Metrokane Velvet Champagne Sealer

My Metrokane Rabbit corkscrew came packaged with a few tools - a wax-seal tool (which I've never used), a foil cutter (which I use regularly), a drip catcher (again, never used - I spin the bottle as I finish the pour so drips are not a problem for me). Then there's the Velvet Champagne Sealer. I never would have purchased this tool, but since it was included with the Rabbit, I figured it was worth trying out. The sealer consists of a cylinder-shaped body with a cap that twists. Inside the cylinder is a pliable rubber stopper that is compressed when the cap is twisted, causing the rubber stopper to expand in diameter. This creates a very tight seal, thus keeping the carbonation in the bottle. I've now used the sealer twice. Once for a bottle of Champagne, and now that I'm temporarily on the wagon, for a bottle of Izze sparkling juice. The Champagne held beautifully for three days, with very little degradation. I just finished storing a half bottle of Izze for a eight days with the Champagne Sealer. When I removed the sealer, there was a whooshing sound, just like when the original bottle cap was removed. While the juice was a tad flatter than when first opened, it retained approximately 85% of the original carbonation. For the few bucks that this tool costs, it is well worth it for storing Champagne for a day or two. I probably wouldn't risk a high-dollar bottle of Champagne for longer than a week, but if you have a partial bottle, this tool is just the thing to give you a couple of days to get around to finishing it.

I'm dry for the next two weeks

I will not be reviewing any wines for the next couple of weeks. I'm on an antibiotic that my physician and pharmacist assure me will make me violently ill if I have even a very small amount of alcohol. I'm trusting their years of training and experience.

Since I will not be able to review any new wines, I'm hoping to review a book or two or find some other wine-related products to review.

I would also love to have a guest review or two. If anybody is interested, drop me a line. I ask only that you be unbiased and not a professional reviewer. Oh, and you must be of legal drinking age. :)

Mike Ditka 2005 Kick Ass Red - Da Review

The Winery: Mike Ditka Wines (Produced by Mendocino Wine Company)
The Wine: 2005 Kick Ass Red

The Price: The retail price is $49.99

This is a wine review that I expected to take a long time to come together because the wine has not yet made it to my local wine shops, and I was a bit reluctant to spend the $50 on a bottle of what I thought may just be a novelty wine. Tim, from Mendocino Wine Company, was kind enough to get a bottle of the Kick Ass Red along with a bottle of the Mike Ditka 2005 Chardonay and the 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon (look for reviews of the Chardonay and Cabernet Sauvignon soon). I am greatly appreciative of his efforts!

As a long time football fan, I have the utmost respect and fondness for Mike Ditka. He embodies the spirit of the Man's Man. A guy who is nicknamed Iron Mike is just damned tough! So I was a bit taken aback by the Mike Ditka line of wines. I would expect Mike Ditka cigars or Mike Ditka Single-Malt Scotch long before I would think of Mike Ditka wines. As a result, I really expected the wine to be little more than a novelty - something fun to bring out on game day, but not a "real" wine. Was I ever wrong! I was delightfully surprised by the quality of this wine. It is great wine, well worth the retail price, and very much a wine to enjoy now and buy a few extra bottles to cellar away for several years. This wine is game-winning-touchdown-pass good! It's the Chicago Bears Winning Superbowl XX good! It is Iron Mike good. And that's saying a lot.

The wine label is very nicely done (see top right of this review). In an age where labels are so often polluted with pictures of trucks, old ladies and dogs, the label on this wine is a very dignified looking monogram with a small caricature of Mike Ditka below the initials. It is very classy and dignified. The border, text and drawing on the label are gold, set on a black background.

The wine is a very rich, deep, dark red. The deepness of color portends the complexity and developed character of the wine. It has a fruity scent of cherry with a blackberry undertone. The wine has a very well developed, complex flavor. It has a predominately blackberry flavor with a subtle vanilla flavor and a mild pepper finish. With every sip, I like this wine more and more. It has a very silky, pleasant mouth feel. The folks at Mendocino really did a fantastic job in creating this wine, and I look forward to sampling more of their wines in the future.

One of the most memorable moments of Mike Ditka's career, for me personally, was when he was released from his coaching duties by the Chicago Bears. In the nearly-tearful press conference, he ended by saying, "Mike Ditka will survive." That statement really stuck with me through the years, I have thought about those words when I've been in difficult situations. Why I bring this up now is that it strikes me that the one time great NFL player and coach has changed gears and worked to create a great wine. Indeed, Mike Ditka has survived. And flourished.

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.