this heaven gives me migraine

NV Billecart-Salmon Rosé

Notes: We picked up this bottle a while ago since everyone made such a fuss about the stuff and, well, why not see what all the fuss is about? It sat around until we closed on the house (finally... after three months and a week I thought the house would never close and the bottle would never get drunk) and then it seemed fitting for the occasion. So I admit I had kind of high expectations.

I hope the house fares better than this bottle. I mean, it was not bad... it was quite fine but really kind of underwhelming. I understand that Billecart-Salmon is all about understatement, but I was really looking for a little more excitement in the bottle. It was technically okay, but not very interesting, overall.

Oddly yellowy orange in the glass...salmonish at best, but hardly pink at all unless you sit in somewhere like our living room and look at it under subdued lighting. It's downright gold in bright light. Roses and strawberry in the nose, along with toast and hay. In the mouth it is not as lush as one would expect from the nose... it's yeasty and beery, and only through some aspiration can you get much berry character out of it (it is nice when you do, though). It's got an almondlike finish with some bitterness and is quite dry.

With a little air and time the almondlike finish turned to apples (granny smiths with a little cream) and a little more strawberry started to come through on the palate. I thought it was nicer with some open bottle time, but overall I was a little neutral on it. I am not sure what I was expecting, and really, I wouldn't kick it out of bed or anything, but I was underwhelmed. I think I was hoping for the 1995 La Grande Dame (my holy grail of Champagne) or something along those lines. Which is, of course silly of me.

Cost: $65

Overall: B

Spanish wine

This tasting happened February 18, 2005 at K&L. I was eager to go since I told someone I would find him a good, light (read: traditional) Tempranillo and every time I picked up a bottle, it ended up being a big, black-fruit, Parker-styled beast of a wine, and not at all what I wanted. I started thinking that I had been imagining lighter Tempranillo styles but finally came across an Izadi Rioja that I thought was exactly what I wanted, even though I figured I would check out this tasting as well. Funnily, the Izadi was included in the tasting and it was, of the 13 wines tasted, my favorite, still. So the tasting was maybe pointless but it was a fascinating tasting nonetheless, and I realized a few things:

1- I mentally categorize red wines into "black" or "red" based on general fruit profile and overall flavors (in this case I was looking for a red and not a black. Only two of the wines we tasted (well, three) counted as red to me, so it is good one of them worked out.
2- Tempranillo, at least what we tasted, is a lot darker than I remember (I am guessing my memory really sucks).
3- I don't like it when Cabernet Sauvignon gets into my Tempranillo. Well, sometimes.
4- 2001 was a better year for Spain than 2003.

It got crowded as it always does these days, and you have to juggle around and taste and write your notes on your clipboard (or on the counter, if you get there early like me and can stake out a good spot). Like Italian wines, Spanish wines really need food, so tasting them this way isn't ideal, because a cracker every now and then isn't really real food. Life is hard, sometimes, isn't it?

2004 Bodegas Y Vinedos Luna Beberide Mencia, Bierzo - 100% Mencia - ($13) From the area of Spain directly north of Portugal. The Mencia grape is possibly related to Cabernet Franc. Dark purple with a soapy, violet, blackberry jam nose, it is strong and tannic in the mouth. There is black fruit and some rocky minerality there but it wasn't very exciting and I wasn't thrilled by it, although I realize it had the misfortune of being the first wine tasted and that wine is always at a disadvantage. Also, it definitely needed food. 7.

2001 Viña Izadi Crianza, Rioja (Alavesa) - 90% Tempranillo, 5% Mazuelo, 5% Graciano - ($15) Light burgundy in the glass and with a goregous nose of cherries, it plies you with a lot of sour cherry in the mouth and finishes with a very slight cough drop/cardamom flavor. It has a rough, warm finish... not tannic, but nicely astringent, probably a result of the 14 months it spent in American oak. 9.

2001 Bodegas Y Vinedos Pujanza, Rioja (Alavesa) - 100% Tempranillo - ($25) Darker burgundy than the Izadi, I found it was hard to get much off the nose...some lead and tobacco with some cherry down underneath somewhere. There is black fruit but not much of it, and the finish is all leather and tannins. 7.5

2003 Artadi Viñas de Gaín, Rioja (Alavesa) - 100% Tempranillo - ($22) Blackish purple in the glass, really dark. A wacky almost floral nose that has a strange element of hazelnut in it (I am thinking, since to me it smelled like nuts and plastic, and I mean that in a nice way). It has a lot of fruit up front and an oaky softly tannic finish with lingering plum and cherry. It's a very feminine wine and very pretty. 8.

2004 El Quintanal, Ribera del Duero - 100% Tempranillo - ($11) First bottle had a must problem of some sort where it tasted and smelled musty. We got out a second one to check, and indeed, it was much cleaner. It's dark purple with a nose of thyme and herbs and is very black cherry-like and placid in the mouth, with a burst of herb, oak, and fruit at the finish. The nose is what I think of as shiny and hard... it's not rough and warm but has very precise smells in it. It's a savory-type wine, and for the price it is very nice. 8.

2001 Arzuaga Crianza, Ribera del Duero - 100% Tempranillo - ($26) Brownish-purple and with a nose full of tons of black fruit, along with leaf litter and tobacco. Loads of black plummy fruit in the mouth and some tobacco and oak on the finish. Very pleasant. 8.

2003 Finca Luzón Altos de Luzón, Jumilla - 50% Monastrell, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Tempranillo - ($14) Burgundy-black, smells like a Cab to me... lots of mocha and blackberry and currant. Has a nice spicy peppery finish, but feels heavy and dull after the previous wines. 7.

2003 Pago Florentino, La Mancha - 100% Tempranillo - ($17) Made by the Arzaga people. All about black fruit. Dark in the glass, dark in the mouth. Has a nice astringency. I really liked the first taste, but the second proved to be cloying and I wasn't so sure. Had a little too much jam in it for me... kind of Australian in sensibility. 7.5.

2003 Celler de Cantonella Cervoles Tinto, Costers del Segre - 41% Tempranillo, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Grenache, 11% Merlot - ($25) This is the second of the "red" wines, and is medium burgundy in the glass. This one is all cough syrup all the time. It's pleasant enough, though, since the slightly-medicinal sour cherry thing works for me. It also has a slight bitterness on the finish that lingers. The Cabernet isn't as noticeable here. 8.

2003 Vetus, Toro - 100% Tempranillo, maybe - ($20) Made by the Izadi people, and sports a pretty spiffy minimal label. Dark, black, with a lot of rough tannins and could probably sit around for a while to good effect. In the same rough, warm style as the Izadi. 8.5

2004 Bodegas Quinta de la Quietud "Corral de Campanas", Toro - 100% Tinto de Toro, maybe - ($22) From the former owners of Château Cheval Blanc. Dark purple and with a lot of oaky tinderbox and hope chest smells in the nose along with some mocha and cherry. Lots of big, extracted fruit descending to a prickly acid finish. A huge wine. 8.

2001 Quinta de la Quietud Muestra, Toro - 100% Tinto de Toro, maybe - ($35) Reddish black, dark. Smells like an attic filled with old papers. Lots of very ripe brambly blackberry and raspberry in the mouth. Very pretty and elegant overall. 8.5.

1996 Arzuaga Gran Reserva, Ribera del Duero - 100% Tempranillo, maybe - ($125) This was a bonus bottle opened up because everyone in the store wanted to try it. Very brown/brick red and showing that it has some age on it. Not much fruit left at this point, mostly toasty wood, tobacco, and spice in the mouth. The finish is languid and super smooth, and I really liked the finish, since I am all about the finish when it comes to wine. 9.

Tasting quote of the day:

Kirk (hosting the tasting) to me, when I didn't appreciate the Cabernet in the Finca Luzón: "Cabernet in the glass is like having your mother-in-law in your house... you don't have to see her to know she's there."

I ended up going home with the Izadi Rioja and the Vetus, even though I will probably pick up the El Quintanal at some point and possibly a couple of the others.

Have wine, will travel... hopefully

So I have to get my just-big-enough-to-be-an-issue (around 20 cases) wine collection from here to DC later this year. And because the gods hate me, it looks like we are going to be moving in June or thereabouts, not earlier. So I have to figure out how to get my wine across the country, because the way I was going to do it (yeah, yeah, I know, putting it in a truck with everything else we own is bad news but we are buying and remodeling a house and moving a lot of stuff and I am about to be P-O-O-R) is probably is a really bad idea given the heat. I was willing to risk the wine-with-everything-else move if the weather was cool, but in the heat, no way. So now I am looking at my options and hoping they don't break the bank.

So far I have these:

- Adventures in Wine. They are a complete unknown, but might be able to help. The guys at K&L told me that Marco (who used to work at K&L before he moved back East) used them when he moved. I have to give them a call and see if they offer anything (I am not sure if Marco used them for storage and that got him the ability to use them for moving, too).

- Western Carriers. Good: Probably cheaper than some other options, and they can store the wine on the other end if I need it. Bad: Your wine is in a truck for a while and even if the truck is air conditioned, certain wine forums have me leery of that since they convinced me that the driver is going to be a layabout who turns the truck off to nap and gamble in Las Vegas for hours on end while the wine cooks. I know this is not likely.

- Wine By Air International. Good: Ships by air, so it is fast. They come and pack your stuff into insulated carriers. Bad: Probably most expensive, and planes crash and all (I know, also not likely).

- I could leave it here in storage for a while and somehow come back and get it, but that seems like a bad idea and is not really dealing with the problem, just putting off dealing with it for a while.

I was looking into wine storage in DC, and well. Not a lot of options there. There is one place located "conveniently" north of Georgetown, which makes a big assumption about the people who own wine that is to be stored, but they are only open six days a week and they have plywood panels on the wine storage, something that just seems sketchy to me. They can store single cases, though, which is interesting. I think I can set up something in the basement that will be fine, but just in case I find out the basement goes to 85 in the summer (not out of the question in DC) it is good to know one's options.

If my wine and I make it to my next birthday intact, I am opening the best thing I can find and not feeling guilty about it at all.

Anyone here ever moved wine? What did you do? How did you do it? Why can't I collect thimbles or silver spoons with the states on them?

Champagne!

I have been slackerly in the ways of winetasting lately and, while I have certainly been drinking here and there, I haven't been thinking about it much, and have been writing about it even less. The other day I spotted a bottle at the wine shop and I was pretty sure I remembered not liking it much, but alas, I did not make notes on it, so that information will be lost forever. And right there I decided to get back on the horse, or the wagon, or whatever it is that dumped me.

I also haven't been to a proper Saturday K&L tasting in forever, so I recently started up again. What could be better to start up with than Champagne? I don't think anything. We tasted ten of them, and I went home with two. And then went out and bought a very expensive suit for a wedding, but I can't blame that on the Champagne.

We tasted a lot of NV Champagne, which often people shun since it isn't vintage, but, as you can see from my notes below, NV Champagne has to come from some place in time, and sometimes it is actually a single vintage even if it isn't labelled as such (since a vintage year was not declared). And some of them were very good. I could go into a long boring discussion about the declaration of vintages in Champagne and how that controls supply and demand, etc etc, but even I don't want to hear myself talk about that. And I really have nothing against blending. Blending can be your friend.

I will point out that we tasted these with potato chips and crackers, and the chips were quite tasty although not as good as french fries. Naysayers hush right now... Champagne and french fries is the best pairing ever. The salty greasy starchy fries are cut beautifully by the acid and bubbles of Champagne. Don't knock it until you try it.

I rated on a ten point scale because I felt like it.

N/V Leclerc Briant "La Croisette" single vineyard Brut, Epernay ($30) Chardonnay from the 2000 and 2001 vintages. Unusual, usually he does red fruit based Champagnes, and Epernay is more town than vineyards. Pale straw. A sharp nose of lemon and cream. Sharp and acidic, with lemon zest, apples, and rocks. 7.

N/V Franck Bonville Brut Selection Blanc de Blancs, Avize ($24) Blend of 1997, 1998, and 1999 Chardonnay. Pale straw. Delicate white floral nose with yeasty biscuit undertones. Creamier and less acidic than the Leclerc, and in the mouth it is nutty, yeasty, biscuity, with a peach finish. 8.5.

N/V Launois "Cuvée Reserve", Mesnil/Oger ($26) Chardonnay, 90% from 2000 vintage, 10% from 1998. Again, pale straw. Trademark fine bubbles, with a kind of odd flinty beery nose. The mousse is sharp and acidic and we are back to green apples and lemon, although the finish is all apricot (with that slight dull bitterness apricot has). 7.5.

N/V Franck Bonville Cuvée Les Belles Voyes, Oger ($60) All 1997 vintage Chardonnay. Darker straw than the previous, this has a heady, feminine nose of peaches and flowers. It's a little big and blowsy in the mouth, with a lot of stone fruit, and it is so fruit-rich it tastes overripe to me. It was better with a potato chip, although it is not my thing. 7.

N/V Tarlant Brut Zero, Oeuilly ($27) 1998, 1999, 2000 vintages. 1/3 each Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier. Medium straw. Sharp but pleasant nose of minerals, some sweet apple and lily that starts to smell like baby asprin/orange cremesicle after it sits out a while. Not sharp or acidic, the finish is dry as expected (since it gets no dosage), but seems a little blunt and dull to me. Nice with the chips, though. 8.

1996 Leclerc Briant Cuvée Divine Brut, Epernay ($40) 50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir, 10-plus years old. People are crazy for this... the shop got it in a few days before the tasting and it was already sold out (they will have it again in a month or two). Medium yellow/straw. A sharp, prickly nose. Placid lemon-scone in the mouth, very elegant and pretty. The finish backs off gently and lingeringly. Beery but nice, I felt slightly let down by the finish. 8.5/9.

N/V Marguet-Bonnerave Brut Rose, Brouillet ($26) 70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir. 60% from the 2000 vintage, 40% from 1998/1999. I have had this before and liked it. You won't see any more for a year and a half, so get it now while you can. The guy who makes it under the label had his brother die. His mother, who owned most of the stock, went kind of crazy and sold the vineyards to some big conglomerate (I forget which one). The rest of the family tried to sue to stop her but lost. So now the winemaker is left with a name and no grapes. He is regrouping and supposedly the grapes he is getting are better than what he had been getting, even, and in about two years he will release under the name Bonnerave. Salmon-pink in the glass. A goregous nose that defines why I love rosé Champagne... full of what I think of as rough strawberries. It's got some toast in the mouth, but is bursting with berries and is very very pretty. 9.

NV Ariston Brut Rosé, Brouillet ($29) 50% Pinot Noir, 50% Pinot Meunier, all from the 1999 vintage. Pale pink. Less rough strawberry than the Marguet-Bonnerave, and more of a clear fruit nose, with a tiny grassy note. Sharper acids with more clear fruit on the tongue, with a cherry flavor bordering on cough drop/cardamom. Pleasant enough, but not as good as the previous. 8.5

N/V René Collard Brut Carte d'Or, Reuil ($40) 100% Pinot Meunier from the 1992 vintage. Dark yellow. A fantastic earthy nose of mushrooms, dirt, manure, truffles (when aged, Pinot Meunier does that). Reminds me of the nose some Barberas have. Very smooth and mushroomy in the mouth... no fruit. Has a finish that borders on sherry-like but not too much so and if you aspirate it, you can taste the earthy flavors you can smell in the nose. (We had a bottle of this a few days later and it does best with a little air.) 9.

1985 René Collard Cuvée Reservée Millesime, Reuil ($60) 90% Pinot Meunier, 10% Chardonnay. Darkest yellow yet. Couldn't place the nose right away, but it is nutty and dry-smelling, like paper. Very austere and sherry-like. Interesting enough but a little too old for me, I think, and I liked the Carte d'Or better. 8.

So my favorites and the two bottles I bought (and in one case, bought again) were the René Collard Brut Carte d'Or and the N/V Marguet-Bonnerave. They are as different as night and day, really, but I loved them both for what they did and did well.

Tasting quote of the day:

Scott (hosting the tasting) to group of gay men, explaining the tasting order: "The first four are all Chardonnay based... you always start with white fruit."

Man in group: "Well, I'm here!"

2003 Boekenhoutskloof "The Chocolate Block"

Notes: I talked about this wine once before, briefly, but had the chance to have a bottle with dinner when we were just back in DC for a while. This wine is one of Mark Kent's babies, and as far as I am concerned he is The Man for South African wine. Boekenhoutskloof is his main label, but he also makes wine under second label Porcupine Ridge (even though I understand that Porcupine Ridge actually makes up the bulk of production).

I have to admit, I originally thought Mark Kent was The Man because I thought this wine involved the strange and disturbing Pinotage, and I thought anyone who could make Pinotage taste this good was a genius. Alas, the wine contains no Pinotage: just 44% Syrah, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Grenache Noir, 12% Cinsault, and 6% Viognier, so consider it Rhone-ish with some Cabernet tossed in there. But I still give Kent points for making a clean wine that doesn't have that intense super-gamey-liquid-smoke-and-dirt core that a lot of South African reds have. Well, a lot of South African reds I have encountered, at least. Only 81 cases were made, so I guess I should get on it if I want to find some more.

We had this with dinner (a simple pasta dish and garlic bread) and it was generally a crowd-pleaser-- not too strange in any way, and very user-friendly. It greets you with a cherry-raspberry-barky nose that has a floral overlay thanks to the Viognier. The Syrah adds some iodine and earth in the nose for interest. In the mouth, Cabernet is at the forefront, with a blackberry-currant flavor and instant tannin/dryness. Then a sharper leatheriness takes over and the whole thing wraps up a meaty finish with some peppery spice. Finally, it leaves you with (true to its name, or perhaps I was influenced by the name) with the lingering flavor of mocha. The wine isn't exactly high-acid but has a nice gum-tingling tannic astringency in the finish that makes up for it. It is also interesting since you can almost pick out the components and tell which grape is responsible for each one, yet all the components are blended into one harmonious wine. This is very much in the spirit of Southern Rhone.

Cost: $25

Overall: A-/B+

WBW17 Wrap-up posted

Belatedly, I am noting that the wrap-up of WBW17 has been posted. I definitely lost out; there were some much better bottles had out there. But it was all a learning experience, and good for that. Thanks to CD for hosting! (And also for knowing who Gang of Four is.)

Other than that, not much of note is going on (well, besides leaving for DC to meet with contractors in two days) except that K Vintners FINALLY got me a problematic missing order and I can stop cursing them under my breath and mentally wailing "why do you hate me?". I ordered futures back in April, and they were supposed to ship in October. October came and went, and in mid-November I sent them an email asking about the status (I wasn't in any huge rush to get the wine, but was just wondering, since I hadn't heard anything at all). They replied fairly promptly and told me that their shipping manager had quit or something, and that things were messed up, and that they would send out the orders immediately (I had two orders, technically, since when I couldn't get The Boy I ordered some other stuff). Anyway, I got a shipment a few days later, but it only contained one order. And when you get a K Vintners order, the wine mysteriously just shows up at your doorstep, or, in this case, my office, with no packing slip or anything. So I wasn't sure if the second order had been forgotten or was going to be shipped separately. I wrote asking about it in late November, and heard nothing back, even though I was extremely polite, having worked in customer service at one time. About a month later, in mid-late December, I wrote again. I was just about to send yet another of my monthly emails, when, again, bottles of wine just showed up at the doorstep. Anyway, all is well now, and I am looking forward to some delicious Ovide, El Jefe, Milbrandt, and Roma. But be warned that K moves in mysterious ways, should you place an order.

2002 Huia Marlborough Pinot Noir

Notes: I almost didn't make this, the 17th Wine Blogging Wednesday, because when I went out Monday to get wine, I found that everywhere was closed for belated New Year's, something I should have guessed would be the case, but, well, I wasn't thinking. Anyway, thanks to the Whole Foods Palo Alto, purveyor of soups far superior to the Whole Foods San Franciscos, I found a couple of bottles of New Zealand Pinot Noir, any one of which would do for the Kiwi Red theme this month.

I chose the 2002 Huia, after doing some minor investigation and debate over the other wines offered (a "Something Bay" that I can't remember exactly but shallowly dismissed because of the boring label and sort-of-like-Cloudy-Bay name, and the 2004 Jibe).

Claire and Mike Allan named Huia after the native New Zealand bird that was extinct by around 1920. They studied wine and winemaking at Roseworthy Agricultural University and spent time in Australia, France, and New Zealand (notably, at Cloudy Bay) honing their skills before starting Huia in 1996. They use a more hands-off winemaking approach, using natural yeasts and traditional methods such as hand-picking the grapes.

This is a pale, medium intensity burgundy in the glass, and shows it's slight age in the paler rim. The nose is, when first opened, almost pure cherry fruit, but then as air hits it it gets a meatier quality with hints of thyme. In the mouth it was a bit of a surprise at first...a soft approach with unremarkable fruit is finished up with a huge, saddle-leather finish that has more than a hint of Band-Aid to it. The finish isn't very tannic but has a nice astringent quality, and the acids are fine... it doesn't taste flabby or anything.

Night 1 - I think it is on the old side, since there is little evidence of fruit, and the leather/Band-Aid thing is a little too much for me, so I don't love it. I don't hate it, either, but it isn't really my thing. Matt liked it more than I did.

Night 2 - there is both less fruit and less of the Band-Aidy finish, which makes me think even more that this this is even more over the hill. It's obviously a fruit-forward style wine, but there is no fruit to go forward anymore, even though it isn't even that old. I bet it was much nicer when it was younger, but it is merely a shadow of its former self right now. Poor thing.

Cost: $24

Overall: Eh. C. Nice effort, but this should have been drunk a year ago, at least.

2002 Sean Thackrey "Sirius"

Notes: I drank a fair amount of wine over the holiday (2002 Cakebread Chardonnay, 2003 Robert Sinskey Los Carneros Pinot Noir, and a Sean Thackrey Pleiades) but took no notes on them because I was holidaying. They were very delicious, though, I can assure you of that. And on the last day of the year, well, let's go off on a big note and talk about something I have been remiss in posting until now. Here is a nice little love letter to a bottle of wine to end the year.

My love letter is to Sean Thackrey's Sirius, which is his Petite Sirah, and the grapes come from Eaglepoint Ranch in Mendocino. I love Thackrey's stuff but mostly hoard it, and drink the Pleiades (which is nothing to sneeze at) as much as I can. I finally decided it was time to break into a bottle of something fancier. Thackrey's wines are a little crazy, and it seems you either like the crazy or you don't (I fall on the "like" side) and this one was even more wacky and complex than the Pleiades. It was the first red wine I've ever had that had a distinctive mustard aroma, and even though that sounds crazy and wrong, it worked for this wine.

In the glass, the wine is a dark purple, almost black, with purplish red edges. When agitated, it has that yellow mustard smell in the nose, and when it sits around quietly that mustard morphs into gardenia and jasmine (I know! It makes no sense! But it is true!) with a lindenlike candy smell. Under all the mustard and flower there is a solid line of black fruit (berries, plums) with a little bit of nut/vanilla creaminess. The wine assaults your mouth with a wave of concentrated blackberry/blueberry flavor beginning right at the forefront of the tongue, and this rolls around smoothly to the finish, which has some peppery spice and drying tannins. The finish leaves you with an echo of the floral in the nose, and is very good. This is a monster of a wine that has a massive amount of fruit in it, but the acids are well-balanced and there is a lot going on to keep it from being a baked fruit bomb. I would have been interested to see how this fared after a day or so (I will make a resolution right now to spend 24 hours with a bottle of Thackrey wine in 2006 and watch it change) but I have to say it was so tasty we made quick work of it over the course of the evening. Maybe next time....

Cost: $45

Overall: Could it be anything but an A? Nope. Please send five cases immediately.

2001 Uvaggio di Giacomo "Il Gufo"

Notes: Jim Moore makes wines under this label and, as Italian sounding as the label is, it just means "the blends of James" in Italian, and he uses Italian grapes, but he is in Napa Valley in California (he previously worked at Mondavi and Bonny Doon). I picked this wine up because I had his Il Gufo rosato at RAP last summer and liked it a lot. ("Il Gufo" is Italian for "owl", and, as you can see, there is an owl on the label.) 758 cases of this were made, and, as is fairly common with Barbera, it is a blend of only 90 percent Barbera with 10 percent Nebbiolo tossed in, something I think you can tell mostly in the finish.

Ruby red in the glass, pretty youthful-looking with a slightly pink rim. The nose is very woody and smells of tobacco, spice, and loads of black fruit, along with hot summer bramble and a little raspberry. It's slightly hot on the nose. In the mouth it's very fruit-forward, with lots of jammy blackberry and black plum, followed by a slightly woody finish that has a trace element of blunted bitterness. It leaves your gums tingling and your mouth watering (gotta love those acids!), and sticks around for a nice long time. It's not an overly complex or fancy wine, but is fun. This would be great if you were having pasta or pizza or even hanging out and grilling burgers.

Cost: about ten bucks

Overall: B. It's not complex, but tasty and fun, and I would keep a case of something like this around for guilt-free drinking.

WBW17 Announced: Red Kiwis

I have been drowning in holiday shopping and cooking and spirit, but the Corkdork just reminded me that yes, Virginia, there is a Wine Blogging Wednesday 17, and he is hosting it!

This time the idea is to think outside Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc a little bit and try a New Zealand red wine. There is a lot going on in NZ apart from Sauvignon Blanc, and there are a lot of good regions for growing other grapes (Pinot Noir from Otago is what comes to mind for me, but there is some handy info on the New Zealand Wine page, too).