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.

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.

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.

On the Cheap - Meridian Chardonnay 2007

The window's open and it smells like a nice summer day outside with a refreshing breeze flowing through my window, so I'll keep this one quick so I can go outside and have fun!
This is the first time that I've had two different varietals from the same vineyard, but I was quite impressed by Meridian's Pinot Grigio. I had this right after the Rombauer, so it tasted like rubbing alcohol upon the first sip, BUT! I realized I was just imagining things after two more sips or so, haha. Do note that this one was served at room temperature, like I usually do with all my wines.

Chardonnay, 2007
Meridian Vineyards, California. $7
Consumed: June 29, 2009
Nose: Apples, general citrus, very sweet smelling. Palette: Simple. Pretty acidic and apple-y, has a quite a bit of bite, with it fading away into a very general citrus on the finish.

Very characteristic apple on the palette. The acidity was actually quite refreshing on this one, but it has quite a bit of bite (which should all but disappear if chilled). Everything else was pretty average - nothing spectacular but not bad either.

Final Verdict: Want a solid Chardonnay on the cheap? Get this. Chilling recommended. Alright Chris and Dodge, I give. I admit that whites should be chilled, it's just that I feel the true nature of the wine will be hidden if I did that though. Anyways, this is an average Chardonnay and what I believe to be solid for this price range.

As Easy as Apple Pie - Rombauer Chardonnay 2007

As promised, here's the review of the $28 Rombauer Chardonnay. No, I didn't pay for it (I wouldn't have bought it if it were up to me...), but my friend Chris bought it for his birthday! He was willing to share the bottle with me and let me review it for my blog. Thanks bro. :] He strongly disagrees with my practice of drinking white wine at room temperature so he chilled this one before drinking. I usually like to keep whites at room temperature to get a feel for what they taste like without the effect of temperature, despite the fact that they'd probably taste better chilled. Anyways, on to the good stuff:

Chardonnay, 2007
Rombauer Vineyards, California. $28
Consumed: June 29, 2007
Nose: Apple, hints of longan (a tropical fruit from South China/South East Asia); a very prominent fruity aroma that reminds me of smelling pure apple juice. Palette: Fruitiness (exactly like the aroma), transitions into tannins, tannins disappear quickly, leaving a short-lived, slightly buttery aftertaste. Very smooth, simple, extremely easy to drink.

The only other chardonnay I've had was the Yellowtail chardonnay, and that didn't leave a good impression on me. I've heard that Yellowtail's stuff was bottom of the barrel, so I wasn't surprised. However, this Rombauer was the complete opposite, in my opinion - extremely easy to drink, much more expensive. There's a bit of a catch to this contrast though: the Rombauer was cooled, the Yellowtail was not. Since I drink my white wine at room temperature, a few of my roommates have been telling me that this is the wrong way to go about it. Upon further research on the internet, I've concluded that the coldness simply hides imperfections in the wine, and thus cheaper wines taste better. I'm sure if I chilled the Yellowtail, it would have not been so terrible for me.
The crisp apple is characteristic of chardonnays. The tannins weren't too harsh and they faded quickly anyways. What I didn't like about this wine was that for close to thirty bucks, it was simple. A bit too simple - no depth, no shifting flavors, very straightforward. Chris said it was "high quality simplicity", where the subtleness of the quality really shines. He also said that it had the perfect amount of fruitiness without going overboard, making it delicious and drinkable. He liked this more than I did, but he's been drinking whites for a long time. Maybe I just need more experience with Chardonnays?

Final Verdict: Fruity, extremely easy to drink. Stay away from this one though, it's too pricey for what it's worth... unless you're trying to impress. While quite nice to drink, it's too boring - I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit disappointed by it. I'd pay $15-18 for this wine, nothing more. I'm sure there are white wines out there that are equally easy to drink, but without the price tag.

Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc 2008

For the time being I'm sticking to New World wines because I heard that they tend to be more fruity than their Old World counterparts. Anyways, a wine from New Zealand? How cool, I didn't realize that they made wine. I picked this up at the same time as the Yellowtail Chardonnay. I was a little bit hesitant to grab two wines from a similar area of the world, since I wanted to get a very diverse bunch of wines for that purchase (NZ, Australia, Chile - not too bad right?). This was the most expensive (but not by much) out of the small bunch, and I have to say, I wasn't disappointed. Let's rock this:

Sauvignon Blanc, 2008
Nobilo, New Zealand. $11
Consumed: June 5, 2009
Notes: On the nose, apple, lemon, and grass. On the swirl, the a sweet smell of fresh lemons vibrantly pop. Taste, a strong flavor of a mix of lemon and grass. Not particularly complex, but is very crisp. The lemon sits on the palate for the initial moment combined with a hint of grass. Then the grass kicks in while the lemon takes a backseat. Finally, both flavors fade to a linger for a quick finish.

I'll have to say this is the most interesting wine I've ever had. I have a lemon tree at home and the aroma reminded me of picking fresh lemons! The aroma is wonderfully fresh - I was already quite impressed at this point. The flavors are so... dynamic. They shift like crazy, which is something I've never experienced with Scotch. I was initially hesitant to taste it because I smelled grass, but it's just another flavor, doesn't put me off at all. According to Google, Sauvignon Blancs are crisp and fresh, with a very grassy flavor to it, (the grass intensity differing between producing regions) so this was supposed to be a "standard" SB. Interesting.

Final Verdict: Go for it! Great aroma, dynamic flavors. Not too cheap, but you won't be disappointed. Keep an eye out for other Sauvignon Blancs though, since they'll probably be similar even at a lower price point.

Meridian Pinot Grigio 2007 + Yellowtail Chardonnay 2007

Big first (real) post! Double wine review because I've already built up a backlog of wines to post about even though I've just started this blog... somehow? Oh right, because it's finals week here at UCLA.

Anyways, these two wines were my gateway dru-- err, wines. As I didn't really know what I was doing when I decided to give wine another shot, I just dove in headfirst (upon a friend's recommendation). Walking down the wine aisle at my local grocery store, I snagged the Meridian Pinot Grigio because my friend's father is fond of the Meridian line. I headed to Trader Joe's the next day, I picked up the Yellowtail Chardonnay, along with two other wines...

Now, let's begin with the feature wines... *drumroll*

Pinot Grigio, 2007
Meridian Vineyards, California. $9.
Consumed: May 31, 2009
Notes: On the nose, a very sweet peachy fragrance. The taste is very prominent - peaches, citrus. General citrus, comes during the middle, present during the finish. Citrus in the finish seems to hide the bite - makes this wine very smooth to drink. Definitely a good one for someone just getting into wine (like me, har har) because the flavors are prominent enough for the beginner to be aware of, yet is smooth enough to not make you want to turn away from it. I really liked this one. At $9, not exactly the cheapest, but hey, I'll take any good wine under $10 I can find!

Final Verdict: Awesome, worth getting.

Chardonnay, 2007
Yellowtail, Australia. $6
Consumed: June 1, 2009
Notes: Not much on the nose - just a hint of coconut in the aroma, but almost negligible. It's not complex at all, general citrus. Kind of a bitter finish. Drinkable, but I don't like it. The price could have been a telling sign of things to come, but I was willing to give it a shot - after all, there has to be a reason everyone drinks Yellowtail. Right? Little did I know that Yellowtail is to wine as to what Smirinoff is to vodka: Not terrible, but not great by far. Popular because of good marketing. Bleh, I'm staying away from Yellowtail from now on. I'll gladly eat my words if one of their other varietals is good, but I'm not going to shell out my own money to try them. Anyone care to buy me a (yellowtail) drank?

Final Verdict: Drinkable, but you should stay away.

Oh, and sorry for the blurry pictures. I'm still getting used to this newfangled thing they call photography.