So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!
- 10 Mud House Pinot Noir (Central Otago): Through a red currant, darkly. Also spicily, pith-ily, and somewhat sweet-toast-ily. $19 B >>find this wine<<
- 09 Mud House South Island Pinot Gris (South Island): Toasty, friendly, and carrying melons. Like, back-up-the-truck volume of melons. $16 B- >>find this wine<<
- 09 Mud House Waipara Riesling (Waipara): Mineral water bath, in a slate-and-flint tub, lime zest soap and can of diesel at the ready. $12 B- >>find this wine<<
- NV Grahams Twenty Year Tawny Porto (Porto): Richer than a sultan, toastier and smokier than his hookah, and silkier than his robes. $59 B+ >>find this wine<<
- 10 Firestone Vineyard Syrah (Santa Ynez Valley): An entire meal here, from jammy fruit to smokey meat to a Nilla Wafer for dessert. $25 B >>find this wine<<
- 10 Firestone Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (Santa Ynez Valley): Has energy, but gets picked on by its cheaper South American cousins. $22 B- >>find this wine<<
- 09 Firestone Vineyard Merlot (Santa Ynez Valley): An amorphous black fruit form that eventually settles into a smokey, solid stance. $20 B >>find this wine<<
- 11 Firestone Vineyard Riesling (Santa Ynez Valley): A bit wobbly on its feet, but it is trying very hard to make friends with you. $14 B- >>find this wine<<
- 09 Cuvelier Los Andes (Mendoza): If dark plums made some sort of blood sausages out of themselves in a hedonistic, cannibalistic feast $25 B >>find this wine<<
- NV Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut (Sonoma County): An orchard full of green apples, aggressively blowing bubbles at frequent intervals. $22 B >>find this wine<<
- NV Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs (Carneros): Remember Cherry Jam from Strawberry Shortcake? This is like her baking high-end pastries. $22 B >>find this wine<<
- NV Gloria Ferrer VA de VI Ultra Cuvee (Sonoma County): Lemon peel, peach, and bread walk into a bar… then they get pretty wasted. $22 B >>find this wine<<
- 10 Gloria Ferrer Carneros Chardonnay (Carneros): Trying to make itself look busty, but its slim and slender build is already pretty. $18 B >>find this wine<<
- 10 Gloria Ferrer Carneros Pinot Noir (Carneros): Floral/fruity shirt with tight, taut leather pants. But moves well on the dance floor $27 B >>find this wine<<
- 07 Navarro Correas Structura Ultra (Mendoza): A burly, burlesque entry buffeted by a broad, bracing, bright, and brisk denouement. $40 A- >>find this wine<<
- 10 Kaiken Ultra Cabernet Sauvignon (Mendoza): Dark cassis, toast and the depth you'd expect from vines twice as old as most of you. $22 B+ >>find this wine<<
- 10 Kaiken Ultra Malbec (Mendoza): So chewy, meaty, big and savory, you just might think you'd been served steak in that glass. $20 B+ >>find this wine<<
- 10 Pence Ranch Estate Pinot Noir (Santa Barbara County): Carries a redcurrant-and-leather whip, ready and able for cattle rustlin'. $30 B+ >>find this wine<<
Comments
gabe
dude, i dig your write-ups and all that, but your reviews have more B's than an apiary
1WineDude
Gabe – what would you prefer? Including the Cs when so much better stuff is able to make the cut seems a waste to me, and there simply aren't enough As out there (period) to fill up with those every week…
1WineDude
Gabe – I’d also add that those grades (though a direct comparison isn’t totally possibly, in my opinion) don’t differ significantly from what other critics are “scoring” in terms of percentages in which their ratings fall. Which I suppose is more fodder for the absurdity of ratings in general! :-)
gabe
i guess i hear what you are saying about excluding c's – there is no point in going out of your way to tell everyone you disliked a wine. and i appreciate that you giving out an "a" is your way of setting a wine apart, and is therefore done rarely. i swear i mostly meant that as a joke, and not as a serious criticism.
i really do dig your wine reviews. i appreciate that you try to describe a wines personality, and not just a list of flavors. i honestly think your tasting notes might be the best in the business. i apologize if my silly little joke came out harsher than i intended
1WineDude
gabe – of course, totally understand. Except for you thinking my notes are the best, which signifies that you might be insane. I was asking seriously, though, because right ow I get about a 50/50 split on people wanting C (or below) ratings published, and those who say they'd rather not see them…
gabe
as a winemaker, i definitely have no desire to see critics handing out insulting scores. unless a wine seriously flawed, i see no real justification for it…and honestly, i've tasted flawed wines that have received surprisingly high scores. so unless you are using tasting notes that include phrases like "ethyl acetate", "pediococcus", or "brettanomyces", i don't think you should be handing out d's and f's. if you were doing a value tasting of $10 and under wines, maybe a c is not so bad. but i imagine anyone who wants to see wines get panned has probably never made wine before
1WineDude
Gabe – I suppose you’re right. On the other side of it, if you’re buying a seven dollar wine and expecting it to taste like a B+ or A, you’re expectations are out of whack with reality. It can happen, it’s just not likely, the bargain prices are usually bargain prices for a reason. Which is why I can get so enthusiastic about a B- $7 wine sometimes! :-)
gabe
i've been drinking the $8 castle rock mendocino merlot from trader joe's for months. it's a solid c+, and i mean that as an enormous compliment. i'm trying to figure out how to make wine for $8 wholesale, and it's almost impossible