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This is a very respectable Merlot for only $6.99. It's best with food, which brings out the depth of the earthy cherry flavors. It's very smooth with a nice meaty finish.
The winery calls this a "bistro style" blend. It's a fantastic combination three grapes with huge personalities: 76% Zinfandel, 16% Petite Sirah and 8% Carignane. Big and jammy with lots of berry flavor, it has a rustic quality that let's the rough edges of the grapes add complexity without overwhelming the wine. Excellent on its own and as with food.
With 49% Cabernet, 44% Shiraz and 7% Merlot, this Australian wine packs a lot of lush fruit up front, but still manages to maintain a nice balance. Big and comforting. We paired it with smoked ribs and risotto, which was excellent.
This Washington State red wine is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese and Petite Sirah to create their version of a Super Tuscan. You definitely get the influence of the Sangiovese (only 6%) and the Italian styling. Lots of earth and cherries with some depth from the Merlot and Cab grapes. An excellent food wine (pasta, pizza, grilled meat).
The first thing that hits you with this lush Spanish red wine is how soft and velvety it feels in your mouth. It has flavors of earthy cherries and aromas of earth, cocoa and herbs. It's a full-bodied wine that is perfectly balanced so as to not be overpowering.
Berries, currants, earth, smoke, and a hint of vanilla in a rich, beautifully complex wine. We paired it with dark chocolate wafers (designed specifically for tasting with Syrah/Shiraz) and the wine was smooth, rich and elegant. Another Spanish gem.
Bogle produced only 13 barrels (325 cases) of this Rhone-style red. Sort of a companion wine to their big Phantom blend, Ghosts du Roam is a nicely balanced and complex wine with lots of smoke and anise in both the nose and mouth. The earthy cherry flavors get deeper and richer as the wine is opened longer and the tannins provide a good balance to rich foods. Another great value from Bogle.
Fantastic wine. Rich, complex earthy cherry flavors with light hints of tobacco and balanced tannins, this medium-bodied wine grows more complex the longer it's open. With crab bisque with sweet red bell pepper (click for recipe), the tannins balance the spiciness of the bisque and simply wraps itself around your palette.
The first impression is how soft the wine feels. It's so easy to drink with subtle berry and plum flavors. Absolutely delicious and a great food wine as well. Plus we love the label (right). Another great rose bargain.
This is available exclusively through Esquin Wine Merchants (www.esquin.com; 206.682.7374), who will gladly ship it to you (depending on your state's laws). This is an amazing rose from the Saint-Emilion region of France. It feels big in your mouth, but it's still light and refreshing. Wonderfully complex, with strawberries and rhubarb in the nose and great berry flavors and mineral hints. One of the finest, most interesting roses you'll ever drink.
Wines clubs give you the opportunity to taste great wines without having to pay retail price -- thankfully. The 2000 Marlstone is a blend of 51 percent Merlot, 44 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 5 percent Malbec. It has a fantastic nose of cassis, earth and currents with rich flavors of spice, cassis, cloves,nutmeg and a silky finish. This wine would be perfect with a Chateau Brione or filet mignon with goat cheese potatoes. It's pricy, but worth it.
This restored our faith in wine after a long spell of just ok wines. The nose has aromas of cherries, earth and pepper. It's perfectly balanced with flavors of tangy cherries, moderate tannins and a soft finish. We paired it with stuffed zucchini and it was wonderful. It was even great with chocolate chip cookies. This is a bargain at $9.99.
This Oregon Pinot is medium-bodied is subtle with a smoky cherry nose and light cherry flavors. It's a better food complement than drinking on its own, but if you're tired of "fruit bombs" and want something in more of a French style, Abby Page is perfect.
This beautiful red wine has a spicy, earthy nose and wonderfully balanced flavors of cherries, earth and hints of tobacco. It's exceptional with food. We had it with smoked ribs and the light tannins balanced the richness of the meat perfectly. Very nice smooth finish too -- all for $6.49!
We found this Spanish gem at Cost Plus/World Market. This is a real "wow" wine with rich, explosive flavors or berries. Wonderful with food -- we had it with pork in barbecue sauce with pea salad and corn on the cob and it was perfect. This is a wine you want to buy by the case so you have a good supply on hand.
This is a great Merlot for the price. The nose is deep, smoky and peppery. The wine is really jammy with nice, round flavors of currants with floral hints. The tannins are solid enough to cut through rich food (it was a perfect companion with scallops in tomatoes and olive oil). This would be excellent with grilled steak or a stuff chicken breast.
Wine like this is why we are members of wine clubs. This is a limited edition wine sold only in Clos du Bois' tasting room and through their wine club. It is beautiful! The nose is big and rich with mocha, smoke, cherry and pepper aromas. The wine is big and full-bodied with flavors of black cherries, blackberries, mocha and peppery spice. Fantastic.
Like the wine above, this is available only in their tasting room or through their wine club, but another example of why we love Clos du Bois. It starts with a rich, earthy cherry nose. The wine is velvety with cherry and pepper flavors. As with all great red wines, this one changes about every 10 minutes bringing new flavors and aromas. A stunningly complex wine. After about a half hour, it starts taking on an almost port-like quality.
I was in New York City shopping for a bottle of wine, when I saw a display with three different wines with a big "Hi." on the label. These are "Wines by Frank" and with a label like that, I had to try it. The rose is light, dry, refreshing and fun. It was nothing special (The Screwed Pink below is better), but still an interesting wine that is easy to drink and would probably be fun to take to a party.
This is a gorgeous wine that promises a lot, but then disappoints. At first blush, it is big and lush, but it gets very harsh and bitey quickly. It has none of the subtlety or complexity you expect from a Cabernet -- it's more like a Tempernillo. Better with food, but still not worth $17.99.
Screwed is a new wine from Australia with -- you guessed it -- a screw top. The Pink is one of three Screwed wines (White and Red are the others, of course). It has a lovely floral nose and lightly fruity favors of strawberries and grapes with some earthy complexity. A very nice, dry pink wine that would go with a wide variety of food, from grilled burgers to seafood salad.
This wine is like drinking nectar, especially as it warms up a bit. A blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Pinto Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc, the wine has a light nose of pears and citrus with flavors of pears and apricots with a hint of citrus. Light, refreshing and delicious. Wild Bunch is from Montevina, one of our favorite wineries.
This Portuguese wine is lightly effervescent (or spritzy) with crisp citrus and mineral flavors. Portuguese wines made from native grapes have a reputation of being harsh at times. Vihno Verde is one of those wines, but we thought it light, crisp and charming. It gets more floral aromas as it warms up (it's better a little warmer). With only 10% alcohol, it's very easy to drink on hot summer days. (Ironically, the Wall Street Journal's wine column of July 28th was on Vihno Verde.)
This is one of the most elegant wines you'll ever taste -- and one of the best Fume Blancs we've had. Light, refreshing flavors of honeysuckle and tangerines up front with light citrus and apricots as it gets warmer. "Like fruit ripening as you drink it." This would be great with oysters, but it's so good by itself it's almost a shame to drink with food. Excellent!
This wine is not only gorgeous (it's a lovely salmon color -- almost pure orange), but delicious. A blend of Syrah (88%), Cabernet Sauvignon and Marsanne it is light, complex and refreshing with almost a Port-like earthiness. Fabulous on its own and great with grilled food and salads.
This is the steal of the summer! Light, citrus and somewhat crisp like a Pinot Grigio, but with more floral and fruity flavors (like a Fume Blanc) and less mineral. It is a fresh, clean and easy to drink. Perfect with food, especially seafood, appetizers and lighter entrees.
This wine wins the prize for the unique packaging. Voga is a nice, light Italian Pinot Grigio, but the most notable thing is its dramatic bottle, which is a tall, thin round glass cylinder with the name etched in large white letters. It also has two closures: a synthetic cork inside and a black screw top outside. Very light flavors of apple, citrus and apricot with a hint of mineral and a touch of acidity in the finish. If you let it warm just a little, it gets more buttery/nutty.
Fruity, yet quite dry with flavors of strawberries and grapes and hints of mineral and oak. As it warms, you get more Syrah grape flavors along with nice depth and complexity. It also has a bit of a punch at the end due to the 13 percent alcohol level. This is a versatile food wine that complements anything from chicken Caesar salad to grilled fish or chicken.
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