quality wines that come out of the Pacific Northwest.  These are bottles to buy as alternatives to Yellowtail or Kendall Jackson, but they don't really represent the true depth and quality of many of the wines coming out of Washington's Columbia Valley.