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!

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! : )

2007 Pikes Traditionale Dry Riesling

I have a lot of blogging to do... : )

I mentioned (briefly) in an earlier post that I think that Riesling has an unwarranted bad reputation, so now I'm proving that!

I, along with SO many people, thought Riesling was ridiculously sweet and unbearable to drink (and there are plenty of those); however, dry Rieslings are delectable! They are very neutrual wines and can be paired with anything (or just enjoyed alone)! Most (good) dry Rieslings will actually spell it out for you and put on the label that it's a DRY Riesling, so definitely be on the lookout for that!

This particular dry Riesling was the feature wine at Shiraz wine store here in Athens for the month of October. I walked in to pick-up our wine club wines and Emily (the store owner) said, oh Rebecca... you're going to want this one! : )

See, Emily is the person who made me take that brave first step and "try" a Riesling again. Only, she didn't exactly tell me that it was a Riesling... she tricked me! : ) She does a great job of trying to learn your particular tastes and guide you to try new things. Emily asked (early on) what I usually drink, etc. and I told her that I just really haven't been a fan of white wine, but would love to find a few "go-to" whites. She started by asking what I don't like about white and if there are any varietals in particular that I don't care for. My first response... "I hate Rieslings!" She calmly said, ok, why? I explained to her that I just DO NOT care for sweet wine (unless it's a dessert wine and I'm mentally prepared for it to be sugary sweet)! Emily's response, "No problem... I actually have a great bottle of white open, why don't you just try it and tell me what you think." So, low and behold, I take a very cautious sip of white wine and fall in love... with none other than the dreaded Riesling! Emily says this is one of her favorite tricks to pull and that tons of people have the same reservations about Riesling until they try a good one. So, the moral of this (way too long) story... TRY A GOOD DRY RIESLING!!!

2007 Pikes Traditionale Dry Riesling

Australia- Clare Valley

purchased at Shiraz wine store (Athens, GA)

$19.99 normally, but it was $9.99 because it was the feature wine

Date tasted: 10/19/10

Rating: 9-9.5

I had this wine one night when Clay was out of town, but I still wanted a great meal. So, I grilled a peppercorn pork tenderloin and some zucchini and opened up this fabulous bottle!

Pale yellow in color, gets more yellow around the edges, very clear wine

Smells: honey, grass, petrol- Yes, petrol/gas... I know that's odd, but it's very common and doesn't mean that it's not good... it's actually DELICIOUS! : )

Taste: medium bodied, acidic and dry- light and crisp, earthy, petrol, not sweet at all, also has little spice kick at the very end of the sip

My notes:

Really crisp and refreshing dry Riesling- Really great! Seems super versatile- I would think this wine would change someone's mind about whites and especially about Rieslings! Would definitely buy again (and again and again)! Screwtop bottle. Hard not to chug this one- it's really great!

Side note: I did actually buy this wine again... Shiraz decided to extend the $9.99 special into November, so when I picked up November's wine club wines, I bought two more bottles!