Divine Wine #2

I tried some sweeter wines this time around!

– Kikkoman Plum Wine ($10) –

I first had some of this little beauty when out for Japanese and was surprised that this actually tastes even better to me than my usual Gekkeikan Plum Wine, despite being less expensive.  It is very much a dessert wine and is best served cold, straight out of the fridge.  The taste is light on the tongue, which is hard to find in good sweet wines.  Refreshing is another word I would use, perfect as the finish to a meal.  But don’t doubt it, it is -sweet.-  As it warms up, it isn’t nearly as good, so I suggest small glasses of this at a time while you keep the bottle in either the fridge or in an ice bucket.  No webpage for this one, since I can’t find it!

– Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi Moscato 2009 ($11.99 for a double bottle) –

Since I had such a big bottle of this, I got to have several different times to sit down and try this.  I kept going back and forth between “hate this” and “it’s okay.”  What I can say about this one is that it is -picky.-  It only likes to be sipped without any sort of food.  And it has to be in small sips!  After 1 minute sitting outside the fridge!  If you don’t follow these exact things (and probably get a bit of luck), it really is a pretty terrible wine.  The sweetness can be delicate if you drink it in exactly the correct manner, with an interesting palate to it.  However, if you don’t treat it in the exact manner it wants, a strong bitterness comes out which just combines horribly with the sweetness.  Personally, I won’t be getting this one again.  The website for this one can be found here.

– Marcus James Merlot 2006 (2 for $7) –

The deal on this was way too good to pass up.  I didn’t hope for something terribly good, just something moderately drinkable.  Probably the first thing I noticed was that the nose on this is rather vinegar.  Merlot wine in general tends towards the stronger and darker, so I won’t let the nose throw me completely off.  Well, okay, it is pretty off-putting considering that it is ever-present in this wine.  There are elements to this that are quite tolerable, but that vinegar is really sticking with it.  It makes me think that this didn’t age well at all.  With each sip I take, it becomes more apparent that… well, I’m not going to buy this again.  I’ll try my other bottle before marking off the entire brand, though.  It’s just too good a deal to completely write it off.

Divine Wine #1

No, I’ve not gone anywhere.  I do feel that I need some levity after all the fuss, so I’ve decided to start a brand new series of posts.

– …what? –

One of the things I’m most known for in my raiding circle is the fact that I drink wine at every raid.  Cheap wine and in quantity.  Usually from a box!  Wine has become such a major part of my “raiding ritual” that those nights where I can’t just don’t seem to sit well with me.  It helps that I -really- love wine, I guess, and I really love buying new and exciting bottles of the stuff just to try out.  Seeing as it is such a large part of my raiding experience, I figured I’d get my thoughts down on some of my discoveries.

Generally, I prefer white wines (which is unusual amongst wine drinkers, I hear), but I do like to experiment with reds as well.  Rosé wines (blushes) tend to be reserved for when my goal is to really drink.  Okay, my goal is to always really drink, but when it is less about taste and more about quantity, I break out the rosé.  Nothing says “I had a rough day” more than breaking out a box of Franzia Sunset Blush!  You probably won’t ever see me review a spumante or other wine with bubbles, as for some reason it makes me royally ill, even just a single glass.  It sucks at special occasions, believe me.

As far was the boxed wine goes…  For as long as I can remember, my mother has kept a box of Franzia Merlot in her cupboard, pouring herself a glass from it every night.  It is the first wine I ever tasted and getting to share her daily glass with her was the first truly adult thing I was able to do as a teenager.  I laugh along with everyone else when they make fun of me for it, but it is so much a part of history that even if I didn’t love wine for its own sake, I’d still love my boxed wine.

– Barefoot Merlot 2009 ($5.95) –

Okay, I just had to start with the cheapest bottle I could find.  And it’s a surprisingly decent wine.  The flavor is rich and fruity, but my favorite part (the part that makes is so easy to drink) is that the tannins are very smooth for such a cheap wine.  My major problem with most red wines tends to be that they have a bitter finish to them or too sharp of a nose.  But this bottle quite happily doesn’t suffer from that.  Even for a white wine drinker like myself, it is smooth to drink.  It really is surprising how enjoyable this was, considering the price.  I enjoyed it more than some more costly reds I’ve had.  You can find their website here for more information.

– Little Chica Malbec 2008 ($11.95) –

This is probably the third or fourth malbec I’ve ever tried and while I know that Argentinian varieties have less robust tannins, I was really unimpressed with this wine.  The richness is really lacking in this and the tannins are just really, really understated.  For a red wine, the taste was very lacking.  It isn’t a bad wine, but it is terribly bland to me.  It was almost as if it was cut with a small amount of water, it was so bland.  I personally can’t recommend this, even as a budget wine.  You can find their website here, though.

– More coming soon! –

I don’t know why, but the idea of doing this on a weekly basis just make me happy.  See you guys after the next couple of bottles!