Wine

Apr 02 2013

Monte Ducay Reserva 2008 Red Wine

The drill goes SOMETHING like this:

Go to Trader Joe’s on a random Friday.
Find the wine gal (or guy).
See what they have opened.
Try it all.
Pick the best one and buy a bottle.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

That’s sorta how it worked for us on a recent Friday. Maybe it was a little bit about the fact that it was FRIDAY, not another weekday, and the fact that it was lunchtime. After all, we couldn’t really drink, just sip. And we were in a little bit of a rush, so there had to be a wow factor.

This guy wowed us. To the review!

Monte Ducay Reserva 2008 Red Wine Review

Taste

Carignane (Carinena in Spanish, with apologies for failed accent marks) is dominant. My mission continues to be finding those grapes that not everybody is talking about – and start talking about them. So this one is worth talking about – mellow, but fruit-forward, too. Drinks more expensively than you’d think.

Profile

100% Carinena. 13% ABV. Bold yet mellow. Drink everyday. Really really solid.

Value

Around 8 bucks. Put a 1 in front of that number – drank like 18 bucks. Serious value.

Metasip Grade: B+

Yes, we give this a B+. Why wouldn’t we? It was the most memorable of the 4 bottles they had opened – and we would have eschewed a purchase if none of them were valuable. That, as they say, is how we roll.

BUT: how do YOU roll? Or, more accurately, what the heck do YOU think of this wine? Have you had it?

Let us know in the comments. Drink up!

Mar 30 2013

Toca Diamonte 2011 Malbec

One of the problems with Malbec over the past couple years: ubiquity. Read: this stuff is everywhere. And once it’s everywhere, everyone gets into the action, which can be a good and bad thing.

Behold, in all its glory, the Toca Diamonte 2011 Malbec. “En Union Y Libertad” is what it says on the bottle, which, loosely translated, pretty much says “five bucks.”

This wine – available only at Aldi in the US – offers a little from both categories. GOOD: it’s actually a decent value (actually not $5, but $4.99 last we checked). BAD: It does taste like an inexpensive Malbec.

Toca Diamonte 2011 Malbec Review:

Taste

Fruit. A little of that peppery nose you’d expect from a Malbec. Not a “fruit bomb,” though. Again, that’s both good and bad. This can’t really fall into any category other than “table wine.”

Profile

Medium alcohol content – 12.5%. All Malbec. Argentina – where, last we heard, they still have to irrigate.

Value

You will hear people say “for five bucks, how can you go wrong?” Take that for what it’s worth – this is a table wine, could be an okay house wine, but is going to taste like you spent five bucks on it.

Metasip Grade: B-

Have you had the Toca Diamonte 2011 Malbec?

Let us know below if you had this wine – give it a rating of 1 to 5 stars.

Mar 30 2013

Flirt 2010 California Red Wine

Be prepared for a wine with an alluring bottle. And…

Honestly, not too much else going for it. IMHO, you’re paying for the bottle, and MAYBE the Tempranillo (17%) that’s part of this blend. It’s mostly Syrah (70%) and a little Zinfandel, too.

What’s really funny here is that those are three of my favorite grapes – maybe this blend mellowed out all three grapes and the result is une grande boutaille de meh.

(Sorry, my French may be a little rusty.)

Flirt 2010 California Red Wine Review

Taste:

The winemaker says “juicy red plum, baked cherry spice and cherry cola layered with vanilla and butterscotch.” We noticed the fruit, maybe the vanilla – that was about it. (As you may have gathered, we’re not gaga about this wine.)

Profile:

70% Syrah, 17% Tempranillo, 13% Zinfandel.

Value:

Around $11 when we found it in Chicago. Worth that? Maybe. Not much more, though.

Metasip Grade: B-

Bear in mind that a “B-” is still scoring in the 80s on a 100-point scale. And if you beg to differ, let us know!

Mar 30 2013

Bodega Elena 2010 Red Blend

I was hopeful. I hoped that there being more than a little Malbec in this puppy would make it rock and/or roll.

The reality, though, is that it was a little bit above average, but barely so.

Bonarda might have something to do with its being a little above average – this is a grape that COULD BE THE NEXT MALBEC. (I had to shout that because, well, it sounds exotic, doesn’t it? Bonarda! No…BONARDA!)

Anywho, onto the breakdown:

Bodega Elena 2010 Red Blend Review

Taste:

Malbec plus Syrah plus Bonarda. If you’re not taken with Malbec – and a few tasters we met thought that it’s too…peppery? Fruity? Spicy? Those are all fair assessments, and the Bonarda grape has a tendency to “cut” the Malbec down to size.

In other words – no “fruit bomb” here. So if you’re into blends that taste like blends – might not be a bad thing to take a flier on.

Profile:

62/21/17 – Malbec/Syrah/Bonarda. (Honestly made me want to hunt down a straight Bonarda; more to come on that quest down the road.)

Value:

Boom! This is where it scores above-average for sho. We got our bottle for $6.99. It didn’t knock our socks off – but it was under $10 and probably drank like about $10.

Metasip Grade: B-

But, have YOU tried it? What do YOU think?

Mar 29 2013

Don Simon Seleccion Tempranillo

The bottle says – on the back – that Tempranillo is “the perfect everyday wine to drink with pizza, burgers and fried foods.”

AND, we think, if you’re shopping at Whole Foods, where we found this wine, you can do a lot worse than (if memory serves) $6 a bottle.

To the review…

Taste:

We should probably post a picture of the back of the bottle, right?

That part where they tell you what it tastes like, and then you can ask yourself whether or not it’s spot on?

We tasted the “ripe strawberry and cherry flavors.” We also got a little peppery spice nose. And, while drinking it, we tried NOT to think “hey, this didn’t cost too much.” Because it didn’t taste like it was a six-dollar bottle.

Profile:

100% Tempranillo. As is usual with these guys, no clue what year. That’s okay – I think it’s supposed to be table wine.

Value:

Solid value – actually, if you’re heading out for a BYOB meal somewhere, this is a really good choice.

Metasip Grade: B

Now – a little something about the grading scale here. We’ll talk more about it down the road, but just because something is a “B” doesn’t make it bad. And if it’s not a “B+” that doesn’t mean it’s subpar. And so on…

Remember back in school, the typical US grading scale? 100 is not just an A, it’s an A+. 90 is an A-, 89 is a B+. I’m sure we could come up with an infographic to explain our ratings and whatnot, but we’d rather just tell you whether or not it’s worth your time (and money).

As this site evolves – and ratings evolve – we’re sure you’ll take exception to what we have to say. AND THAT’S THE POINT. Tell us what you think…or tell us about other wines, beers, and spirits you’ve tried. We’d LOVE to hear from you!