Quick Taste: Delicious Van Duzer

I am not sure how they found me, but I am extremely pleased that they did. I was sent a few bottles to taste from the Van Duzer Vineyards and I enjoyed them thoroughly. As did anyone I could snag to enjoy the wines with me.

The first was the 2007 Estate Pinot Noir. I do not drink a lot of Pinot Noir, but Oregon is definitely the place where I want to have more from. This wine was smooth and elegant with wonderfully ripe cherry and raspberry flavors. There were floral notes of violets on the nose, turning into spice and and a little smokiness. It is $30, so it will take a little while to convince yourself that it is worth the money, but I garantee you will be pleased to have this with Sunday night dinner.

I also tasted the 2008 Estate Pinot Gris. This was a bright and shinny wine. By that I mean it reminded me of a well polished quarter, lively in a bright light. The wine had a ton of tropical fruit flavors like pineapple and kiwi, tempered by a lemon and mineral backbone.

Both good wines, both worth trying.

Robert Oatley Tasting - Tweeted Too Late

I received a few bottles of the Robert Oatley wines from Bin Ends, a retailer in Boston who has also become the producer and driving force behind the constant Twitter Taste Live events.

I feel really bad because these wines were sent to me months ago and I missed the tasting. Then the wines just sat in the back of my samples queue and kept getting passed over for other wines. It wasn not that I did not want to taste the wines, I did because I see them in store windows all around New York.

The Robert Oatley Vineyards was created by Bob Oatley, who was one of the forces behind Rosemont Estates. Auzzie wines all the way and for a good value.

I tasted the Pinot Grigio, Rose of Sangiovese, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cab did not impress me and while the Pinot Grigio is worth buying for the value, its the Rose which really won out. It was floral and soft, but bone dry. Pick it up if you like that sort of thing.

Want another opinion? Check out my frient Tori's review of this wine.

Can you see me?

I apologize to all of my readers who receive my blog post via e-mail for this bombardment of technical difficulty related blog posts. However, it seems that the google reader feed is no longer working and I am trying to run some tests to see if I can make it work.

We will continue with our sporadic programing as usual, with even more sporadic test posts.

Regards,
The Management

It is like a slow roasting nightmare

http://rbwinepost.blogspot.com

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Quick Taste: Strumming on a Guitar

I received a sample of the Red Guitar 2007 and popped it open. The wine comes from the Navarra region of Spain and has 55% Tempranillo and 45% Garnacha. On the bottle it says "Old Vine" but who knows what that actually means. The bottle sure doesn't tell you. The website will tell you that it is 110 year old vines, but if you are searching from your mobile phone you won't see it because the opening images are flashtastic.

For me the wine smelled spicy and rich with black pepper, blackberry and tobacco. After sufficient gurgling I found the taste to be peppery with ripe plum and smooth tannin. The taste dropped out in the mid-palate. Something easy to drink, especially if you just looking for a table wine. Retail is $10 a bottle, but I bet you can find it for less.

Also written up by the good people at Hipster Enology. A good blog with funky fresh writing.