Winos Anonymous

OH MY GOODNESS, winos. I have some EARTH-SHATTERING NEWS: for once, Whole Foods hasn’t totally overpriced a bottle of wine!

I bought the 2005 Addamo Vineyards Syrah for $12.99 at my local Whole Foods (it retails between $18-28 bucks- WHAT?) and it (more…)

I was introduced to the 2006 Barrel 27 “Right Hand Man” Syrah by the trusty folks at K&L wines, where it sells for $14.99, which honestly is a steal because this wine drinks like a $25-and-up bottle of wine.

Before I get to the tasting notes (more…)

Hi Winos! I’m baaaaaack!

I hope you all had a wonderful, wine-soaked holiday. Here’s what I did drank on my winter vacation:

First, I had a little wine and cheese gathering with our friends Stephanie and Zach, who were in town.

Steph is a Chardonnay girl, so I bought a white Burgundy (because ya’ll know I can’t do California Chardonnays.) It was the (more…)

Earlier this week I was back at the Whole Foods Venice wine tasting bar for the second time in 3 days, this time to take advantage of their Monday night special: 1/2 off all Enomatic pours. It’s a great deal, especially since you can eat whatever you purchase from the store while you sip on your wine and most pours are $3.99 or under to begin with.

And now I’m going to level with you: I tried A LOT of them. Rather than painstakingly go through each one, I’m going to talk about the wines that I was a huge fan of and leave out the “meh” wines… I’m also going to leave out a wine I tried that- no joke- tasted like a rubber tire.

First wine worth mentioning was a much better Carmenere than the one I tried a couple of weeks ago, though still not drink-the-whole-bottle-in-one-sitting good. It was the 2007 Terra Noble Carmenere, available for $1.99/pour and $15/bottle. It had notes of black cherry, tobacco, leather, and a nice peppery spice. It’s pretty straight forward and pretty good.

Next wine worth mentioning was (more…)

After my tasting at Elvino this weekend I was feeling a little adventurous, so I asked Bart to pick me out something crazy that I’ve never tried but that was DELICIOUS and under 15 bucks. It might have been a tall order for some, but Bart went straight to his Croatian wines and picked out this little gem:

My beloved winos, if you are skeptical that any wine outside of France or Napa could possibly compete… (more…)

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings and are currently nursing your wine and food comas. I’m not gonna lie: tonight I straight-up winged which wine I’d be blogging about- just grabbed a wine variety I’d never tried and ran with it. It’s the Toro D’Oro Carmenere Reserve from Chile:

Before I opened the wine I referred to my handy dandy Wine Bible, which I purchased last weekend (oh yeah, it’s getting serious) to learn more about the Carmenere grape, which until tonight I’d never tried. Here’s the description the author gave: (more…)

Happy Monday, winos!

Hope you all had lovely, wine-soaked weekends. I am back to share the Santa Julia Organic Bonarda, a lovely Argentinian wine I tried last night.

This was my first time trying Bonarda, an Argentinian grape that is native to the Piedmont region of Italy. The color was a beautiful deep garnet, almost verging on purple. The nose was subtle with hints of red fruit, a little black pepper, and a little bit of earthy funk. The palate, however, was a whole ‘nother ball game- juicy fruit (mainly plum, black cherry, and fig), a little spice, nice tannins, a little slate, with a long, dry finish. It was smooth and very fruit forward without being too sweet.

For $11, this is definitely worth picking up, if for no other reason than to try something new and different (and this one’s organic, so less guilt, right? Riiiiight.) Though I drank this wine on its own and thought it was just lovely, it would pair beautifully with a tomato-based pasta dish, skirt steak, barbeque, or a spinach salad with gorgonzola cheese, to name just a few. This wine is very versatile- looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it! Hope your Mondays fly by and if they don’t… well, there’s always a bottle (er… glass) of wine to throw back at the end of the day to help assuage some of the damage. Cheers, winos!

Sorry for the delay in blogging- I had to make it to spin class this morning with Nicole, my spin teacher-cum friend-cum Winos Anonymous reader to sweat out the damage I did last night with today’s wine. You see, last night I was craving the spice and complexity of a Cotes-Du-Rhone, so I picked up an M. Chapoutier Belleruche Cotes-Du-Rhone and almost polished off the entire bottle by myself (hey, it was RESEARCH. God, I love having the blog as an excuse to booze up. You winos are enablers, and I love you for it.) Needless to say, I was not a pretty sight today at spin class. Careful with this one, he’s a little too yummy:

It was on sale for $13.99- totally doable for an elegant, complex, Cotes-Du-Rhone. I also decided to buy some cheese to taste with, as I haven’t been trying new wines with food and often that really helps compliment/bring out the flavors of the wine. I chose a small piece of St. Nectaire cheese, a creamy and slightly funky French Cow’s Milk cheese, which ended up working out nicely, though I’d probably suggest a stronger cheese to stand up to the spice of the Cotes-Du-Rhone. Try a Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese or a Fourme D’Ambert. 

The nose is marked mainly by red fruit- cherry, raspberry, with a little earthy funk (my fav!) which all translated to the palate, as well as a subtle peppery spice, and a hint of vanilla. The grapes in this Cotes-Du-Rhone are mainly Grenache and Syrah- silk and pepper, which gives this wine a beautiful complexity.

If it wasn’t clear already by the fact that I almost finished the bottle on my own, I would like to go ahead and take this time to officially recommend this wine to you. Enjoy, winos! (And happy Friday!)

I was so excited to finally try the El Coto Rioja last night after my Rueda disappointment on Sunday. Here he is, in all his regal, gold fishnet-wrapped glory (I felt a from-below shot would be more fitting for this bad boy):

I couldn’t get over the beautiful ruby color of the wine:

After drooling over the color alone, I took my first sniff. I noticed immediately the prominent red fruit- cherry, strawberries, raspberries, plus a little funk (which you know I love), and a little earth. Oh yeah, I was into it. Then I took a sip… WHAT?!? Where had all the complexity of the nose gone? Where was the funk? Where was the earth? After building up the Rioja so much in my mind, I was crushed (wine pun not-intended) to discover that though it had a lovely, long finish, something was missing on the palate. It was like finally being set up with that gorgeous guy you’ve been eyeing for months only to discover he has ZERO sense of humor or personality. AWKWARD. Yeah, that’s kind of how this wine tasting was.

Ok, he had some redeeming qualities- I’ll stop using date analogies to describe the wine and give you the actual tasting notes. There was lovely red fruit and stone fruit present, a bit of slate, a bit of anise, and the finish was beautifully long (thanks to the noble, old Tempranillo grapes.) I suppose I was just hoping for a little more roundness, a little more complexity. It was only $10.99 after all, but still… at that price point you should definitely be able to find some delicious, pretty complex wines.

One mistake I made in retrospect was not having this wine with food. I definitely don’t think it’s an easy-drinking wine- it’s so dry it is begging to cut into a NY strip or a ribeye, roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, or even a pizza (yeah, I said it.)

Let’s not give up on Rioja’s, though… there are some AMAZING ones out there. I’ll make it a mission to find one for you all. Does anyone have a go-to Rioja that they are just dying to share? Hook a wino up.

Keeping with our Spanish theme, I thought I’d tell you about a delicious Tempranillo I tried last week:

Paso a Paso Tempranillo is from La Mancha (Don Quixote anyone? Anyone? Just me? Okay then)- an arid, fertile plain near the middle of Spain. This Tempranillo is made from organic grapes from old vines- win and win. It is also aged for 6 months in French Oak, which adds a nice depth to the wine without an overwhelming oakiness about it (ya’ll know how I have an oak problem.) The result is a smooth, simple, rustic wine with tasting notes of cherry, vanilla, and spices and just a hint of earthy funk (good funk.) I would pair this with a drunken goat cheese or a Manchego aged 6-12 months, depending on your preference. It would also go beautifully with lamb, chicken, seared ahi tuna, and hearty pasta dishes. I bought it on sale for $10.99 at Whole Foods, though I’ve seen it sold as high as $14.00 and as low as $7.00 on WineBuyer. The wine label is different on WineBuyer though, so careful with that one… probably best to check with your local Whole Foods or wine shop first.

And listen… Beau liked it (and he doesn’t ever like wine.) If you want a more official rating, though, Wine Advocate gave it an 89. I think it’s a great value for a consistent, lovely wine. Cheers, my dears! Enjoy and let me know what you think!