off to California

Tomorrow I'm off to the land of wine, redwoods, beautiful coast line, and Miranda...California. By mid afternoon tomorrow we'll be visiting wineries in Lodi sampling lots of wines. Then we'll drive up the California coast line into Northern California to see the redwoods. It's supposed to be a gorgeous drive and I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm sure we'll find plenty of wines to sample and drink along the way!

cheers!

Hey Mambo, swanky white

The heat of summer has set in and the last time I was at my fave wine store I was browsing the whites. I stumbled across this fun bottle name which immediately made me start singing the Rosemary Clooney song. So I picked up a the bottle and read the back of the label. It's a description of a lady in a dark bar/restaurant. And toward the end of the ladies description it implies that the wine tastes as good as she looks. I was sold. My only dilemma was to choose between the swanky white or the sultry red. I went w/ swanky.

The wine was surprisingly good. I was expecting sort of an eh flavor. California white wine can go either way. I could taste a light fruity flavor which was nice in the hot weather. We drank it during wine night while watching TV and catching up. I would get this again for a gift or to bring to a party. And I definitely plan to try the sultry red.

Cycles Gladiator Pino Noir

Surprise Surprise, I first bought a bottle of Cycles Gladiator based on the label. It's an impressive label! It's now become a decent standby. When I know I want a decent wine and don't want to gamble or spend more than 10 bucks this is where I turn. I've tried their pino noir, syrah, and pino grigio. All are good.

Most recently I had their pino noir. Next to their sryah the pino noir is my favorite. This past bottle I had was ok. I think Mirassou's pino noir has surpassed this in my cheap go to really good pino noir. But that's ok because there's nothing wrong w/ having two go to bottles. =)

Thomas More

What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine.

~Thomas More

Gabbiano Pino Grigio

A few years back Castello Di Gabbiano chianti and pino grigio's were one of my go to wines. It still is for chianti but I haven't had chianti in a long time. I'll have to pick some up soon. It's prime season for pino grigio so I picked up a bottle. The only reason that I'd stopped buying this brand was two back to back bottles that were ruined w/ cork rot. Which is bascially when the corks get mouldy and the wonderful wine tastes like acid/vinegar. This is where the move toward plastic corks is becoming popular but that's a whole nother post in the works. Anyway after experimenting w/ other pino grigio's I soon forgot about Gabbiano.

Now several years later I remembered it while brainstorming good white wines I'd had before. I picked up a bottle and opened it over the weekend. It was perfect after a day at an art fair in pleasant weather. It was light and refreshing. It would have been perfect with some cheese and crackers. I would definitely pick up a bottle of this again.

Luzon red

I am apart of our local liquor store's wine club. Which means that once a month they send me a coupon for what ever bottle of wine they choose that month. It's unusually an inexpensive bottle that gets decent reviews. So I picked up a bottle of Luzon for the whopping price of $6 and some cents. It took a while to get to opening the bottle and giving it a go.
I opened the bottle up a couple weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised. A little bitey but that decreased as the wine breathed. I enjoyed a nice glass in the evening then recorked to have some the following night. The next night while cooking dinner and sipped on another glass and the wine was already very rapidly oxidizing. The bitey flavor was very strong and not decreasing this time. I was a bit bummed.
This wine is from Spain and I believe the bottle I bought was the 2007 vintage. So if you find this bottle in your wine rack make sure to finish it off the night you open it!

the best kind of research

I leave for California in 23 days! And in preparing for our trip Miranda and I have been looking up area attractions that we want to see and visit. Our plan is, the day I fly in to visit Lodi and taste some wines. I mentioned before last summer when we visited her we stopped in Lodi which brought on my 6 month Zinfandel obsession. I think I'm ready to bring it back! Then the next morning we start our road trip North up route 1 along the beautiful coastline.

Today's research is to narrow down which vineyards to visit that first day. We can't get slobbery drunk since the next day will be full of driving narrow windy roads and attempting to look at the scenery. So M sent me this list of links and I'm to narrow it down to 6ish. Has anyone out there been to any of these? Any must see ones?

1) https://www.abundancevineyards.com/
2) http://www.bergholdvineyards.com/
3) http://www.macchiawines.com/macchia/index.jsp - Love the names of the wines
4) http://www.oakridgewinery.com/ - Look how cool that tasting room looks
5) http://www.dartwines.com/
6) http://www.e2familywinery.com/
7) http://www.harmonywynelands.com/index.cfm?id=77802&fuseaction=browse&pageid=1
8) http://www.stamantwine.com/
9) http://www.vrwinery.com/
10) http://www.vinoconbrio.com/conbrio/index.jsp
11) http://www.jgwinery.com/

Eric's Red, 2005

Mackinaw is a beautiful 45min drive away and the Mackinaw Valley Vineyard has been one of our fave places to go and enjoy some wine and a picnic over the last couple summers. This past weekend they had a grand opening of their new pavilion and to do so hosted a Music and International Beer and Wine Festival. You pay 10 bucks to get in, get a free glass, 5 free tastings of international wines and beers, enjoy a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, and listen to great live music. We weren't sure if we were going to go at first but the day was too beautiful to not go. We got there around mid afternoon tasted some wines, walked in the grapes, took some holga pics. Chris found a couple of tasty beers we hadn't tried before. And I tasted several wines but when I'm at the Mackinaw winery, their Eric's Red always seems to be my favorite. So I bought a glass their to enjoy the music with and then got a bottle to go.
Their wine's are tend to be named after their kids. It is a semi sweet red although it's up on their dry list. It's hard to do a dry wine in Illinois. But it's just the right amount of sweet. It works great with a light meal like cheese and crackers or a heavy meal of pasta or steak. I've had quite a few of these bottles between all our visits to the vineyard. And am always looking forward to more!