get ready for WBW 45

when i was living in the ATL, my friend erwin dink would, on a monthly basis invite me to his home to participate in a lively ritual called wine blog wednesday (WBW for short). for those of you not familiar with WBW, it is a chance for wine bloggers all over the globe to do a sort of simlutaneous tasting, record their thoughts, then send links to their posts to the host, who does a write up. a theme is selected each month by that months host, and participating bloggers all taste and write on that theme. although i am no longer participating under erwin's auspices at winefoolery.blogspot.com, i have decided to start back up with WBW. this coming month (May 7th is the day), the theme will be 'old world riesling'. more info can be found on the host's website here: http://winecast.net/2008/04/11/old-world-riesling-for-wbw-45/

this should be good fun. anyone in the DC area who would like to participate, please don't hesitate to email me and come on over for the imbibing. we may even taste multiple vinos.

2005 Stryker Monte Rosso: A

This Stryker is Juanita's favorite. Josh describes it as "dark passion fruit with butter." Where do you even go from there? Ted likens it to a cherry cobbler and Josh agrees because he thinks it tastes like fruit and shortening. Juanita interjects that it's not SWEET but rather rich. It has enough tannins and zip to hold up to a variety of fruits.

2001 Renwood Barbera: A+

Ted thinks that the Renwood 2001 Barbera is spicy, peppery but velvety. It has deep cherry with earthy tones. It has enough body to hold up well to spicy food - even the panang curry we had for dinner tonight. Ted says simply "a delicious wine, I would say." He's right. Josh adds that this has something more complex in it's structure - a successful balance of more flavors than the Stryker we've also reviewed. That being said, the Stryker is a wine that we'd want a CASE of, because it's versatile and yummy. *This wine is plainly in a higher class of the wines we normally drink. It's an A+ on the greatjuice scale.

2002 Windsor North Coast Cabernet: A & B

To preface, we're not lushes, but we have broken into our second bottle of wine tonight, and I think it's fantastic. I'm giving it an A, but my husband disagrees and is giving it a B. It is wonderfully smooth, deep with an earthy finish. At the same time, it's very jammy (again, Josh disagrees) but I'm right. Josh thinks it's too thin to be jammy, and thinks it has a nice body but he thinks it's more like a chutney than a jam. 

2005 Ridge Geyserville: A

We've enjoyed two wonderful vinos tonight. We headed to our great neighborhood spot, Cashion's, and had a 2005 Ridge Geyserville. It had a lush syrupy consistency of a petite sirah married to an active, fruit-filled zinfandel. It had a chocolate/cherry overtone - the kind that you bite into and get a nice mouthful of fruity flesh and get a cherry finish that's not overpowering and very smooth. Yum yum yum. I friggin love Ridge, just in general. My husband is responsible for the in-depth, prosaic description above, I'm responsible for the "friggin love" part. 

Zolo Torrontés 2006: B+

I have been a bit remiss in not posting for close to a month. Alas the rigors of grad school have kept me away, that and the spring blossoms in DC seem to scream "drink girly cocktails", so the wine consumption has waned a bit. Tonight I decided to crack open one of the handful of whites that I should admit I only bought so that I would have a reason to use my dual temperature zoned wine cooler doo-hickey. The choice tonight was an 06 Torrontés from Mendoza...or is it. The label on the bottle says "100% torrontes from La Rioja" which I am assuming means that the actual fruit was originally from Spain, but grown in Argentina. Not sure about this though. This one sort of faked me out. On first sniff i got a very minerally nose...on second sniff the minerals warmed into a youngish fruit maybe like unripe mango or even softer - green banana. On the palate, it got cozier and even a bit sweet for my taste, yellow fruit, although i wouldn't say particularly citrusy. It has a pleasant finish and a green-yellow hue. I definitely like this wine and although I don't remember what I paid for it (i gotta start writing that on the bottle or something). On the web it appears to be around 10 bucks, less even in some places. At that price, I would say this is a great wine. Once again, value seems to be the name of the game from our neighbors to the south.

Gascon Malbec 2006: B/B-

Some pros and cons about this vino, which we're having with a fancy meal of spaghetti, goat cheese and crackers. First, it's a good buy, at a whopping $11.00 (Trader Joe's). It's got the tart full-balanced charm of a good Argentine malbec with cranberry overtones. The label claims a hint of mocha but Josh isn't tasting it. It's too tart and tight to call smooth, but balanced enough to drink in gulps, which is exactly what we're doing...given our week. Final word: if it were $9.00 a bottle, Josh would buy two cases tomorrow. As it is, I'll probably just pick up another the next time I'm at Trader Joe's. 

South Coast Winery Syrah: B+

This syrah is really lovely. Josh and I are drinking it with Indian food tonight, and it's one of those wines that I bet would be good with just about anything. It's full but not heavy, very drinkable, on the dry side with dominant plums and cherries and a soft licorice finish. This is not a syrupy, juicy syrah but has some structure and body. We are fans.