Growing up under a successful watercolor artist (my mom) I was constantly surrounded by all types of artist and art. I love the fact that when wine comes together with art it makes me all giddy inside. That’s what I thought about when I tried Ed Hardy wines for the first time…now I know a lot of you out there are saying oh yeah the guy that makes the loud t-shirts.

I must admit I’ve always loved his color choices and his tattoo art. When I heard about his wines I didn’t want to try them, I thought they were probably over done and they’re just out there for the name. But recently I hosted a wine tasting and one of the wines was the Ed Hardy Moscato. I really enjoyed it, it was a drier moscato not a typical sugary sweet Californian Moscato. It had tastes of peach and melon and it was refreshing. I looked at the label and saw that the grapes were grown and bottled in France. The price was right too: $7.99 a bottle.

After trying that I bought a different wine, the demi-sec Diamond Sparkling Rose`. Great wine it wasn’t bitter and it wasn’t sweet it was a blend of dry with a hint of sweet. The blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, and Pinot Noir tasted perfect, this was light with a hint of cream, berries, and a little yeast after taste.

Now with this being said, I haven’t tried any of the other wines. I believe I like these 2 wines because they are inexpensive, light, and you do not have to over think them. Plus they are pretty bottles to look at after you’re finished with them. Great wines for a night with friends. What’s your thoughts on Ed Hardy Wine please give me some feed back on the other wines.

A couple of weeks ago Cresta shared with us that Aldi Grocery stores sell wines. I thought I would check it out, and what I found was a pretty great deal. I purchased 4 different bottles of wines from Aldi all priced under $7; none of the other wines were over $9. Here’s my reviews of the 4 wines I purchased.

• Landshut Riesling $5.99 – Had a wonderful floral bouquet with tastes of honey and sweet melon. I would have to agree with Cresta that this is a very sweet Riesling but this would be perfect if your having asian spicy foods. This wine would pair with spicy Thai foods, hearty seafood stew, or served as a great desert wine.
• Villa Malizia Pinot Grigio $5.99 – A very light and crisp Pinot Grigio that had tastes of citrus and pear. It actually tasted better after it warmed up a little. (I decided stop chilling and drink it at room temperature.) This is a great summer wine that you can pair with salads, fish dishes, and light pasta dishes. I really enjoyed this Pinot Grigio.
• Gonfalone Chianti $6.79 – This is not your typical Chianti, it was very light but with some tannins and had tastes of smoke and leather. It was light like a Pinot Noir but had some characteristics of a Syrah. I personally didn’t enjoy it BUT if you are into a light Pinot Noir then this is your bottle to buy.
• Toca Diamonte Malbec $5.99 – This by far was my favorite one. The bouquet was black cherry and a hint of floral and tastes of clove, oak, berry, and black cherry. I really enjoyed this wine, I wanted to grill a steak after having a few sips of the wine. This would definitely compliment a great steak, hearty pasta dishes, or just drank alone with friends. If you’re into big hearty wines this is a great one for the price.

I can’t wait to go back and try other wines that Aldi has to offer. If you have an Aldi Grocery store in your neighborhood just remember you can pick up some wine for dinner while you’re grocery shopping.

On the drive across Kansas, a state that seems to be roughly 12,000 miles across, Michelle and I noticed a billboard for the Oz Museum. With her love of the Wizard of Oz and my desire to not be in the car for a few minutes, we decided to make a small detour to Wamego, KS. Wamego was a very nice little town and in addition to having coffee at The Daily Grind, next door was the Oz Winery.

The winery offers free samples while they are open and this gave us a chance to try what they had to offer. The dry whites were tasty, especially the Poppy Fields, a balanced Pinot Gris. The wine was well made and we ended up with a few bottles.

Oz Winery is worth a stop for anyone on their way through the Sunflower State.

And if you want to know more about our cross-country road trip, from Cincinnati to San Francisco, you can follow along over on the Posterous Blog.

]]> http://www.wine-girl.net/2011/09/oz-winery.html/feed 0 http://www.wine-girl.net/2011/06/think-pink-2008-belle-glos-pinot-noir-blanc.html http://www.wine-girl.net/2011/06/think-pink-2008-belle-glos-pinot-noir-blanc.html#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:58:52 +0000 Michelle http://www.wine-girl.net/?p=3108 The last rose I’m sharing with you is probably my favorite rosé of all time, period. It tastes more expensive than it is … it looks more expensive than it is.

2008 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Blanc, Mendocino County, California
$18.99, Water Tower Fine Wines

Have you heard of Caymus? They’re rather well known for their Cabernet. So well known, in fact, that in order to focus on some rather nice Pinot Noir, the winemaker had to open a separate winery. In 2001, that’s how Belle Glos came to be.

Belle Glos is distinctive for its wax-dipped bottles, a la Maker’s Mark. The Pinot Noirs all have a dark red wax, but this rosé sports a brilliant pink. It’s actually a gorgeous bottle. I had to have it as soon as I saw it in the store. (The wax has a pull tab, making it easy to remove from the top. A tip: don’t stick it in the freezer.)

The wine has a wonderful aroma of flowers and wild strawberries. You can see in the photo that the wine itself is almost a jewel-tone. The rosé is made from pinot noir, which is my favorite red grape.

I’ve never said this about a rosé before, but this is a sexy rosé. It makes sense, as pinot noir can be one of the most sensuous wines around, but rosé? My hats off to the winemaker. This has a lot of big dark berries and just a kiss of strawberry.

This isn’t one of those light, prissy rosés; this wine has some heft to it. We drank it solo, but I bet it would also prove to be an excellent food wine, holding up to some heavier pairings.

Enjoy!

My review:

$10.99, Water Tower Fine Wines

Grenache, also called Garnacha, is one of the most widely planted red grape varietials, and is the most widely planted grape in Spain. Grenache is often found in Southern Rhône wines, which explains my fondness for it. I do love my Rhône. In fact, Grenache is often at least 80% of the blend of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

The Artazuri rosé has this amazing bright color. It’s not really captured in the above photo, but it’s sort of the pink of my pinkest Playgirl Floribunda roses I planted outside our house, or the pinkest hibiscus flower. It’s pretty darn close to red, while still retaining all it’s pinkness.

On the nose there is a lot of flower and mineral, partnered by raspberry. Kevin commented that the nose was reminiscent of homemade raspberry pancake syrup.

It’s not a hefty rosé. Instead, it’s light and airy, calling out to be paired with seafood on a hot and sunny day. It’s filled with raspberries and some cherry and it goes down fast. Really fast. Kevin and I rarely finish an entire bottle of wine on the first night anymore, but I handily polished this one off.  As for Kevin? He had a glass or so, and he admitted it was good. But it wasn’t his kind of wine – it didn’t tap into his inner pink as our previous rosé had. He likes his pink wines to be less light and more heavy.

Our ratings:
Michelle  Kevin 

2007 Montes Cherub Rosé of Syrah

The cherub is actually a cartoon rendering by Ralph Steadman of Alfredo Vidaurre, a founding partner of the Montes winery. If you’re familiar with Hunter S. Thompson and/or Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (the book people, not the movie), then you’ll recognize his art.

Montes is a Chilean winery and this wine comes from their Archangel estate in the Colchagua Valley, close to the Pacific Ocean. This particular rosé is 100% syrah. The color is a ruby red, but still obviously a rosé. The particular color comes from the juice and the skins having a one night
stand. I’m not kidding. It’s called a vin de nuit – the wine spends one night only in contact with the red-grape skins.

On the nose I got, appropriately, roses. I still hate the cliche of roses on a rosé, but sometimes it happens. (A rose is rosé by any other name?) Of course, the scent wasn’t just floral, there was some undefinably red fruits on there too.

The taste and texture are what won me over. It’s a rich, ripe wine, filled with crisp cherries and raspberries. It’s also a wine with heft, dry without
tannins. There’s a lot of structure and balance and it completely fills up your mouth. There’s a long, pleasing aftertaste that still manages
to be gentle. I would go so far as to say this rosé is sophisticated.

At under $15, it’s also a great deal. Montes makes some great wines, including the equally affordable Montes Folly and the not-so-affordable but excellent Purple Angel.

The real endorsement? Even Kevin likes this wine, and as he likes to say, he’s still looking for his inner pink.

Rating:

Kevin and I have a thing. If we visit a new state, we need to visit a winery within that state. (I have no idea how I’ll handle this when I head to Las Vegas.) In 2007,  we went to Arizona, which was one of the best, and most needed, vacations I’ve taken.

We used Tucson as our jumping off point and from there, we toured a lot of the state. We took a couple days and drove up to the Grand Canyon, staying overnight in Flagstaff. On our way home, we used a map and our trusty GPS to get to Cornville.

You see, when we think of Arizona, we think desert, but that’s the south. As you head north, you enter into mountains, chock full of evergreens. It’s gorgeous. And in November of 2007, we had flurries in Flagstaff as we loaded our hiking boots into the rental car. Arizona is a beautiful example of multiple microclimates all along a single highway. Offer me a job and I’d move to Arizona in a heartbeat.

Cornville, Arizona is in this wonderful intersection of moutain and stream, off the highway between Sedona and Flagstaff. It’s where you can find wineries owned (and operated) by Maynard James Keenan (apparently of the band Tool), his mentor at Page Springs Cellars, and the wonderful and entertaining Javelina Leap. We also visited Alcantara, which at the time seemed even more off the beaten path, but worth it.

For me, our visit to Alcantara was akin to visiting a friend’s house. I felt as if the tasting room was simply a bar, outside the kitchen and adjacent to the living room. At Alcantara I was introduced to a coffee table book for which I searched over a year (and found in Healdsburg), Vineyard Dogs. I was also introduced to a beautiful, and very pregnant, German Shepherd, who stands in my mind as the mascot for the winery.

I always say that a wine tastes better under either (or both) of two conditions: 1) when you meet the winemaker and 2) when you visit the winery. You see, atmosphere has a great influence, for me at least, on taste. And so it is with Alcantara.

Now, the 2006 Petite Sirah that we drank this evening was blended in Arizona, but made from California grapes. I would think that this year, if not in 2008, most of the Arizona wineries we visited are now able to harvest their own Arizona grapes. I know that Maynard James Keenan is sourcing his own grapes from both Cornville and further south in the state. At the end of 2007, the fantastic Javelina’s Leap was close to harvesting Arizona zinfandel. So take our review with a grain of salt – these aren’t Arizona grapes. I would encourage you – if you get the chance – to visit as many Arizona wineries as you can. We were impressed with the depth and breadth of knowledge, the wines and blending techniques, and the incredible friendliness of each winery we visited.

Alcantara Vineyards, Nov 2007

2006 Alcantara Petite Sirah

Petite Sirah is usually the Durif grape, but doesn’t Petite Sirah sound so much prettier? A lot of times, Petite Sirahs are a dark purple-y color, and are characterized by black pepper, some herbs, and tannins. But this wine was a lot softer. As a Petite Sirah, we thought we could age it a little longer but tonight, this wine didn’t show any tannins. I wish I had my notes from our initial trip to the winery to know what we’d thought a year ago.

When Kevin first opened the wine tonight, his reaction was “Woo! Smell that wine!” It did have a strong nose of fruit and herbs. The attack mirrored that, with strong berries and plums at first taste, but, well, it sort of died mid-palate. Yep, in the middle of my tongue there was suddenly nothing. But as you swallow – the finish – suddenly the flavor rallied. There were fruits and spices all over the place.

I can’t help but wonder if we should have uncorked this wine in early 2008. However, we’re still thrilled to have tried a wine from the up and coming Arizona wine industry. I hope we can go back and try wines made from Arizona grapes.

Our rating:

The 2009 Arizona Stronghold Dayden Cochise County Rosé is a blend of Zinfandel, Grenache, Sangiovese, Malbec, and Sauvignon Blanc from three different vineyard locations in Chochise County, Arizona.  They chose to make this rosé in the saignée style. Saignée is a method of rosé production that involves bleeding off the juice after limited contact with the skins. The juice only takes on a little of the color of the grape skins, due to the short time in which they had contact, leading to the pink color. The color is a nice medium-dark pink, nothing so peppy that you’ll be embarrassed to hold your glass in public. You can tell immediately that the wine has some heft.

The first thing we noticed was the rose petal nose. I hate saying that a rosé smells like roses, as it seems rather cliche, but there’s no denying that Kevin & I both got a floral aroma. The flavors are full of fruits and flowers, with some light strawberries wrapped in with some sour cherries and crushed flower petals. I know, that sounds ridiculous, but trust me. At only 11.9% AbV, this wine goes down fast and we powered through our bottle. It’s very balanced – you’re not overwhelmed by any one specific flavor or characteristic, and instead enjoy the entire delicate blend of flavors.

The Dayden has structure and heft – it’s not just a back-porch summertime rosé. The winery recommends pairing it with grilled vegetables, cold meats, and salads. I think we may have overchilled it, so that’s something you really need to watch with this one. While we enjoyed it right out of the fridge, it had a much sweeter finish when it was cold. As it warmed up a bit, it had a fuller, less sweet finish and we liked it even better. Definitely chill this wine, but you might want to pull it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you drink it, just to get it up to optimum temperature.

I was hoping this wine might go well with Thanksgiving dinner, and while it might pair nicely with the cranberry portion, I don’t know about the rest. However, it is probably the perfect wine to pull out when you’re having a cold turkey sandwich on Black Friday, after a long day of shopping in the crazy local mall.

You’re probably thinking I just reviewed a wine you need to fly to Arizona to get your hands on. Not true. Recently the good folks at Dep’s Fine Wines have started carrying Arizona Stronghold, so head over there and pick up a bottle for around $12.99.

Our score:

I first had this when we went to Bouquet in January 2008. I loved it and searched everywhere for it. Currently you can find it at Dep’s, Party Town, and Party Source, I believe. Back in 2008, I picked up several bottles of the 2004 vintage and I just finished off the last of them.

Mr Black’s Shiraz-Viognier Concoction consists of 4% Viognier, 96% Shiraz, and it has a powerful and fragrant bouquet. This is a high-alcohol fruit bomb. I don’t know why I like it so much – it’s not my normal style at all. I find it to be well-balanced; I could certainly feel the alcohol but I couldn’t taste it. The fruit seems to contain the wine and it didn’t seem “hot.” To say it is fruit-forward is an understatement, though. There are all sorts of berries and cherries and dark fruits, all racing to get to your tongue first. It’s definitely jammy. This Concoction is a big wine, there’s no doubt about it, but it’s also a fun wine. I’m not sure how it would work with a meal, but it pairs well with cheese and I enjoyed it while munching on my favorite, Parmigiano Reggiano. In Northern Ky, Mr Black’s Concoction retails for around $20.

My rating: 

McNab Ridge French Columbard

French Colombard is a white wine that McNab Ridge is growing to “preserve history in the county” [Mendocino]. Not many people grow French Columbard anymore, but it used to be quite common. It is believed to be an offspring of chenin blanc, another favorite grape of mine. Colombard was originally grown in France for distilling into Cognac and Armagnac (yum), so I’m not surprised I have an affinity for it.

This is an off-dry wine with 1.8% residual sugar. It had natural, bright acid. I noted that it was sweet, light, aromatic, and refreshing. Kevin noted the intensely floral characteristics, such as white flowers and pansies. During a more traditional first course at brunch, this wine added a bit of spice – or perhaps the food added the spice to the wine. It was certainly easy to drink and based on our own experiences, I think it might pair well with your own Easter brunch.

Don’t be afraid to try the new grape. You’ll like it.
___

Saint-Meyland Brut, NV

I love bubbly. I particularly like French bubbly and believe in bubbly and mimosas for Easter.

First off, Saint-Meyland is French and it’s only $15. However, it is not officially ”champagne.” It’s made in the traditional method, but it’s just not quite located in the Champagne region of France, and well, it can’t take the name. It’s made from hand-picked grapes and has plenty of tiny bubbles and that nice dry taste you associate with a French Champagne. The nose has some vanilla and floral aromas and it has a long balanced flavor. It tastes more expensive than it is. Often, picking the French bubbly from just outside of the Champagne region will net you great taste and amazing value.

I can’t wait to pop this one open this weekend. This wine is a real value and your family might be impressed you showed up with such a tasty morsel from France for your Easter brunch.