Duckhorn Merlot 2005:

After the last flop I felt I needed a strong come back. My setting, a quiet constructive evening with the wife, lasagna components and my first chance to use my new decanter . So I have been reading this book about understanding wine so I can better articulate my feelings for each wine even though I can’t read the pictures are great. The two things great about the decanter so far, pouring the wine looks cool and there is no top for it so the bottle must be finished in one sitting. So I will be using this al lot more in the future. I also learned that the decanter allows you to keep the sediment in the bottle. I now know what sediment is and that it has something to do with the age of the wine and how it was aged, pretty cool. So back to the wine, I chose this one because it was a special night and I have had this one in the past. In this pick I also shied away from a fancy label and went with a nice relaxing label soft on the eyes. I received this one from my membership to the Horne Cellars. I also felt that it would be a great wine to drink while I was playing with my meat. The meat was my mom’s recipe for meatball that were going to be apart of the lasagna for christmas day.
This wine I took a different approach to drinking it, I took my time. The usual bottle goes down fast and in about three and a half glasses, I’m a strong pourer. Smaller glasses had me appreciating the wine a lot more and it feels like the wine last more than 45 minutes. This red had a nice dark to light color profile and had my kind of legs, sexy and wide apart. This merlot had a beautiful 14.5% content which is always good in my book. What I noticed about this wine the flavor did not disappear as it went down. Making it a great choice with meat in one hand and wine in the other.

Until the end of the next bottle....

Bill

Cardinal Zin 2006:

What a joke. I went with the cool label vibe and was shot down like a duck in duck hunt. The flavor profile of this wine was trash and I can honestly say that this was recently the first wine I have not yet finished. I am looking for something to do with this besides drink it. The one thing I came up with although there was some hesitation was put a little bit I put in my lasagna sauce. Looking for positives on this wine was tough, the only things I can say is the label was great along with the kick in the nuts. The kick was swift and the pain lasted through the next day. Thats all I need to say on this one.

Anxiously waiting the end of the next bottle....

Bill

WEEKEND 12.18-12.20

Let me tell you about the weekend. After a long Friday of dealing with dopes at work, a trip to the old store was in order on the way home. Luckily I have an awesome wife that purchased dinner on her way home so my memory was wiped clean. The dinner idea had me dancing in my head. I saw this awesome bottle called Hey Mambo, so I two stepped with it. The wine had a great label, but the level of alcohol was lacking at a low for William's taste of 13.5%. The label won the battle of Friday night wine choice. With Thai food on the menu red wine is the only logical pairing right? Who is to say I'm wrong it tasted great and I had no complaints.
So anyway Saturday comes up and off to work I went, like one of the dwarfs. Looking for something different and exciting, Amy(my wife) and I went downtown to see what happens. Next thing you know we ended up at a local establishment The Princess Pub. The wine selection was long and distinguished. After a long debate in my head, I went with the recommended choice of GUINNESS. It was the thickest wine I have tasted but, it was damn good. The choice proved great with the pub fries that I chose for a starter. After we reached the bottom of our glasses we ventured onward with no plan. Amy was feeling winy so we went to the 3rd Corner. What's great with this restaurant is you get to shop for beverages instead of reading from a list. Amy found an interesting wine from Nappa labeled Edge. This particular wine was a Cabernet Sauvignon from 2007 and had the 14.4% alcohol flavor I like. The color was a nice dark red and the legs on the glass were running a marathon. The food of choice was a cheese plate that contained 5 cheeses. One of the cheeses tasted like a eraser, but the others were great. What made the dinning experience great was the people watching. We sat next to this group consisting of a grandma, grandpa, son, and grandson. when we started the grandson was calm the table had two empty bottles of wine. As we finished the cheese, the table finished the third bottle and the grandson started to come alive, with his possible father not really paying any attention to him. The father thought he was amazing and had the best tastes for wine forcing the waitress to try the wines he kept buying. My thought was he was wooing her for his son. The grandson started talking, at this time the father put him in his place with the only conversation between the two. It was awesome, that father son combo must love each other truly, madly, deeply. With all this going on, I don't want to forget the old geek with ugg like boots with his jeans tucked in, very fancy. All this action made it hard to eat the amazing mussels that we had with a loaf of bread for the juice. This could be the first time at a dinner where only one bottle was consumed. I blame the two movies that were in progress around us. Perry and the Boots, and My son the train wreck that we try to overlook, definitely no making the final cut.
Dinner done, the journey must go on. Saving time we went shopping at the restaurant and went home. The choice was white pinot griggio and a pinot noir. Although I did not taste the white, the pinot noir was once again a fun label. The name Queen of Hearts, being a fan of queens, I thought to myself it has to be fruity and delicious.
Queen of Hearts I came to find out is from Santa Barbara. Once again my mothers wine picking instinct came through. My mom picks wines by funny or fancy labels. This bottle fits that picking style. One thing I was blind to with this wine was my favorite part, the content. I'll tell you this it panned out in my favor, flavor, and sobriety then the night closed in.
Easy like Sunday morning.....the Sunday adventure began with a drive up the coast and some breakfast in Encinitas. The location, The Potato Shack which happened to be the first place we went after I proposed to Amy. The food was awesome for $8 bucks I learned how to sew a button onto jeans. That in mind it was Sunday and no Sunday morning is complete unless there is Champagne involved. Nothing like a magnum of champagne and orange juice to start a football Sunday. I did not specify which was the magnum, keep that in mind.
It's always good to have a Mimosa while you are prepping food for an awesome Christmas feast. After massaging my meat it went in the oven and my meatballs were created. All this action while watching the Chargers win strong. Let me tell you my opinion on champagne, it all taste the same. Some a little less orange tasting, but I think that's only because of my shaky pour. The bubbles make you happy and the juice makes you healthy, right?
After all the baking, it was dinner time where an awesome chili was prepared by the Mrs. For some refreshment and choice from the Horne Cellars out of New Jersey. This is a new wine club that I have recently joined. The club deals mostly in red wine and has some real nice choices that will help in my quest conquer the red wine world. The choice was pinot noir out of Santa Maria Valley named Dierberg 2005. The wine had a nice body and tons of legs. The damage a sweet 14.9% with a nice medium red color. This ended up being the best wine of the weekend. FIN

Until the end of the next bottle

Bill

ZYNTHESIS 2007

Hello all.
I saw this subtle bottle of wine amongst the many zinfandels on the rack. The subtle label first caught my eye, then the sale price of $9.99 sealed it. This is another zinfandel from Lodi. As you know I am trying to apprieciate all wines for everything they have to offer. This in mind, let me give you what I taste out of this wine. Zynthesis provides a very smooth taste with a lot of fruit flavor. Although i have no sense of which fruit I know fruit when I taste it. One thing I noticed on this wine is that the alcohol content in 14.8%. This was not as strong as the Plungerhead, but I think I am a fan of these strong content wines. The content I feel provides a bite to the wine that enhances the taste after you drink it.

Until the end of the next bottle....

Bill

My first

This is my first post!! I want to taste the wine of the world one bottle at a time. I enjoy drinking wine but, at the same time I have no background in wine. I like what like and I'm just a regular guy who enjoys a great tasting wine like the next person. What I want to accomplish is a learning experience for me and those who follow. My knowledge will grow as the tastings go on.
This being said, my first entry is about a wine from LODI. It's a 2007 Zinfandel named "PLUNGERHEAD." The reason I tried this one the first time was that my roomate had a friend of a friend that worked with this winery. The combination of this and an awesome label started my obsession. My experience with this wine is a full bodied Zinfandel that carries a hint of cinnamon and a fruit that my pallet with identify in posts to come. This bottle was 14.99 at my local beverage store, this being a little more that i shoot for but I feel it's worth it. I get a great holiday feel from this wine and I think you will too.

Until the end of the next bottle...

Bill