D&D Wine Review

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: .

Delicious! This Spanish Red has a delicate aroma and a beautiful crimson coloring. The first sip brings a quick burst of flavor with just the right amount of sweet. This wine has nice fruits that remain smooth, making it an easy drinking wine. We also enjoyed the depth and the wonderful full body of the Termes. We savored each sip. Enjoy!

Wine: Spanish Red
Winery: Bodega Numanthia
Year: 2005
Grape(s): 100% Tinta de Toro from 30 year old vines
Cost: $24.99
Rating:

Since we still wanted to drink wine following our earlier disappointment - we opened up a bottle of a consistently good affordable wine. The Stump Jump only cost us $8 and is a very deep, yet smooth wine. Definite flavors of fruit and maybe some pepper. I recommend this as a great affordable wine to keep around the house. It wouldn’t be my choice for a special evening - but its a great just hanging out in the basement, playing the Wii and watching football wine - if you don’t want beer.

Rating:

“No Wimpy Wines!” We love this great valued wine. It has been adopted as the Dutton House wine in both 2004 and 2005 vintages. It pairs well with chicken, steak, or any hearty foods. It works as well on a Wednesday as it does on a Saturday night. We enjoy the simple sophistication of this wine. The aroma is fruity, yet woody, with a deep red color. Each sip brings flavors of raspberry mixed with a wonderful spice that is full of flavor! This is our favorite in the “cheap wine” category.

Wine: California Zinfandel
Winery: Ravenswood
Year: 2005
Grape(s): Zinfandel from Sonoma
Cost: $6.49-$10.99

Rating:

On a side note, for a wonderful special occasion wine by Ravenswood try the Old Hill Zinfandel. This wine is from some of the oldest Zinfandel vines in California, planted in 1880. It retails between $49.99-$54.99. Cheers!

The Montes Alpha Syrah is a delicious red wine from Chile. We opened this wine to pair with a casual steak dinner. It has a dark ruby color and a wonderful sweet, almost floral aroma. We thought it had a great full-bodied flavor with nice tannins and a fruity finish. This wine was aged just one year in fench oak barrels. After researching, we found that the grapes are 90%Syrah, 7% Cabernet Sauvigon, and 3% Viognier. We picked up this bottle from our local Costco. It is well worth the price! Wine Spectator Magazine rated the 2005 as a 92 out of 100. We highly recommend it.

Wine: Chilean Syrah
Winery: Montes Alpha
Year: 2005
Grape(s): Syrah from Apalta Vineyard
Cost: $15.99

Rating: .

With both couples present, we opened up the bottle of Firesteed while we still had the Coppola to compare. It was about $2 cheaper than the Coppola at our neighborhood grocery store ($15.99). At first glance, the color seemed slightly darker, more ruby-toned. We also thought it has a different smell, perhaps licorice though we couldn’t quite pin it down. The taste was extremely smooth, more so than the Coppola. We think this would be a great red wine for someone fairly new to red wines, as it was very easy to drink.

Overall - this is a great wine for the money, we would definitely buy it again

Wine: Oregon Pinot Noir
Winery: Firesteed
Year: 2006
Grape(s): Pinot Noir from Oregon
Cost: $15.99
Rating:

A fun note, we switched to a red zin after this bottle and found it hard to palate at first. You forget how different the types of varietals can be - we had to clean our palate with bread & cheese before enjoying the zin. Pinot Noirs offer a lighter and more delicate flavor when compared to a bold red wine.

For our inaugral review, the Dyars had the Duttons over for dinner. We actually started by picking our recipe - Leslie prepared a wonderful salmon dish. While fish is typically paired with white wine, my wine guide suggested a light red, such as pinot noir for a heavier fish like salmon. With the entree picked, I headed to our neighborhood Publix to pick up a couple of wines.

We’ve generally enjoyed Coppola wines, and it was $2 off at $17.99, so I picked up a bottle of the Silver Label Pinot Noir. In addition, I saw a Firesteed Pinot which we had enjoyed in the past for $15.99 so I picked up that as well. (See next review)

Here are the thoughts we had on the Coppola:

Appearance - it was transparent and bright red, definitely lighter than most other reds

Smell - we aren’t experts at this but we noticed a fruity scent, possibly plum - nothing else stood out in particular

Taste - we enjoyed this wine, it was smooth and definitely a lighter red, almost bright tasting; when swirled there was a taste of woodiness

Overall - we enjoyed the Coppola but there are Pinots we’ve liked better for less or similar price; it went well with the salmon dish Leslie prepared

Wine: Diamond Collection Silver Label Pinot Noir
Winery: Francis Coppola
Year: 2006
Grape(s): 100% Pinot Noir from Monterey, CA
Cost: $17.99

Rating: