My wife and I made dinner for some out of town friends. I didn’t take formal notes on the wines, but here’s what we had.
2008 Washington Hills Riesling Paradise Peak
Appellation: Washington State
Served With: Spinach Salad with Warm Citrus Dressing; Butternut Squash Soup
Tasting Notes: 100% Reisling. 11% ABV. Didn’t take formal notes, but this was a very nice wine. Great fruit, but also food friendly aciditiy and minerality. Off dry, so non wine folks will like this. Great match with a spinach salad (spinach, red onion, cranberry, orange, feta) and warm citrus dressing, also great match with butternut squash soup.
Rating: 3/5
Price: $9.99
2008 Noël Bougrier Anjou
Appelation: Anjou-Saumur (Loire Valley)
Served With: Scallops in Butter, Wine, and Sage; Risotto
Tasting Notes: 100% Chenin Blanc. 11% ABV. Didn’t take formal notes. This was crisp, great acid, but pretty one dimensional. A versitile food friendly white, but that is in part because there isn’t much going on.
Rating: 2/5
Price: $9.99
2009 Spier Chenin Blanc
Appellation: Western Cape, South Africa
Served With: Scallops, etc.
Tasting Notes: 100% Chenin Blanc. 13.5% ABV. Didn’t take formal notes. Very interesting. Lots of grapefruit, some melon, and an interesting smoke aroma and on the palate. Nice rich mouthfeel. Interesting and very good. Great value.
Rating: 4/5
Price: $7.99
All wines purchased at Beltway Fine Wines
nothin’s better than wine and friends … i remember a meal in Paris last year … 4 wine buddies of mine and their significant others … i brought a nice 30-Euro Meursault, which was simply amazing … unfortunately it retails for 70 bucks in the US …
…
anyways everyone went all out, except me I brought the cheapest bottle … but from the price-quality point, we were all very impressed …
here’s the link : the link
but the point is one dude brought a 1975 Dom Perignon and we were all like WTF why did you bring such a rare and expensive bottle ?! (the context was we all knew eachother very well and there were no bragging rights to be earned or anyone to impress) and he just shrugged it off, saying that he couldn’t of thought of a better moment … and what a waste it would have been to selfishly stash the bottle away for some random and superficial moment where the bottle’s status would have overshadowed it’s real quality and ability to bring people together …
cheers !
PS : Paul you drink a lot of $10 and under bottles, like most of us (including me of course). Maybe you could do a monthly recap on Paul’s Top Ten Picks Under Ten … or something like that … anyways just some morning randomness … I better get back to work … Go Bucks ! (man that was a squeaker ! …. who’s your team ?)
I’m learning exactly what your friend knows. I have a friend who is a very successful chef and has a 1300+ bottle cellar.
Because of his connections/tastes, he’s got some rare and pricey stuff. At a dinner at his house a few months ago, he opened a $500+ bottle of wine like it was nothing.
He frankly said he buys wine to drink, why not share it with people who love it as much as he does.
I don’t have any $500 bottles, but I am less concerned with the money I spent and more interested in matching the wine with food or sharing something I like with other wine lovers.
RE: the PS:
I do a recap of what I tasted on my personal blog, and I think at the end of last year I posted something about value wines I had rated highly here. I don’t always drink 10 bottles a month, but I should do something like that, maybe quarterly. I’m actually trying to increase my per bottle cost, but I also buy a “$100 case of the month” pretty regularly, which will obviously have a bunch of ~$10 wines.
I’m a rabid Ravens fan, so I’m pretty happy today.
“less concerned with the money I spent and more interested in matching the wine with food or sharing something I like with other wine lovers.” YOU SAID IT ALL !
Yeah it’s impossible to compare consumption between living in France and the US … like everything there are loads of pros in cons … luckily for me, with my very limited budget, there are so many cheap to free opportunities to taste really expensive-quality wine, like for example Le Grand Tasting in paris (the top amateur wine expo in france) costs ~23 euros a head for 2 days … all the grand crus even a wine like the Winston Churchill Champagne … and I think the grand tasting in D.C. cost like 300 dollars to get in no ? …
so that’s the good side of living in France … BUT on the other hand France is EXTREMELY limited when it comes to international wine discovery … embarassing actually … so that’s the big huge pro of living in the States … you have access to wines from all around the world and there’s a market that cares about them and wants to learn about them and drink them ! … not in France … but of course to discover French wine in the States it’s pretty darn pricey when you wanna step into the ranks …
OK so this is clearly my first email/message of the morning since i am blabbering away incoherently …
hey i have another random idea ? don’t worry I’m not telling you what to blog about … I’m just living vicariously through you since it’s been forever since I’ve been in the States for a significant period of time … a “French Wine Discovery” … I haven’t had much luck in finding quality French wine for under 20 bucks in the States …
OK let me know officially shut up …
GO RAVENS !? …
PS : Do ya’ll ever hop across the pond ? I’d love to show you around Savennieres !
I haven’t had much luck with French wine under $20. I’ve fallen in love with Southern Rhone (2007 Domaine de la Charbonnière Vacqueyras is one of my favorite wines), I’ve found those are values in the $25 to $75 range, and great values in general compared to Bordeaux and Burgundy.
I’ll suck it up and keep trying, though!
I’m fortunate that I’ve got the disposable income to spend money on good wine (some people golf, I buy wine)… I’m getting to the point where I’m considering better storage options. I don’t have room in my house to build a wine cellar, but I’m looking at making room for a big (500 bottle) vinotemp cabinet.
My wife and I want to visit France; maybe next year. If we do, we’ll take you up on that offer.
sounds great ! … btw I have a tiny 60-bottle professional Vinotemp wine cellar … it retailed for like 700 bucks but i found one on their site from the certified-repaired-damaged-returns section for half off ! … sorry my brains not cooperating, I forget what we called it the whole certified repairs thingy, but I’m sure you catch my drift …
anyways, this might be an option for you !
ps : unfortunately my dad’s part of the “some people golf” crowd … i mean I LOVE golf but i love wine a lot more and my dad still runs STRAIGHT to the promo section at the front of the K-Mart or Big Bear or Kroger, where they sell the overstocked wines for 5 bucks a pop … my dad thinks anything over 10 dollars is a sin … haha … i’ve been working on him for years now but he still thinks I’m crazy … oh well …
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