Wines Tasted on December 3, 2008

1) Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet Sur Lie 2007, 12% ALC, AOC Muscadet Sévre et Maine, Loire, France

2) Lucien Crochet La Croix du Roy 2006, 13% ALC, AOC Sancerre, Loire, France

3) François Pinon Cuvée Traditional 2007, 12.5% ALC, AOC Vouvray, Loire, France

4) Domaine du Closel – Chateau des Vaults La Jalousie 2006, 14% ALC, AOC Savennières, Loire, France

5) Catherine & Pierre Breton Franc de Pied 2006, 12% ALC, AOC Bourgueil, Loire, France

6) Les Petites Roches 2005, 13.5% ALC, AOC Chinon, Loire, France


Recommendations:

These were tasty. Some a little funky, but all well worth checking out.

1) I got some moist slate on the nose. Something that gave it a little funkiness, something I found really pleasant and very natural. The taste was very zesty, lots of lemon/lime.

2) Liked this wine a lot. Aromas of melon, grapefruit with some spring floral smells. Super minerality on the taste, great red grapefruit and lots of zippy acid.

3) It was like putting my nose in a bucket of fresh cut yellow apples. It was sweet and delicious, with interesting marzipan, honey-apple and caramel flavors.

4) Crazy. Well, interesting is a better word. Evidently this wine needs to be decanted over 3 days (3 days?!). I found the nose to be very almond and kind of like raisons from the box. The taste was like taking a hit of amaretto, with a really large hit of acidity at the end. Again, interesting and worth tasting.

5) The red color was beautiful on this wine (and when was the last time I mentioned color, so it was damned pretty). This is a biodynamic wine, so the nose was very crunchy celery. Not my favorite. The taste was herbal with a bit of slightly unripe sour cherry and some black pepper.

6) Again, another pretty colored red wine. A bit darker than the last one. The nose was all bell pepper with some vanilla and sour cherry. The taste reminded me of a nice earl grey herbal, with more sour cherry finish.

Wines tasted on October 15th, 2008

Pinot Grigio (Gris)

1) Villa Dugo Pinot Grigio 2007, 13% ALC., DOC Friuli Isonzo, Italy

2) Erste & Neue Kellerei Pinot Grigio 2007, 13% ALC., DOC Alto Adige – South Tyrol, Italy

3) Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Gris 2007, 13.3% ALC., Willamette, Oregon, USA

Sauvignon Blanc

4) Sileni Cellar Selections Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 12.5% ALC., Marlborough, New Zealand

5) Clos Roche Blanche Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 12.5 ALC., AOC Tourain, Loire, France

6) De Martino Parcela 5 Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 13.5% ALC., Casablanca, Chile

My Review:

1) I thought this wine was a bit boring. It had a little bit of vanilla and smokiness to it. Makes me think there was a bit of oak. Something I would suggest as a large party wine, not too expensive and bland enough to be inoffensive to everyone.

2)Much more interesting wine, with a bit of a floral note in the nose. The taste was still rather spicy, fruity with a little it of orange citrus.

3)A very different wine than the first two, more of a passion fruit and orange rind nose. The taste was a little sweet and creamy to me, although there was still plenty of acidity.

4)Like a freshly opened can of string beans. Lots of asparagus here, although the taste had a little bit of tropical fruit.

5)Really interesting. Like putting my nose into a bag of werthers originals. This wine was really aromatic with vanilla and butterscotch everywhere. The taste had some nice grapefruit to it, but the werthers were definitely overpowering.

6)Asparagus bomb! So much boiled string beans. I had to run out of the room.

7)We opened another bottle to see if we could find a classic Sauvignon Blanc. We did in the De Martino Organic Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 13.3% ALC, Maipo Valley, Chile. Thank goodness. There was the grapefruit I was looking for. This wine was spicy, zesty and very fresh.