Kestrel Estate Viognier 2003

Winery: Kestrel

Varietal: Viognier

Appellation: Yakima Valley

Alcohol: 13.5%

Cost: $20.00

Still in the middle of pulling out wine from the cellar, culling the herd if you will. I took my 14 month old daughter down to the cellar this evening and she grabbed the Viognier. It has been unseasonably warm lately, so I figure the kid is trying to tell me something.

I've always liked Kestrel's wines. They have a fun little tasting room in the Bavarian town of Leavenworth WA, along with a tasting room and winery in Prosser, WA. This wine was nice. Color pale straw. The aroma is citrus. Flavor, lemons and limes. This wine makes me look forward to a nice sunny summer day.

Falesco Vitiano 2003

Winery: Falesco

Varietals: Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet

Cost: $11.99

I was busy cleaning out parts of my wine cellar and came upon this bottle of wine. I think I purchased this from Costco one day and it has been sitting in my cellar since probably sometime in 2004. When I opened this bottle up, it smelled really rich and good. The color was deep ruby, and I was looking forward to the first small sip. I took a sip and ... nothing. No taste what so ever. Very very strange. It tasted like I was drinking a glass of water. Since I've been sick alot lately, I had the wife take a little sip to see if she could tasted anything. The wife has super senses and again, this wine had no taste.

I decided to wait about an hour and try again to see if anything developed. -- Nope. no taste. So in the end, this baby got poured down the drain. I might try this wine again if I see it at Costco, but I definitely won't wait 4 years to give it a try.

Marchesi De Frescobaldi 2003 Remole

Winery: Marchesi De Frescobaldi

Region: Toscana

Alcohol: 12.5%

Cost: $8.99

Frescobaldi is a very large Italian winery that makes my favorite Chianti Nippozano. Remole is their cheapest wine and is usually good for an everyday drink with pizza kind of wine. This is definitely a wine that you get what you pay for. It is decent $8.99 wine, but I wouldn't take this over to someones house for a dinner party. I opened up a bottle on Friday, and I don't know if it was residual effect of having the flu, or simply the after affects of the slight concussion I got on the previous Monday, but I had difficulty drinking this. I don't want to say never try this because I've enjoyed this wine many times in the past, but there just wasn't much to this wine. - That being said, its only $8.99 so it doesn't break the bank.

What's been going on....

I live in Western Washington and we had a rather large wind storm in the middle of December. This storm knocked out our power and we didn't get it back on for eight days! The bright side to this storm was that I had to opportunity to drink a large amount of wine, and I should have a number of posts in the next couple of days.

Bodegas Valdorba Eolo

Winery: Bodegas Valdorba

Region: Navarra Spain

Varietal: Tempranillo

Alcohol: 13.5%

Cost: $12.99 (I've bought it on sale for $9.99 a couple of times)

This is one of my favorite everyday drinking wines. It pairs well with pizza, spagetti, steak, etc. It has a tiny bit of oak to it and is surprisingly complex for a "cheap" wine. I've served this to many people at my house and have never had a complaint.

Cavatappi 2002 Molly's Cuvee Sangiovese

Winery: Cavatappi

Appalation: Yakima Valley

Alcohol: 14%

Cost: approx. $18

I spied this little number at my local wine shop last week and knew I had to try it. It's right up my alley, a Washington State Sangiovese produced by a small winery located in the basement of one of my favorite Italian resturaunts (Cafe Juanita). The first thing I noticed about the bottle was the lack of foil covering over the cork. I was a little worried about this, but figured, small winery and the foil doesn't really do much anyway....

Boy was I wrong. After pouring a little into a glass, the first wiff told me something was very wrong with this wine. Tasting it proved that this little sucker was cooked! The edges were brown and the thing tasted a little like port. Not good at all. In my younger days, I would have gutted it down, but now a days, these little gems end up down the drain. I bought two bottles, so I am hoping that the second one will meet a different fate. This winery also produces a grappa in conjunction with Clear Creek Distillery and a Nebbiolo.

First Post!

This will be my new wine blog. I am hoping to receive free wine samples to review.