Adega de PEGOES -
Vinho Regional Terras Do Sado
2004

This is a Portuguese white. Really good. Can't remember the price, but around 5 bucks. There's a red Pegoes as well, but not nearly as good as the white.

Sorry, no detailed tasting notes from me. Just really enjoyable. Here are more comments, found by googling:

* Easy drinking dry white wine, fresh and at the same time mild, distinctive spicy and ripe fruity (apricot, muscat) character, elegant, very clean, not complex or powerful, but just delicious, well balanced and with a surprisingly low price.

- Can be drunk now, will keep till 2006.

- Easy drinking dry white wine attractively aromatic, with distinctive own character, well made, clean and well balanced. Quite an achievement for such a cheap wine. From a good and well equipped producer, a very quality oriented cooperative, one of the most dynamic of Portugal

quote:

Originally posted by Matt G.:
So, what's everyone planning to pop open tonight?

For us, it will be a 1996 Delbeck Brut Champagne. (Rated a 92 by Wine Spectator.) If that isn't enough, I have a Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label on standby.

Matt, your standby is about as good as it gets for us. My dad gave me a case of orange label for my birthday some years ago. Cheap champagne is his cocktail of choice so I assumed this was a case of cheap stuff. Tasted pretty darn good and I think we drank a bottle a night until it was gone. Some time later I saw it in a wine store for $35 a bottle!!! Wish I'd saved a bit.

jf

We were asleep by 10. IF we made it until midnight, we planned to toast the New Year with a bottle of Bogle Cabernet because we were on an island without a wine store, we did not bring bubbly, and that was the only bottle of wine left at the end of a great week (during which we had two new-to-me NZ SB's, one of which came in a 1500 ml and both of which were good and neither of which I remembered to write down the name of....

jf

Finished tiling the backsplash in my kitchen (Botticino tumbled marble with a 16 X 12 relief pewter Tuscan scene over the sink) and it looked SMASHING!

So.. I opened a bottle of an inexpensive Spanish bubbly (Marques de Gelida .. about $7)to celebrate. It too was SMASHING!

Then we ordered pasta dinners delivered, and I polished off a bottle of Estancia Zinfandel with it.. the wine was ok, the food was very very good but I was SMASHED!

Never try to sleep with too much wine and a tummy full of pasta, marinara, peppers and hot sausage. Ugh.

Stop that!

You are making me hungry!

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
Then we ordered pasta dinners delivered, and I polished off a bottle of Estancia Zinfandel with it.. the wine was ok, the food was very very good but I was SMASHED!

Mikhailoh,

Gotta watch out for those California Cabs and Zins. They can be up at 15% or more.

As I hinted earlier, I'm exploring French bordeaux. Nothing fancy, nothing based on research, but ten-dollar bordeaux and medocs from the local shops. Certainly more austere than the Calif. wines I'm used to, but worth drinking; haven't had a bad one in these past few weeks.

Here's a nice red I would buy again: Nine bucks.

Corbieres can be wonderful. The French countryside's wines are so good with so many kinds of food.

hmmmm... I appreciate this thread very much ! I have decided at some point that I would like to pursue my acquisition of a more refined wine palatte, but have not taken that too seriously as of yet.

I actually drink alcoholic beverages so rarely, one sip of wine last night went straight to my head. After 2 or 3 sips, I became bolder than ever, and even did something sorta stupid .

Well, then, I drank about a 3rd of my glass (using one of my real crystal goblets for about the 2nd time ever.. hehe) and couldn't finish it... hehe.

It was Yellow Tail, shirz - cabernet

I haven't read this entire thread yet (it's HUGE) but, I am sure it was already mentioned somewhere in here. Doesn't quite compare with a lot of the finer picks, but, it was pretty yummy to my tummy


Mayla

quote:

Originally posted by Mayla:
After 2 or 3 sips, I became bolder than ever, and even did something sorta stupid .

Mayla

Before we have any sense of the true nature of this Yellow Tail red, we need to know more about this "something sorta stupid" of course!

jf

quote:

Originally posted by Jack Frost:
Before we have any sense of the true nature of this Yellow Tail red, we need to know more about this "something sorta stupid" of course!

jf

Well, if I went ahead and explained that, then I would have done two sorta stupid things instead of just the one... he he.

Mayla

Say, the last couple of wines I've tried have been just...average.

Would it help anyone to mention them? As wines from which not to expect much? Any reason this thread should only include recommended wines?

I think it could be as valuable to be steered away from a wine as toward one.

I'd like to hear the ones people really didn't like also. I'm always trying new things, and I like reading this thread even though I don't have much to contribute. But sometimes it's nice to know what NOT to try.

Sorry, but I'll have to report on a good wine...

Tonight, I'm finishing off the bottle of 2001 Hogue Genesis Merlot from Washington. (Since the grapes come from various vineyards in the state, it doesn't bear any other geographical appellation.)



I found this one on some kind of special sale, so I thought I'd give it a go, even though, as I've noted before, I'm not a huge fan of merlot. Maybe it's the insipidness of the majority of California's merlot offerings (in my normal price range) that has given me this bias. But this Washington merlot had quite a bit more character than the usual soft and pleasant but lackluster merlots I've come to expect.

This one first struck me with an intensely spicy aroma, reminiscent of cloves, followed by a whiff of black olives, with a hint of cherry and vanilla. OK, that was weird.... I figured that this wine was going to have something unusual on the palate as well, so I let it breathe a bit longer than usual before sampling. At first sip, the spice on the nose became a sharp jolt of black pepper, which then immediately blossomed into a harmonious blend of black raspberry and dark cherries with a vague taste of something dark and earthy like leather (yes, I know, that doesn't sound appetizing!).

The finish was very long, without an excess of oak, and faded until the last remaining note - a warm sweet clove. For a merlot, the tannins were surprisingly bracing, especially in contrast with the flabby merlots one usually encounters. As is typical of most merlots, though, the acidity is not very pronounced, which tends to make the fruit flavors dissipate a little too soon.

I got this bottle for $8.50, although it seems to usually sell for up to twice that.

Nobody drinking much lately I guess....