Kung Fu Girl Riesling Vintage: 2006 Purchased: Jul 24th 2007 Price: $11.99 Purchase Location: QFC Categories: Riesling - Washington - White

Tasting Notes:

Run out and buy this wine. You can get it all over town for $11-$13 a bottle. That's a steal for a single vineyard riesling. This wine blows away all the other high production Washington rieslings I've had. It's also better than all the qualitatswein level riesling from Germany I've had. It compares favorably with the QmP Kabinett wine.

It's a pale straw color in the glass. The nose is outstanding though with pear, flower, and peach notes. You can actually smell the raciness just by breathing in the aroma. In the mouth it's light, racy, and refreshing. It's also exploding with flavor: peach, apricot, orange peel, lavender, honey, plus just a hint of wet slate. It is off-dry, but never seemed sweet. Excellent wine and a great price!


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Barnard Griffin Cabernet Sauvignon Vintage: 2004 Purchased: Jan 20th 2007 Price: $12.99 Purchase Location: QFC Categories: Cabernet Sauvignon - Red - Washington

Tasting Notes:

Kathrine and I stopped at QFC after work to get groceries and something for dinner. They happened to have t-bone steaks on sale for 6.99/lb. I bought a 2" thick monster that was more like a porterhouse, and only ended up being $11. We cooked it up for dinner with a zucchini gratin. The steak required a big red wine to go along with it and I decided a nice Washington cabernet would be perfect so I opened this.

In the glass this was a deep dark color. It was almost completely opaque and the the color of dark black cherry skins. It didn't show any signs of age around the rim. The nose was still fresh and fruity. Mostly blackberry, but with other ripe fruits. I also smelled cedar and a hint of menthol. Once it hit my mouth, there was an explosion. This wine is big and juicy, but balanced and silky at the same time. The blackberry and black cherry tastes dominate. But there is also a red licorice taste, a hint of black pepper, a bit of cedar, and surprisingly a bit of dill. The finish is long and the tannins are soft and silky.

This is an excellent wine, and an example of what Washington does best. Our "big" producers consistently put out pretty amazing wine at this price point, and I don't think anyone can compete.


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Joseph Drouhin Laforet Bourgogne Vintage: 2004 Purchased: Jan 26th 2007 Price: $13.99 Purchase Location: QFC Categories: Burgundy - France - Pinot Noir - Red

Tasting Notes:

Opened this up to eat midweek with a steak and roasted cauliflower. I'd had it in the basement for a while, and I've got enough pinot noir either already there or on the way that I needed to make room.

In the glass it was a translucent garnet, becoming deeper purple towards the center. The overwhelming scent was of cherry, but there was a slight earthiness to it. On first taste, the cherry flavor dominated followed by the tannins which I found a little overpowering. Not much to it. Quaffable, but at this price not something I would recommend. I finished the bottle two days later and it had opened up quite a bit. The fruit was stronger, the tannins had softened, and the mushroom/herbal notes became apparent. Much better the second time. Maybe I should have decanted it?

If you can find it on sale for $10 or so, its a good buy. At more than that, I'd say to try to find something from Oregon or from the '05 vintage in Burgundy.


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Silver Lake Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot Vintage: 2004 Purchased: Jan 21st 2007 Price: $7.99 Purchase Location: QFC Categories: Cabernet Sauvignon - Merlot - Red - Washington

Tasting Notes:

Kathrine picked this out to go with a braised beef shank dish that I had made. I quite enjoyed our trip to Silver Lake when we visited and was pretty impressed with most of their wines. My favorite was probably their Grand Reserve Claret, but at $40 a bottle, I feel that their are much better values out there. This wine is a similar blend at a much cheaper price.

It's got the expected color to it in the glass. A dark purple color. The nose is very pronounced and fruity. Mainly blackberry, but some other fruit components as well. On the palate you get the fruit first, but it's not overpowering. I tasted blackberry and blueberry, with just a hint of raspberry. It's backed up by a very good acid that Washington reds seem to have and is often missing from California. There wasn't a lot to spice to it. The back of the bottle mentioned vanilla, but I didn't get that. There were some soft tannins, but they were mild and well balanced. It tasted more like a cedar plank than oaky.


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Concannon Central Coast Pinot Noir Vintage: 2005 Purchased: Jan 26th 2007 Price: $9.99 Purchase Location: QFC Categories: California - Pinot Noir - Red

Tasting Notes:

I'm a big pinot noir fan, but unfortunately, most of the budget pinots are just bad. Its hard to find a good one under $20 much less $15. I took a chance on this when I saw it marked down from $15 to $10 at the local QFC.

In the glass it was a light garnet in color. It passed the first test, it looked like a pinot. The aroma was interesting. I could smell the fruit, but there was no earthy, mushroomy, minerally smell that I normally associate with this grape. Instead there was a distinct aroma of burnt sugar. Not unpleasant in the slightest, but definitely unexpected. The first taste was fruit, but muted and not a fruit bomb like sometimes you get from California. The most prominent flavor was tart cherry, with an emphasis on tart. There was a little bit of strawberry and raspberry, but the cherry and the acid dominated. After a few seconds, the taste of cola became apparent and it was very reminiscent of a cherry coke. Then the tannins kicked in. Not unpleasant, but maybe a little strong. They balanced the acid well, but I found them to mute the fruit just a little too much.

One thing to know is that this wine is not 100% pinot noir. California allows up to 25% of the wine to come from other grapes. In this case 8% petite sirah and 7% grenache. I'm guessing the petite sirah was there to add tannin and a touch of complexity, without using oak. The grenache was probably their to boost the fruitiness to some degree. All in all though, it does taste how a pinot should, and at less than $10 I wouldn't hesitate to buy this again.


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Ravenswood Vinters Blend Zinfandel Vintage: 2004 Purchased: Jan 20th 2007 Price: $8.99 Purchase Location: QFC Categories: California - Red - Zinfandel

Tasting Notes:

I'm not a huge zinfandel fan. Although the expensive ones I've tasted have been good. Most budget ones leave something to be desired. This one was pretty good though, especially for the price.

It was full of strawberry and blueberry flavors. It had a little spice, and much more acidity than I'm used to. It was fairly jammy, but the acid seemed to keep that in check. On the positive side it only had 13.5% alcohol, which is low for most zinfandels. I appreciate that.

I served this with a spicy three meat chili at my super bowl party, and thought it stood up well to the dish. At this price this is probably a great wine to have on hand for food as it would pair well with a variety of dishes.


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Louis Bouillot Cremant De Bourgogne Vintage: NV Purchased: Jan 26th 2007 Price: $12.99 Purchase Location: QFC Categories: Burgundy - Chardonnay - France - Pinot Noir - Rose - Sparkling

Tasting Notes:

I love sparkling wine. The problem is Champagne is very expensive, so I tend to stick to Cava. When I saw this sparkler at QFC marked down from $24.99 I thought it would be perfect to the first course of the Valentine's dinner I was making for Kathrine.

In case you didn't know Cremant is the generic French name for sparkling wine made in that country outside the region of Champagne. This rose sparkler comes from Burgundy. It is made of 65% chardonnay and 35% pinot noir, the traditional grapes of Burgundy. It just so happens that those are also the traditional grapes of Champagne, so this wine should be very similar to its more expensive siblings. The pale pink color comes from the addition of pinot noir to the wine when the lees are disgorged.

The wine was very rich and fruity but just off-dry on the finish. It seemed much sweeter than it was due to the fruit, but be warned do not drink this with dessert. I tasted a sip after I had eaten dessert but without cleansing my palate and it seemed super acidic. With the Pacific Oysters on the half shell though it was heavenly. And the color was just a perfect way to begin Valentines.


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Houge Late Harvest White Riesling Vintage: 2005 Purchased: Jan 26th 2007 Price: $6.99 Purchase Location: QFC Categories: Dessert - Riesling - Washington - White

Tasting Notes:

This was the final wine of our Valentine's day dinner. It was paired with pears poached in riesling, sugar and vanilla. This was a very sweet wine that worked well with the dessert. It has 4.75% residual sugar which is about twice as much as you will find in most of the riesling from Washington, which already borders on being too sweet.

The wine has big flavors of ripe pears and honey (a perfect match for my dessert). There is just enough acid in the finish to keep it from tasting like total candy. At this price, I don't think you are going to find a comparable dessert wine.


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