Vini Menhir 2007 Negroamaro Cinque Passi

The Winery:  Vini Menhir
The Wine:  2007 Negroamaro Cinque Passi
The Price:  $14.00

Vini Menhir is an Italian winery located in the Puglia region.  Think of Puglia as being the heel of the boot.

The bottle was stopped with the shortest natural cork that I've ever seen.  It's nearly 1/2" shorter than regular corks.  The wine was decanted 45 minutes before tasting.

The wine is moderately dark purple in color.  It has aromas of plum, cassis and spice.  It has an odd mix of sweet and sour.  Kind of like a sweet blackberry flavor wrapped with a puckeringly sour cherry flavor.  The combination is surprisingly awful!  And this isn't a wine that gets better with more tastes.  It gets worse.  Earlier I commented on this winery being located in the heel of the boot of Italy.  This wine makes it pretty clear what the heel has stepped in.  Because it tastes just like THAT.  Yuck!   

If you see this wine - run far, far away!  At $5 this would be a bad wine.  At $14 it is absolutely horrifying!

Durigutti 2006 Reserva Malbec

The Winery: Durigutti
The Wine: 2006 Reserva Malbec
The Price: $27.00

Durigutti is an Argentinian winery, with the grapes being grown in the Mendoza province.  It is made from 100% Malbec grapes and aged in oak barrels for 18 months.

This wine is not filtered, and they recommend decanting it before drinking.  At the bottom of my bottle was a handful of twigs and sludge, so I would definitely follow their recommendation and decant it.  Unless you like chewing on grape stems.

The wine was stopped with a natural cork and decanted an hour before tasting.

 The wine is very dark violet in color.  It has aromas of blackberry, cherry, tobacco and chocolate.

This is an amazing wine!  The flavors are well balanced, smooth and velvety.  It has wonderful fruit flavors with a counterpoint of tobacco and a mild pepper finish.  It is nothing short of phenomenal.

 

Primaterra 2008 Sangiovese

The Winery: Primaterra
The Wine: 2008 Sangiovese
The Price: $7.99 at Cost Plus World Market

I selected this wine because I've been planning a trip to Italy, so I'm trying to become more familiar with wines from Italy.  This winery seems to be pretty much a big mystery. I haven't been able to find any history on the winery.

The wine is made from 100% Sangiovese grapes.  The bottle was stopped with a composite cork, and decanted an hour before tasting.  

 The wine is a medium-dark purple in color.  It has predominantly a cherry aroma with a slight pepper finish. 

The wine has a somewhat subdued cherry flavor, with a mildly spicy finish.  The wine is very heavy in tannins, leading me to want to scrape the powdery feel off of my teeth. 

This is a decent wine for the money, but it certainly doesn't knock my socks off.  It's an every-day kind of wine.  Definitely not something you'd serve to impress anybody. 

Woodhouse Family Cellars 2006 Hudson Shah Malbec

The Winery: Woodhouse Family Cellars
The Wine:  2006 Hudson Shah Malbec
The Price:  $12.99 at QFC

This Malbec is made from 100% Malbec grapes from Washington's Rattlesnake Hills AVA.  The     

The wine was stopped with a natural cork and decanted an hour before tasting.  The wine is very dark purple in color and has aromas of blackberry, cherry and vanilla. 

This is a very fruity wine, with crisp and slightly tart blackberry and cherry flavors with a hint of peppermint.  It's very crisp and clean tasting.  The flavor is light without being thin.