Beautiful ray of sunshine ! My shipment of wine arrived today from the Alma Rosa Winery in Buellton, California ! Four lovely bottles of Pinot Noir grown in Central Coast region of California. Another shipment from Babcock Winery is expected in a week ! Doe's anyone else enjoy wine ? From which vineyards ?
I do not have a particular favorite winery, but Oregon and Washington state make some great Pinot Noir wines.
I really like "New World" wines. California, South Africa, South America, *cough* Australia... - red or white, doesn't matter. My all-time favourite though is a nice Rioja. Closely followed by Retsina (it's a *lot* of fun after a few glasses ). James.
I don't know that one off the top of my head, but there are some nice ones coming out of the Barossa, for sure. Keep and eye out for Hunter Valley wines too. They've matured a lot recently, and are also producing some very nice stuff. There might not be a lot around at the moment though - they had some very bad flooding there in the past 6 months. James.
For those that may be French wine lovers, there is some interesting history concerning the wine blight in the mid 19th century. Most of the root stock in France and in some other parts of Europe were grafted with American vines that were resistant to the aphids that were causing the blight. Hence, most French wine is really American wine.
Actually, that’s the opposite. French used American rootstock on which were grafted local vines. That’s only fair since the phylloxera plague came from America.
I had a lovely Hahn 2005 Reserve Syrah last night. It was an unexpected quality bottle of adult pleasure! Is anyone familar with this vineyard ?
Can't say I'm familiar with that vineyard. If you're a Syrah fan you might like to check out McDowell Valley Vineyards I lived out there for several years and bought local. Their Syrahs are outstanding (and reasonable for a California wine) There are some really good Australian Syrahs around for a lot less money. That's my "Steak" wine, something about the Syrah that goes really good with grilled beef.
My wife and I routinely enjoy drinking wine with our dinner. While we are not poor, we do not have the wealth to drink expensive wines everyday. So, I try to find inexpensive wines that taste good! Some of my favorites in that category are Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon, Blackstone Merlot, Rodney Strong Merlot and Fetzer Cabernet Sauvignon.
I am the same - My favorite daily wine is Columbia Crest Two Vine Vineyard Cab-Sauv or Shiraz. I can buy it in D.C. for less than $5 / bottle and a couple years ago the Shiraz scored a 90 in Wine Spectator.
On our way to Monterey last week we stopped in Paso Robles for a "break" and sampled at: Tobin James Cellars and Robert Hall Winery Great wines at reasonable prices. We were in Paso a while back and actually joined Tobin James' wine club. This time we signed up at Robert Hall as well. Overall I think Paso wineries are very proud (re: overpriced) of their offerings but these 2 make really decent wines. Oregon ======== Pinot Noir Australia ======= Syrah (Shiraz) New Zealand ==== Sauvignon Blanc Paso Robles ===== Zinfidel California ====== =Sparkling Wines