2008 Yalumba Shiraz Viognier- The Y Series

Clay and I decided to continue our Christmas Movie Marathon a few days later. We REALLY wanted to see "It's A Wonderful Life" because Clay's never seen it; however it wasn't On Demand, so we settled for "Elf"! : )
(Side note: How Clay has never seen ANY movie is beyond me!? He's a walking movie encyclopedia... it's strange!!!)

2008 Yalumba Shiraz Viognier (The Y Series)

South Australia

Date tasted: 12/22/10

Purchased from: Shiraz wine store

Price: $9.99

Rating:

Rebecca: 8.5

Clay: 7

Sight: dark and really clear

Smell: spicy and jammy

Tastes: med-full bodied, easy to drink, spicy, dark jammy fruits

I've talked about Yalumba before... I've never had a bad bottle! This was no exception. It's 92% Shiraz and 8% Viognier. (And, it's a screw top which I always love!) It's really smooth and easy to drink, but still dry and spicy. It's just a great 'drinking wine'! This one isn't anything special, but it's just a good, easy bottle of wine! This, to me, would be a great bottle to just keep on hand for when you want a glass of wine at night... especially since it's only $9.99! It's not a special occasion wine, it's just good! : ) I would and will definitely buy this again!

2009 Domaine Bahourat Cuvee Elizabeth

Clay and I were trying to really get into the Christmas spirit, so we decided to have a little Christmas Movie Marathon! The marathon ended after one movie when we were both too tired to sit through another... does that mean we're old!? : ) We decided to make it extra festive by drinking out of our beautiful Waterford glasses! Sometimes, you just need to pull out the fancy stuff and live a little! : ) "Christmas Vacation" probably shouldn't be the movie to watch while drinking from Waterford, but hey, who cares!

2009 Domaine Bahourat Cuvee Elizabeth

Costieres de Nimes, France

Date tasted: 12/19/10

Purchased from: Shiraz wine store

Price: $13.99

Rating:

Rebecca: 6.5-7

Clay: 8

Sight: dark, raspberry color, clear

Smell: slightly chalky- lead, earthy

Tastes: very slight spice, kind-of drinks like a bolder Pinot, some tobacco/smoke, medium bodied

The wine was 80% Syrah and 20% Grenache.

It was a lot lighter than I expected it to be. Not bad, but definitely not my favorite. Clay liked it and said he would drink it again, but I probably wouldn't buy it again. There are just too many other great wines to try! : )

2005 Baron de Magana

Before I talk about the wine, I have a confession... My name is Rebecca and I am utterly and completely addicted to Mexican food! It's pretty ridiculous! And, even though I can admit it, I still totally blame my mom for this obsession! : ) Clay and I eat Mexican WAY too frequently and this night was one of those many, many occasions!

The weather was horrible, we were lazy and all the pieces just fell together for a great and relaxing evening in! We had Mexican delivered to the house (Bulldawg Food delivery*= greatest idea/company EVER!), watched TV and had some wine. It was just perfect!

*Bulldawg Food is a new company in town. They've teamed up with tons of local restaurants and will deliver anything from the menu for $2! Seriously!? Why didn't I think of that!? They have an awesome website and have probably added to my increasing waistline the last couple months! : ) I may be their only customer (but I'm a good one!), so here's their website: http://www.orderbulldawgfood.com/ Enjoy Athenians! : )

Now, back to the wine!

2005 Baron de Magana

Navarra

Date tasted: 12/15/10

Purchased at: Shiraz wine store

Price: Normally $21.99, but $19.99 this month

Rating:

Rebecca: 8.5

Clay: 8

Sight: very dark, clear

Smell: slight fruit- raspberry, smoky, lead, slight hay/straw- interesting

Tastes: very dry, smoky, very strong, seems very acidic/tannic

This wine is 40% Merlot, 40% Cab. and 20% Tempranillo. I have been pretty vocal about my aversion to Merlot; however, I'm always willing to squash stigmas! The wine didn't drink like there was any Merlot! The Cab. and Tempranillo really did a great job of bringing out all of the Merlot's good qualities without showcasing the ones that I'm not super fond of! It was really, really good! I wrote in my notes, "YUM!" so that should say something! : )

I would definitely buy this wine again!

2009 Domaine des Huards Cour

Clay was out of town for work and I just couldn't bring myself to eat another Lean Cuisine for dinner, so I ordered Cuban food, a girlie movie and opened a bottle of wine! : )

2009 Domaine des Huards Cour- Cheverny Michel

Mis en Bouteille au Domaine Par- Gendrier-Vigneron (if you can understand this line and the one above it... more power to you because I haven't a clue!)
Date tasted: 12/8/10

Purchased from: Shiraz wine store
Price: $16.99

Rating: 9

I hate to admit it, but I'm still always apprehensive when I open a bottle of white wine. I know that I've found some great whites that I love, but it's hard for me to let go of that negative outlook on them. So, with great hesitation (because I was REALLY looking forward to a wine night), I opened this bottle. It was fantastic!!!

I ordered Cuban food with ZERO intention of a good pairing, but the spicy food and this delcious wine actually went perfectly together! Huh, who knew!? : )

Sight: Slight yellow, very clear

Smell: Buttery, kind-of herbal (?), stony

Tastes: a little petrol (one of my favorite things to taste in a white wine), kind-of spicy for a white wine, not at all sweet, seems really acidic

Again, I really enjoyed this wine! It was really interesting and hard to explain. It REALLY dried my mouth out. Had A LOT of flavor- almost drank like a red and was full-bodied for a white (not thin).

It completely held it's own against the food and, more importantly, my reservations about it! : )

I would absolutely buy this wine again! It ranks up there with Pikes Dry Riesling for me, but with more flavor! YUM!

2005 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon and 2005 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon

Clay, Hodge, Alli, Maxey and I decided to try out one of the "themed" dinners that the Country Club offers throughout the month. This one pulled us in primarily because they offer 1/2 price bottles of wine ($100 and under)! Who can say no to that!? : )

We had a pretty good meal, LOTS of laughs (mostly at Maxey) and some delicious wine!
We had 2 different bottles, but I've bundled them onto this one posting since it was the same night!

2005 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon
Date tasted: 11/23/10

Purchased at: Athens Country Club

Ratings:

Rebecca: 9

Clay: 8

Alli: 9

Hodge: 9

Maxey: 8.5-9

I very 'inconspicuously' took some pictures from my phone.

Very oakey smell and tastes- smoky, jammy, cigar tastes, it's definitely a BIG California Cab., Spicy

Alli and Hodge went to Napa for their 1st Anniversary in August and she said this wine just brought back so many great memories for her!

Next up:

2005 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon

Alexander Valley
Ratings:

Rebecca: 8

Clay: 8

Alli: 8

Hodge: 7.75 (yup... he's difficult :) )

Maxey: 7.5 (Maxey had been drinking for quite some time at this point and had some very explicit and hilarious commentary about this wine!)

We really shouldn't have strayed from Silver Oak, but we thought we should at least be adventurous! The Jordan Cab. was a little lighter than the Silver Oak and just not as flavorful. It was still good, but was definitely overshadowed and overpowered by the delicious Silver Oak we had just finished!

Everyone thought that it had a really strong alcohol smell- which isn't super pleasant while drinking!

So... for entertainment value, I'll give you one of Maxey's PG-rated quotes on the Jordan:

"Ive had some 2 Buck Chuck that tasted better than this! It smells like rubbing alcohol!"

He still gave it a 7.5 rating, so it obviously wasn't too bad! : ) Also, Maxey buys 2 Buck Chuck by the case, so that's not exactly his best comparison! : )

Silver Oak is just always a great choice! Again, we really should have just stuck with two bottles, but oh well! You certainly can't beat it at half price either!!!

All-in-all... a great night! : )

2008 The Chook Sparkling Red

AGH! I am SOOO far behind! One day I'll catch up! : )

All the guys decided to start having a "Guys Night" every Monday to play poker, etc. So, Alli and I decided we'd just have a little girls night too! : ) (Side note: Monday night Poker only lasted 2 weeks! Boys... :) )

So, Alli came over, we ordered take-out and rented the girliest movie we could find! We looked through our options for wine and decided we'd take a chance and try something neither of us had ever had (or heard of for that matter)!

2008 The Chook Sparkling Red

Date tasted: 11/21/10

Purchased at: Shiraz wine store

Price: $18.99
Rating: None (will explain)

So, this was a sparkling Shiraz... strange, huh!? We thought so! : ) The bottle said to serve it chilled, so that's just what we did. Unfortunately, it was a lot too chilled! If I had it to do over again, I'd probably serve it at the same temperature that I serve regular red wine.

I didn't take too many notes on this one because we were so puzzled by it! : ) However, here's what I did write down:

Sight: dark, much lighter on edges, really clear

Smell: cold- weird! : ) Still smells like a Shiraz

Tastes: strange since it's cold and bubbly- does have the peppery Shiraz tastes

Wouldn't serve as cold next time- got so much better as it warmed up some

We didn't rate this wine because we only had one glass and didn't think it was fair to judge it (how very PC of us)! : ) We decided to just open up a bottle of Pikes Dry Riesling! Alli enjoyed it as well... it's still a great recommendation! : ) I fully intended to go back to The Chook and try it again less chilled... but never did! Oops!

I probably wouldn't buy this again- I'd just rather either drink a regular bubbly or a regular Shiraz! : )

Despite the hiccup in the wine, we still had a great and girly evening! And, I'd place a large bet that we could make a regularly scheduled Girls Night last a lot longer than 2 weeks! : )