Birthday Wine

The day before my birthday, I had some free time so I went to go do something that I love - shop for random wines. I figured it was an early birthday present to myself. I really like just browsing and looking at all the wines, and then buying a completely random one. I went to the Costco liquor store because believe it or not, they have a really good selection of interesting wines. It was fun to look around, and I ended up getting a Vinum petit syrah, which is a wine I'm interested in learning more about.

I haven't had too many of them before, and they are usually used just in small quantities to balance out other wines - its less common to see a bottle of 100% petit syrah.

Another reason I got it was the description: "It is a rich, pomegranate scented monster of a wine which packs a punch yet finishes soft, with concentrated plum, blueberry and supple tannins. The finish is generous and fires on all cylinders, fruit, color, concentration and silky oak tannins at the end." 


The wine was pretty good, but by no means amazing. Other wines I am interested in trying 100% wines of are cabernet franc, and ESPECIALLY petit verdot. I don't think I've ever seen a 100% petit verdot, is it just better as a mixing grape in small quantities?

Ok so I got one more wine too because it was only... wait for it... $3.33. Yes, I had to try it and see how it was. I actually asked someone who worked there what the deal was with that wine and she said it was not bad and many people are come back looking for it again.

So there's really nothing to lose in trying it... it might be ok and if not I'm only out $3! Actually I have been interested in trying super cheap wines lately, so will make a post about that shortly. How can they even PRODUCE wine for that cheaply? I mean, doesn't the bottle and label and other packaging total at least a dollar or two? I'm curious!

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. :(

Not a lot of wine

Ugh things have been so extremely busy lately that I haven't been keeping up with my wine drinking! :( Hopefully things will pick back up again soon! In the meantime, I went to the May Specs tasting and found an amazing wine, Uma sweet malbec! It tastes a bit like a dessert wine without being TOO sweet, and reminded me of a $28 500ml wine I tried the previous month that was too pricey for me. This was only $11 and definitely my favorite thing there. I will be trying my bottle soon (I hope!).

Andes Peak Malbec and Petit Basque

I've been very interested in wines from South American lately, especially from Argentina and Chile, so I was intrigued to try this recommended Malbec from Argentina. A few months ago I was at Whole Foods and they had a tasting of about 10 wines all from Argentina and at least half were Malbecs ranging in varying degrees of deliciousness. I didn't end up buying any, but the next time I was at Specs I asked for a recommendation for a good Malbec to start out with and this was the pick!

Maybe I had high hopes, as this was one of the most popular Malbecs sold, but I found I was a bit disappointed upon trying it. I like my red wines bold, but this one tasted too alcoholic to me. It was also neither fruity or spicy... in fact it didnt taste like too much. It had a bold finish, and perhaps tasted a bit on the tart side. It wasnt BAD, it just didnt really have a lot of characteristics to write about and wasnt too interesting, but it did taste good. I think I would not buy it again, but am still interested in trying other malbecs.

Petit Basque

To go with the wine, we finished up the petit basque from a few weeks ago (yes, it was still fine)! Its very interesting to taste cheeses right when you get them and then a few days or weeks later, as they definitely change. This time when I tasted it, I really took note of how sweet it was. It tasted almost like a white fudge, or macadamia nut! It was still very creamy and almost melted in my mouth. SOOO good, I would definitely buy this cheese again, even though its $27/lb!