Ceago 2010 clone 2-4-6 Cabernet Sauvignon

I picked this wine up during a trip to California's Lake County in the fall of 2013.  Ceago,is owned by the Fetzer family and sits right on the shore of Clear Lake.  It's an amazingly beautiful property with an Tuscan Villa design and gorgeous vistas of the lake overlooking fields of lavendar.  I intend to put up a gallery of pictures in the future from this trip and Ceago will feature prominently.  If I recall correctly this wine was in the mid $20's range picked up at the winery.  We paired it with grilled steak and it held up quite well to those flavors.  Frankly, I think it would pair even better with heavier fare.  The overwhelming sense of this wine was prune.  While that may not necessarily sound appealing this wine was intriguing with a nice balance of tannin, alcohol and dark fruit.  It also gave up some nice hints a black cherry and an mild white pepper finish.  I enjoyed this one and would buy it again.     

August Ridge 2007 Sangiovese

I order this wine from wine woot last spring before they stopped shipping to Missouri (more about that later).  It came with two bottles of Sangiovese and two bottles of Nebbiolo.  I must say I really enjoyed this wine.  It was not what I would consider at all typical for either an Italian or a California style of Sangiovese. I love those styles as well but they're more dense, heavier and generally pretty earthy and dry.  This was a nice medium dry with a hint of residual sweetness that balanced very nicely with light tannins and red fruit like strawberry and raspberry.  The concentration was lighter than you would typically find but complimented the lighter style very well.  This was very easy to drink either with or without food.  It would hold up well to stronger cheeses, grilled pork, or chicken and even heavier fish dishes.  I would most certainly buy this again.
www.augustridge.com (In reviewing their website i just noted they have a special on a 1/2 case of barbera, I may have to check that out.)

Luigi Bosca Malbec 2010

I picked this wine up at Macadoodles while looking for an old style malbec.  This wasn't it.  I am actually not sure what this wine was supposed to be.  It started out with quite a punch of big dark fruit with mild tannins much like the style most Malbec these days but then transitioned to a long lingering loam and mushroom that just kind turned into dirt on the palate as it finished. The color was the deep red purple that you expect from Malbec and the concentration was right. This was a wine that has an identity problem. I cannot recommend this wine, especially at the $28.00 sticker price. 

What's this all about?

Well, I like wine.  There it is.  I said it.  I'm a win-o er. . oenophile.  Yeah that's it, I like the sound of that better.  I will be blogging about all things wine, occasionally maybe beer and or spirits.  Oh, I'm an avid scuba diver so there is not doubt that some of that will creep in from time to time.  I'll tell you about wines that I've found both good and bad along with the equipment and ritual of wine that is so enjoyable.  I'm certainly not a professional sommelier and my descriptions will be from my palate and not from some fancy "book learnin".  In any event I hope that maybe you will find the blog interesting and maybe even amusing from time to time.  Cheers.