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!

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! : )