Kiss from a Rosé - Clos Du Bois Rosé 2007

My first Rosé! It looked too attractive to pass up while I was at the store - the bottle is too cool! I honestly have no clue when it comes to blush wines, but I decided to give it a shot.

Rosé, 2007
Clos Du Bois, California. $9
Consumed: August 8, 2009
Nose: Aroma similar to a chardonnay. Can't smell any alcohol at all. Palette: Not much flavor (even at room temperature), tastes like a light chardonnay, NO alcohol taste whatsoever! Very dry.

What's there to say? It tastes like almost nothing, goes down very easy, and has 13% alcohol. I fell in love at the first taste, this is probably the lightest I've ever tasted, yet is so easy to drink that you could use it for a party drink.

Final Verdict: Completely worth the $9 if you want to consume a large amount of alcohol painlessly. Flavor-wise, it's probably better not to consider this, as lack of flavor is its weak point.

Merlots Don't Float My Boat - Sebastiani Merlot 2005

Apparently, my roommate's uncle works for Sebastiani. I was curious, so I snagged a bottle of their merlot (their cheapest varietal) at Costco for $9. What a steal - I saw it the other day at Ralph's for $14! I love you, Costco. On with the review:

Merlot, 2005
Sebastiani, California. $9
Consumed: August 6, 2009
Nose: Very pleasant and prominent coconut! Sweet herbal-ish smell. Palette: Buttery aftertaste, quick finish. Delicious mellow tannins.

The flashy, distinctive label makes Sebastiani wines easy to find on the shelves amongst tons of other wines.

Chris said that he liked it - there was a good amount of depth to it, along with nice plum flavors. I personally thought it was better than an average merlot, but I'm not a huge fan of the varietal.

Final Verdict: Worth ~$9-11 in my opinion. Probably shouldn't get it if you have to pay more than that, otherwise, pretty good merlot.

I'ma Buy You A ...Dram? - Laguvlin 16 Year

T-Pain reference, hah. What's a dram?

Wait, what? What's a nice Scotch whisky doing on a wine blog?! Once again, it was Chris celebrating a huge achievement, so he deemed it befitting to celebrate with his favorite spirit (and mine too)! Best of all, he let me review it on my blog:

Scotch Whisky. Laguvlin 16 Year.
Islay (Scotland). $65
Consumed: August 3, 2009
Gorgeous amber color. Peaty, smoky, very smooth! The peatiness is not overkill (unlike the Laphroaig 12 Year that I had at a friend's place a while ago - it was so peaty that it tasted like a bandaid!). Sweet finish. Delicious!

My spirit of choice is whisky, but I couldn't afford Scotch too often, so I just drank bourbon alot before I started getting into wine. That isn't to say that scotch doesn't hold a special place in my heart for being a classy, classy liquor to be sipping out of a glass. Not much else to say, Just enjoy the pictures of this wonderful scotch. LOOK AT THE GORGEOUS COLOR!

Final Verdict: Amazingly good Islay whiskey, get it if you can afford its price tag. Again, a big thanks to Chris: You bought me a drank - a really tasty and classy drank. Cheers!

Merlot Number Trois - Christian Moueix Merlot 2005

One major thing to note: Around this time, I noticed that I started writing less and less about the wine I review, probably because I've become so accustomed to the base flavors of the respective wine that I don't notice anything but what stands out - maybe this is why professional wine tasters always have such brief comments about their wine? Who knows.

Okay, I'll admit that I don't know anything about French, so the title is hilariously and poorly worded. After a period of drinking cheaper wine that didn't really blow me away, I grabbed this slightly pricier Merlot.

Merlot, 2005
Christian Moueix, Bordeaux, France. $14
Consumed: July 1, 2009.
Nose: Great fruit. Hint of something herbal (anise?), especially prominent on the swirl. Peppery. Palette: Rough mouthfeel. Dry. Quick finish. Very oaky and dry. Surprisingly simple. Definite improvement upon opening up for ~30 minutes.

I dig the simple label. Makes it look pretty cool and vintage-y.

Once again, I learn the hard way that price does not always correlate with how good a wine is. It wasn't bad, but it felt lacking for the price.

Final Verdict: Don't get it. Gorgeous aroma, but a bit too boring to be worth the $14. Chris said it best in two words: "very shallow".

A Bit Different - McManis Viognier 2007

While I was at Bevmo a while ago, I grabbed this on a whim because it looked pretty interesting. Let's have a taste, shall we?

Viognier, 2007
McManis Family Vineyards, California. $9
Consumed: July 27, 2009
Nose: Very fruity and sweet, with a hint of anise (aka black licorice). Palette: Very thick honey-like sweetness. Kind of a light citrusy tang too. Hints of oak and smoke on the midpalette. Light aftertaste. Smooth to drink.

Viognier isn't for everyone, but it's smooth to drink. It's pretty heavy, so you can't drink it too quickly. Not very "crisp". Chris says that it's syrupy. I really liked the awesome aroma of this wine!

Final Verdict: Try this for something more "satisfying" than most other wine. In other words, a single glass of this wine can possibly quench your wine thirst for the night. Odd, I know.

What Have You Been Smoking? - Smoking Loon Sauvignon Blanc 2007

I got a webcam. Video reviews of wine, yes/no? Leave a suggestion/thoughts in the comments please!

And here ends my stream of updates for the time being. 4/9 posts done, and the lack of sleep is getting to me. I'll post the next one tomorrow or the day after.

Continuing on my quest for a variety of cheap wine for my list, I picked up this guy. It was on sale - I thought, why not?

Sauvignon Blanc, 2007
Smoking Loon, California. $6
Consumed: July 27, 2009
Nose: Refreshing lemon with a hint of sweetness. Palette: OH GOD IT HURTS. An excruciating amount of bite and bitterness, not smooth at all to drink.

Call me biased, but I stopped after three sips - cringed at the first, tried two more to see if I was imagining how terrible it was. I wasn't. The bottle was promptly donated to my roommate for a better cause - to be used for cooking.

SBs are commonly lemony and grassy in flavor. Some do this basic flavor set really well, but this Smoking Loon exhibits neither aspect. I sure paid the price (though I'm glad I only wasted $6) for experimenting this time.

The only reason I still wrote this review is to show that I have bad luck with choosing wine sometimes too! :( Also, I liked the pictures.

Final Verdict: STAY AWAY. PLEASE. Arguably the worst wine I've had since I started this blog.

Cheapo Merlot - Delicato Merlot 2007

Hey, the title rhymes! Harhar. Having had a good experience with the first merlot a few posts back, I decided to try to find a cheap one, in order to build a list of decent wine in the strapped-for-cash college student range (~$5-7). No, not dirt-poor college student range - there's jug wine/bag wine/two-buck-chucks for that purpose.

Merlot, 2007
Delicato, California. $6
Consumed: July 20, 2009
Nose: Raspberry (characteristic base aroma/flavor of Merlot). Alot of sweetness and sugariness. Chris got a big whiff of vanilla. Palette: Alot of bite initially, but transitions into a nice deep flavor (tannins, but pleasant). Surprisingly smooth! Slightly bitter aftertaste.

Not much to say, it's pretty characteristic of a Merlot, inside and out. I'm not particularly fond of the weak acidity here (which is probably why I personally like Cabs better). Very drinkable!

Final Verdict: Solid merlot, especially for $6. Smooth and drinkable. Get it! This is good enough for the price to make it into my upcoming list of cheap, decent wine.

Italian Two-Buck-Chuck Pinot Grigio? - Mezzocorona Pinot Grigio 2008

It's been a long time since I've drank a Pinot Grigio - the last one was a few months ago around the time of the start of this blog. Seeing as how my palette have matured a bit and I've learned more, I decided to check out a bottle of this Pinot Grigio.

Pinot Grigio, 2008
Mezzacorona, Italy $8
Consumed: July 13, 2009
Nose: Pretty standard white wine aroma, good citrus. Very strong alcohol. Palette: Sweet at the beginning, moves into a heavy acidity that is present to mask the heat of the alcohol, acidic finish. There's alot of bite, but there's a good transition of flavors.

Chris says it should have been cooled, as the lower temperature would help mask the alcohol better in both the taste and smell; I agree with that, but I wanted to try to taste all the flavors.

It seems a bit too high priced for its quality, but I remembered this article I read a while back on a wine blog somewhere. It explained that because of all the middlemen that imported wine of European origin, a simple $8 wine like this one is in fact the equivalent to the Two-Buck-Chuck offered here in the states, quality wise.

Apparently I'm terrible at taking pictures with an iPhone. Blurry second picture again.

Final Verdict: Not bad, but not worth the full $8. If you get this, chill before serving. At the same price point, go for the Meridian Pinot Grigio instead.

Getting My Money's Worth - Grayson Cellars Merlot 2006

Hey everyone, it's been a long time since I last blogged... maybe like 2 weeks? I've been busy with school (making sure I make use of the tuition I pay!) and various other things. Just a word of warning, I have a TON of reviews that I've been holding back on. I'll be pumping those out as fast as I can. Let's get cracking:

First up, a Merlot from Grayson Cellars. This was the first Merlot that I tried since my introduction into the world of wine, so I was pretty excited. I picked up a decent priced one at Bevmo, in hopes of not hitting a low quality one.

Merlot, 2006
Grayson Cellars, California. $11
Consumed: July 11, 2009
Nose: Very fragrant black fruit, reminds me of black cherry or plum. I smell cloves - pretty prominent. Palette: Complex, rough mouthfeel, but very easy to drink - there's no bite! Little bits of acidity, kind of oak-y, superb balance. Dry at the end with a sharp ending. Very dynamic acidity; starts off with the fruit + strong acid > acid peaks and drops off > oakiness comes in briefly > quick finish.

For my first Merlot, I enjoyed this alot. The aroma is really nice, as is the dynamic acidity. Also, ugh - blurry second picture. At least the label picture came out clear! What a cool label too.

Final Verdict: Tasty merlot. Worth the full $11. Wonderful aroma, not too oaky, good acidity.