D&D Wine Review

We had a wonderful 5 course Northern Italian wine dinner at the Williamsburg Winery in Virginia. The Williamsburg Winery produces the most wine in the state of Vinginia, annually producing 60,000 cases. Our dinner consisted of 9 different pours; with each course we recieved one from the Williamsburg Winery (WW) and a similarly matched wine from Italy. We started the evening with a single white wine, the 2006 WW Seyvel Blanc to pair with a light crab dish. This wine was light and slightly fruity, a very nice way to begin our dinner. We continued with WW Burgesses Measure Merlot, which was our favorite wine of the evening. This delcious wine was fruity yet smooth with an earthy undertone. We picked up at bottle for $16.00. The Italian match was Lilliano 1998 Chiante Classico. This wine had soft tannins with a lovely smooth finish. I thought it was delcious, however, some had difficulty enjoying the tabacco aroma that accompanies Sangiovesse grapes. Our next course included a 2003 Avignonesi Rosso, a general Italian table wine, that was fruity and very pleasing on the palate; and a WW 2004 Barrel Aged Claret, which was more smooth and stuble than the Italian counterpart. Moving on, we enjoyed a 1991 Vadipiatta Vino Nobile that was more complex than the first Italian wines. This wine retails for $32 per bottle. It was still smooth, yet dry with a bit of spice and coffee. The WW companion was the 2005 Trianon Cabernet Franc. Again, we enjoyed this tasty wine, however, it would not reach it’s peak until 12 years of aging. Finally, we moved into the dessert course which paired with a Bruno Franco Birbet that was perfect with the poached pears served as our final course. It was fruity and floral, without overpowering, this was one of our favorite dessert wines. The WW companion was their Raspberry red wine, which was concentrated with fruits and sugar. It would work well for pouring over strawberries and cake, but not for drinking. Overall, we had a great wine experience. We learned about each wine we were drinking and had the opportunity to compare Italian and local Vinginia wines.

To go with our Potlatch Planked Salmon, we chose a Pinot Gris we had in our cellar.  We’ve enjoyed the Pinot Noir by Big Fire in the past, and have even had a sangria made with the Pinot Gris at an Atlanta restaurant - so I thought it would be a good white to have with salmon and with our friends the Duttons.

My description of the Pinot Gris was crisp and sweet.  It was very enjoyable, and the sweetness offset the spiciness of the potlatch seasoning.  I can definitely see enjoying this wine, nice & chilled, while sitting on our porch during the hot Atlanta summer.  I looked up the Big Fire Pinot Gris online, and here is how the website describes it: “This wine is crisp and delicious with flavors of pears, apples and delicate blossoms. A delightful summer sipper.”    While I often find wine websites promising unrealistic descriptions of their wine - this one couldn’t be more perfect.  It really is crisp and delicious, and will be a delightful summer sipper.  The tasting notes mention honeysuckle, and that’s a very pleasant image to go along with this wine.  I highly suggest finding a bottle for the upcoming summer season.

Wine: Big Fire Pinot Gris

Purchase: Murphy’s Wine Shop

Price: $14 (per website)

Year: 2006

Fermentation: 100% Stainless Steel

Rating:

While on a road trip recently, our good friend Dave opened up a bottle of 2003 Wellington Vineyards Cabernet. He purchased it through wine.woot! (which offers weekly wine deals) and was curious to see what we all thought of it, so we opened it up.

The wine was not particularly fruity - yet it also was not heavy with oak. The best words to describe it were earthy and rich. I’m glad Dave decided to open this wine up, we really enjoyed it. Lisa cooked us a wonderful meal of spaghetti and meatballs and while the meal was delicious and the wine was delicious - I don’t think they were the best match for each other. I think the wine would be wonderful paired with a steak - it has that dark appeal to it. It could also go well with some of the tangier cheeses.

I would love to taste this wine again with a different dish and after it has aged. I really enjoyed it as it was and it could only get better.

Wine: Wellington Vineyards, Mohrhardt Ridge

Year: 2003

Grapes: Cabernet

Price: $22 (listed on website)

Rating:

This enjoyable Pinot Noir was on the wine list a fabulous resturant in Decatur called “Wahoo”. So, we picked up a bottle to try as a pairing to Pecan Encrusted Halibut. This Pinot has a nice floral aroma with a smooth, even taste. It is well-tempered and has soft, but flavorful fruits. A very nice, good valued pinot.

Wine: Five Rivers Pinot Nior

Year: 2006

Winery: Five Rivers

Region: California - Santa Maria Valley

Grapes: Pinot Noir

Price: $11.99

Rating:

The 2000 Serendipity Syrah was rated as a “best buy” in Wine Specator Magizine and with it’s appealing label I picked up a few bottles at a local wine store. The coloring was a deep garnet and the aroma was soft with subtle hints of berries. This wine has nice up front fruits with a soft, peppery finish. We also detected a hint of oak and possibly tabacco. It has a delicious and consisent flavor, we enjoyed this bottle most after allowing sufficent time to let it breathe. Smooth and easy drinking wine at a great price!

Wine: Serendipity Syrah

Year: 2000

Winery: Camplazens

Region: France - Languedoc-Roussillon

Grapes: Syrah

Price: $10.99

Rating:

On Sunday with gorgeous weather in Atlanta, we decided to try cooking pizzas on the Big Green Egg grill that has become Chris’ obsession as of late. I thought to accompany the pizza with a fun light red - and choose a Chianti from our wine cellar. I didn’t have any expectations about the wine - but I was pleasantly surprised. The wine was very light and smooth, definitely dry and a good flavor of fruit. Very enjoyable and a great companion for the grilled pizzas.

Wine: Chianti Classico Poggio Teo

Year: 2001

Winery: Valiano

Region: Italy - Tuscany - Chianti

Grapes: Sangiovese

Price: $14.75

Rating:

Last night, Chris & I celebrated an early Valentine’s dinner at Rathbun Steak here in Atlanta (see separate review). The waiter was very helpful in choosing a wine from a very intriguing wine list, including wines from more ’boutique’ wineries than most other restaurants. When asked what I wanted to drink, I wanted a red wine that could hold up to the steak we knew we would order, that was not ‘oaky’ and I said I tended to like the spice of a zinfandel but thought I wanted a cab to go with the steak. He brought us a taste of two different wines and the one we selected was actually less than the price range we had given him to recommend from - always a plus!

We decided on a 2006 Zinfandel from Sonoma - from Ridge Winery. As it turns out, this is one of my parents favorite wineries from the one year we lived in California in the late 80s. The word that came to mind to describe this wine was delectable. It was just very delicious with a good amount of fruit flavor (maybe currant or blackberries) and a slight bit of spice. It held up wonderfully to our dry-aged porterhouse for two. We highly recommend this wine. At the restaurant, it was in the $46 range - and when I looked it up online, its list price is $22. A great price for a wine I want to get for our cellar. Due to its good price and great taste, I think this deserves a very high rating.
Wine: 2006 Ridge Sonoma County Three Valleys

Grapes: 80% ZINFANDEL, 10% PETITE SIRAH, 5% CARIGNANE,
5% GRENACHE

Rating:

Region: California, Sonoma County

List Price: $22

Updated:  We tried a second bottle of the Umbria Merlot and I am happy to say it was a much better wine than the previous bottle indicated.  The wine was very smooth, very deep and definitely had a taste of oak (at least to my inexperienced tastebuds).  It was a very enjoyable, casual wine.  Merlot probably isn’t my first choice when choosing a red wine, so my rating of 3.5 stars is probably lower than others - if you like Merlot, this would be a great wine with a good price tag.

Previous Entry: We must have a skunked bottle - that’s all I can say. I got 3 of these recently because I heard such great things and we didn’t have a good representation of Merlot in our cellar - Robert Parker gave it a 90 and Gary Vaynerchuk (very amusing wine reviewer) gave it an 88. I actually dumped my 2nd glass out. I never do that. I’m hoping that we open another one and it was a fluke. So for now - I guess I’ll just say this is supposed to be a good heavy, yet fruity wine. Its price is very reasonable, anywhere from $12 - $18. We found it at Whole Foods Market, who often give case discounts. I wish I could do a better review for our readers - I can’t even give what I drank one star. If you’ve had this and had a better experience, please post in our comments.

Wine: Italian Merlot
Winery: Umbria Falesco
Year: 2005
Grape(s): 100% Merlot aged 5 - 6 months in barrel
Cost: $14.97
Rating:

Last night we decided to do a blind taste test of two affordable cabs to go with a seared medium rare NY strip. Yum! Without knowing which was which, here were our tasting notes:

Wine 1 - Simple without much depth, the smell seemed to have a scent of green pepper; the wine hits you in the back of the throat and seemed to have a metallic after-taste. However it was preferred by one of the four tasters.

Wine 1 was the Twin Fin, found at most any grocery stores for $8 - $10.
The Twin Fin only gets a Rating: . We wouldn’t recommend buying it over other inexpensive cabs.

Last night we decided to do a blind taste test of two affordable cabs to go with a seared medium rare NY strip. Yum! Without knowing which was which, here were our tasting notes:

Wine 2 - Smoother and easy to drink without an aftertaste, hints of tobacco. A little tart but not in a bad way. Preferred by three of the four tasters.

The surprise was Wine 2 was the $2.50 Charles Shaw Cabernet found at Trader Joes’s.

Neither wine was great, but we deemed the Charles Shaw the more drinkable, especially for those occasions when you have non-wine drinkers drinking wine.

Due to its price and ease to drink the Charles Shaw gets a Rating: .