Charleen's Wine Corner

4 Uvas Tinto 2004

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:15:10 GMT

4 Uvas Red Wine

Producer: Casa Santos Lima Companhia

Country: Portugal

Vintage: 2004

Grape: Castelao, Trincadeira, Alfrocheiro, etc...Blend

Price: Less than $8

Appellation: None, Vino Regional Estremadura

Rating: 76

Dark and purplish color that had a leathery and fruity aroma. Tated fruity as bell and had a medium and bland body.

Short review, huh? Eh, okish but boring wine. Very bland too.

Smashed Grapes Chardonnay 2004

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:09:18 GMT

Smashed Grapes Chardonnay 2004

Producer: North Lakes WInes

Country: California

Vintage: 2004

Grape: Chardonnay

Price: 3.99

Appellation: None

Rating: 78

Another 3.99 wine. It was ok, pretty good for 3.99. It was dark gold in color, and smelled of apples and a bit citrusy. It tasted a bit oaky (maybe a bit too much) and rather crisp (like apples!). Although it was ok balanced and it was ok, the flavor was weak. THe wine was ok for when you don't want to spend a lot of money.

Jepson Chardonnay 2001

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:49:55 GMT

Jepson Chardonnay 2001

Producer: Jepson

Country: Medocino, CA

Vintage: 2001

Grape: Chardonnay

Price: 3.99

Appellation: None

Rating: 50 - Why oh why did I have to taste this!?

It was 3.99 yes, but oh my God, what a waste of money! This thick looking, dark yellow looking wine was a disaster. I really mean, a disaster. It had aromas of apples and vinegar and tasted like pineapples, green apples, and apple cider. Extremely oaky and supremely bitter to the nth degree. Balance? Did it have any? NO!

I not only disliked this wine, I downright hated it. It smelled of alcohol and tasted like apple cider and beer. If you see it in the store, don't ignore: please tell the the store owner that it is horrible!

Protocolo Red Wine 2004

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:42:49 GMT

Protocolo Red Wine 2004

Producer: Dominio de Egurren

Country: Castilla, Spain

Vintage: 2004

Grape: Red Wine Blend

Price: ~$5

Appellation: None

Rating: 76

This is a dark ruby red wine with a hint of turning into brick color kinda thing. The bouquet has hints of bacon, butter, black pepper, wood, leather and tobacco (?). All in all, a horrible horrible bouquet. The wine was very dry (water please!) and buttery. It had a bite too it and I could definately taste (and I meant TASTE) the alcohol. Extremely unbalanced, and highly dissapointing. I am definately not a fan.

Villa Jaime Pinot Grigio 2005

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:04 GMT

Villa Jaime Pinot Grigio 2005

Producer: Villa Jaime

Country:Delle Venezie, Italy

Vintage: 2005

Grape: Pinot Grigio

Price: 3.99

Appellation: None

Rating: 73

Such a boring and bland wine....NEXT!

This wine was a pale golden, thin legs (for those of you that want to know) that had a very acidic bouquet. The bouquet had pears, an annoyingly tight nose and barely any aromas (I had to really try with this wine to get anything out of it.)

The taste was weak, to say the least, the high intensity acidic aroma went somewhere because this wine was extremely bland and barely "tasteable". I won't even talk about balance, because all it achieved was blandness. It was not a BAD wine, but it was boring. At least a bad wine gives you something to talk about!

Please skip this wine unless you want it for cooking, and it is barely fitting for that function as I fail to see what this wine can add to any dish.

Update

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:41:51 GMT

Big update coming soon.

Realce Tempranillo 2003

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:37:17 GMT

Realce Tempranillo 2003

Producer: Cooperativa del Campo U.C.I

Country: Manchuela, Spain

Vintage: 2005

Grape: Tempranillo

Price: 3.99

Appellation: D.O. Manchuela

For 3.99 this is an EXCELLENT WINE. I give it 85 points for its peppery, a little fruity and leathery aroma. The wine has a tight nose at first, but it later develops a fruity bouquet. It has a dark red ruby color with strong legs. It is dry and has hints of oak, leather, and pepper in the taste. I would decant this wine for a good half hour before drinking to expose it to some breathe a little as well as to remove some of the sediment. This wine tasted excellent with dark chocolate.

It is pretty well balanced. Very soft when you drink and yet, it has a strong flavor. Light but strong.

San Giuseppe Pinot Grigio 2005 IGT

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:27:00 GMT

San Giuseppe Pinot Grigio 2005

Producer: San Giuseppe

Country: Veneto, Italy

Vintage: 2005

Grape: Pinot Grigio

Appellation: IGT

Estate Bottled

Price: 9.99

This Pinot Grigio was pretty good. It has a very pale yellow color and it is very fruity. It has hints of pears and almonds. The flavor is full of green apples and citrus. IT is a very light and sweet wine, very well structure. Wine spectator rated the 2004 vintage with 87 points. I will give the 2005 vintage 82 points. It was pretty good for the wine and it is excellent to pair it with dinner.

Peñasol 2003

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:17:32 GMT

2003 Peñasol

Producer: Peñasol

Country: Vino de la Tierra de Castilla, Spain

Vintage: 2003

Grape: 60% Tempranillo and 40% Garnacha

I bought this wine from my local wine store for $6.50. It was ok for the price; not very impressive. This Spanish wine had a rather light reddish color. THe bouquet was also uneventful. There were some hints of leather and pepper. The taste was too bland and had barely any aftertaste. I will not be buying this wine again. I would give this wine about 68 points.

How the taste of wine changes with the glass.

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 01:40:22 GMT

This entry is for those of us in a tight budget. Since we are not able to afford nice Riedel wine glasses, we are stuck with those sold by Walmart or our local supermarket. So, for this entry I tasted the wine in my previous review, Escudo Rojo, to write how the aroma and taste change with the type of wine glass. I am only using very affordable and cheap wine glasses for this review for those in a tight (or student) budget. So, what is the best alternative? (The pictures of the glasses are illustrated below)

1. Regular glass: First off, we have our run of the mill water glass. nothing fancy, bought at a Walmart or Big Lots. With this glass, there was barely, if any, aroma. I actually smelled the glass and the detergent used to wash it. The wine had a very bland taste. I could taste some butter but not much. It was spicy and dry.

2. Generic Wine Glass #1: I bought this glass (the one in the middle) at my local licquor store. It is thick and small. Not great to get a good swirl going or to allow the air to mix in well with the glass. The wine appeared darker in this glass than in Glass #2. It was really hard to appreciate the aroma. I could definately smell the buttery aroma more than anything else. The wine is very biting and sharp to the tongue. But, somehow it tastes sweeter just before the aftertaste (which is very dry and full of black pepper).

3. Generic Wine Glass #2: I bought this wine glass at a local dollar store (first from the left). It has a long stem and a pretty good length. The glass is thinner than Wine Glass #1. THe wine looks lighter in color and smelled peppery and buttery. It also made the tastes milder. The aromas definately mixed better and you could get a wider range. It was shapr and bitter. Very dry with a strong, but short, aftertaste. I would definately go with this wine glass because the aromas mixed better. Afterall, 98% (or something like that) of taste is smell. This glass might be good to taste a Cabernet.

So, what do you look for in a wine glass?

1. Make sure it is plain and clear. It is impossible to really appreciate the color of the wine with a cored or frosty glass. Also, cut or glass with ridges also makes it hard to appreacite the color. So, the best option is a plain and clear glass.

2. Make sure that the glass has a deep enough bowl to allow for a good swirl, a good amount to be poured, and enough oxygen to enter and mix with the wine to release the aromas. If you are using a small glass, you might spill the wine when swirling it. Also, this prevents you from truly appreciating the bouquet (the combination of the aromas) in the wine because it is too short to release a good bouquet.

3. You need a stem. Forget those chic looking stemless wine glasses. What is the stem for? Simple. You hold the glass by the stem and not by cupping the bowl. Cupping the wine warms up the bowl and it does not tastes as good warm. So, you need a glass with a stem!

4. Wider at the bowl, narrow at the top (the rim). The wine glass should be wide at the bowl (where the wine sits) and narrow at the top to allow for a good swirl and also for aromas to concentrate at the nose.

5. For reds you want a bigger bowl and for whites you want a smaller bowl. For sparkling wines and Champagne you need a flute.

So, stop drinking out of plastic or regular glasses and get some wine glasses following the guidelines above.

2003 Escudo Rojo

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 01:23:00 GMT

2003 Escudo Rojo

Producer: Baron Phillippe de Rothchild

Country: Maipo Valley, Chile

Vintage: 2003

Grape: Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Cabernet Franc, Syrah

Well, what can I say but...truly amazing.

I am very excited about this wine, it is very good. It is very beautiful dark ruby color with strong legs that are slow to come.

As to the aromas, well there is a lot to smell in this wine. It is magnificantly blended and exhibits a lot of characteristics. It is excellent. The wine, for me, reminds me of bacon. I think I may be the only one that thinks this. I have been sick and my taste buds are not great. Also, I ate a yummy Monterrey Chicken from Chilli's earlier that day and it was still on my mind. The wine has a slight hint of butter and a peppery aroma. There are a lot of spice and cherry aromas. Black cherry perhaps? The Carménère is definately present and it is the very first thing you can distinguish. It adds an very fruity and vibrant charasteristic to the wine. The Syrah is also present with the pepper aroma.

The taste is nothing but wonderful. It is spicy and biting to the tongue, just the way I like it. The wine is very dry with a somewhat short and bitter aftertaste but it is still smooth. The aftertaste reminds me of black pepper. THe wine also exhibits some oak and butter adding to that dryness. You can definately taste some fruits, but for the life of me my taste buds cannot tell me which since they have been compromised by the terrible cough that has been going around.

I think this wine would go great with a nice steak or chocolate. A lot of dark chocolate. Mmmmm. I definately reccomend it.

It is very powerful and well balance. All the components of the wine are perfectly blended to yield an amazing experience for your palate. Even sick I loved it! This wine just gives you a flavor fiesta in your mouth. I am definately buying another bottle, or five.

You should decant this wine to bring out better its flavors and let it breathe a little. And if you can wait, (although you can drink it now) you should wait another couple of years for this 2003 wine. I think it would be great in 2009 or so.

Rating: 89

Price: $12.95

Definately an excellent wine for a great price.

2005 The Little Penguin White Shiraz

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:22:21 GMT

Producer: The Little Penguin

Vintage: 2005

Country: Australia

Grape: White Shiraz

Another horrible wine. I opened this wine at my wine tasting and no one liked it. Actually, I just threw out the bottle.

The wine has an old pink kinda color. Actually, it looks like watered down blood but the old style dark pink description sounds so much better. The aromas are very bitter and dry. The nose can also notice that this wine is very fermented (too much). It actually smells carbonated. The wine tastes verry bitter, somewhat hinting of cramberry juice.

The wine has a horrible smell, taste and aftertaste. Truly awful. It tastes like a combination of vodka, whiskey and bourbon. Pure alcohol, pure crappy and cheap alcohol.

Score: 0 (yes, even worse than the Sparkling Shiraz)

About Shiraz (the spelling a lot of countries use) or Syrah (France: In the past, this grape was often used to make port. The Shiraz is Australia's most popular red grape.

About White Shiraz: The White Shiraz is a cross between a dry white wine and a rosé.

Lorikeet, Australian Sparkling Wine, Shiraz

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:12:57 GMT

Producer: Lorikeet

Vintage: Non-Vintage

Country: Southeastern, Australia

Grape: Shiraz

Ok, so this was pretty horrible. It has a red, dark color. It has a bitter smell, full of grapes. Smelled a lot like grape juice. It is very bitter and too carbonated. No one liked this wine at my wine tasting. Please don't buy it, would be a waste of money.

Rating: won't even rate it, if I had to I would give it a 50 and at that score it's not even worth it (yes, that low)

2004 Concannon Vineyards Selected Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:04:39 GMT

Producer: Concannon Vineayrds, Selected Vineyards

Vintage: 2004

Country:Central Coast, California

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon (98%), mixed reds (2%)

I had this wine for a wine tasting. It was ok. It has a deep ruby color and strong legs. It has a bouquet of cherry, wood and berries. The taste was dry and full of cherries and berries. It was very...earthy. It is smooth and good to drink with chocolate. Not a powerful Cabernet but pretty ok.

Score: 83

This wine should be good with meat or tomato sauce dishes.

About Cabernet: Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the most widely-planted of the world's grape varieties. It is the principal grape in many Bordeaux wines. It usually results in highly tannic wines.

2001 Vinson Richards Chardonnay

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 17:55:16 GMT

Producer: Vinson Richards

Vintage: 2001

Country: Juanico Valley, Urugüay

Grape: Chardonnay Blend

Bought this wine in a close out sale. It is pretty ok. It has a pale yellow color with an acidic, slightly oaky aroma. Right after the aroma turns slightly fruity. As for the taste, it is rather light for a Chardonnay, not as strong. It is oaky, acidic and fruity at the end. It has an ok aftertaste, a little bitter. It has weak legs and it is very light to drink. It is pretty ok.

Score: 77.5

A little about Chardonnay: The Chardonnay is a green skinned grape believed to be named after the village Chardonnay in France. It is possible that Chardonnay as a cross between Pinot and the Croatians Gouais Blanc grape varieties (the latter is almost extinct). Chardonnay is also an important component in Champagne.

2004 Marquéz de la Villa, Malvasia

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 17:45:58 GMT

Marqués de la Villa

Vintage: 2004

Country: Toro, Castilla y León, Spain

Appellation: Denominación de Origen, Toro

Grape: Malvasia Bianca

This wine was rather good, light with a little bit of spice. It has a very pale yellow color and very thin legs. It has fruity aromas and a hit of pears. It has a light taste, bitter at first then sweet and fruity. This is a pretty good wine, very refreshing. The best things is that it is very affordable, under $10. Don't drink it right away, let it breathe a little.

I reccomend that you drink this wine with seafood.

The Malvasia grape originates in the Mediterranean and the island of Madeira (a Portuguese archipielago). The grape is used to produce white (and sometimes red) table wines, dessert wines and fortified wines.

Score: 87.5

2001 Vinson Richards Shiraz

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:31:31 GMT

Vinson Richards

Grape: Shiraz (85%); Tannat (15%)

Vintage: 2001

Country: Juanico Valley, Urugüay

Aroma: Oaky and peppery

Taste: Slighlty oaky (it smells more oaky than it really is); smooth and fruity

Body: Pretty well balanced

Rating: 76

First of, this wine should not be drunk with any spicy food because the flavoor is brought out too much. Otherwise, this wine is pretty ok, a little bland but tastes well. This wine barely has any legs.

This is my first wine from Urugüay and I'd have to say that it was pretty ok.

2005 Château d'Oupia Minervois

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:24:31 GMT

2005 Château d'Oupia Minervois

Varietal: Red Rhone Blend

Region France, Languedoc Region

Appellation

Minervois

Color: Deep dark Red

Aroma: This wine has a strong aroma as soon as you open the door. It smells of plum and berries.

Taste: The wine has a pungent and very sharp taste. The wine does not have a lasting aftertaste. It is too acid and bitter in the beginning.

This wine was ok. It should be aerated for a while before tasting. Also, it tastes a lot better the next day, not as acid.

Rating: 80

Araucano 2004 Carménère

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:37:56 GMT

Producer: Hacienda Araucano

Vintage: 2004

Grape: Carménère

Producer: Jacques & François Lurton

Region: Valle Central, Chile

Let's start off by saying that I love Carménère but I did not like this one as much. It was rather disappointing because it was rather bland for a Carménère. This wine ad a deep ruby color. It was not that alcoholic and its legs were not that thick. The aroma had a peppery flavor. It is somewhat dry and it is not that bitter.

Biggest flaw of the wine is that it has a screwcap and I hate screwcaps! I like corks! I know screwcaps are better but....I still like the cork.

Rating: 80

Georges Dubœuf Beaujolais

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:08:20 GMT

Now, I cannot remember whether it was beaujolais nouveau or just Beaujolais. It is the one with the fully painted bottle. But, I will never drink this wine ever again. It just tasted really bad. Can I rate a wine 30? 0? I threw out the wine because I could not drink it anymore. It tasted like soda (too much fermentation?) and very bitter. This basically was Fanta Grape with a splash of vinegar to top. Myabe it was corked...but I think it's just that it was bad.

Rating: 30

Lesson learned: will never by again

Custom List: Best Wine Websites

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:16:51 GMT

Best Wine Websites

CellarTracker
an online catalog of your own cellar. Big database of wines
Wine Library
This website is amazing. You can buy, talk and learn about wine. It has a TV Blog (that you can also get from itunes).

Book List: Book List

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:15:04 GMT

Louise Glück: Averno
really good book
Jancis Robinson: The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition
an essential reference book
Karen MacNeil: The Wine Bible
Great book with tons of info on wine.
Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson: The World Atlas of Wine
great great book
Kevin Zraly: Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2007 Edition
a must have
Ed McCarthy, Mary Ewing-Mulligan: Wine For Dummies
good startup info for those who want to know a little about wine

Blog list: Blog list

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 00:00:16 GMT

Sundance Channel Blog