Thursday, May 22, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Terra Buena Malbec 2003: B
After a meal of expertly prepared, and extremely authentic Thai food, courtesy of Becky, we decided to open up a bottle of the Terra Buena Malbec. On the nose, I got some hotness. I am not sure
if you can sense alcohol on the nose of a wine, and maybe this was simply preemptive taste judgement, but that is what I smelled. Definitely sharper red fruits characterized this one. Becky swore that it smelled like play-doh/plastic action figures. I think that may have been any one of the three shandies that she enjoyed before opening this bottles talking. On the palette, I get a cran-licorice-hotness. The tannins are nice and make for a firm structure. Josh picks up "the pulp and the depth" of a cherry. Becky gets some plum as the wine opens up, I disagree - but the fruit is definitely getting a bit deeper as we drink on. Josh hypothesizes that the age (it iiiis an 03) may have something to do with the depth. It is not, afterall, easy to find a 10 year old malbec for 10 bucks....that's right. Did we mention that this was 10 bucks. As not a real malbec lover, I give this one a B-, but the value is really outstanding. Due the wine opening up quite a bit, we may have been selling this one short at the beginning of the post. It might have been wiser to decant this, but the urgency of the post-thai tasting session was undeniable. We give this one a robust B.
if you can sense alcohol on the nose of a wine, and maybe this was simply preemptive taste judgement, but that is what I smelled. Definitely sharper red fruits characterized this one. Becky swore that it smelled like play-doh/plastic action figures. I think that may have been any one of the three shandies that she enjoyed before opening this bottles talking. On the palette, I get a cran-licorice-hotness. The tannins are nice and make for a firm structure. Josh picks up "the pulp and the depth" of a cherry. Becky gets some plum as the wine opens up, I disagree - but the fruit is definitely getting a bit deeper as we drink on. Josh hypothesizes that the age (it iiiis an 03) may have something to do with the depth. It is not, afterall, easy to find a 10 year old malbec for 10 bucks....that's right. Did we mention that this was 10 bucks. As not a real malbec lover, I give this one a B-, but the value is really outstanding. Due the wine opening up quite a bit, we may have been selling this one short at the beginning of the post. It might have been wiser to decant this, but the urgency of the post-thai tasting session was undeniable. We give this one a robust B.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Ten Mile Proprietary Red Wine: B+
We're digging this wine, which we originally got as part of our wine club. Josh found it for $10 at the wonderful wine store - DeVinos - in our neighborhood. He notes that when the price matches the taste, it's a bump. $10 for this wine is a true bargain. It's described on the bottle as a blend of petite sirah, zinfandel, barbera and carignane. It's got a soft spicy nose with currant/berry flavors. Josh pronounces enthusiastically that he tastes twizzlers!!! What more could you ask for. In short, it's damn tasty.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
WBW #45 coming to you from the roof deck
Becky Josh and I, with some pinch hitter assistance from the upstairs neighbor Ari, 
came out swinging for Wine Blog Wednesday #45 - Old World Riesling Episode. The crew, minus Ari, started the night with some fajitas and Peroni to get a little something in the system...we sort of thought of it as a warm up stretch out. Then we headed to from Chez Wilson-Hale to Chez Hale-Hale to start out with the Rieslings. 
As any good lawyer might, Josh preemptively declared his bias against any and all white wine, and Riesling in particular, saying "for me, every white I drink, I get an essence of pledge". Maybe not the most favorable characterization, but honest. We had Ari in the group who apparently likes, buys and drinks Riesling on a fairly regular basis to balance Josh out.
We started with the Loosen Bros 2006 Riesling, which we all agreed had lots of green apple on the nose - Josh was sure to distinguish GREEN - his exact words being "not pink lady tart, granny smith tart". That said, it was in no way sour. On the contrary this juice seemed
to present a just-right sweetness that was agreeable to all parties present. At one point Ari admitted to a pretty serious sweet tooth and authoritatively asked/admitted "is there any vanilla in this? I can’t really tell any taste different than another". I certainly didn't get any vanilla - but to re-emphasize, there are no wrong answers on greatjuice. Becky got a little bitof bubble gum, which I didn't necessarily agree with, but certainly would concur that this was the sweetest wine we tasted this evening. We all agreed that the Loosen Bro's had a very pleasant effervescence on the palette. I felt a fruitiness on the nose and palette, but also picked up a floral saccharin quality - maybe even magnolia..then again i could have just spent too much time in the southeast...if such a thing exists...but i digress. My final thoughts for this one are that it is very pleasant but that it may lack a little structure in my mouth - are white wines even supposed to have structure? Bottom line, B for this wine.
On to the next wine. On deck was the 2004 (French)Alsatian Trimbach, the most expensive of the three and unfortunately our least favorite. This one definitely has less effervescence. I tasted s
ome tang but Josh and I quickly became embroiled in discussion on this subject, since he says that the Loosen Bros tasted like a sweet tart, where this Trimbach tastes like martinelli without the bubbles. Becky also tastes tartness, but Josh tries to use his lawyer skills to try to convince her that what she is tasting is more of an acrid dry cider taste. I actually ended up agreeing with Josh's assesment. Josh tastes a little rubber - an assertion backed up by Becky who characterizes it as "pencil eraser". I reminded Josh that he seems to taste rubber in everything. He also detected a thin blended scotch taste – almost a light smokiness. Ari notes that this wine seems to stand up to the gale force winds that were at this point blowing across the roof on which we were conducting this particular session of WBW. We agreed that this one deserved a C+...we were not particularly impressed.
On to the third and final vino - the 2006 Mosel Saar Ruwer, Terrassenmosel. Back to Ge
rmany. the overall consensus was an overwhelming nose of blueberry on this one - so much so Becky and Josh even went as far as to say this juice smelled like the plastic head of "Blueberry Muffin", a doll friend of her eminence "Strawberry Shortcake". Not being familiar with either young ladies, I an unable to judge the veracity of their characterizations, but i do agree that the nose presented blueberry. B- on this one. And by the way, the only place I could find a legitimate image of strawberry shortcake was on a website called gaygamer.net.....interesting.
All in all WBW was a success. Many thanks to the folks at Winecast for hosting. I think that although this was not a real Riesling crowd we were pleased by the range that was was presented in these wines. It was certainly interesting to observe the tone differences between the French and German Rieslings, with the french seeming to posess a more acidic minerality. I am not sure if this is a broad characteristic, but I am certainly now motivated to find out. Over and out from greatjuice. Until WBW #46.
came out swinging for Wine Blog Wednesday #45 - Old World Riesling Episode. The crew, minus Ari, started the night with some fajitas and Peroni to get a little something in the system...we sort of thought of it as a warm up stretch out. Then we headed to from Chez Wilson-Hale to Chez Hale-Hale to start out with the Rieslings. 
As any good lawyer might, Josh preemptively declared his bias against any and all white wine, and Riesling in particular, saying "for me, every white I drink, I get an essence of pledge". Maybe not the most favorable characterization, but honest. We had Ari in the group who apparently likes, buys and drinks Riesling on a fairly regular basis to balance Josh out.We started with the Loosen Bros 2006 Riesling, which we all agreed had lots of green apple on the nose - Josh was sure to distinguish GREEN - his exact words being "not pink lady tart, granny smith tart". That said, it was in no way sour. On the contrary this juice seemed
to present a just-right sweetness that was agreeable to all parties present. At one point Ari admitted to a pretty serious sweet tooth and authoritatively asked/admitted "is there any vanilla in this? I can’t really tell any taste different than another". I certainly didn't get any vanilla - but to re-emphasize, there are no wrong answers on greatjuice. Becky got a little bitof bubble gum, which I didn't necessarily agree with, but certainly would concur that this was the sweetest wine we tasted this evening. We all agreed that the Loosen Bro's had a very pleasant effervescence on the palette. I felt a fruitiness on the nose and palette, but also picked up a floral saccharin quality - maybe even magnolia..then again i could have just spent too much time in the southeast...if such a thing exists...but i digress. My final thoughts for this one are that it is very pleasant but that it may lack a little structure in my mouth - are white wines even supposed to have structure? Bottom line, B for this wine.On to the next wine. On deck was the 2004 (French)Alsatian Trimbach, the most expensive of the three and unfortunately our least favorite. This one definitely has less effervescence. I tasted s
ome tang but Josh and I quickly became embroiled in discussion on this subject, since he says that the Loosen Bros tasted like a sweet tart, where this Trimbach tastes like martinelli without the bubbles. Becky also tastes tartness, but Josh tries to use his lawyer skills to try to convince her that what she is tasting is more of an acrid dry cider taste. I actually ended up agreeing with Josh's assesment. Josh tastes a little rubber - an assertion backed up by Becky who characterizes it as "pencil eraser". I reminded Josh that he seems to taste rubber in everything. He also detected a thin blended scotch taste – almost a light smokiness. Ari notes that this wine seems to stand up to the gale force winds that were at this point blowing across the roof on which we were conducting this particular session of WBW. We agreed that this one deserved a C+...we were not particularly impressed.On to the third and final vino - the 2006 Mosel Saar Ruwer, Terrassenmosel. Back to Ge
rmany. the overall consensus was an overwhelming nose of blueberry on this one - so much so Becky and Josh even went as far as to say this juice smelled like the plastic head of "Blueberry Muffin", a doll friend of her eminence "Strawberry Shortcake". Not being familiar with either young ladies, I an unable to judge the veracity of their characterizations, but i do agree that the nose presented blueberry. B- on this one. And by the way, the only place I could find a legitimate image of strawberry shortcake was on a website called gaygamer.net.....interesting.All in all WBW was a success. Many thanks to the folks at Winecast for hosting. I think that although this was not a real Riesling crowd we were pleased by the range that was was presented in these wines. It was certainly interesting to observe the tone differences between the French and German Rieslings, with the french seeming to posess a more acidic minerality. I am not sure if this is a broad characteristic, but I am certainly now motivated to find out. Over and out from greatjuice. Until WBW #46.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Unti Petite Sirah 2004: B+
In search for something to lift our spirits after the dissapoint Stag's Leap, we headed for one of my favorite vineyards Unti. Everytime I type Unti into Microsoft Word it autocorrects me to "Unit" and for a moment I think about how sweet it would be if there existed such thing as G-Unit vineyards....anyways.... Josh got a little burnt rubber on the nose, but it was Becky, being the first to
taste, who seemed to hit the nail on the head by calling out the cherry. I tasted an even sweeter cherry cola characterization - not sour at all, and Josh echoed my sentiment by chiming in and adding a "vanilla". Josh has also felt a little semi-sweet chocolaty finish. This one was definitely inkier than the Stag's Leap, and fruity, but not overly bomby. There were nice tannins, and this one seemed versatile enough to be enjoyed on it's own, or with the Granja de Oro pollo saltado that I happened to be savoring tonight.....as i often do. Overall this was a great wine. Winezap has this wine costing 26 bucks, but I swear it was in the $18-$19 range. Not so sure if I would buy this wine again at 26 bucks, but at 18 i might consider a case....hence the B+. Josh concurs.
taste, who seemed to hit the nail on the head by calling out the cherry. I tasted an even sweeter cherry cola characterization - not sour at all, and Josh echoed my sentiment by chiming in and adding a "vanilla". Josh has also felt a little semi-sweet chocolaty finish. This one was definitely inkier than the Stag's Leap, and fruity, but not overly bomby. There were nice tannins, and this one seemed versatile enough to be enjoyed on it's own, or with the Granja de Oro pollo saltado that I happened to be savoring tonight.....as i often do. Overall this was a great wine. Winezap has this wine costing 26 bucks, but I swear it was in the $18-$19 range. Not so sure if I would buy this wine again at 26 bucks, but at 18 i might consider a case....hence the B+. Josh concurs.
Stag's Leap Petite Sirah 2005: C
Beck-o, Josh and I gathered at chez hale-wilson to do a little petite-sirah comparison tasting. We started with the Stag's leap, purchased at Trader Joe's in Alexandria for, what Josh recalls to be "around 30 bucks". Josh and Becky started this wine out with their houseguest for the weekend, Annie Z, then realized they had to zip her to the airport so I was called in from the bull
pen to help finish it off upon their return. The theory was that it might need to be decanted a bit - when we all met back up at the house it had been decanted an hour. Unfortunately, the decanting didn't have sufficient effect. We were collectively dissapointed. Josh and I both agreed that it sort of felt like we had a cold and couldn't really taste this one. Neither of us actually do. Becky put it perhaps most eloquently when she said it felt like we were tasting the wine through a ball of gauze. In an attempt to improve out tasting experience, Becky dimmed the lights...this is apparently a technique that has worked from her on past occasions....not this time beck-o. This juice really seemed to not hold it's structure - seemed to die on the front end - as Josh put it much more alliteratively, the finish falls flat. Becky's rather belligerent final assesment was simply "Fuck this, fuck it, not worth 30 bucks." well put Beckster. A more G-rated sentimet was expressed by Josh, who lamented "it’s not like you are drinking bad wine, but is just kind of like a sophisticated dud. It’s like a C student at Yale, and we all know where that has gotten us." Overall this group was not impressed. On to the next one. C+ tasting wine - demoted to a C for the price inflation/lack of value factor.
pen to help finish it off upon their return. The theory was that it might need to be decanted a bit - when we all met back up at the house it had been decanted an hour. Unfortunately, the decanting didn't have sufficient effect. We were collectively dissapointed. Josh and I both agreed that it sort of felt like we had a cold and couldn't really taste this one. Neither of us actually do. Becky put it perhaps most eloquently when she said it felt like we were tasting the wine through a ball of gauze. In an attempt to improve out tasting experience, Becky dimmed the lights...this is apparently a technique that has worked from her on past occasions....not this time beck-o. This juice really seemed to not hold it's structure - seemed to die on the front end - as Josh put it much more alliteratively, the finish falls flat. Becky's rather belligerent final assesment was simply "Fuck this, fuck it, not worth 30 bucks." well put Beckster. A more G-rated sentimet was expressed by Josh, who lamented "it’s not like you are drinking bad wine, but is just kind of like a sophisticated dud. It’s like a C student at Yale, and we all know where that has gotten us." Overall this group was not impressed. On to the next one. C+ tasting wine - demoted to a C for the price inflation/lack of value factor.
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