First Post: Inadvertent Summer Wines in February

To begin this personal exploration in wine I have enlisted some fellow enthusiasts I have myself, my future brother in-law joins me for this initial foray.  He is a man who has only been drinking wine for a couple months and is having fun learning how to taste and enjoy good (and bad) wine.  My experience has been short but fun and enlightening, an ethereal experience that can only be found in crafted products that have few ingredients and plenty of passion.  The best times I have had enjoying wine have been during times of intense learning and teaching and having a newcomer to wine tasting is very enjoyable.  This journey is about not just tasting wine but drinking too much with good friends and avoiding "soggy socks" in dismal NW weather.


We start with four wines, a Corsican Valentino, an incredibly interesting rose from Provence in the southeast corner of France, a Cabernet Sauvignon from the beautiful Washington State (woop!) and a White Zinfandel from Oregon (still regretting this choice the next day).

Tasting Notes:

2011 Domaine Maestracci, E Prove, Corse Calvi

This is a 100% Valentino from Corsica an Island just south of France in the Mediterranean.  Corsica is a unique French wine region because it uses Italian varietals for most of its wines. This wine was refreshing, unfortunately it was pouring rain and 40 degrees that night. At 13.5% ABV it was pretty boozy too, I would pair this wine with a sunny July day and some grilled fish with friends on a shady porch.  This wine has a slightly smoky nose with dill, pear, lime, and lemon as well as a hint of salinity and wet-stone on the palate indicative of a wine crafted on a Mediterranean island.  All sources price this wine at under $20 giving it a good value for a French wine.  While not particularly unique it was quite good.

2011 Chateau la Rouviere, Bandol Rose

This wine was fun! It's a SW French blend from Provence where Roses reign supreme. Bandol is a tiny sub-region of Provence bordering the Mediterranean Sea.  The first thing that hits both the nose and palate is an intense salinity, like most French wines this one represents the terrior by transporting the drinker to sun and sand where it is produced. Refreshing with peach, grapefruit and cantaloupe to accent the salt (everyone knows salted cantaloupe is delicious!) I would recommend this to anyone for either porch wine or to pair with a summer picnic.  Another great value at around $22, the unique saline character in this wine was really fun for us to experience.

2011 Columbia Crest, Cabernet Sauvignon

To mix it up with my mostly French wine selection we opened this relatively cheap offering from Washington State. Traditionally a Cabernet Sauvignon wouldn't be my first choice to grab on a summer day but this one was different.  It has all the characteristics of a good Cab however hits with a spicy punch like nothing I've ever had before.  I likened it to a BBQ sauce taste and the first thing I thought to pair with this wine was a rack of slow smoked pork ribs and one of my homemade sauces (no recipes so don't ask).  This wine is available for under $10 and while nowhere near good for providing varietal specific characteristics I did find that it was unique.

2011 Willamette Valley Vineyards, Oregon Blossom, White Zinfandel

I really want to like White Zin because ruling out one whole style of wine goes against everything I have learned about wine thus far.  Willamette Valley Vineyards is one of my favorite wineries in the Willamette Valley and we wanted to give this one a shot... Wrong idea! It may have been the previous bottles or it could have been the fact that this was a sickeningly sweet one dimensional wine but we both gave up after one tasting glass and devoted our efforts to cheap beer and building a sick wizard stick with the empties. (even wine drinkers can have class.) Because this wine pretty much ruined our evening, I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone so I won't provide an average price nor any rating.