South African Chenin Blanc

This weekend my wife and I opened a bottle of "2005 Man Vintners Chenin Blanc" from South Africa. This rocked our socks off. We really enjoyed it. The wine was off-dry and very fruity, a fantastic summertime wine.

We had gotten into a rut of bad Rieslings and Pinot Grigios recently. I was feeling pretty down on the whole white wine thing again. Then we tried this Chenin Blanc; it really opened my eyes. We're definitely going to try a few more Chenin Blancs from South Africa (though nobody really has a huge selection of them). We might even try it's French cousin Vouvray. Vouvray is Chenin blanc from the Vouvray region in France. Rule number one for Chenin Blanc though, Don't by the crap we make in the US...

free.winelibrary.com

Here's something fun that I should have blogged about earlier. Have a look at http://free.winelibrary.com. Here's the deal. Monday through Friday at 1pm EST a new wine will be offered with free shipping. One wine, one day, free shipping. What sort of wine will it be? Well that's up to Gary Vaynerchuk and friends.

Overall the wines are usually intriguing ideas from various places around the world. For example, here's a recent entry from Greece. (note that the old links are not valid for free shipping) Is it good? Who knows. Usually the community will leave comments on the wine if they've had it or not. You gotta be quick though if you see something you like. The wine will sell out pretty quickly. Then you'll see the comments go from Wine to Whine in a hurry.

Here's a tip I posted on one of the quick-sellouts recently...
I setup a “Scheduled Task” in Windows to open a browser to free.winelibrary.com at 12:05 (CST). That way I never forget to check it.

This is a great service where you can really find some steals if you pay attention. Don't miss out on something you think you might like by second guessing it. Get off the fence and ring it up!

For more information you can read the "About" tab.

Ernest Gallo

Ernest Gallo past away today at age 97, at his home in Modesto California. Even if you don't know wine, you recognize the name E&J Gallo. Ernest Gallo is the father of the American wine industry.
Learn more...
http://www.gallo.com/ErnestGallo/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Gallo/

Beaujolais

In my recent studies of wine, I was reading about Beaujolais. My wife doesn't like most red wines, but I do. We do agree on Pinot Noir, as it is very low on the red wine scale. Well, knowing Dawn's tendency towards whites, and reading about the characteristics of Beaujolais, I picked up a bottle of 2005 "Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages". It was a big hit, we both really enjoyed it.

Beaujolais is made from 100% Gamay grapes, and produced in the Burgundy region of France. You can read all about it at Wikipedia: Beaujolais

If you like Pinot Noir, if you're a afraid if 'big' red wines, check out Beaujolais. The Louis Jadot 2005 Villages was very good. Lots of cherry and Dr. pepper flavors, with some good tannins to boot.

I got some wine yesterday

I've always been a fan of wine. Though, I've always been one of those guys that was buying stuff because it had a nice label. My wife likes Riesling, I like Cabernet. We both enjoy Pinot Grigio. That being said, we always bought one of those three. Again, based on the label.

In the tech side of my life; if something interests me, I study it. I study it until I know enough about it to use it and explain it to others. Why shouldn't I approach other things that way? I like wine, it interests me, so I started studying it.

In that vein I've been buying up wine over the past few weeks. I have maybe 12 bottles on hand right now. Now, mind you, most of those bottles are actually Cabernet. They are varied a bit more now, one is from Argentina, another from Australia (not Yellow Tail, bleh).

I ordered four bottles from the folks at Wine Library. Here's what I bought:

• 04 Ravenswood Vintner's Blend Cabernet Sauvignon $7.99


• 04 San Felipe Cabernet Sauvignon $6.99


• 04 Rocky Creek Zinfandel $8.99


• 05 Von Hovel Oberemmeler Hutte Kabinett Riesling $15.99

Why would I buy 3 cheap (one average) bottles of wine online? Well, I am big fan of Gary Vaynerchuck and his daily video blog at Wine Library TV. Each one of the cheap wines I bought was raved about by Gary, and scored well from him. There was also a free shipping sale on wines presented on Wine Library TV :)

Again, they're Cabernet and Riesling. The San Filipe is from Argentina though, so that counts for something. I've got some Shiraz and Pinot Noir in the basement, not to mention the "Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages" I picked up. I'm excited to try that, I'm hoping to bring Dawn (my wife) to the dark side of red wine with it :)