Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Montebuana Rioja


In the continuing quest to experience red wine, I wanted to try a rioja. This one was about $10 and very full bodied and dry. It was a good wine, but definitely needed to be served with a meal as opposed to sipped in front of the TV. 5 of 10

Monday, November 26, 2007

2000 Monte Carlo Turns 100,000


During my evening commute, my deer smashed Monte Carlo turned 100,000 miles old.

The sad part of this story is that I went to great effort to use my digital camera to make a video of the odometer rolling over, but something went horribly wrong. Now, admittedly, it would seem that watching a digital odometer "roll over" doesn't sound very exciting, but the video turned out pretty good... right up to the point that it stopped: ten seconds too soon! I guess videos had a 2 minute limit.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Canyon Oaks White Merlot


Okay: I can't really fault Canyon Oaks for this one. It's half my fault and half the wine stores fault. I was looking at the White Zinfandels and decided to try this one. Once I opened the bottle, I realized that it was White Merlot rather than White Zinfandel. I'm guessing it was in the wrong section of the store.

Unfortunately, merlots typically contain blackberry, and I'm allergic to blackberry. The wine tasted fine, but after two small glasses, I had a hang-over the next day. The rest of the bottle went down the sink. 3 of 10.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

One Less Deer In Maryland


...At least that's my assessment. I hit her getting on to Highway 29 at about 0600 on my way to work. I came around the cloverleaf at between 40 and 50, was speeding up to merge into traffic, and checking my mirrors. By the time I looked forward, there was no time to react.

I don't know how she made it across the three lanes of traffic or whether she made it off the on-ramp. Just not the kind of thing you think about dealing with on a DC commute.

It's hard to see in the picture, but the right headlight unit (lights, turn signal, running lights) is shattered, hood is dented, and the nose cap has several cracks.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Beringer White Zinfandel


I got this bottle about a year ago when I started stocking my "wine cellar". At the time it was simply a bottle of zinfandel that was on sale. It's a nice wine, that oddly, I like with pizza. Since getting this one, I have found that Beringer has both a red label and blue label zinfandel. (It's actually the border around the label that is colored.) At first glance, the blue label has a higher alcohol content. Its next on my acquisition list, so we'll soon find out.

I paid about $7 on sale. 5 of 10.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Bellini Dessert Wine


Very good. It had a nice little warm feeling, as it was a little better than 36 proof. Not nearly the 80 proof of brandy... which is way to stout for my tastes.

Of course it was more expensive for less quantity than an average wine, but it is not meant to be drunk by the glass. About $20 for 500ml. 7 of 10.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Montresor Soave



I've been looking for a particular wine for several years, but have not seen it since I moved to Maryland. It was an Italian white, Bollo Soave. I've seen several Bollo wines, so they are still around, but no Soave.

After a little research I found that Soave is actually the region in northern Italy where the wine is grown. With this new info, I looked for another brand of Soave. I found this one for slightly under $10 and found it enjoyable. I'll give it 5 of 10.

Vampire Pinot Nior



I'm trying to learn about red wines, so we'll be seeing more reds in the list. There is a minor issue, however: I'm allergic to black fruits (blackberries, currents, etc) and they are often used to flavor the red wines. Luckily, I found a set of charts that describe which types of wine typically contain black fruit. Classic example: Merlot.

First on the list: Vampire Pinot Nior. This is such a classic marketing gimmick. Vampires drinking red wine. Brilliant!

The bad news is that this bottle was more expensive than many other Pinot Niors. I'd say mid range ($12). The good news is that I found out that wine is 30% cheaper in Virginia than it is in Maryland. WooHoo!

I liked this wine. We'll have to try a few others to see if it is the vintage or variety. I'll give it a strong 6 of 10.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Monkey Bay Chardonnay




I bought this New Zealand wine simply because it came with a mail in rebate. That seemed novel. Turns out its not, just void where prohibited by law which is, apparently, me county. I sent it in anyway, but since the receipt was not itemized, I didn't get my dollar back. As for the wine, 5 of 10.