Deerfield Red Rex

Today is a very good day, and one for celebration! We have had a lot of stress in our lives lately, and it all came to a close today. To celebrate, we thought we would open one of our nicer bottles of wine, and the Deerfield Red Rex is a nicer one we have had for a few years now. It is a red blend of cabernet, merlot, syrah, and a few other things. If you remember, I actually visited this winery when I went to Sonoma, and thought it was a bit intense. The wines were very alcoholic and strong, and this Red Rex was no exception - it was 14.6% alcohol for starters!

It definitely had an odd, indescribable quality about it as well that I could definitely tell was a Deerfield wine. They all have a very raw spice flavor about them (clove? cedar?), which makes them unique in my opinion. Unfortunately, it's not necessarily a GOOD taste, and while Stephen loved it, I thought it was a bit too much for me. I ran it through the aerator a few times, and the wine itself was not bad at all, just not my personal favorite. I looked it up at Specs online, and it runs about $25, and I probably wouldn't pay that much to have it again.

Cameron Hughes Lot 156 - Syrah

I was so excited to see these Cameron Hughes wines at Costco the last time I went, so when I went again last weekend, I decided I HAD to try them. I don't know why they intrigue me so much... maybe it's the fact that I don't know exactly where they're from, or what exactly is in the bottle. It's like a wine puzzle, which I LOVE! The one I decided to try first as the 2007 Syrah, Lot 156. When I first opened the bottle, I thought this wine was really great. Most syrahs I have tried are strong, peppery, and a bit alcoholic. This syrah was surprisingly soft! 

I quite enjoyed it the first day, but stretched it out over several days to see how it would change. The first day it was delicious, and the second day also. However, by the third day, the wine tasted a bit flat and was growing more acidic. If you are around a place that sells these wines, I would definitely recommend checking them out, and not leaving it open too long :).

Blackstone Sonoma Reserve Merlot

I hardly ever buy random wines, since I go to tastings around town and usually buy my wine from those. But every now and then it's fun to just go out to a place like HEB and get something totally new. So that's what I did, and ended up choosing this Blackstone reserve merlot. Stephen and I visited the Blackstone winery in Napa and LOVED all their reserve black label wines, and since this one was on sale ($10 instead of $18), we thought it was a safe bet! Uh... we were wrong.

This wine was way too strong for one thing. It smelled and tasted very strongly of alcohol, and didn't have too much flavor. In fact, it was almost undrinkable. I ran mine through the aerator about 5 times and it was a LITTLE better, but still just too much for me. Aren't merlots supposed to be soft and fruity? Stephen was convinced this wine was corked, meaning its basically gone bad, but Im unsure about that.

I tried this wine the next day as well and it was again, a LITTLE better. What is up with this wine? Overall I did not like it, and that makes 3 in a row :/.

Uma Sweet Malbec

I tried to drink that chardonnay again and it still wasn't very good so I decided just to consider it a lost cause. Why continue to drink bad wine? So I ended up just tossing that one and trying a different one I've been anxious to try again, my sweet malbec. When I tasted this wine for the first time, it was at a Specs tasting and I remember it tasting very sweet and fruity. However, when I tried it again at home, it pretty much just tasted like a normal malbec lol :/. I guess maybe it tasted sweeter the first time because it was with a bunch of very dry reds, so in comparison, it was almost like a dessert. I forgot to take a picture of the bottle and can't find a pic online to use either. Oh well, overall this wine was alright, but not what I remembered it being. :(

Cameron Hughes Wines at Costco

Cameron Hughes is a genius. This guy buys excess juice from wineries that sell their wines for top dollar but can't sell their entire stock. He then bottles it in a pretty plain bottle with just a bin number, doesn't say where it's from, and sells it for much less. (Read about it all here). The result of this is that you can buy a very pricey bottle of wine for cheap... except you may not know exactly what you are drinking. He has been known to work with very prestigious wineries though, the kind I may have visited in Napa and Sonoma. This is VERY interesting to me and I want to buy them all and try them all and try to figure out where they're from (not that I would have any idea lol). It's like a wine tasting puzzle... and the best thing is that I saw 6 of these wines at Costco!!! I didn't get any because it was just too overwhelming, but I am still thinking about getting like 1 of each. There are plenty left...

Peregrine Hill Chardonnay

I bought this wine a while back from a Specs tasting because it was only $6. At the time, I thought it was a pretty decent, if simple, white wine that would just be a drinkable table wine. I haven't tasted it again until now, and I must say I'm not that impressed.

For one thing, the smell is a bit weird. It smells a bit like pineapple juice (and tastes like it too!). The color is a dark yellow which is a little weird, and it looks thick like jello. The wine just isn't that appealing overall, but the taste is actually ok. It's just kinda there - nothing too interesting.

I also decided it was time to bust out some of my old cheeses that have been in the fridge for probably like a month... don't worry, they are still delicious! Time to get rid of them though. On the left is some Beemster cheese, and I don't even know exactly what kind, as the wrapper is half gone. On the right is grand queso, which is manchego like - oily and rich. Delicious!

Note: Those white spots on the cheese are NOT mold. It's just aged and a little jagged.