Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio 2009

I'm sure many of you would be more familiar with this wine if I refer to it with its street name of, "2 buck chuck".  And for those of you not fortunate enough to have a Trader Joe's nearby, the nickname is pure fact...good ol' chuck sells this wine for $2.99.  

Now I'm not gonna go into too much depth about this wine as this week was more for the experience than anything.  Natascia and I headed up to Maine this weekend to See my Dad and Laura, and finally got to go skiing, sorry snowboarding, for the first time this season.  Anyone paying attention may realize that technically we waited till the first day of spring to hit the slopes.  What a day, had to be 65 degrees and the sun was bright as can be.  I got to spend some time with Natascia and she was shredding some true trails before you knew it, even the lift guy commented on how quick she was picking up the sport.  One thing about this kind of weather however is it's sticky and takes a toll on the legs, not to mention if you’re learning you are bound to get soaked.  Natascia didn't mind this at all though and insisted Dad and I take a couple runs up top.  This topped the great day as we were flying down with no need for jackets or hats.  This would have been the perfect day if it weren't for a wounded soldier, the wet glue that we called snow that day claimed Laura's knee early on and unfortunately sidelined her for the weekend and hopefully not too much longer.  Being the trooper she is though, she did not let this get her down and we had a great time for the rest of the weekend.

This is where the wine came in, after a nice warm day on the slopes a nice crisp Pinot Grigio goes down nice and smooth.  Now remember this bottle cost $2.99, but to be absolutely honest it drinks like an average $10 bottle of wine.  Very smooth with hints of apple, the one thing to be ready for is the slight sourness, I am big fan of sour so this suited me very well.  I would recommend this bottle to anyone; however this can only be purchased at Trader Joe's so for those that do not have one nearby may want to splurge on the $36 case when you come across one (I know $36 a case is hard for me to believe too).  If you are having a function and are stumped at what to buy for wine you cannot go wrong with this, Charles Shaw makes many more varieties as well which I'm sure you will hear plenty about in later post.

 

Velvet Moon - Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Have you ever been in the shoe section at Target?  You know that cheap rubber sole smell.  Because that is the initial impression I got from this wine when I first smelled from my glass.  Not very appetizing at all, in fact I was reluctant to take my first sip.  Unfortunately the impression was the same after tasting and swirling this $4.99 Cabernet. 

Being the fair man I am I was sure to give this affordable bottle a fair trial, because as we all know "innocent until proven guilty".  I gave it some time and let her breath a little longer and still 1 glass is all that I could choke down this night.  It had a startling effect when it first hit your taste buds and really made me pucker.  It was also quite acidy and I could tell it's produced by the masses and not very carefully either because the tannins were very present, and not the good tannins you hear people talking about that you get from aging in oak barrels with wine but the tannins that come from pressing your grapes to rough so it leaves your mouth feeling like you've just been sucking on a cotton ball.

I wanted to give this bottle another chance with some food, so last night I had another glass with some grilled chicken that I had smothered in some new spices I've been meaning to try.  Guess what, not a bad match...however I'm no chef Ramsey either so a cheap wine is exactly what I needed for this, or to be more accurate what I had on hand.

I'm going to compare this wine with Coors Light.  Now I am a beer man, and I definitely like some good fancy beers but if it's a hot summer day and I need to cool down I like myself a cold Miller Light.  So why would I compare this to a Coors Light then?  Well I will buy Coors light if it's on sale and I need some light beers to have at a BBQ.  You catch my drift?  Velvet Moon cost 5 bucks a bottle, the saying you get what you pay for is exactly true here.  If you're looking for a wine to sit and enjoy by itself, by no means buy this.  But if you are going somewhere where you need to drop a bottle of wine on the table to feel polite this is a winner...Nice looking label and the best part is it cost $5, hey if it ends up being the last bottle opened most people are too drunk to tell the difference anyways. 

Thurnhof - St. Magdalener 2008

So I've already started my first post with procrastinating, yes this review if you want to call it that is for a bottle that was tasted last Sunday March 7th when I declared Un Anno Di Vino.  First let me tell you how I acquired this week’s bottle; my wife Natascia is from Italy and knows how much I love Italian wine especially from her region.  March 7th was my Birthday and being the difficult guy I am to shop for who wants something and just buys it, she nailed this one on the nose.  Not only did she give me 3 very nice bottles of wine but she gave me the boost and motivation to start this blog and insisted that I pop the cork on this beauty that night...which was also my birthday/ Oscar party.

As the title explains this week’s bottle is a St. Magdalener, produced by Thurnhof.  All I have to say is boy did I pick the wrong bottle for my first post... not because of the taste, I mean this was delightful.  No the reason is that I don't quite know how to write about wine quite yet and when you Google these guys you get nothing, guess I'm on my own for this.  The facts:  This is a red wine from a very northern region of Italy called Alto-Adige, this particular variety, St. Magdalener is from the north of that region as you can probably guess from the brand name very close to Germany.  I've personally been in this area and cannot begin to explain how picturesque the vineyards are there on their mountain sides. 

Now for my extremely humble opinion of this wine, which I need to emphasize that I will rarely have bottles this nice in this blog but hey gotta start off with a bang I guess.  I will be very short and to the point with this, first I have to say I loved this wine.  It had a nice strong fruity taste that hit your palate quite gently and moved into subtle smokey earthy hints.  There was a light acidity to this wine, but my favorite experience was although this was a quite bold persistent wine it ended so smoothly and had a great finish.  The best part about this experience was...The experience.  I shared this bottle with a bunch of friends and family and kicked off my Year of Wine.  No we didn't compare what cheese this paired best with or HAVE to have a perfectly cooked steak to enjoy this wine, all we needed was each other and a bunch of glasses.  I'll be happy to say this bottle received rave reviews from everyone and many had a chance to try this with me so in my book that is a fine bottle.

My final thought for this first post is that no matter how great a bottle of wine is and how tasty it may be, it's all about the experience.  I wasn't sitting around an uptight place criticizing the tannins or how undeveloped this bottle was; rather I was enjoying this fine bottle with great people having a great time.  Don't worry how much you don't know about wine... and if you do, great!  use that knowledge to help others understand what they are enjoying.  There's a good chance they know what they taste and have some great insight and thoughts on the wine, maybe they just don't know the “proper” words to explain it.

So I encourage you, don't wait for a special occasion to open that bottle of wine that you've been saving, make opening it the occasion!

a Year of Wine

Last week I started a journey that I will surely enjoy and also try to document for the next year.  I owe most if not all of the idea to a good friend of mine who recently finished his quest of trying a different beer every day for a whole year.  Of course being a beer man myself I wanted to jump right into this as well, then I looked down at my aging and growing belly and decided that might not be the best idea (you see my friend is one of those guys with a metabolism that works overtime).  Then I thought, and of course this thought process was out-loud to my beautiful wife Natascia that I should do this, just with wine.  At first she thought I was crazy, I'm sure because one would assume this would mean I would be drinking a new bottle of wine every day for a year, but I was sure to change this up a bit to a new wine a week.  Both my liver and my wallet will agree this was the correct move.  Being the caring woman she is and she knows that I love a challenge and a hobby she started me off with 3 very nice bottles of wine for my birthday.  Now these wines won't be the usual that I will be writing about as I am an not an expert in fines wines...who am I kidding I'm not expert at wine period.  What I am though is a guy that enjoys a variety of nice wines and also the challenge of finding them at affordable prices.

The Task: I will be tasting and more importantly documenting a new wine every week for 52 weeks.  Now I am no connoisseur, nor am I a great writer, that is what makes this journey that much more interesting.  I hope to bring an assortment of different wines and will be sure to take advantage of my annual trip to Italy to visit Natascia's family.  I'll even try to throw in what I may think is a suitable food paring should I dare to go that direction.  What I do know is that I will have fun doing this for the year and am sure I will discover some new favorites as well as some bottles I will be sure to never touch again, that is what is so great about wine. I know in this year that I will grow a greater appreciation, as well as learn a thing or two about this fermented juice we call wine.

This is my Unsophisticated, Unnatural, Unusual, Unbiased look at UN...expensive wine!