This is a very nice wine, it has good body and pleasant blue & purple berry aromas. The flavors are primariliy raspberry and plum flavors, echoing gently on the polished finish of tobacco, earth tones and dark cherry flavors. The finish ends on a distinct up-note, bright and clean. Drink it now- it just tastes so good.

WineSpectator reviewed the wine at an 87… I have to agree. This is an amazing – almost unbelievable – value.

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.

Review Database (click here for our reviews)

We are happy to provide our readership with custom reviews. Generally there is a small fee charged to conduct the tasting, plus we ask that you provide the wine! Before we publish any review, you may, at your option, have the right of approval.

If you’d like to see particular wines reviewed by GoodWines, please use our Contact form.

We are happy to provide custom tastings/ reviews!

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

Because we (read: Mark) have had a run on very ‘mediocre’ wines, a small change will be made in our wine selection process. In the future, we’ll select wines based upon the recommendations of friends… and others.  We’ll also add ‘new’ scope to our reviews… here’s how it will work:

We’ll bias all reviews to “value”; meaning we will look for what we hope are excellent wines in the following categories:

• every day (affordability and drinkability)
• special events (wines worth cracking open for an event worth remembering)

It will take a while for these categories to get added to our DB, but trust me they will appear (eventually). If you have not looked at our database lately, we now have over 100 wine reviews in there for you to read (be cautious of our spellos etc.).

So remember, if you have a wine you’d like us to taste, please contact us directly!

…mark

We know you have told this a thousand times by friends, your mother, and even the television news… “don’t drink and drive“. Well, it is our turn to remind you of the same thing!

Be prudent, have a designated driver if you are enjoying wine this holiday season. We want everyone to have a very safe holiday season!

As for us, our plan is to enjoy a “little” wine this season with friends and family. Eventually we will provide updates to our review database for everyone to peruse! But in the meantime or perhaps in the meanwhile(?), we wish everyone and joyous holiday season and an exceptionally healthful, prosperous and joyous New Year!

Peace onto all!

Ann & Mark

Did you ever wonder what wine varietals are supposed to taste like? I know I did… but not enough so that it ever stopped me from reviewing and ratings wines anyway!

Anyway here are some links to sites that provide clues what “they” say about the varietals:

• Professional Friends of Wine
• It’s all about grapes
• CNN Wine Glossary

If you are a true analytic and have read all the materials pointed to above, you are probably thoroughly confused now! As it turns out, wines are best when they please your palette, not someone elses! Wine is to be enjoyed, so go with what you think tastes best!

If you want to see what we think of the wines we’ve tasted you can do that here!

…mark

Hello everyone!

Today (Thanksgiving 2007) GoodWines.org is officially open for viewers (business).

We hope you find the GoodWines site helpful, informative and fun. Right now there is not a huge amount of content but that will change in the fullness of time. It is our hope to provide our own wine reviews along with many more features and pointers but nonetheless today is the kick-off!

Please rummage around the site and use the Contact Us page to send us ideas and thoughts on what you would like to see on this site.

Ann & Mark

…the most current information on inexpensive wine (reviews).

inexpensive wines - Google News
©2010 Google
Google News

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