In other wine news

We recently got my father a small wine fridge, which was quickly filled up. Here are some wines I've tried recently off the top of my head, good with the bad:

Cuneo/Bricco Two Rivers Bordeaux Blend 2004:
- Great red blend that was recently discontinued from my place of work because of a winery name change due to legal issues. That's a real shame because the 2004 is an improvement over the past vintage and the distributor recently put it on sale. Great buy, can probably find it around $18. 89 points

Irony Pinot Noir 2005:
- Ummm, gross. Maybe my palate is getting too educated, but I really couldn't drink this wine. It had decent fruit on the nose but there was something a little off. Very cola-y, but in a bit of an off-putting way. Yellow Tail Pinot Noir was better drinking in my opinion (see previous post).It was too earthy or minerally or something. Had a hard time finishing my glass. Retails ~$14. 75 points

Sokol Blosser Meditrina:
- Popped this open tonight. It's a blend of Pinot, Zin and syrah. I wasn't too impressed by it. Seemed to lack focus. I don't seem to like pinot blends too much I think. I want pinot delineated from the other grapes because to me they are about very different things. That said, I have some customers that just lap this stuff up. So when a customer asks me about the wine I tell them honestly it's a bit of a love/hate thing. Hard to really give a strong recommendation with that in mind. ~$15. 80 points

Liberty School Paso Robles Cab 2005:
- Had to let it breath for a few minutes, a bit of bottle funk hanging around. It was alright drinking from there but for $13 you can do much better in my opinion. Trying it the next day did not help at all, started getting grapey and had notes of sacramental wine. Would have been interesting to try when it was still a second label of Caymus. 82 points

Louis Martini Napa Cabernet 2004:
- Good Napa juice at the price point. Not too dry/tannic, good dark fruit on the nose and an aftertaste that goes for some time. I recommend this wine quite often. $18. 88 points

Chateau St Jean Sonoma Merlot 2004:
- ok, couldn't remember if it was an 04 or 03. This wine had notes of bell pepper, fairly distinct, which I had always thought of some wine BS since I had never really experienced it. A bit of fruit along with that and decent structure. I enjoyed it enough, but wasn't blown over by it. I got it for $12 (pricing error at other store, which is great because it costs them more than $12!) but it retails usually over $20. 86 points

That's all for now! Cheers...

Wedding and Wine

I've somewhat recently been put in charge of procuring wine for my cousins wedding. This is a bit of an exciting task. So I've jumped into doing research about quantities (each wine drinking guest = 2 glasses with 4-5 glasses a bottle) plus champagne for the toast (each drinking guest 1.5 glasses with ~6 small glasses per bottle). Now it's time to test my skills of finding something that will fit the budget. My uncle (to whom this task has been delegated, moving then on to me) doesn't want to go under ~$10 a bottle, which is great and will make my life a lot easier. I was previously thinking on keeping it as inexpensive as possible because its a fairly young kid wedding, so I was thinking Hogue Chardonnay for the white wine (~$6/btl on sale, good mass wine) and kicking around ideas for reds (Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot, $9/btl, or Red Diamond ~$7). I would still recommend the Grand Estates, although the year is changing and I haven't had a chance to try it. So this is the task: They're thinking four different wines. Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio for the white drinkers, Zin and maybe pinot noir/cabernet for the reds. I personally think zinfandel is a great choice because so many people like it, it's approachable and has the best chance for a red that plays well with spicier foods (it's a bayou/new orleans themed food/music event). The wedding is about 60 days away, so it's time for me to really start reeling in those ideas and deals. This should be good.