2008 Yellow Tail Reserve Pinot Grigio – South Eastern Australia

This Pinot Grigio is a pale gold green. Sweet fruit and a hint of herbs in the aroma. Light body, lightly sweet and lively, with a hint of tangerine and plenty of lime in both flavor and finish. It’s an easy to drink aperitif wine, especially at the end of a hot, muggy day, when you want a little more than a limeade and a little less than a cocktail. The wine became a bit more fruity as it opened in the glass. But sweetness predominated when I tried pairing it with dinner (chicken) so I had to give it up for the meal. Read about Becky Sue’s thoughts as she samples the whole Reserve line on BeckySueEpstein.com.

2005 Childress Vineyards Cabernet Franc Reserve, North Carolina

This was given to me by a good friend when I lived back in Ohio. She and her family visited North Carolina, and she brought some wine back to try. This is the first from the Carolinas I’ve had the opportunity to try. While three-quarters of the bottle is Cab Franc, it also contains 20% Syrah and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Medium garnet red color. A medium intensity nose with red fruit, oak, and earthiness. One the palate it was clean, and relatively light to medium in structure, tannin, flavor, and acidity. Juicy red fruits. While I wouldn’t call this a stellar bottle, it wasn’t bad by any means. More importantly, it definitely has me intrigued to try other wines from the Eastern sea board!

Wine for Haiti Lot 81 – Cleavage Creek Trio SOLD

The always-generous folks over at Cleavage Creek Cellars sent three different bottles of wine for our action, their 2005 Tracy Hills Cabernet Syrah, 2007 tray Hills Merlot-Shiraz, and 2009 Tracy Hills Reserve Chardonay, total retail value $54.00.

2008 Michel Torino Torrontes Reserve Don David

On the nose I got pineapple, white flowers, apricots, tropical notes, honey, pear, lemon, spice, and white pepper. The nose on Torrontes wines is almost immediately recognizable…the florals and honey notes just float out of the glass without you having to get close to it. In the mouth I found lemon, orange zest, lemon zest, [...]

2006 Domaine Jean Bousquet Malbec Reserva

This dark, purple-hued beauty of a red wine is rich and full bodied with a supple mouth feel. On the nose are blackberries, black cherries, black raspberries, with a mineral undertone reminiscent of a summer rain on warm gravel. On the palate, this wine has fig preserves in front of more black berries, chocolate, leather [...]