Columbia Crest Grand Estates - 2008 Merlot

My sister stayed with me for about three weeks at the end of the summer as she transitioned from one great life event to the next. I was happy to have her, in spite of my initial reservations. I should have known we'd be fine. It took three years living together for us to drive each other crazy, and this was only three weeks.

I had gotten so used to her being around, actually, that I found myself a little sad when she told me she had found a job and an apartment and would be moving out within the next few days. So we cracked opened a bottle of wine to celebrate and commiserate.

The bottle I chose was the Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot from 2008. I've tried a couple of different bottles of the Columbia Crest, and while this particular bottle wasn't too bad, it wasn't nowhere near as delicious as some of the other bottles of theirs I've tried.

I'm not sure I'm much of a Merlot fan.

So while we drank, we filled out these "Rate that Wine" forms Luigi gave me for my birthday. They have silly rating systems like "murky as a polluted lake" and "medley of vinegar" and "harmoniously tongue loving" or my personal favorite "will also linger in my dreams" to describe each part of the wine. Using this form you can give the wine a 1-5 on label, color, clarity, nose, body, flavor, and finish.

Of course neither of us really knew what we were doing, but overall we both rated it about a solid 3 out of 5 overall. My sister, who isn't a fan of red wines, noted that her overall impression was "meh, not bad for a red."

And as we drank, we became somber and philosophical, and talked late into the night.

A week later she was gone, and I finished the rest of this bottle on what would have been Mom's birthday, feeling sorry for myself that we lost her the day after she turned 56, two years ago.

A melancholy bottle of wine, it was.

Five Rivers - 2009 Pinot Noir

I bought this bottle at Cork and Barrel's closeout wine sale (the one I bought six bottles and spend $70 at) and I have to admit the sole reason I bought it was because the label was pretty.

Popping the cork was a pleasant surprise, as well, as it is inscribed with the word "Goddess." The wine itself was pleasant but nothing extraordinary. It didn't keep as well as some bottles: after a week it had gotten a bit bitter to drink. Probably a drink in one setting bottle, if you can.

This bottle I drank with the Scotch Man at his place, and the main story here is that I am still adjusting to having his son, the little Jedi, around full time. Some nights after trying to keep that kid entertained I am in serious need of a glass of wine.

Could having three kids be why my folks always drank a beer or two every night? I wonder sometimes. I often thought it was just a holdover from their college days (Mom was pregnant with me when she graduated) but now I'm not so sure.

I also wonder what our kids will think about us drinking wine (and Scotch) almost every night. Just like my parents, I wait until the kid is in bed to pop the cork, but the collection of wine bottles rivals the collection of beer cans my folks collected over the weeks. We had a great big black trash can that we collected the cans in for recycling.

Right now I just collect the wine bottles because they are pretty. My collection is large, however. I need to start recycling them and only keeping the really nice bottles.

But I'm going to start keeping all of my corks. Especially this one, since it says Goddess on it.

Lagar de Robla - 2008

A little on the dry side, but still easy to drink. I actually was quite distracted while drinking this bottle. I drank it each night we watched the Olympics, which made me feel both lazy and inspired at the same time.

In my wine infused euphoria, I swore that I was going to become a runner. Watching those runners run, just watching their bodies, was amazing and beautiful. I was just in absolute awe of the gymnasts, hurtling themselves through space, and the swimmers wiggling their bodies as if they were fish. The most painful night, a night I had more than one glass, we watched the BMX races. Ouch! Those wipeouts are violent and epic. Of course, the Scotch Man watches the Olympics just to see the accidents, so he enjoyed it way too much.

The rest of the bottle was finished while I watched the Scotch Man play the videogame Bioshock. It's a first person shooter, but it's heavily laden with story, and has a fantastic 20s horror feel to it. I couldn't tear myself away. Several nights he'd turn it on and I'd forget what I was even working on. It was fun to get a bit buzzed and watch as the story unfolded and things kept getting more and more disturbing.

So, as I mentioned, this wine was less about the wine and more about drinking wine while being entertained and amazed. I remember it being good, but nothing that blew me out of the water.

White Tail Run Winery LLC

Scotch Man and I went to this winery for a tasting for our six month anniversary. It was a scorcher of a day, maybe the hottest we had all summer, my air conditioner in the car could barely keep up. We broke into a sweat just walking from the car to the tasting room. The guy was very friendly as he presented us all six bottles of his current wine selection. We observed how pitiful his vines looked, and I actually honestly worried he might not have much of a crop left after this summer and dry winter.

I discovered I'm ruined for sweet wines. The only selections I enjoyed were the more dry Chambourcin wines.

And, surprisingly, the dry whites.

The Scotch Man went home with the semi sweet red, and I, surprisingly, chose the white semi sweet Seyval.

The Chambourcin we polished off over a couple of nights watching the Olympics. The Seyval I broke out to toast my sister getting a new job she really wanted. The white has been so nice with as hot as it's been.

It was nice, going to the free tasting. I almost wish I could sample all wines before I bought them to be sure I'll like them. It's always an adventure, going into a wine I haven't tried. I highly recommend this winery and vineyard, though. On a cooler day, they have a nice porch you can sit on, overlooking the vines, while you drink the bottle you purchased and even bring a picnic lunch. I'd highly recommend them, especially their prize winning Chambourcin.

Check out the pictures at the bottom of this page: White Tail Run Winery LLC

Senda 66 - 2008 Tempranillo

As I mentioned last week, this is another flashback post.

Not long after the night of the Arizona Stronghold wine tasting and my second bottle of Chupacabra, I went to visit my little sister at the liquor store she used to work at. My brother and his girlfriend were in town, and we went to keep her and her roommate, who also worked there, company until they closed.

This was the night of my Wine Education. I told my sister's roommate that I was starting to get into red wine, but I didn't know the first thing about the different kinds, so she took me from row to row, telling me about the characteristics of each. Based on her descriptions, I decided I most wanted to try a Cabernet Savignon and a Pinot Noir.

That night, though, I settled on a cheap bottle of Mexican wine that I chose mostly because I thought the label was pretty. The Senda 66 Tempranillo, which my sister's roommate actually knew nothing about.

While my sister ran the store and her roommate and my brother talked about names for the vineyard they wanted to open, my brother's girlfriend and I sat in the back of the liquor store on the boxes upon boxes of beer while we drank. I've never seen so much beer, and several of the cases were fashioned into what looked like cardboard thrones.

Interestingly enough, the liquor store didn't have a corkscrew (probably to discourage people drinking on the job), so my sister's roommate used a tool to push the cork through. Not only was the wine not that great, it also tasted like cork. And unfortunately, my brother's poor girlfriend had an allergic reaction to it. She's since decided she's allergic to something in red wine, so I've lost her as a drinking partner. It's so very sad.

I won't lie and say I don't still have a tendency to pick wine based on the label, but after this bottle I try to pay more attention to brand, and rating/description if there is one.

And thanks to my sister's roommate, after that night I had a good idea where to start my wine journey.

So here I am now!

Merkin Vineyards - 2006 Chupacabra

I think my photography skills have gotten much better

Over the next two weeks, I will be going back in time a little to talk about some of my first red wines, which ultimately led me to starting this blog.

The Merkin Vineyards Chupacabra takes us back to the summer of 2010, during a visit from the BFF, Luigi.

Luigi is one of those friends who it feels like no time has passed when we see each other, even if it's been years. We always pick up right where we left off. For this particular visit, she brought me a present: a bottle of wine from the vineyard owned by one of my favorite band's lead singers. Some of you may be familiar with James Maynard Keenan of Tool, and some of you might even know he has a vineyard and winery in Arizona. This is a bottle from his Merkin Vineyard, which is a part of the Arizona Stronghold wines we owns with his partner.

After Mexican food and margaritas, we went back to my place and prepared for this lovely bottle. I was quite excited.

I remember both of us thinking that this was the best wine we had ever tried. Dry and full-bodied and delicious. Back then, I only really drank white, but after tasting this nectar from the gods, I decided maybe I was missing out.

By the time we finished the bottle (yes, we finished the bottle between the two of us - we had a habit, back in the day, of very drunken shenanigans), we were much more intoxicated than we thought. We both swore pictures from that night would never see the light of day, on penalty of death.

I've mostly kept to that promise.

The second time I tried this wine was only months before I started this wine blog.

I finally got a hold of the Arizona Stronghold documentary Blood Into Wine, and from that moment, my wine education began. I discovered that there is so much more to wine - from growing grapes to fermentation to even tasting - than I could ever imagine. The wealth of stories that could be told was extensive. Just learning about Maynard and his story during that documentary was enough to plant the seed in me.

I miss my BFF when she's far away

About a week after that, I discovered that the Eldridge Hotel's monthly wine tasting that month would be featuring Arizona Stronghold wines.

It was too much of a coincidence not to be fate. I dragged a friend of mine along with me to the tasting. We both dressed up in fancy clothes and pretended to be very sophisticated as we tasted the different selections. My allusions were shattered a little bit when I realized I knew more about the wines being presented from the documentary than the people showing them.

After the tasting, my friend and I went straight to the liquor store. They didn't carry any of the whites we wanted, but I got my second bottle of Chupacabra, remembering how much I loved it the first time.

The second time did not disappoint.

And so, folks, this is the wine that started me down the path to drinking red wine again. I was given a push by a book I read that encouraged drinking red wine a few times a week for health benefits. What better excuse to imbibe a little than it's good for you, right?

So, friends, after the past several months of you reading about my various wine adventures, you now know what started it all: an amazing bottle shared with my best friend, a powerful documentary, a serendipitous wine tasting, and a book that outlined the health benefits of drinking red wine.

It didn't take the writer in me too long to realize the stories I'd be able to tell.

Villa Parini - 2010 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Photo credit

To be totally honest, I don't speak Italian, so I wasn't even sure what was the grape and what was the winery. I had to do some internet research, and found out that my use of common sense was correct. The vine is the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. I learned lots of cool stuff at this website.

I bought this particular bottle as a Wine of the Week from Cork and Barrel, even though I have overspent my wine budget for the next three months. Cork and Barrel had a closeout sale last month, and I brought home six bottles of wine. I couldn't help it. The description of this one sounded so delicious. According to Cork and Barrel, winemakers call this one "fresh and fruity with raspberry and cherry tones and a touch of wild flowers." How could I resist that?

So I went in to pick up the bottle on my way to somewhere else, so I was in a hurry, but not too much of a hurry not to stop and grab a small plastic cup from the free wine tasting table. Apparently a brand new ordinance allows liquor stores to have in-store tastings now, so they have a tasting of the Wine of the Week every Wednesday, a selected vendor every Saturday, and as I discovered, random tastings whenever vendors want to set one up. The wine I tried there, which I didn't catch the name of because I took the cup he handed me and hopped into the checkout line, was a really sweet red. I am much happier with the bottle I took home.

I'm glad I didn't resist this purchase. It was, in fact, quite fruity and fresh. It had a pleasant bite to it, which I have come to love about the dry reds, but it wasn't so acidic that it was painful to drink. It was light and tasty. The Scotch Man and I used it to toast our writing successes. And I attempted to write the story due for my writing group - which, ironically, takes place in a wine cellar - while drinking this.

I might have had a bit too much. I realized when I was trying to have a serious financial discussion with the Scotch Man and I was having a hard time finding the words to express that I was trying to say.

Overall, this wine has made me start thinking that maybe the Italians really do know how to do wine right, and that's why all of the best wine is supposed to be Italian.