Day 9 in the Wine Advent Calendar was a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. Chile was where I learned to love wine, sampling the local selections when I lived there so long ago.
This Sauvignon Blanc was made from grapes from Chile’s Valle Central (Central Valley) and was crisp and acidic, with flavors of pineapple and nectarine. It had 12.5% ABV and was a very nice, dry white. One of my favorites!
Cheers!
My mother, as my most loyal reader, pointed out that I must not have liked the advent calendar’s day 2 wine… The Shiraz… Cardboard? I mean, I didn’t like it at first, but thankfully it opened up after 20 minutes or so and redeemed itself!
Unlike Day 2, Day 3’s Pinot Grigio was delicious right from the first sip. Golden delicious apple flavors at first, finishing with a tart lemon on the finish. Both Tiffany and I really enjoyed it – a definite crowd pleaser!
It was 12.5% ABV and a product of Italy, from the Terre Siciliane region.
If only we could take a trip to Italy!
It’s December! You know what that means? Wine advent calendar time!
Tonight’s treat was a California Chardonnay. I’m not that big into Chardonnay, but I would choose a California Chardonnay over other regions. This one was balanced and light, with enough oak to satisfy those who love Chardonnay, and enough citrus acidity to satisfy me.
The wine is branded for the advent calendar, so figuring out the mystery of its origins is a bit tough, but the back of the bottle holds some clues. La Chapelle de Guinchay, a region in Eastern France; that must be where the grapes are grown. Bottled by Paul Sapin, a French winemaker. Imported into California and branded a California wine – does that mean that Paul Sapin has facilities in California?
At any rate, my little mini-bottle of Chardonnay hit the spot at 12.5% ABV, and a nice balance of oak, lemon and vanilla. Excellent when shared over video chat with my dear friend, enjoying the wine and catching up on life.
Happy December!
A few months ago I joined a wine club at our local wine shop. I love the wines that the owner chooses for his shop, and for years I have asked him to pick wines for me. I tell him my preferences and my price range, and let him pick some for me – he always knocks it out of the park.
During my divorce, I closed down my non-essential spending in order to replenish the savings that my ex had wasted. Then once I had savings built up, I went on my big trip and needed to live off of those savings for a bit. But now, with a paycheck coming in again, I have a bit extra to splurge, so I joined the wine club. It gives me an opportunity to try some new things. Each month I get one white and one red, and I opened last month’s white on Monday night.
The wine is called Chenin, and it is a Chenin Blanc from Field Recordings, a winery from Paso Robles, California, that I have been hearing about for years.
This wine is delicious! It is 100% Chenin Blanc, sourced from the Central Coast of California. It is a combination of green apple and floral flavors, with a light minerality. I paired mine with such gastronomic weekday delights as tuna sandwich, cream of mushroom soup, and BBQ pulled pork and rice, which basically means that it tastes good with anything! The winery recommends pairing it with shellfish, salads or turkey subs, which basically means that I probably love these unpretentious people.
You see that I drank it out of my Dia de los Muertos candy skull stemless wine glass – I got it at the Dollar Store! Wine is meant to be accessible, and who has the time or money to eat scallops and steak every night, or pull out the fancy wine glasses?
Try this wine – you won’t be disappointed!
Whelp… Less than two months in and the job is officially super-busy. Never a dull moment!
Meanwhile, I opened this wine the other night; I picked it up on my visit to Oz Winery in Wamego, KS. Yes, that’s the Wizard of Oz, in case you were wondering. The winery gives all their wines Wizard of Oz names, and carries all sorts of Oz and wine memorabilia in the tasting room. You can sample two wines for free and this was one of the wines I chose to try.
The Emerald City Lights is a “proprietary” white blend, which is fancy speak for “they don’t want to tell you what the blend is.” I disagree with this philosophy, since wines are so different naturally that there isn’t really a need to protect the specific grapes used. But anywhoo…
This wine is very light, with only the palest yellow color, and tart flavors of lemongrass beneath a floral nose. It is delicious, and much more than I was expecting from a Kansas wine.
Unfortunately, since I had limited storage space in my car on my trip, I only bought one bottle of this wine. I wish I had more…
I have had this wine for a while; it was one that I bought in 2016 after a tasting of Greek wines at our awesome local wine shop.
For those of you who don’t know Greek grape varietals, like I didn’t, Lyrarakis is the winery, Assyrtiko is the grape. The grapes were grown in Crete, and harvested in 2015. I was excited to try it, since I had never tried the Assyrtiko grape.
Lyrarakis 2015 Assyrtico
I couldn’t find much online about this wine; it seems that the winery started making the wine under a different label after 2015. I have no idea if they are using the same vineyards either. Than means you get my impressions exclusively. Aren’t you lucky!
The wine is a very golden amber color, more golden than a lot of the white wines I drink. On the nose, it smelled very floral, so much so that I wondered if I would like it, although clearly I had enjoyed it enough at the tasting to buy it. It has been a couple of years though and wines change over time!
On the palate, it has a very syrupy mouthfeel, a much heavier white than I am used to. It has a sweet flavor of lychee and passion fruit. So delicious!
I would pair it with something a little spicy, like Thai food. You’ll notice that I did pair it with my Spam Museum stemless wine glass, that I picked up on my road trip!
This was a very nice wine. I don’t remember how much I paid for it, but I think it was about $20. I would certainly buy it again!
When I was in Michigan visiting my family, my cousin and I took a day to head over to Lake Michigan. We had lunch at a brewery, did a little bit of shopping, went to a couple of the wineries in downtown South Haven, and checked out the lighthouse too.
We stopped at 12 Corners Winery tasting room in downtown South Haven, named for the Twelve Corners neighborhood where the vineyard makes its home, and did a wine tasting.
The Aromella intrigued me. It is a hybrid grape; a cross between Traminette and Ravat 34, developed at Cornell University’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY in 1976. It was renamed Aromella in 2013 (that took a while!). I have had Traminette, and like it, but I have never had, or even heard of Ravat 34.
The result is a sweet (but not overly so) white wine that tastes similar to Moscato, but with more floral flavors. The 12 Corners Aromella is estate grown, the residual sugar on this wine is 5.5 percent and the alcohol content is 11.8 percent. It was delicious and a great opportunity to taste a new-to-me grape! It is also reasonably priced at $14.99 a bottle.
If you have tried it, let me know what you think!
I’m in California; almost at the end of my long road trip. I have driven over 13,000 miles, and have traveled within 32 states (and Washington, D.C). 10 have been states that are new to me in my adult life, although I didn’t explore a few of them at all; rather just driving through.
Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hamphire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and finally California. It has been a long, enjoyable drive, and I have seen and done so much along the way. I still have one more state to pass through before reaching Washington once more.
I’ve been having some down time, in California, and as often happens with me, once I stop to rest, that is when I get sick. I have been pretty lucky to have not been sick while on this road trip, but now I’ve gotten a cold, complete with sniffles, sneezes, coughing, and exhaustion. I’m taking some time to recover, resting and sleeping a lot, with lots and lots of cold medicine. The cold medicine is accompanied by strange, crazy dreams, but I guess that’s a small price to pay for being able to breathe.
Relaxing with a book on the patio
Fortunately I can take some time to get better. I’ve been thinking a lot about what my future holds; new opportunities that weren’t clear at the beginning of this trip. Onward…
Yesterday, a day after getting home from a fabulous spring break road trip down to California on Sunday, I pulled a bottle out of the wine fridge. It felt like summer in California, even if it doesn’t feel like summer here at home, so I wanted a summer sweet Riesling!
My friends and I visited Sleight of Hand Cellars when we were in Walla Walla last Memorial Day. It was a great visit, and they had wonderful wines!
The 2015 The Magician Riesling is sourced from Evergreen Vineyard, which located high on the cliffs above the Columbia River in Central Washington. 2015 was a warm year in Washington for wines, but Evergreen Vineyard is a cooler site, which allowed for extra hang time for the grapes. It has a delicious balanced acidity, with green apple and pear flavors, crisp minerality, and plenty of citrus.
2015 Sleight of Hand Riesling
It is sold out at the winery, but I think it cost about $18. If you have tried it, let me know what you thought!
The MAN Family Wines 2016 Chenin Blanc is one that I picked up a few weeks ago at Cost Plus World Market, when I was on my way home from my business meeting. It is South African, which is a country whose wines I haven’t explored that much.
I opened it several days ago, my pre-Thanksgiving wine to enjoy. On the nose, this wine has aromas of pineapple and lemongrass. The flavor is similar, beginning with a tart flavor of lemongrass, then settling into tropical fruit and pineapple, and finally, a floral note on the finish. It certainly meets the winery description of a sweet and sour wine.
MAN Family Wines 2016 Chenin Blanc
Interestingly the winery uses only free run juice – they do not press the skins. I don’t really know how that is supposed to make a difference, as it doesn’t seem common to have a wine made exclusively from free-run juice. At any rate, it is a steal at only $6.99! Delicious!
