2007 A to Z Oregon Riesling – $12

Sourced from 4 vineyards, two in the higher altitudes of Southern Oregon and two of the oldest vineyards in the Northern Willamette Valley. No malolactic fermentation (Wine Fact: Malolactic fermentation gives the wine a full lush mouth feel and imparts a buttered popcorn nose and a green apple flavor to the wine.) Fairly small production of 2,733 cases.

The color is a very light golden wheat yellow. The nose is tangerines, mineral dust and key lime pie. The flavor is soft orange blossom honey, delicate, not tart citrus. The finish is soft ripe peaches, again very delicate. A seductive wine, it does not hit you over the head with flavor, but it sneaks up on you, it wraps itself around your taste buds.

The A to Z has nice acidity, but don’t pair it with food that is too spicy. The soft honeyed citrus and fruit would better accompany lighter meals and dessert.

2006 Carhartt Vineyards “Chase The Blues Away” Rosé – $10

A small production Rosé (250 cases), Estate Produced and Bottled in the Santa Ynez Valley all for ten bucks. Carhartt Vineyards is a 10 acre family owned Estate on a mesa in the Santa Ynez Valley (Santa Barbara, California). The Rosé is a blend of Syrah and Merlot and the wine is aged six months in neutral French oak. To simplify things, a rosé is red wine grapes turned into wine using white wine methods. The grape skins are left in the vats for a short period of time at the beginning of fermentation. The wine gets a bit of color, but not much in the way of tannins.

The color is a very clear peachy, orangey red. The nose is bright fresh fruit, strawberry shortcake, I even think I detected a bit of whipped cream and raspberries. The flavor is smooth, crisp and light fresh, creamy red fruit. Not too sweet, very refreshing. The alcohol content is 13.6%, but it tastes much lighter.

It is winter in Chicago, but the “Chase the Blues Away” Rosé has me thinking of warm weather. A very nice choice for a lazy summer evening, this is a bottle that goes down nice and easy.

A small production wine, but you can find it at Lush http://tiny.cc/Qepbb

2005 Skillogalee Riesling – $9

There is a Australian Video Blog that I watch, www.wineweek.com.au . The reviews are not super detailed , but Danny and Brad are very enthusiastic about Aussie wines and I get to keep up with the latest Australian slang. One thing they have been saying lately is to keep away from Australian and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, they insist it tastes of “cat pee”,  the Aussie Riesling has really been on the money lately and it is a far better choice.

Which brings me to the 2005 Skillogalee Riesling, the grapes a sourced from a single vineyard, family owned estate in the Claire Valley and produced in small batches. The bottle I found must have been an end of the bin special, because the 2009 vintage has already been released. It seems that this is a very popular and award winning wine in Australia, but in checking the Web, I did not see much information on this Riesling from U.S. sources. The price for this wine in Australia runs between $15 and $20, so this is proof there are bargains to be had in this economy.

The color is a pale straw yellow. The nose is citrus, minerals and dusty slate. The flavor is smooth rounded pears and honey, muted grapefruit in the back of your palate. The mouth feel is slightly oily and the finish is light citrus that goes on and on and on.The five years of bottle age have been kind to this wine, all the different tastes are well blended, the sharper citrus flavors just dance around the edges. Not a sweet Riesling at all, very dry and very smooth, very tasty. At this price this wine is an amazing steal.

2005 Gramona Gran Cuvee – $16

Gramona is the last family owned Cava maker in Spain. The Gran Cuvee is a blend of three grapes, Xarel.lo (that’s right it has a period in the middle), Macabeo and Chardonnay. The still wine is aged one year in French Oak and thirty months “on lees” ( in the bottle while the yeast is doing the second fermentation). Parker gave this vintage 91 points. So far so good, we have a single vintage, estate grown and bottled, 90 point plus Sparkler selling for 16 bucks.

Pale yellow in color, it looks very elegant in the glass. The nose is buttered toast, hints of butterscotch and a bit of lemon zest. The taste is sharp green apples on your tongue and fresh baked apple pie in the back of your palate with  that champagne nutty, yeasty note evident; cool, different levels of flavor. It has both a tart citrus component and a creamy almost buttery element. This a very classy bottle of wine, delicate and varied. The bubbles are light and fleeting, but the taste makes a statement. This is a sparkling wine that will hold it’s own with sparklers far more expensive.

R Wines Bitch Bubbly – $9

Now here’s something a little different, a sparkler made from Grenache with some Shiraz added into the mix. R Wines has been making their regular Bitch Grenache for a while now and it has always been a popular wine for women to give to their female friends. Turning that Grenache into bubbly is a brilliant idea. R Wines is a collaboration between Dan Phillips (who is one of the people who put  Australian wine on the map) and Chris Ringland ( who is commonly referred to as a “Rockstar” winemaker). These guys know wine and when they come to a vineyard looking for grapes for a new project, growers greet them with open arms. R Wines make some of the most consistently excellent, value priced wines on the planet.

It’s got a 1970’s soda pop top and not a cork and cage like most bubbly, so bring a bottle opener. The Bitch Bubbly is a very easy to drink Sparkler, sweet, but not too sweet, loads of ripe sliced strawberries in a bowl of fresh milk. The body is light, bubbles take the flavor to your taste buds then disappear. I found that the bottle was empty very quickly, it’s one of those fun wines that entice you to take the next sip and then the next. Not super complex and not a substitute for a French Grower/Producer Champagne, but a fun, party wine. Good times in a bottle, Bitch Bubbly should be included in your New Years Eve plans or maybe just your tuesday night plans. It’s always time for a little bubbly.

Segura Viudas ARIA Pinot Noir Brut Cava -$10

The Aria Pinot Noir Brut is a Spanish Cava, this particular one is a sparkling wine made in the French style, using a traditional French grape varietal . The Aria is actually a Rose’, though it does not say so on the bottle, it has a soft pink color, which indicates that the grape skins where left in the juice for a little while when they crushed the grapes.

Wine Fact #1:If it was a white sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France, it would be a Blanc de Noir (white from black, meaning white bubbly from black or red grapes , in this case Pinot Noir). The term Blanc de Blancs means (white from white, usually meaning white bubbly made from Chardonnay).

Wine Fact #2:The Aria’s second fermentation (the process that gives it the bubbles) is in the bottle. A little bit of yeast is put into each bottle and for the next 18 months the bottles are regularly turned slightly to keep the spent yeast from sticking to the side of the bottles and yucking things up, as they say in France.

Wine Fact #3:The term Brut is used to indicate sweetness or dryness, with Brut wines having less sugar and Sec wines containing more sugar.

It has a light delicate nose, a bit of baked bread from the yeast, a touch of strawberry jam. The bubbles dissipate quickly, almost too quickly.  The flavors are muted, it tastes of tart cherries, watermelon hard candy and a bit of a mineral edge. It is a dry wine, not too sweet, some of the value priced sparklers can get cloyingly sweet, but not this one. I like the Aria, for the price it’s outstanding. If I’m drinking bubbly on someone else’s dime, I think i would choose something farther up the sparkling wine food chain. But if I’m paying, this will do nicely.

2007 Columbia Crest Riesling – $7

The number one question we get asked this time if year is, “What wine would go with my Thanksgiving turkey dinner?”

Well, a lot of wines compliment turkey, but few quite as well as Riesling, and since Thanksgiving is an all-American holiday, give the German Riesling a rest and go with Riesling from Columbia Valley. Plus it IS among the best.

So, here comes Columbia Crest. Enough fruit for a harvest farm stand – apricots, pears, peaches and melons all getting together at the house this year.

Throw the coats on the bed, have a seat and take a sip of this crisp, refreshing white. Not too sweet, it’s terrifically tongue-loving. All those fruits present on the nose come back to party one more time in your mouth. Fine by itself, but wait ’til you sip it after a bite of Thanksgiving turkey! Its clean acidity, pure fruit flavors and mild alcohol (11.5%) bring a nice counter-balance of lightness to the feeling of heaviness as the dinner progresses.

Ever notice you never get any on Thanksgiving? Must be all the coats on the bed.

2008 Pacific Rim Riesling – $10

This organic, screw-top Riesling from Columbia Valley’s Pacific Rim has a lot going for it. Spritzy, but not too spritzy, it’s the “Sweet Tarts” of wine: sweet pears – but not too sweet – and golden pineapple tartness combine in your mouth for a refreshing “breezy summertime in Savannah” party.

Try it with Thai, chili, spicy Asian, Caribbean jerk chicken – or vanilla bean ice cream! Don’t expect much of a BUZZ from this wine though, 9% alcohol will only get beer drinkers tipsy. Unless of course you drink two bottles!

2008 Honig Sauvignon Blanc – $15

This Napa wine was described to me at a tasting event recently by the wine rep as “fragrant, pea blossom and gooseberry flavors with an almond skin finish”. Yeah – where to start? It’s the absolute CRAP that made us want to start this site to begin with. Let’s break that down:

“Fragrant” – it smells like something? No kidding? Flowers are fragrant. So is a cigar. Which is this closer to?

“Pea  blossom and gooseberry flavors” – a WHAT-berry? I don’t know what a pea blossom is, let alone tasted one, and the last time I had a gooseberry was, well, NEVER.

“Almond skin finish” – I know what an almond tastes like, does its skin taste like that? Why not just say “it tastes like an almond”? My girlfriend has OLIVE skin, and that’s pretty tasty – is it like that?

First of all, I don’t like when reps describe the wine BEFORE I’m done with it. They could say anything – “chocolate”, for example – now it’s in my head and that’s all I will taste.

Eventually the rep closed his mouth and poured. Luckily I can taste the wine for myself and let you know what I think it smells and tastes like using real words that are easily understood by the 99.9% of wine drinkers that are NOT master sommeliers.

Sauv Blancs are known for their grassy notes – this one was no exception. Piles of straw, grassy fields and freshly-squeezed limes on the nose with all kinds of crisp, clean, fresh peach, ripe apple and zesty citrus flavors finish up with lingering melons and mango.

Sauv Blanc is also SOOOOOO food-friendly. Drink it with spicy Asian food, chili, Thai food, artichoke dip or Caesar salad.

2008 Babich Sauvignon Blanc – $13

Sourced from two vineyards in Marlborough, New Zealand this is not the ultra fruit forward Sauvignon Blanc that N.Z. is known for. The nose is crisp and clean, very enticing, some pineapple, some grassy aromas and a bit of a mineral smell. This would make a great aroma candle.

The taste is mellow on the fruit, muted green apple, some tropical fruit with a tart acidity on the back of the palate. The Babich is a very food friendly wine, strong enough and well structured enough to stand up to food you may not always drink white wine with. This reminds me  of the Sauvignon Blanc’s from the Loire Valley in France. A very likable wine at a very reasonable price.

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