Chenin, by Field Recordings

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!

Oz Winery: Emerald City Lights White Wine Blend

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…

 

 

Lyrarakis 2015 Assyrtiko

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!

 

 

12 Corners Aromella

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!

 

 

Circus Trip 2018: Down Time

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…

2015 Sleight of Hand The Magician Riesling

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!

 

MAN Family Wines: 2016 Chenin Blanc

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!

Fâmega 2016 Vinho Verde

Vinho Verde is not a grape variety, but rather a DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) for wine – basically a quality assurance that a wine came from a specific region.  In this case, Vinho Verde is Portuguese. The name means “green wine,” but the more accurate translation is “young wine”. These wines are meant to be consumed young.  Most typically they are white, but can also come in red or rosé.  They have a slight effervescence, created by adding light carbonation during bottling.

I opened this wine expecting another hot day, but the weather cooled down this afternoon.  It was still a great wine; light and crisp with a lot of citrus and lemongrass flavor!  A wonderful summer sipper with an excellent price point (I think I spent $7.99).  Maybe it will heat up again soon so I can enjoy this out on the deck…

It would also be great for wine spritzers with citrus vodka, ice and lime juice (more on those in another post).

Fâmega Vinho Verde

 

Happy Monday Everybody!

2015 Couplet, by J. Bookwalter Winery

I picked up this bottle a few weeks ago on a visit with one of one of my oldest, dearest friends in Eastern Washington.  We have been friends since we were 9 years old. I was there on a business trip, but had some time afterwards to socialize.

After my meeting wrapped up for the day, we took a bit of time to visit J. Bookwalter Winery, one of her favorites, and one I have long been curious about but never tried.  Many of their wines have literary names; this one is no exception.  For a book nerd like me, that is a huge draw!

Our tasting consisted of a number of fantastic wines; she was more drawn to the heavy tannic reds, while I enjoyed the whites a bit more.  Our server was friendly and personable, and we ended up having a great conversation on the wines, love and life.

The 2015 Couplet is sourced entirely from Columbia Valley grapes, from the Conner Lee, and the blend is 76% Chardonnay and 24% Viognier.  Both were fermented in stainless steel, rather than oak, giving the wine a crisp flavor.  Flavors of peach and lemon combine with a light minerality for a delicious hot weather patio wine.  (Even though it wasn’t that hot today, and I didn’t sit on the patio while enjoying my glass…) If you are near Prosser, Washington though, J. Bookwalter has an awesome patio, and they are open later than most wineries because they also have a restaurant!

2015 Couplet, by J. Bookwalter

It was certainly a worthwhile visit and a great wine!

 

 

 

2014 Penner-Ash Riesling

Gregory Dal Piaz, a reviewer on Snooth.com, described this wine as:

Honeysuckle, almond, mineral, jasmine and lime aromas pop from the glass. A bit soft in the mouth at first, this seems to be lacking a smidge of acidity though it’s very easy drinking with flavors that have a peachy cast to them. Nice minerality emerges on the mid-palate with some green apple and green nut flavors that yield to a modest, dusty mineral and lime toned finish. The aromatics here are great but this stumbles a bit in the mouth, though it is super approachable and quaffable.  87 points.

I am tired from being away for work all week, chores over the weekend, and some lingering effects from my recent cold, so I am taking the lazy way out and don’t really have much to add. Except yummy, and pairs well with raspberries.