Iowa City Wine Geek

I just received a large order of wine from Wine Library that I am extremely excited about. Here is a link to my "cellar".  By cellar I mean the few shelves in my kitchen cupboards reservered for the wine.

But anyway, moving onto the wine. One of the wines I picked up is the 2006 Hundred Tree Hill Chardonnay from Australia.  I should have known to read the couple of reviews on CellarTracker first, but I completely relied on WLTV's review.  It was a decent wine, but not worth the $16.99 I payed for it.

I thought it had a little butteriness, zero oak (which is fine), a little acidity but all in all was somewhat boring. I bought 2 bottles so I probably keep the other 1 for a year and see what happens next summer. This is just for giggles mind you. I've never cellared a wine before so it will all be part of the grand experiment and I wouldn't want to try this experiment with an expensive wine.

I think next I'll open up the 2007 Foris Pinot from Oregon. All the reviewers say this is dynamite for the price, only $13.98!

Enjoy!

Labels: Chardonnay, Tasting, White

The three white wines from this weekend are in order of appearance:

2009 L'Apostrophe Chante Cigale 

The first was chosen on purpose to pair with a dinner my better half and I enjoyed at One Twenty Six on Friday evening.  She wanted mussels and I had the risotto (a vegetarian version).  I thought this Sauvignon Blanc would cut nicely through the mussels and the 'creaminess' of a risotto.  I believe it was a good choice and I was pleasantly surprised to find out it is brought in by Kermit Lynch who is an importer I greatly respect and admirer. It was nicely priced at $36 US Dollars which probably means it is a $12-$15 bottle in the store.  It looked like a great value play out from One Twenty Six's wine list.  I did find it a bit sweet (not too sweet though) for a Sauv Blanc and after doing some research I found that the crop of Sauvignon Blanc was lower in 2008 due to some bad weather and so this particular Domaine made up the difference with some Semillon grapes. The Semillon grape is a sweeter grape and is most commonly used in the making of the famous Sauternes sweet dessert wines.  Thus the sweetness in this particular white.  

The second wine was chosen because because it seemed like a great deal. A 2005 Chardonnay for $8! Sure I'll try it!  Plus I wanted to take it to party. ;) I found this at the The Secret Cellar  in Shueryville, a lovely little wine shop just north of Iowa City.  This wine was very heavy but fresh tasting with a hint of the butteriness.  There was no oakiness (I would suspect it was aged in metal or stone in fact).  Lauren (who owns and operates The Secret Cellar) thought that maybe it was just a bit past its prime, but after tasting it I don't 100% agree.  In fact I would say pick up a few more bottles for the summer at this great price! I know I will.  

The last of the weekends white was not chosen by me but by my girlfriend who liked the description the wine guy from the Pioneer Co-Op had written up.  Basically, he said it was a great wine for the value and reminded him of some other $40 wines he had had in the  past.  This one was about $13 US Dollars.  The nose had some hints of melon and pear and wet stone.  On the mid palate I felt like I was eating a whole box of smoky lemonheads; which I enjoyed.  It had a long finish and very nice acidity.  I am a bit concerned about the heat (alcohol) at the back end and there was a considerable amount of fizziness.    Therefore I find this to be an okay white, but I probably would not buy it again.  You should try this one for yourself though. The deliciousness factor might be enough for you that the alcohol and fizziness are not a problem. 

So there you go. Three days, three whites!

Enjoy yourselves

Labels: Bordeaux Blanc, Chardonnay, Pairing, White