New Site From Here On Out

I want to let everyone know that I have a new wine site. From here on out all of our General Wine Thoughts posts will be found at www.generalwinethoughts.com. This site will eventually have a lot of information about the world of wine and my hope is that people that want to know about wine but are new to the wine world will be able to learn at their own pace and begin to feel comfortable about talking about wine.

I will see you on the other side.

Phil

Four Wines in Three Nights

Happy Wednesday! Welcome to another posting of my “General Wine Thoughts”. Fun stuff, huh?
We’ve had some interesting wine the past couple of nights. Last night we had a wonderful roast for dinner and opened a 2005 Winemaker’s Blend from Maryhill Winery. Maryhill is located in the, as they state, “world renowned”, scenic Columbia River Gorge in South Central Washington State. We’ve enjoyed this particular wine quite a bit because we had the honor of being able to take home a couple of bottles after we helped with Taste Washington last June in Spokane, Washington. We’ve come to understand the benefits of helping to break down the event afterwards.

This red wine is comprised of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Franc and went quite well with the roast beef. This particular blend always seems to have quite a few tannins but it has a rich, full nose and a lovely taste.

We opened the evening with a 2004 Pieropan Soave Classico from Italy (pictured). I couldn’t find out what was used in this particular vintage white table wine but the 2005 had 90% Garganega and 10% Trebbiano. I understand that this winery uses Garganega for their Soave Classico. It reminded me of Chardonnay in its look and taste. It was quite smooth and had a subtle flowery nose.

The night before that we had broiled steaks, a staple in our house. We had a 2006 Stephen’s Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon. I thought this wine was rather weak, to tell you the truth. I was really needing a big Cab to go with this steak and it really didn’t live up to that expectation. Hey, you win some and you lose some, yes? Anyway, Stephens Ridge is located in Santa Rosa, California and this is the first time we tried this winery.

Tonight we just finished a 2007 Chardonnay from Snoqualmie Vineyards, also, from the Columbia Valley in Washington. Actually we didn’t expect a lot from this wine as it was quite inexpensive but it was rather surprising. Usually the nose on a cheap white wine is of a dirty laundry hamper but this had nothing of the like. Light, fresh and surprisingly, not too much oak, which I’ve found is another consistent trait of cheap wine.

Since the next posting will likely be after the Super Bowl here is my prediction that you all have likely been on the edge of your seat waiting to hear. It will be a close game and I think the Arizona Cardinals will put a bow on their Cinderella story by upsetting the Steelers 23-17.

There you have it. Another post in the books and THIS one with an actual picture! Keep a lookout for the next one as I’m going to show you the Cork Catcher I made to catch all the corks from the wine we drink. It’s very unique and an eye catcher.

Till then, bottoms up!

A Couple Simple Wines on a Simple Night Out

Hello, fellow wine drinkers. Oh, I'm just so excited! I'm writing this just as the Washington Huskies beat #11 UCLA by nine in a Pac 10 basketball showdown. Now they sit on top of the Pac 10.

So on to what this is supposed to be. Today’s post will include some thoughts about two different wines we drank last night while at dinner at a cute little place near Coeur d’Alene called Kynrede Café. Shelley likened it to a restaurant she absolutely loves in Orange County called The Hobbit.

Shelley ordered a glass of La Palma Sauvignon Blanc from the Cachapoal Valley of Chile. It was a 2007 vintage and estate grown. It was everything a good Sauvignon Blanc should be. Shelley thought it was a somewhat effervescent. I thought it had a very grassy nose and it was very light.

I ordered a 2004 Cambria Chardonnay from their Katherine’s Vineyard. This estate bottle Chardonnay is from the Santa Maria Valley in Santa Barbara County, California. Surprisingly, it had virtually no nose. However, it tasted much better than the nose with light oak, somewhat toasty, very smooth and mellow. Shelley thought had a slightly perfumy nose and had a light butter and oak taste to it. Just a perfect amount of oak in this Chardonnay.

We have visited this winery before and the people there are very nice. Katherine’s Vineyard is named for the owner’s eldest daughter. I remember sneaking out to where all the oak casks were when we visited. We even bought our most very favorite wine opener at the Cambria winery but it recently broke and we’re in the process of finding another one just like it. This opener is flat and has a nifty little foil cutter on one end that opens up when you need to use it and the cork screw on the other end. It’s very small, light, simple and easy to use. But, since it’s made of plastic, it can break when trying to pry a cork out of an older bottle of wine and that’s just what happened.

Shelley ordered Chicken Marcella and realized the Sauvignon Blanc probably wouldn’t pair too well with it. I ordered the Coconut Prawns and I faced a similar dilemma with my Chardonnay. What WOULD we do?

Well, we did just that and pulled the old switcheroo. Her chicken paired very well with the Chardonnay and the Sauvignon Blanc was delicious with my prawns. Of course, we both got to taste the other dish as well. All in all it was a very enjoyable meal, especially when you look at the per glass prices of the wine, $4.25 for the Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and $5.75 for the Chardonnay.

As always, thank you for reading, and now go drink up!

2009 Inauguration Day tasting notes

What a day! President Obama was sworn into office and the whole nation, including ourselves, were fixated on the events as they unfolded. As I looked at their luncheon menu I noticed they chose all California wines to pair with their meal. A 2007 Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc with the first coarse, a 2005 Goldeneye Pinot Noir to go with the second coarse and a Korbel Natural “Special Inaugural Cuvee” sparkling wine (they errantly called it a California Champagne) for the third, and last, course. Go to http://inaugural.senate.gov/luncheon/ to see what food they paired these wines with or try http://store.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFront/default.asp?CS=duckhorn&StoreType=BtoC&Count1=723919093&Count2=641059517&ProductID=1193&Target=products.asp to buy the first two wines in a wooden gift box and enjoy what all the dignitaries at the luncheon enjoyed.

A side note, Shelley’s all-time favorite Merlot is made by Duckhorn. We have a couple bottles that we laid down some years back, one of them a 25th anniversary bottle. Perhaps we should think about bringing one of those up soon to enjoy, yes?

Tonight we celebrated this historic day by finishing off that wonderful lasagna from Sunday night and we opted to try a blend with it—an unusual blend from Oxford Landing from South Australia called GSM, which stands for Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre. I told you it was unusual. Oxford Landing has been around since 1958 and this 2006 GSM was a blend of 47% Grenache, 43% Shiraz and 10% Mourvedre.

Shelley thought she noticed pomegranate in the nose but changed that to, get this, concord grapes. How often do you get anything grape from a wine? Everything BUT grapes, right? I tasted cherries and Shelley added that they were sour cherries, at that. I couldn’t argue. A very smooth, well rounded red wine with virtually no tannins and didn’t taste as young as it should have.

We opened our evening by opening a bottle of Robert Mondavi Chardonnay from 2007. OK, nothing mind blowing here. We both thought the same thing after looking, smelling and tasting: Oak. There was so much oak in this Chardonnay that you couldn’t really taste that it was Chardonnay. That might explain why we each only had a glass and the rest sits in the bottle in the fridge. Perhaps we’ll try and finish it another night. It used to be that you could count on anything from Mondavi to be, at least, good, but not anymore. How sad.

And that’s what I have for you tonight. Until next time, drink up and enjoy!

One for two in predicting winners, two for two in wine choices

Ok, ok, so I went for a grand slam and only got a stand up triple. My prediction for both underdogs to win went South but Arizona kept my credibility from crumbling like a house of cards. As for the Super Bowl, well I have just under a couple of weeks to come up with my last football (and only second this year) prediction. But I can pretty much say that it won't be the Steelers. Bleh!

So I got half my game predictions right but we went two for two with our wines. My lovely daughter is still on holiday break from college and she and her boyfriend stopped over before heading back to college tomorrow. We opened a 2007 Latah Creek Semillon from Washington States Spokane Valley. Shelley noted vanilla notes in the nose and we enjoyed this "off the beaten path" white wine.

When the lasagna came out of the oven the last bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau came out of the pantry. We opened the first bottle of this wine at Thanksgiving this past year, right after it was released. Drinking a 2008 vintage in 2008 is interesting. Of course, this is very young, but it's always special and went with the lasagna perfectly.

So this wine blog thing seems to be off and running with four posts in the books. I appreciate you popping by and reading what's going on in our little world of enjoying wine and giving my "General Wine Thoughts".

'Til next time...

Wine and conference championships

As we near the second to the last weekend of real football (the Pro Bowl doesn't EVEN count) I was sipping a glass of Viognier from Bridlewood Estate Winery (bridlewoodwinery.com; 1-800-467-4100) , from the Central Coast of California, Santa Ynez, and wondering, "should I predict the outcomes of these games?" The answer poured over me like the bountiful aroma of spring flowers that this Reserve Viognier sent my way: "YES, I should!"

But first, I will admit that last night we drank a Fume Blanc from Bernard Griffin, not all THAT uncommon, and it was quite good. I have to say that the Sauvignon Blanc grape that makes up a Fume Blanc just never dissapoints me, and this one was no different. The fact that this wine is under ten bucks makes it even better.

The Viognier from this evening tasted a bit more elegant, however. All I think about is springtime fragrance when I recall the nose on this wine and a very smooth taste albeit an awkward finish. Poor Shelley had a cold so she couldn't really enjoy it and Viognier is one of her very favourites (she's from Canada, eh, so I have to spell it that way).

Now for my predictions: Arizona will stun the world by beating the Eagles this weekend, 26-20. For the AFC, Baltimore will defeat the Steelers, 19-10. I can back up both predictions with sound football logic. The Cardinals are from the NFC West, where my Seahawks play, and so you always go with the division that YOUR team plays in even if it's a rival of YOUR team. Loyalty. As for the other side, there is no way that I will ever root for Pittsburgh again after they beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. Rothlis(cheese)burger is not a very good quarterback, in my opinion.

So there you go, my third post, and I even subtly mixed in sports to go with my general wine thoughts! Amazing.

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