An unexpected house guest doesn’t over stay its welcome and leaves on a high note….

So I’m not too proud to admit, I’m a California wine bigot. I go out of my way to avoid California wine. Not that I don’t think they make great wines, but I’ve been jaded by a family uncle who lives and dies by California wine. So given the choice to buy a California wine, or live eternity without wine, I usually choose the latter. So you can imagine my scorn with after recently hosting an early Thanksgiving party with friends, I discovered an unopened bottle of red wine from Sonoma California amongst the left overs.

So it got buried my wine racks to start the process of collecting house dust, never to be drunk. However, after cramming five days of work into three, cleaning the house for the expected real Thanksgiving guests, and starting a fajita dinner, it made an appearance as the wine pairing for dinner. It sat in the decanter while I chopped and made the fajitas and guacamole. With dinner all prepared it was time to swallow my pride and try the beast from out west.

The bottle: “The Path.”
The grape: Cab Sav.
The vintage: 2009.

The nose of the wine was very intense. It was dark plum nose with black currant and cooking spices. The wine showed big red fruit characteristics, deepening layers with mild acidity and very smooth through the finish. Unlike most California wines that exhibit a bit too much oak, this showed none at all an almost pure wine. I would bet it was aged in used oak barrels to bring forth the fruit flavors and just add the proper amount of body.

Although it wasn’t the perfect pairing with our slightly spicy dinner, it showed well enough to compliment the flavors like a good wine will. This single experience won’t soften my general feelings towards CA wine, maybe because I believe there is enough good wine on this side of the Mississippi river to keep me happy for a life time, but it is nice to know that if ever on the left coast and wine tasting, there should be at least a few wines that will make me smile.



***Update…. After writing this I did a search online and could find little about this wine. The make of the wine is the same make of the smoking loon series wine but this particular bottle is very mysterious. I’d appreciate any comments on where I could find more information about it.*******

The good The Bad…and then Cloudy????

With the first weekend of nothing planned what so ever in weeks, the wife and I were amazed how our Saturday was so relaxing. A quick trip to the gym, lunch with my uncle, and then it was time to hit a winery. As it was already 2 P.M., we decided to hit one that was close. Having not been to Winery at La Grange since spring, it was an obvious choice. So a quick drive out I-66 to Haymarket and it became clear, we had made a mistake. I forgot I got the e-mail earlier that week that they were having a fall festival this weekend. Add to that a special event supporting the fight against breast cancer, and the parking lot and grounds were full.

But with few other options, we decided to fight the crowd and do a tasting. Thankfully the good people at La Grange had planned well for the day, with two indoor tasting bars, and multiple out door tasting bars, all up and running, our wait in the patio bar in their back porch was very small, and we were going to their selection of wine. For those of you who have never been there, this is a place where you can make a day of it. They have 11 wines on their tasting menu, and today they had a bonus wine that wasn’t on their tasting menu. So when you go, plan on being there a while, and with their beautiful grounds, multiple fire pits, and cozy indoor and outdoor seating areas, it is a great place to bring a picnic and just sitting back and enjoying. And if you’re lucky, you’ll see their ghost that haunts their tasting room house.

Below is the complete list of the wines on their tasting menu currently, however I was bit remiss in my wine blogging duties and left my notes on the tasting bar so I will only highlight my likes and dislikes from the list:

2010 Pinot Gris

2009 Viognier
2008 Fletcher’s Chardonnay
2009 Cuvee Blanc
2010 Rose’ of Merlot
2009 Benoni’s Dead but still Red
2009 Cab Franc
2010 Merlot
2009 Meritage
General’s Battle Field Red
2008 Tannat
2009 Snort

On the good Category, the 2009 Cuvee Blanc has a big lush tropical fruit nose. It moves into a pineapple spice taste, great balance of acid in this wine to make a delicious versatile wine. Other good wines are the 2010 Merlot which is a red fruit bomb with tannins and balance. It could use some time on the bottle for aging, but it showed great promise. The current vintage of General’s Battle Field Red was also a surprise, it is a meritage blend that showed good fruit, balanced tannins but maybe a touch too much oak. No matter how you sliced it, it would pair well with a juicy grilled steak.

The Bad category for me included the 2010 Rose’ of Merlot and the 2010 Pinot Gris, The Rose just had a funky nose that I couldn't really get by. It lacked flavor, structure or layers, and the funk re-appeared on the back of the tongue. The 2010 Pinot Gris tasted more like a chardonnay then a Pinot Gris. I think it must have been dominated by new French oak and that is why it had those characteristics.It lacked flavor, structure or layers, and the funk re-appeared on the back of the tongue. The 2010 Pinot Gris tasted more like a chardonnay then a Pinot Gris. I think it must have been dominated by new French oak and that is why it had those characteristics.

There was an additional wine not on the list above on their tasting menu, it was a Norton, but not a VA Norton. The grapes of the primary V=varietal Norton were brought in from Missouri due to the struggles they have had in VA. This wine was blended with a VA Cab Sav, and the results were very good. It is a great table wine, and the tasting showed bright red fruit with hints of smoke on the nose. The taste was more distinct red fruit, but the Cab Sav adds just hints of camp fire smoke to the finish. Medium body and well balanced, it was our selection to enjoy while enjoying the grounds at La Grange.

After finding a location near one of the fire pits,

we poured a couple of glasses. We noticed that the wine was very cloudy and we were concerned the bottle was bad. However, the taste was we remembered at the tasting bar so we figured it must be just be a touch of the sediment floating around. The sun’s low angle really gave this wine a funny look but thankfully it still tasted good. Upon seeing the same signs when we returned home and poured another glass, I researched bottle shock, however it didn’t seem to fit the billet. I’m not really sure what was going on with this bottle, but as long as it doesn’t affect the flavor, I guess I won’t complain.

All I wanna do is a zooma zoom zoom and a boom boom…..Syrah that is…

So I admit, usually when I go out to eat, I’m not looking for good or unusual wines, especially
on the by the glass section of wine. So when the wife and I went out for date night last Saturday at the Light Horse restaurant in Old Town Alexandria, I stuck to beer. However, my wife made me slightly regret that decision with her selection of the 2010 Boom Boom Syrah.

This wine was very unique.

I believe they served it a bit warm but aside from that, the wine drew me in mostly because of its nose. At first whiff, I thought the wine was going to be funky. I couldn’t identify what I smelled, and then hit me, salty warm caramel. I took several whiffs, and that was certainly what I smelled. I don’t believe I have ever got that from a wine and was intrigued as to what this Syrah was going to taste like.

Thankfully the wine didn’t disappointment me; it came right out with lush bright red fruit on the pallet, a little acidity for balance, no notable tannins, and then a finishing hint of the salty caramel on the finish that was prevalent in the nose.

Overall I was intrigued by the wine, my home research found me pleasantly surprised that this bottle cost about $15.00 a bottle, comes from Walla Walla, Washington, and is made by Charles Smith Wine Maker. If my wine collection was running low and I didn’t have time for a trip to VA wine country, I’d have no problem picking up a few bottles of this for an everyday drinking wine.

Spicy Food Meet Spicy Wine

Well if you can’t tell my by total disappearance from the blog world, my job has been keeping me insanely busy. If work didn’t have me hopping, my seemingly endless social engagements have. So last Friday when my wife was excited to make a delicious dinner and relax at home, well I couldn’t believe my life was accommodating. Arriving home, I got a text. “You should put a white in the fridge.” Looking forward to a good local wine, it was my surprise when a NY wine flew off the shelf and into the freezer right before I went to fight insane rush hour traffic to pick up my wife at the metro. A “QUICK” trip to whole foods, and we were ready to tear into our wine selection while preparing dinner.

On the dinner menu, Pumpkin Curry with shrimp over roasted spaghetti squash.











On the wine list, Goose Watch 2009 Traminette.

















Goose Watch is a small winery on the North West shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lake region of New York. For those not totally familiar with Traminette, it is a Gewurztaminer hybrid developed at Cornell University. With the spicy qualities of the Gewurztaminer, this wine promised to meld beautifully with the spicy curry my wife was making.


With curry just about finished, it was time to open the wine and see what we had in store. The nose contained lush tropical fruits of melon with hints of orange peel. The taste greeted you with more bright citrus fruit. A mild acidic to round out the mouth, and once it warmed a little, a spicy little finish.


The pumpkin curry paired as advertised with this wine. It gracefully balanced the acidic fruit of the wine with spicy sauce of the curry, leaving a rich full mouth spicy clean feel. I’d recommend this wine with almost any spicy selection.