What We Drank This Weekend: Text Acronym Edition
The Great Whatsit, What we drank last night
Today we’re lazy. Especially after a weekend of opening a few too many bottles (don’t worry, there were lots of friends with us to enjoy them). So, here’s a round-up of WWDTW (see blog post title) and our abbreviated notes with teenage-IM/SMS-style ratings (see key below for translations):
2007 Arnot-Roberts Napa Chardonnay, Green Island Vineyard - high hopes. LOVE the label. Prettiest label of the night (though the tacky Can Blau label got lots of oohs and aahs)! But most of us thought this was a Sauv Blanc, not Chard. It was the least Chardy-Chard we’ve ever had, which normally could be good for us since we’re not big Chard-drinkers. However, the SauvBlanc-ness was only OK (but thank god not Oaky). A disappointment. Rating: WTF?
2005 Pietratorcia Ischia Bianco - perfectly pleasant and refreshing Italian white, though nothing to write home about. Rating: NBD
2006 Clemensbusch Spatlese Trocken Riesling, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany - a friend brought this to us from Berlin, and as far as we can tell it’s not available in the US. Yum, this one hit the spot. Rating: SFETE
2006 Trinafour Carignane, Niemi Vineyard, Mendocino - Rustic, brooding, yummy. Eye-catching label as well (see group pic above, blue and red plaid) Not as elegant as the LIOCO Indica Carignane we profiled last week, but quaffable-icous! Rating: WFM
2006 Can Blau, Monstant, Spain - unfortunately this had Frankenwine written all over it. Enticing albeit blinged-out bottle, but it was noticeably manufactured juice. So noticeably, that even the novices suspected some tomfoolery. Maybe this was involved? For the $16 a bottle we’re guessing the splinters in our mouth weren’t care of hand-crafted Slovenian barriques. Sorry, Jorge O! Rating: IMHO…meh!
2003 Ojai Vineyard Thompson Vineyard Syrah - a friend squealed in excitement when she tasted this, exclaiming she thought this was excellent. Ummm, yeah, that’s what you get when you plunk down $50 instead of $20 on a bottle (though we’re big proponents of $20 bottles, don’t get us wrong). Rating: OMG!
2003 Raptor Ridge Reserve Pinot Noir, Oregon - we admit, we brought this out late after everything else had been consumed. It was certainly good but we don’t really think it’s fair to evaluate it considering it was an afterthought. Rating: TBD (when we crack open another bottle…if we even have another bottle we can try in the future)
2003 La Tour Blanche Sauternes - wow. We can’t even put this into words. If we didn’t love Sauternes before sipping this beauty, we do now. Rating: OMFG!
We also popped open The Great Whatsit, but don’t think it’s really fair for us to rate our own wine (even if it is damn tasty, and even if these ratings are infantile).
Key:
IMHO = in my humble opinion
NBD = no big deal
OMFG = oh my [expletive] God
OMG = oh my God
SFETE = smiling from ear to ear
TBD = come on, do you need a translation for this? Really?
WFM = works for me
WTF = what the [expletive]
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get your wine on
2007 Breggo Cellars Pinot Gris, Wiley Vineyard
We’ve fallen in love with a Pinot Gris from Breggo, whose Rosé was part of the Sonadora (aka Wannabewino) Bloggerpack and whose wines we have the utmost respect for. The PG is classic cool climate, with a nice crisp acidity and plenty of aromatics. A scant 225 cases or so were made of this wine and we snapped this up while we could get it. Sure to sell out from the winery. Score some Scholium.
2005 Scholium Project Satripies of the East Red Blend
This is an enticing blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Petite Sirah. If our sources are correct, it contains fruit from Margit’s Vineyard, which is connected to Randy Hall of Wine Biz Radio. Yay for great wine with fruit from a great guy! Score some Scholium.
NV Louis de Grenelle Saumur Sparkling Cab Franc
Here’s one for both the wine geeks and for the masses - it’s fairly obscure (a sparkler made from 100% Cab Franc, from importer Jon-David Headrick) and it’s delicious. It’s got some sweet-tart red fruit and great texture. And it’s affordable at $18 a bottle. Franc-ly, I’d like to try a sparkling Cab Franc!
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freshly pressed
Bonus Bottle of the Week: 2005 Jack William “The King” Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley:
Last week we experimented with an incentive…order a certain dollar amount, and get a bonus bottle with your order. We started off with a bang (or maybe a shake) with some wines from Mollydooker. It was a great success — all the Gigglepot Cab is gone, though nobody really went for the sparkling Shiraz — so we’re going to make this a semi-regular thing. We’ve also decided to call this our “Bonus Bottle” program.
Here’s our offer for Bonus Bottle number two. We’re moving closer to home this week, with the 2005 Jack William “The King” Cabernet Sauvignon from the Alexander Valley. When we first carried this, it retailed for $37 a bottle and we felt it was a steal even then. We far prefer this wine to Silver Oak and Jordan, two Alexander Valley perennials that are more about hype and brand name than integrity of the juice.
A couple of weeks ago, we got the last cases available from our distributor and were able to lower the price to $27 as the vintage was being closed out. So the wine went from a great value to an even greater one. And you can make it an even better deal — in fact, a veritable steal.
Make a purchase of $85 or more, and use the code “king” during check-out to get a bonus bottle of this fantastic Cabernet with your order. In fact, the way our coupon codes work out, you’ll also be saving a penny off the total. Limited quantity of bonus bottles available. When the supply runs out, the code will stop working. So go get yourself some wine and a bonus bottle now!
Bonus Bottle of the Week: 2005 Jack William “The King” Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley
WBW #50: Picnicking in October with Elio Perrone’s Bigaro
Simon’s Pick 10/08: 2007 Cotes-du-Rhone Villages, Cuvee Jules, Andre Andrieux
wine jargon
Frizzante
From Wikipedia: Frizzante is an Italian wine term term for semi-sparkling wine (as opposed to Spumante, which is generally used for fully sparkling wines). Frizzante wines generally owe their bubbles to a partial secondary fermentation in tank. You might notice a light fizz or tingly sensation on the tongue with a Frizzante wine, compared to the more carbonated sensation that more fully sparkling wines yield.
Scorekage
Okay, so we made up this word yesterday after a great restaurant experience. We brought a bottle of wine with us, expecting to pay a corkage fee. But the restaurant either forgot to charge us the $15, or decided to be nice to us. We scored! Hence, “scorekage” has entered our lexicon. This can also refer to BYO friendly restaurants that don’t charge for corkage under any circumstances.
grapewise
domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
Check out this blog post where they actually refer to somebody from d547 as a “wine expert.” Shocking! In any case, the Imbibe blog offers a nice recipe to go along with one of our wine recommendations. Enjoy!
The 89 Project
We’ve joined a group of bloggers (wannabe critics, some have said!) as part of “The 89 Project,” an effort to explore the complicated matter of the 100 point system of evaluating wine. Go take a peek at the 89 Project blog, which has apparently already started a bit of controversy (and we’ve yet to make a post!). It’s interesting stuff.
domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
The 89 Project
d547 In the News! Pasadena Star
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:04 am
I think your rating system is every bit as valid (and even more informative) than the 20 point or 100 point or whatever-point scales are out there. Your feelings couldn’t have been clearer!