Da Wine

Wow. I just discovered that there is now a line of Mike Ditka wines. I'm torn. I really, really want to review it. But I really, really don't want to pay $50 for a novelty wine. But I want to review it so very, very much. And I hope it's awful. A good Ditka wine would be much harder to review. A bad one would be a blast. I can see it now:

"This wine tastes like it was squeezed from William 'The Refrigerator' Perry's jockstrap. It is so bad that only a guy as tough as Mike Ditka could drink it. I think this wine is what Ditka uses to color his hair. The only thing that Ditka has done that is worse than this wine is the Bears 1969 1-13 season."

It could go on and on.

Of course, good or bad, the Bear/Ditka/Football analogies would be plentiful. And I promise, if I get a bottle of the stuff, I will be as unbiased as always.

You know I'm going to order a bottle eventually. It'd be a crime not to. But I'm having a hard time swallowing the $50 price tag (plus shipping!).

Mike - if you're reading this, send me a bottle! Please!

Oh, and did anybody notice that I figured out how to imbed pictures in the posts? Nice, huh?

Sokol Blosser 2004 Estate Cuvee Pinot Noir

The Winery: Sokol Blosser
The Wine: 2004 Estate Cuvée Pinot Noir
The Price: I have no idea - it's from my personal stash.

I'm doing this review tonight for two reasons. First, I haven't reviewed anything from Sokol Blosser recently. Second, I really wanted a nice wine tonight.

This wine has a very smooth aroma of berry and plum. It is aging very nicely. It has flavors of plum, blackberry and cherry, with a very mild pepper finish. It is an excellent wine, and is suitable for serving to your A-list guests. Unfortunately, Sokol Blosser does not appear to have any of this wine left for sale on their website. If you can manage to find a bottle or two, I would highly recommend buying it. It is fantastic!

Estancia 2006 Pinot Grigio

The Winery: Estancia
The Wine: 2006 Pinot Grigio
The Price: $8.99, on sale at QFC. Regular price is $14.99.

Estancia is a new winery to me. They are located in Monterey, California.

The wine is a very pale yellow. The wine has a crisp, citrusy smell to it. The aroma is invigorating and lively. The flavor is mild and refreshing. It has apple and pear flavors. The wine makes me think of sitting on the back porch on a warm summer evening (but we had snow here, in Seattle, yesterday so maybe I'm just anxious for some warmer weather).

I like this wine as an every-day kind of wine. For what it is, though, this wine seems a bit pricey (had I purchased it at the regular price). I don't see this as being a $15 bottle of wine. I think it fits in the $8-$10 price range much better. But as I said, I like it, and would like to sample more of the offerings from Estancia. I would especially be interested in sampling some of their Reserve wines, particularly the Pinot Noir.

Chateau Ste Michelle 2007 Pinot Gris

The Winery: Chateau Ste Michelle
The Wine: 2007 Pinot Gris
The Price: $6.99 at my local Safeway.

This is yet another in my series of Pinot Gris reviews. This review is a reward for me. I have spent the last three days packing, moving, and I'm trying to get unpacked. After a very long day of hard work, I didn't feel like doing any unpacking. So I made a deal with myself: unpack 10 boxes, then write a review (okay, my mind heard it as "Drink Wine", so the review is superfluous in my mind's view).

Chateau Ste Michelle is just a couple of miles from the place I just moved out of. The grounds are very nicely groomed, and as a decent sized amphitheatre. They have a concert series every summer, which attracts some big-name stars. Last year I saw Diana Krall there, and ran into her hubby at the concert.

This wine is a pale yellow. It has a very refreshing fruity flavor to it. Although, with all the work I've done the last few days, the same may be said for battery acid. Still, I think this is a very nice wine. It has flavors of apple and pear, with a very light honey taste.

I like Chateau Ste Michelle a lot. I was surprised when I looked back through the reviews and found that I hadn't reviewed any of their wines yet. They make very good wines, and sell them at a very reasonable price.

Truth Wines 2005 Lindsey's Cuvee

The Winery: Truth Wines
The Wine: 2005 Lindsey's Cuvee
The Price: $17.95 at my local wine shop

I'm not able to find all that much information on this winery. What I have been able to dig up is that it was made by Axios Wines. Their website does not have information about their wines, nor does it appear to be very often updated (their latest addition to the press page was in 2006). Being a software geek, I find myself skeptical of any company that does not have a decent web presence. I would expect these guys to have a web site for Truth Wines, and for the URL to be printed on the label.

The wine bottle has a black and white drawing that is an adaptation of M.C. Escher's Hand With Globe, but instead of a globe, the bottle has a wine glass reflecting the man holding the glass.

The wine has a very strong, alcohol smell to it, with a subtle fruit scent blended in.

The wine has a strong berry and prune flavor to it, with a mildly peppery finish. I am also detecting a cinnamon flavor with a hint of vanilla. The wine initially has a dry, chalky mouth feel which seems to dissipate with each sip. I did not care for the wine after the first sip, but several sips into it, I like it quite a lot.

If you can manage to find this wine, and you don't mind paying $17.95, I recommend giving this one a taste.

And if anyone has any further information on the winery, I'd love to learn more about them.

Silvan Ridge 2006 Pinot Gris

The Winery: Silvan Ridge
The Wine: 2006 Pinot Gris
The Price: Unknown.

This is a fairly bland, underdeveloped wine. I hope it didn't cost more than $5.00, because it tastes like it belongs in that range. The wine is yellow in color, and looks similar in color to the typical Pinot Gris. It has tastes of pear, with an astringent/rubbing alcohol finish.

This is a wine which I will not purchase again. It's bad.

Columbia Winery 2006 Pinot Gris

The Winery: Columbia Winery
The Wine: 2006 Pinot Gris
The Price: $8.99 on sale at my local QFC.

I've been on a Pinot Gris kick lately. I don't know why, but I'll run with it. Generally, I prefer red wines, so when I am actually in the mood for any of the white wines, I'll try to get reviews done for them.

Columbia Winery is located in Woodinville, Washington (which is a suburb of Seattle). The winery was started by a group of ten friends, six of whom were professors at the University of Washington. I can derive one of two possibilities from this. The first possibility is that drinking this wine will make you smarter. The second possibility is that being a college professor is a job that drives you to drink. I suppose one could take the second possibility a step further and derive that public education does not pay well enough, forcing these guys to make their own wine since there is no way that they could afford to drink quality wine on the salary of a public educator. But I digress.

Interestingly (or maybe not), there is another winery in the area with a very similar name - Columbia Crest. I don't know whether the similarity in name was intentional or not, but several friends of mine have been confused by the similarity of the names. My personal feeling is that Columbia Winery is lost in the shadows of Columbia Crest. They have a simpler label and their wines seem to run a dollar or two less per bottle for a given wine.

This wine is a very pale yellow. It has a citrus smell to it. The wine is bright and refreshing with flavors of pear and apple, and maybe some honey thrown in for good measure. It has a slight spice finish. This wine was nearly half the cost of the Willamette Valley Pinot Gris that I reviewed last week, and compares quite favorably with it. Since I'm not sampling them together, I can't say for certain which one I prefer. But given the price difference, I'd be more likely to pick up the Columbia Pinot Gris rather than the Willamette Valley.

Oh, I do have one complaint about this wine. The bottle was corked with one of those plastic (or whatever they are made of) corks. My Rabbit Corkscrew had a very difficult time with the cork, both in removing the cork from the bottle, and in expelling the cork from the corkscrew. It was so difficult that I was concerned that the Rabbit would die for the effort. I've had this problem with other openers before, and only with the plastic corks.

Willamette Valley Vineyards 2006 Pinot Gris

The Winery: Willamette Valley Vineyards
The Wine: 2006 Pinot Gris
The Price: I didn't note the price when I purchased it. The winery is offering it on their website for $15.00

I selected this wine tonight because I've been in the mood for a Pinot Gris. I'm having salmon for dinner tonight, and thought this would be a great pairing.

This is a light, refreshing wine. It has a bright floral aroma. The wine has flavors of pear and apple, with an extremely mild pepper finish. This is a very , very good wine from a winery that I am not familiar with. I will definitely be looking for other wines from this vineyard.

Angeline 2006 Russian River Pinot Noir

The Winery: Angeline
The Wine: 2006 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
The Price: $12.95

Angeline Winery is located in Santa Rosa California. This is a new winery to me. I had never before seen any wines from this particular winery.

The 2006 Pinot Noir is a very nice wine. It is a medium-intensity burgandy in color. The wine is a very friendly Pinot Noir. It has a delightful cherry flavor, with a very, very slight pepper taste. It is an excellent wine at a decent price. I would recommend this wine without any reservation. It pairs very nicely with steak, and would also go well with pasta dishes.

August Cellars 2004 Pinot Noir

The Winery: August Cellars
The Wine: 2004 Pinot Noir
The Price: $18 at their tasting room and online.

This is a newer vintage of the wine I reviewed last week (which was the 2003 Pinot Noir). Like last week's wine, this was one of the wines I purchased during my recent trip through the Willamette Valley.

The 2004 Pinot Noir is less deeply colored than the 2003. The 2003 had quite a bit of sediment in the bottle, which is not present in the 2004. The 2004 Pinot Noir has a smoky smell to it. It also has a strong smoky flavor, which I have never encountered in a Pinot Noir before. The smoke flavor is followed by a currant and red cherry. This is good wine, but I would tire of the smoke flavor pretty quickly. It's something I would enjoy one or twice a year, but not much more than that. It would probably go well with smoked salmon, and may also serve to dress up a BBQ hamburger meal.