More Tastings

After drinking another bottle from Sam's Club, I decided I won't be trying their wines. The wines at the local HEB (Inkberry) are better & less expensive than the ones from Sam's. Tonight we opened Greg Norman's Cabernet. It was just a plain wine with not much body to it. There was a lightness about it that I wouldn't expect from a Cab. Needless to say, we won't be getting more of Greg Norman wines.

Molly Dooker Two Left Feet

I ordered a few bottles of wine online and this was a surprisingly delicious wine. Only wished I had bought more.  When I went back online to get some more, it was gone...oh well.  It's a blend of Shiraz, Cab Sauvignon & Merlot.  Yummy with a great & lingering flavor.

Molly Dooker

Two Left Feet

2007

Sarah & Sparky Marquis

South Australia

from the bottle:  Whether you are a Mollydooker or an Honorary Mollydooker, we have left hand craft our wines with our WOW specially for you.

Recent Wines

I've been saving these bottles for awhile & haven't had time to enter them here.

Red Knot

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon 

South Australia

Decent wine from our wine club...not any better than a normal wine from the grocery store.

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Marques de la Concordia

Crianza 2005

Rioja

After having a fantastic Rioja in Austin, I asked the guy at Specs to recommend a Rioja.  This one is much less expensive, but still worth drinking.  I really enjoyed this one and will get some more bottles for the future

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MA

Reserve Chardonnay

2008

Maipo Valley

Another one from our local wine club.  It was a decent Chardonnay, but I'd prefer a less expensive one that has as much flavor as this one...like Barefoot or Yellow Tail Chard.

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Lucky Star

2007 Zinfandel

Lodi

Neither Steve or I liked this one much.

Casas de Pirque

Out of the wines we get from our local wine club, this was better than normal.  We enjoyed sipping on it, but it was much better the following day.

Casas de Pirque

Reserva

2007 Maipo Valley

Cabernet Sauvignon

Deliciously complex, rich & polished, exhibiting rich plum, blackberry & spice.

Estancia Cabernet

A few weeks ago we had April & Jesse Saginor for dinner. They brought a bottle of Estancia Cab which was fun to drink.  A nice Cab!  We'll drink this again

Estancia

2007

Cabernet Sauvignon

Paso Robles

After sunset, temperatures drop as marine fog sweeps in, lingering until dawn.  These cool evenings & warm days create a longer growing season, allowing grapes to ripen to perfection.  

Deeply concentrated & intensely flavorful displaying dense black currant, lush chocolate, & dark cherry fruit flavors followed by a long, supple finish.

J.Lohr in Hawaii

We're here in Hawaii for a week, celebrating our oldest daughter's college graduation. After getting up at 2am to watch the sunrise over the Haleakala Crater, then bike riding down the mountain and enjoying lunch in the crazy town of Paia, we stopped for a bottle of wine at Safeway (most boring part of our day). But the wine definitely was not boring. We enjoyed a glass before we headed to the beach to watch the sunset. This glass of wine was so much better than the one the waitress at Pineapple Grill recommended as full-bodied and smooth.

The Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon is delicious. A bit of cherry nose, but yummy dark berries and currant on the palate. Even though it isn't as complex as I enjoy, this Cab is smooth without the acidity of so many wines these days. I think it would be great with steak and plan to get a few bottles when we get home.

Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon
J. Lohr, Paso Robles
2007

Pineapple Grill, Kapalua

We arrived in Maui today and decided to have dinner here at Kapalua. We had done enough traveling (College Station to Houston to Honolulu to Maui to Kapalua), so we didn't want to drive anywhere. Instead we took the Resort shuttle to Pineapple Grill since it was recommended by our concierge.

The restaurant was nicely lit with candles and windows on 2 sides, giving you a nice view of the golf course and trees overlooking the ocean. I asked for a recommendation for a smooth red wine that might be full-bodied. The waitress recommended a Cab, that happened to be the least expensive on the menu. I was a bit surprised, because I thought a full-bodied wine would be more expensive. She also recommended a Merlot & brought me a sample. The Merlot was full of tannins that I didn't like, so I ordered the Cab. Unfortunately, it was worse than the wine I had on the airplane. Just cheap wine at $8.50/glass. I was a bit stunned because the waitress had high reviews for it. Another unfortunate . . . is I can't remember the name of the wine. However, I do remember it was the 2nd wine listed on Reds by the Glass.

Tin Barn Vineyards

Earlier in the year I ordered some wines online. We tried one of them last night...Tin Barn Blend, mostly cabernet. It wasn't as complex as I like, but it grew on me. I think it got better the more it had time to breathe. We had a delicious chicken breast smothered with an artichoke-shrimp cream sauce.

Tin Barn is made of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. There aren't heavy tannins. I enjoyed the cabernet grape of dark berry the most.

Wine Styles in our hometown

On our way home, Steve stopped by Wine Styles. It's a cool store here in College Station, Texas. They divide the wine according to tastes, fruity, rich, bold, and so on. That means a bold merlot may be mixed with a cabernet. The store manager pointed out some wines and gave us some tastes. We settled on a Cabernet Cauvignon.

Maxwell Creek 2004
Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa

Steve & I both liked the various flavors this wine provides, making it a complex red wine. I liked the deepness of each flavor, too. When we had some the following night (tonight), I noticed a woody, piney taste that I hadn't noticed the day before.

Maxwell Creek recommends pairing this Cab with beef & barbeque.

We will definitely enjoy this wine again, especially since we can get it locally.

Christmas Party

With a few friends over, we enjoyed Lava Cap Chardonnay and Dunham Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, both from our wine clubs. As usual, I loved the Lava Cap. Well, I like almost every wine we get from Lava Cap. The Chardonnay is less fruity with some full body I can enjoy.

The Cabernet was a bit piney. Although it is much better than some of the cheap wines we enjoy, I haven't been as impressed with Dunham's wine since our wine tasting last February. We have one more bottle of their wine that we'll try. If it isn't outstanding, we'll probably cancel Dunham's wine club. The wines are good, but not worth $40ish a bottle.