First wine blog of 2009

Last night was a very special night as far as wine goes. We started out drinking a sparkler from Louis Perdrier. Although this is from France, it’s from the Cote-D’or region so it can’t be a Champagne. We had a non vintage Rose and it was delicious, though Shelley said it had a yeasty nose. We’ve been experiencing warm weather and it’s washing all the mounds of snow away and so this was a delight for us.

After the sparkler we finished off a bottle of 2006 Gruner Veltliner by Laurenz Five of Austria. This is such an “off the beaten path” white wine but it really is delicious. We sipped this while Shelley skunked me in Gin, about 350 to nil. Oh well, the game might have been a catastrophe for me but the wine helped numb the bitter loss.

We had opened a couple of bottles of red wine earlier this week and we finished them off with a fine steak salad. Shelley had the 2005 Merlot from Tin Roof Cellars from Santa Rosa, California. As I remember, this Merlot was soft with subtle tannins and really quite nice.

I, on the other hand, finished off a bottle of 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from Knoll Haven winery, also from Santa Rosa, California. This had a nice berry nose and, although quite young, was certainly very drinkable now.

Four different wines in one night and no headache the next morning! How do we do it?

ToNIGHT, we have opened a Vouvray which Shelley doesn't really like very much--too sweet, she says. I am enjoying it. It has an apricot, a very RIPE apricot, nose.

Next week, who knows what we'll open.

Thanks for visiting. Ciao for now.

Phil