Wine-O-Rama

Very “Commercial”

I’m “bach’in’” it tonight, so I made meself a steak fajita sandwich with CdB cab.  We weren’t crazy about their merlot, and this cab is the spittin’ image of it’s merlot sibling:  VERY bright berry with artificial-tasting vanilla-ish oak.  Good fruit pummeled by a “commercial” attitude.  I can see a corporate board room with suits discussing how to artificially manipulate wine to “appeal” to drone “wine lovers” and make lots of money.  Maybe I’m wrong about that, but it’s just too rough and fakey-oaky for me.  Give me a subtle, food enhancing, classy cab (like Estancia) any day (for the same price!)  $13.99 on sale at Meijer.

Grade:  B-

Like An Argentinian Assassin:

A bit rough around the edges, but dependable.  Uh, and cheap.  ($3.99 from Jungle Jim’s.)  Sorry for my mangled metaphor.  This is decently drinkable malbec, especially for the price.  Not great but not bad.  And, I’m sorry if I offended any Argentinian Assassins.

Grade:  B-

Surprising Value Shiraz

Well-reviewed by Wine-O-Rama, the 2005 vintage rocked for the price.  This 2006 vintage is even better.  Super bright red berry with plum and a kiss of vanilla and spice (drier than 2005.)  Tasty with a Salisbury steak frozen dinner.  Delightfully tart; what pleasure for $5.99! Short finish, but who cares - this is under six bucks!  Not the deepest or most complex Aussie shiraz out there, but plenty of joy for such a cheap wine!

Grade:  A-

Cheapie Shockingly Good

From the not-so-beautiful labeled bottle:  Xplorador wines are full of wonderful flavor and luscious fruit, yet elegant and approachable.  OK, so the words WONDERFUL, LUSCIOUS and ELEGANT are a bit of a stretch, but it IS quite good.   Unfocused berry and plum with some muted baking spices (a medicinal alcohol nose greets you) are pretty special for a $4.99 Mendoza Malbec.  Worked great with our Papa John’s pizza (pepperoni, onion and green pepper) - impressive for a red wine with that hot pizza spiciness.  Ya gotta respect Concha y Toro’s PR here - to price value wine that is so approachable for folks to try new wines.  Not the finest malbec we’ve imbibed, but pretty darned decent for a sub $5 wine!

Grade:  B+ (skewed by that wonderful price!)

Zzzzzzz…

I baked some mean Parmesan cod tonight - it’s been a LONG time since we’ve had fish - we have a full stable of sauvignon blanc.  I grabbed the first I saw in the cellar.  We were underwhelmed by their merlot, but are charmed by their heartwarming story of harvesting their grapes by moonlight.  This SB is quite simple, but harmless.  Nice (but one dimensional) citrus, with a healthy dose of cheap store brand canned fruit cup syrup and a hint of grassyness.  Not nearly enough acidity to do the job.  Nothing like a nice New Zealand SB (for about the same $8.99!)  This would be a good “training” sauvignon blanc for the learned rookie seeking knowledge.  Very approachable, let lacking in complexity and that great SB tropical experience.  Nothing offensive here. Just not much to write home about.
Grade C+

Oi!

Found this new (to us) cab the other day at Meijer on sale for $14.  Sounded interesting so into the cart it went.  Tonight (in between heavy rain showers - our first rain in over a month!) we pulled the bottle out for pairing with some great bison steak burgers I cooked on the grill.  The burgers were great but how about the cab?  Zoiks!  What’s wrong with this picture?  Hazy in the glass - strange on the nose - 98% BARNYARD FUNK on the palate.  The natural cork looked just fine.  I doubt the winemaker meant THIS.  Possible problem at the vineyards?  Just a bad bottle?  Poor storage?  There’s not a lot of reviews on this on the web (I checked after first sip!)  After that one sip, the glass was quickly poured down the drain and a bottle of Estancia cab was opened (which was WONDERFUL as usual!)

If I were to give this a grade, it would be a D-.  BUT (and that’s a BIG BUT) I would like to try another bottle from another source to be sure that it wasn’t just a BAD (very bad) singular bottle.

The Estancia received an A-!

A “Good” Kind of Cheap

We’ve tried several Dillmann wines (like this auslese) and have been underwhelmed.  Truth is, we’re not quite sure WHAT grape (or grapes) make up this white wine.  The word “riesling” appears nowhere on the bottles.  On THIS bottle, the words Qualitatswein mit Pradikat (actually the bottle has a typo - saying “Rpadikat!!!”) make the prospects interesting.  This is a thick, heavy, syruppy wine with sweet and intense fruit.  THAT half of the equation is golden.  The other half (ACIDITY) is no where to be found.  Bummer.  Especially when I picked it up for $3.99 at Jungle Jim’s last summer.  Good for its low price, but not great by any means.  Still, we’d grab it again to fill out a case for the magical CASE DISCOUNT, if we ever see it that price again.

Grade:  C

For those just joining us: This is our private “wine diary.” Please feel free to drop by any time. We are not experts, though we like what we like. If you’d like to join us on our wine adventures, please grab a glass.Here is our periodic generic statement for our blog:
“We are a couple of wine lovers that keep track of the new wines we try on this blog, so we don’t forget what we liked or hated about them (like history - so we aren’t doomed to repeat a poor wine choice!) Yep, this is mainly for US, but if someone else avoids a bad wine here (or finds a new great wine,) goody for you. Just remember the generic wine disclaimer: YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY! Since we typically have a bottle of wine a day, and we’re not naturally RICH, we average about $12 per bottle. Rarely more, often less. Call us value to midpriced wine buyers. But we’ll be glad to try any expensive bottle you’re willing to send us! 
Please enjoy, and share your comments and experiences!
Robert & Marjorie”And more:

***We drink wine every day.  99.9% of the time, there is a review posted here.  It may not be a NEW post.  If it’s a wine we’ve had before (which is often), the review will appear in the COMMENTS section below the ORIGINAL post.  That helps US keep things straight.  If there is NO NEW POST listed when you check, a review WAS posted, just back in time.    Occasionally,  we will do a new RE-post on a wine if it is significantly better or worse than our original experience.  Just remember that this is our PERSONAL wine blog for our own wine use.  You are very welcome to drop by any time and LEAVE COMMENTS.  But ultimately, we do the things we do for our own personal use.

Also:

I am a pretty good writer. BUT, I normally post a review RIGHT after (and usually WHILE) drinking the wine. Sometimes, a glass. Sometimes two. If we’re really lucky and the wine is outstanding, it may be more… In other words, YES, my writing MAY not be perfect under these conditions! Spelling and grammar errors are inedible..uh..inevitibel…um…BOUND to happen. I am not a professional wine reviewer. I drink, type, and go on with my life rather quickly. I try not to be snooty or disrespectful. Your comments and recommendations are very welcome.

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We now return you to your regular wine blog, already in progress…

Good, Cheap - Joe’s

We’ve had this bottle (Trader Joe’s, approx. $5.99) for awhile, and we haven’t eaten much fish this summer.  Tonight, Marjorie surprised me with grilled salmon.  Hmmm…no pinot noir, or even merlot, in the cellar.  No time to buy some.  Plenty of sauvignon blanc, though.  Since I didn’t think the pairing would be wonderful, I grabbed a bottle of this cheapie.  And it paired okay with the salmon.  It is MY opinion that of all varietals, sauvignon blanc is fairly bullet-proof as CHEAP wine.  We LOVE those HUGE, rich New Zealand SB’s with fish and shellfish.  But even super cheap SB’s are passable.  Of all the cheap SB’s we’ve tried, NONE were terrible.  Must just be the grape, eh?  This Vinas Chilenas Reserva is pretty darn good for the low, low price.  Light, yes, but tons of tropical fruit, specifically grapefruit, starfruit, apple and various citrus.  This would be great with lighter/white fish or shrimp, perhaps even chicken or veggies.  Not the greatest SB we’ve ever imbibed, but for the price, we’ll definitely buy more next trip to Joe’s.

Grade:  B+  (skewed by price and performance)

Yep, that’s my step-sister Marianne Franz, founder of the Cleveland School of Wine, on Gary Vaynerchuk’s video wine blog this weekend!  Check it out:
http://tv.winelibrary.com/2008/08/15/wine-library-tv-from-browns-stadium-episode-520/