EAST COAST PALATE

Well, here is a wine to avoid on this day for lovers.  I admit, the label has some appeal, the name is corny, but it is one of those wines that you see around stores and they just pique your curiosity enough to make to spend the 9 bucks to find out what's on the inside of the bottle.
The look:  The wine has lightness and a pretty red hue, but with a Cabernet I want deep color; I want to be pulled in by dark mysterious shades of crimson.
The smell:  Some dark cherry and cola aromas with a weird rubbery odor that, even though subtle, distracted me from the soft fruity smells.
The taste: "meh"... Really poorly integrated oak, jammy flavors at first that give way to oak and more mediocrity.  This is a C wine and there are so many other bottles  out there that offer better quality at the same cost.
On a good note, I have tried the Malbec by Cupcake Vineyards and found it much more palatable.
Lovers of wine... winos in love... whoever you are, whomever you are with on this sunny Sunday, uncork some good times. 

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. 

Every Saturday there are tastings at Chevy Chase Wine & Spirits from two to five.  This is the the easiest way to learn about new wines and put your palate to practice...
From right to left (light to bigger) in the picture here are four wines that offer different styles, smells, and flavors:


2008 Ferrari Carano Fumé Blanc:  This is 100% Sauvignon Blanc, full of zestiness, with key flavors like lemon and grapefruit.  About 1/3 of the wine was put into barrels to age, to soften some of the acidic sharpness, then blended back with the rest that stayed in stainless tanks.  The end result is a fresh Sauvignon Blanc that still has good acidity, yet comes at the palate in a more mellow way.  This normally costs $17, but was on sale for just under $13.

2006 Merryvale Starmont Chardonnay:   Chardonnay is a grape that can be vinified in a number of ways, a fact which splits Chardonnay drinkers into two schools: those that dig oak, and those that don't.
This bottle delivers a blend of half barrel-fermented and half stainless-steel-ferments grapes, resulting in a wine that still has nice body and a beautiful golden color, but is smells more of fresh fruit than it does of butter and barrels.  There are some lovely citrus, pear, apple, and even pineapple aromas here.  For someone like me (I tend to steer clear of California Chardonnay) this is a nice medium between the two ends of the Chardonnay spectrum. 

2007 Erath Pinot Noir:  For those that haven't tried Oregon Pinot Noir, you are missing out.  This wine shows just a glimpse of the whole world of Pinot that is growing continually in Oregon's Willamette Valley. 
This wine is light in body, and color.  It has earthy, leathery smells that meld well with a soft cherry aroma.  The wine is silky smooth in your mouth and, though its finish isn't big, it leaves a spicy aftertaste.  For pairing wine with Thai food or salmon, this would be perfect.

2007 Planeta Segreta:  A Sicilian blend consisting of mainly Nero d'Avola, this wine has body, lush fruit aromas, crisp acidity, and great overall balance.  There is Syrah, Merlot, and a touch of Cab. Franc in the blend.  The pruney, blackberry aromas are strong on the nose, with undertones of cranberry and rocks.  The minerality makes a huge play once the wine coats your mouth; it has substance, an almost chalky viscosity that makes you take this wine seriously.  This bottle could compliment so many types of food, from cheese to chicken, pizza to prime rib. 

Question for today:  Do you go out to shop where you know you can taste wines?  If not, you're neglecting your palate-maintenance.  If so, where do you go, and why?

These wine shed any pretense, come packaged in screw caps and fun, colorful labels.  They might not fit the bill for a fancy celebration, but what really counts is what's inside, and the vintner at the Big House Wine Co. has done a great job making a tasty product that costs from $10 to $13.
2005 The Prodigal Son Petite Sirah: Don't confuse this varietal with Syrah.  The Petite Sirah grape is a crossbreed of Syrah and Peloursin, and in France it's commonly called Durif.  It definitely has some of the peppery qualities of Syrah, but for me this particular wine had some very nice floral aromas not typical of California Syrah.  It was like someone giving me some Zinfandel with a sachet of pot pourri hiding in the bottom of the glass.  The flavors are much like Zinfandel, with prunes and black cherries leading the charge.  Unfortunately, this wine's taste vanishes quickly, leaving only a dry, tingly sensation in the gums and cheeks.
It's a low B wine for me.  I'd like to see more balance on the back end of it, but really I was happy to try a varietal Petite Sirah, and to learn that in California they grow quite a bit of this grape and grow it well... for a more thorough look at Petite Sirah, check out www.psiloveyou.org

2006 The Slammer Syrah: When I opened this bottle and poured a little into a glass, the wild aromas wafted and excited me to the point where I was running around putting the glass under my friends' noses.  This wine is aromatically insane - truly funky, weird odors flood out of this wine, and I love the uniqueness of it.
This Syrah from California's Central Coast has aromas of blackberry and pepper that mix it up with freshly unearthed mushrooms, sweaty socks, and Green Giant canned asparagus.  The overall olfactory impression is swampy and dank, but the wine has some solid fruit, and decent structure.  It is more medium bodied and I think it would benefit from more tannins.  From behind the crazy smells emerges a lush and flavorful wine.  I like this enough to give it 88-89 points, B+ juice.  It's a great experience, and I'd recommend this wine to take to a blind tasting group just to see others react to it.
Visit the jail-themed Big House website at www.bighousewine.com.

I tried a glass of this Cali Merlot the other day.  It is a great example of a wine where some vanilla aromas are easily perceived.  That smell mainly comes from the barrel aging process.  The oak used (Quercus alba) has vanillin in it inherently, so the longer a wine sits in the barrel, the more vanillin can integrate into the wine.  The particular bottle here also brings some fresh blueberry aromas, and an slightly herbal quality, which might have been what triggered my memory this morning when I had some Rooibus/Vanilla tea.  That's what really reminded me of sampling this Merlot almost a week ago.
The wine is very light-bodied, almost watery even.  It has a freshness, a juciness, and a simplicity that makes me think it would be a crowdpleaser for people who don't drink much wine .  It does have an oaky bite near the back end of the palate, but it's by no means a big, meaty Merlot.  It's a low B for about 10 bucks, perfect to have with pizza, maybe even pizza bagels like I used to make when I was kid.
For more info on getting some Gnarly Head, visit www.gnarlyhead.com.

2000 Mumm Napa DVX...
This premier bottle from Mumm Napa is a serious sparkling wine.  It a 50/50 blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  Its yeasty aromas lend to it a sugar cookie smell that is enticing and warm.  There is a fresh citrus component that brings this wine into balance, and that lemon zest bite lingers all the way to the end of a SweetTart finish.  This bottle deserves an A, 93 points for my taste.  At $50, it's more of a special occasion kind of wine, perfect for holiday merry-making.

Mumm Napa Brut Rosé (NV)
This is a very balanced Brut rosé, made mainly from Pinot Noir grapes.  Its subtle strawberry/raspberry scent gives it an almost desert-like allure, but it's nice and dry, with frothy bubbles that burst with flavor.  This doesn't have the lasting finish as the high-end DVX, but it is an excellent wine, priced under $20 (I saw it over the weekend at Circle Wine & Liquor for $17.99).  I give this a B+.  It's a great bottle to give as a gift or to kick off any party.

I popped the cork out of this bottle on a Wednesday night, and after trying it I felt that everything was in its right place.  This is a Wednesday night wine: nothing costly or crazy.  It is a medium bodied, lightly colored, fruit foward Pinot that will please most of the crowd.  But for me it's still in the low B range as far as quality is concerned.
The alcohol content in this wine is 13.5%, so while it makes you yell woo-hoo a lot faster, the nostril stinging sensation robs the spotlight from some very nice flower petal, cherry and strawberry aroma.  Personally, I prefer a Pinot with some resious, smokey bacon odors coming off of it, and that this wine was so fruity was a let down.  I did enjoy some leathery cherry components to the smell, and the wine had surprisingly firm tannins for how light it seems at first. 
I would drink this bottle again, and would recommend it to others.  But I can't see myself purchasing this Pinot Noir any time soon.  I'd rather spend $4 more and get a bottle of Yealands Pinot Noir from Marlborough, New Zealand.  In fact, I need to go get some of that wine to review.  All in do time.
Question of the day:  If you could take some wine and some friends and go anywhere in the world, where would you go?  And what wine would you bring along?
One love.  Wine love.

This bottle was brought to me to try out, becuase someone else liked it.  There is an aspect of open-ended vulnerability when you recommend something to a friend.  What if they don't like it?  Will your favorite wines or restaurants shed light on what type of person you are?  The answer, to an extent, is yes.  Fortunately, our palates and personalities are all unique.  Otherwise so many restaurants and wineries wouldn't be able to survive.  
Well, the person who gave me this bottle of 2006 Blackstone Merlot is not a person who spends a lot of time smelling and discerning the details or flaws of wine.  He just likes what he likes, and this wine fits that category.
For me, the aromas in this wine were better than the flavor and the body.  I caught whiffs of raisin and plums, and a resinous spiciness (due in part to the alcohol smell burning off).  In the mouth this merlot is fruity and fleshy with a moderate amount body, but it soon fades and has a bitter aftertaste.  I tried it with pizza later and the tomato sauce helped to soften the rawness of the finish, but overall I'd give this wine a B-.  Most stores sell it for about $10, so it isn't pricey by any means, but there are a lot of other wines that cost 10 bucks that I'd choose over this one.
I am a fan of all grape varietals, and love a well made merlot.  If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear your input.

Before I began my journey into a bottle of Jameson last night, I did some drinking that involved a certain amount of reflection and sensory conciousness. 

As I began preparing dinner I uncorked a beautifully ornate bottle of Italian Pinot Noir made by Candoni Wines.  A 2007, this young wine exudes a berry freshness.  I normally prefer a little more meat and earth aroma from Pinot, but the crisp Goji berry, raisiny smells pulled me in all the same.  This wine has low alcohol and high acid.  It brings a tart berry flavor at the front end, then pulls a La Bruja move and, poof, it's gone.  After a pause the tart finish comes on strong and leaves a pleasant long-lasting semi-pucker that reminds me of Sour Skittles.  This get a B letter grade even though the structure and balance were a little off.  The wine won me over with its eternal finish.

Then I had to open a Chardonnay for the chicken I was making, so I got a $7 bottle of Barefoot Chardonnay.  It's a little buttery, but has a good amount of acid to keep it in balace.  For the money, it's a decent bottle; a B wine.

With dinner, my aunt and uncle blind tasted me on a Merlot that was so light and acidic that I was guessing it was Italian.  Not the case.  The 2006 (I was able to guess the vintage), Estancia Merlot from the Central Coast of CA is not the cocoa nib and prune kind of Merlot that I love.  But it is a solid 86 point, B wine for me.  Light berry aromas, some stoney minerality, and a solid overall balance... for $12 it's definitely a bottle I'd bring to a dinner party or wine tasting.

A couple curveballs in this round of tasting, which I love because it reflects the variability and versatility of vitis vinifera.  An then, the pitch came in tight and hit me(Why does Jameson have to be so smooth?!).  I'm walking it off today.  Tomorrow there will be wine to drink.