2007 Redwood Creek Cabernet Sauvignon

Once in a while wine really surprises you. This is one of those times. I am really impressed with this wine. I enjoy the fact that it tastes very smooth. As the label says, the finish is velvety. Best of all, I paid $4.99. It's difficult to pull out any real fruit flavors or any complexity. That being said, it doesn't taste harsh, as many of the Cabernet Sauvignons in this price range do. I would drink this wine again. 87.

2007 Herding Cats Merlot

This wine cost me 7 bones. Kristen's opinion is that this is a very complex wine for the price range. She also noted, and enjoyed, the tart finish. I also think it has a tart finish, and I find it very smooth. I rate this wine an 88, and Kristen rates it an 89. It's a nice find!

2005 Francis Coppola Zinfandel

Tonight's selection was paired with leftovers from the Grenache night. We're fairly unimpressed with this wine. It tastes a lot like a grape/cherry fruit roll-up. I enjoy that flavor, but unfortunately it's combined with a sour aftertaste. For $16 we can do a lot better with 7 Deadly Zins.

2005 Shingleback Grenache

Tonight we have a special treat. As you'll find in this blog, I drink a lot more wine, a lot more often, than Kristen. Tonight she's drinking. We're trying a bottle of 2005 Shingleback Grenache, $18 on sale from $25 (as you'll see, I love sales). We really like this wine. It's smooth, with a nice grape flavor. We enjoyed it with spinach, mozzarella , and tomato pizza (shout out to Spinato's in Phoenix). The wine did a great job of not overpowering the food. It's light on the palate and very drinkable. It's well balanced without being over-oaked. I give this wine a 92, and Kristen gives it a 90, noting it's lack of complexity. Let it be known that when we compared this wine to last night's Cabernet, there was no comparison. This wine was much, much better.

First Wine Post

Kristen and I are relatively new on the wine scene. We really enjoy wine, but I wanted to start a blog to begin documenting our tasting notes. I'm hoping this will teach us to appreciate the wine more by attempting to document our feelings. Secondly, it should serve as a reference for wines that we enjoy and wines we do not.

So, here goes. The first bottle we are going to try is Root:1, a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. I paid $9.99 for this wine, on sale from an original price of $14.99. This wine tastes thick on the palate, but it has very interesting notes of plum and dark cherry (not atypical of Cabs). The heat of this wine seems pretty mellow compared to other cheaper Cabs that I've had, but it has a very distinct oak flavor. This wine also has a fair amount of tannins, which I enjoy. Overall, I'm very impressed by this wine for a $10 bottle. It tastes a whole lot better than a Columbia Crest or another cheaper wine that can sometimes taste very sweet and undefined. I give this wine an 88.

Kristen thinks the wine smells like cherry cough syrup. She says it looks watery, but it has a very robust taste. She finds the wine "hot" going down. Very drinkable. Kristen thinks it's not as smooth as other $10 wines we've had, but notes that it might be due to her sore throat tonight. Kristen scores this wine an 86.