The wine has a deep, rich ruby color with nice silky ‘legs’.  The wine opens with a smooth, mellow nose initially followed closely by cherry cola, black licorice, black cherry, and candied fruit.   As the wine opens more berry aromas appear.  It is a very smooth with intense jammy blackberry, cherry and dark chocolate with a toasted oak finish and good levels of acidity.

I give it a solid B and at under $7 that makes this a great deal.

Red Diamond 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon 80%, Cabernet Franc 10%,Merlot 7%, Syrah 3%. AVA: Washington State. 13.5% alcohol. Case Production: 165,000

A blend of 57% Shiraz and 43% Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 2006 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz Cabernet is a deep, vibrant red with crimson hues in the glass. There are sweet aromas of blueberry and dark cheery supported by a nice backdrop of oak and clove. The palate is full bodied and rich; there are smooth flavors of blueberry, plum and mint with just a hint of green pepper. The finish is soft with nice flavors of oak and leather.

Overall this is a quality, affordable wine; I rate it a very solid B.

I have had the wonderful opportunity to try another Columbia Crest Wine.  This one  was a 2003 Shiraz Grand Estates.  Although this wine is a bit scarce, due to its age;  it is magnificent.

This elegant Shiraz provides a rich perfume of black raspberry, honeysuckle and rose petals. The complex, fresh, and voluptuously textured palate leads to a supple, silky finish. It compares favorably with many wines over $25/bottle. There are lots delicious black raspberry flavors and cherry “forward”, with a wonderfully smooth, almost creamy, finish that lingers on the palate.

Wow!  Buy it if you can find it! (btw. I paid less than $10 per bottle… on a good sale.)

…mark

In a slight change in our site usage, I have decided to “spotlight” value wines with a regular BLOG posting rather than simply and entry in our review database.

The first wine to go under our Spotlight is the Columbia Crest Two Vines- Merlot 2004.  This wine is simply exceptional for the price.  On a good sale it can be had for under $7 a bottle.  The wine not only tastes good the first night; but if you are like me and it takes you two evenings to drink a full bottle (750ml), it is still good on the second evening (assuming you vacuum sealed the bottle on evening one).

The vintner has a rather accurate and complete write-up of this wine as well. You may even buy a bottle (case?) from their site.

About the only things I can add to their review are:

• the wine holds up well, if vacuum sealed over-night
• the body is medium… perhaps just a tad light for my preferences
• the berry notes on the palate and in the finish are very nice are the earthy ‘coffee-like’ flavors.

This wine is a real winner; especially given its flavors and its price point.

What follows is a list of wines we hope to taste. These are in no particular order, nor do we actually know whether we’ll be able to find them or not. Oh well… should you have others you’d like to have us try please drop a line via our contact page and we’ll add them!  Even better send some our way and we’ll taste them, review them and let you know what we think!

1. Alamos- Argentina Bonarda Mendoza 2006
2. Alamos- Argentina Cab. Sauv. 2006
3. Columbia Crest 2 Vines- Washington Vineyard 10 Red 2005
4. Cono Sur- Chile Riesling 2007
5. Crossroads- New Zealand Sauv. Blanc 2007
6. Finla Sophenia- Argentina Cab. Sauv. 2006
7. First Drop First Love Red- Australia 2006
8. House Wine- Washington White 2006
9. Mont Gras- Chile Cab. Sauv. 2006
10. Nobilo- New Zealand Sauv. Blanc 2007
11. Peter Lehmann- Australia Cab. Sauv. 2005
12. Snoqualmie Whistle Stop- Washington Red 2006
13. Terrazas- Argentina Cab. Sauv 2006
14. Walnut Block- New Zealand Sauv. Blanc 2007
15. Zeal- New Zealand Sauv. Blanc 2007

Thank you very much to the folks at Hook & Ladder Winery!

About 6 months ago these nice folks sent 6 bottles of wine our way for sampling purposes. We have run two separate tastings on their wines and have some very nice news.

Both of these wines come from California and are really nice. Unfortunately, because we obtained these wines ‘gratis’ from the gracious folks at Hook & Ladder, we have no idea how much the wines cost (we have yet to find them for sale in our favorite stores). Nonetheless because of the very special way in which we obtained the wines, and their high quality, we felt it only appropriate to feature them in our BLOG postings (rather than only listing them in our wine database).

The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon is quite special. This wine opens with pleasant aromas of leather and berries. The wine itself sports a full, robust body with dominant flavors of black cherry & plum. The wine has a nice finish of lingering berry, oak and leather. Using our rating method we give the wine an A-.

The second wine featured is almost as good (but not quite). It is a 2006 Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley of California (a really pretty area). This wine opens with what we’d call a wonderful “Pinot”odorus aroma; if you like Pinots you know what we mean. The dominant flavors are of cherry, blueberries and currants. The one down-side is that the flavors don’t linger as long as we would have them. In our scale this fine wine rates a B+.

Again thank you to everyone at Hook & Ladder.

One of the latest things we have encountered regarding inexepensive wines is their variability.  It seems that any two bottles can be quite variable in quality, flavor, texture, etc.  This variation may be due to handling, storage or other factors; we don’t know. In any event, we have noticed that there can be a significant difference between two (or more) bottles of the same exact wine.

So what’s a person to do? Well there are a couple of options:

• Buy only one bottle of each wine and ignore the problem.  This seems to be a truly splendid option if bottle number one is disappointing.
• Buy lots of bottles of the wine and average your score…. kind like balancing and managing your stock losses.
• Throw out the bad ones and drink the good -what we like to think of as the rich guys approach.

Whatever you choose, variation will appear.  That’s actually a big part of the wine adventure!.  Our prefered solution is to enjoy each bottle to the best of its, and our, capabilities.  Sometimes this means a bit of repair  (like decanting or gluggification) is required.  But, that can be fun too!

Enjoy!!!

I apologize for the delay in adding our latest wines to the site. But… rest assured Ann & I ARE drinking. Our database now has more than 30 wines in it. Please stop by and take a look.

Oh and since we are self-finding, any wine you send to us will be provide immediate attention!

…mark & Ann (your hosts)

We apologize for any inconvenience that you may have had with respect to some bugs present in our site layout. I think that most, if not all, the bugs have been repaired. I noticed the problems last night when visiting our niece (in her beautiful new home).

Should you encounter any problems when using or viewing the site, please drop us a line via our Contact Us link.

…mark (the geeky guy on the site…)