October 2009

In keeping with my earlier post, I'm trying Sutter Home table wines. Moscato is a varietal that is primarily categorized as a dessert wine. You can read about it here. The Sutter Home Moscato is a delicate, very pale, yellow, a little darker than champagne, and a little more yellow than Sauvignon Blanc. Even the aroma is sweet and strongly reminiscent of pears, with a touch of honeydew melon. The flavor is sweet, with a slightly acidic pear note. My first thought was that it reminded me of mead, but it is very grape-like, and not honey like. What made me think of mead (or honey) is that this Moscato has the slightly sweet musky taste of mead, because of the honey, or some melons. It is that "musky" quality that gives the grape, and the wine, its name.

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O Wines was the first "Do Good" wine I noticed; by "do good," I mean a wine that, when sold, the producers donate all or part of the proceeds to a charity of some sort. I've written about O Wines' Chardonnay here. But there are quite a few notable wineries selling specially marked bottles of wine and donating part of the proceeds to charities—particulary, charities that fight breast cancer or support those affected by breast cancer.

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My first (oops)™ wine is a 2006 Carmenère Rosé. This was a local find, and it's convinced me to seek out the rest of their lineup. oops rose (oops) 2006 Carmenère Rosé is 100 % Carmenère from Chile's Valle Centrale. This is the second year, 2005 being the first, that (oops)™ released a Carmenère Rosé. In 2005 the wine was labeled a "white Carmenère." The 2006 grapes, according to the wine maker's notes, were harvested in Santa Lucila, from a vineyard located on sandy-soil beside the Lontue River in the Andean foothills of Chile's Curicó. The grapes for 2006 were harvested in March of 2006, and were selected in part for their aroma. The wine was fermented in stainless steel tanks, and without oak in the form of either barrels or chips.

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I like Gewürtztraminer, and, as I've noted, Washington state has some rather fine and rather affordable Gewürtztraminer. I thought it might be fun to directly compare two of them. Both these wines are in the bargain and budget categories; the Washington Hills was a find at the local Bargain Grocery Store for $3.99, and the Columbia Crest Two Vines Gew¨rtztraminer was a Rite Aid purchase for $4.99; it's been $4.99 for months, and we've been very diligent about doing our part towards stock reduction. Both these wines use grapes from Washington's Columbia Valley, and both list for between $8.00 and $10.00 a bottle. Comparing them, then, seems almost obligatory.

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Another Bargain Grocery Store find. I've tried Oak Hollow's California Zinfandel previously. This Oak Hollow 2006 California Sauvignon Blanc is a lovely very pale gold, with a slightly green tint. The appearance is quite attractive, and looks like a Sauvignon Blanc. It's very much like the palest possible shade of apatite, bordering on pale citrine. The fragrance is slightly citrusy; a bit like lemon or possibly grapefruit peel. At first taste, it's sharply acidic, with very grapefruit-like overtones. It's a bit like green apples and pineapple, but the dominate flavor is more like grapefruit. It's very definitely a slightly dry Sauvignon Blan. As odd as this sounds, this Sauvignon Blanc feels almost as if it's slightly carbonated.

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