Halloween Party Wines!

We all went to a Halloween party hosted by the people I babysit for and had a fantastic time! There were costumes, lots of snacks, pumpkin carving, ghost stories, etc. There were a bunch of kids there (ours included) but it was also very relaxing and chill for the adults. They really decorated their house well and like I said, there were TONS of snacks, which in my opinion, makes for a good party! We were offered drinks, so of course I went straight to the wine. I was the driver, so only had 2 smaller glasses.

My first was...

This was a J. Lohr Cabernet and was just ok. Pretty standard cab. However, my second wine was fantastic.

I have never heard of Hamilton Estates, but this merlot was top notch. I just wrote about how that Cameron Hughes merlot didn't wow me, but this wine was so packed with flavors! Fruity, tannic, possibly herby and chocolaty. So much going on! Like I said, I was the driver so I had to take it easy, but if I see this wine around, I may just have to pick up a bottle and investigate it further.

Cameron Hughes Lot 169 - Merlot

This wine was so hyped up when I got it. We found it at Costco and the lady there said it was a prize winning merlot and was super delicious. We actually ended up getting 2 on separate occasions, not realizing it was the same wine lol. It's from the Napa Valley, which I recently visited, so I was interested to try it. We took it home and had it a few weeks later, and thought it was pretty good. Not super spectacular, but a solid wine. To me though, merlots don't have a distinctive flavor, they sort of just taste like a generic red wine so maybe that's why I wasn't particularly blown away. I think this was around $10.

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 :/.

The Past 2 Weeks

I keep forgetting to keep up with this blog while there are so many other things going on right now! Here is what has been going on wine-and-cheese-wise the past few weeks:

We had our October Wino Divino which was fun as always. The theme was white wnes and I'd say the selection of wines this time was really amazing. I wrote them all down but seem to have misplaced the paper somewhere... anyway I remember some of them! We had the Carl Sittman Riesling from the Twin Liquors wine class and it was delicious the second time around just like the first. We also tried 24/7 Riesling and it was pretty good too, nothing too special. Mine was a moscato d'asti which was a slightly sparkling sweet white and it was DELICIOUS! I had gotten it at a Specs tasting and I need to look up that tasting paper and find out exactly what it was so I can get it again. We also had a champagne that was pretty sweet and delicious - I like sweet dessert style wines. Finally we had a port which everyone loved as well - Otima either 10 or 20 yrs. The only bad wine was a sauv blanc that smelled and tasted like pickles. :/

In the world of cheese, we decided to deviate from the norm this month and got a few smoked, soft, and kinda bland cheeses. Usually we go for the aged, potent, melt in your mouth cheeses so this was a big change. We got smoked mozzarella, smoked provolone, and a soft swiss. They were all alright but nothing blew me away. I know these cheeses are meant more for melting on things or as part of a sandwich, but we ate them in little chunks like we usually do. I couldn't even tell the difference between the mozzarella and provolone.

Finally, I tried a few bottles of wine this month that have long been finished and mostly forgotten. I tried the Blackstone Merlot (Sonoma Reserve) which was originally $19 but I got it on sale at HEB for $11 a while back. I also tried the Pegovino Granache and Syrah blend which was recommended to me by a Specs guy as one of the best of its style. I liked the merlot more than I thought I would, but was a little disappointed with the Pegovino. I had high hopes for it and I thought it was kinda bland with nothing special about it. Both were good, but not something Id get again.

Spec's Tasting and La Noble Merlot

Spec's Texas Tasting

I was super excited for this unexpected wine tasting at Specs. It was 20 wines all from Texas as well as Texas food to go with it. This is probably the 6th time I've gone to a Specs tasting and have never been disappointed - I would recommend everyone should go. 

The wine list this time was simply amazing, there was only one wine I didn't like (Grape Creek Viognier... ewwww). The wines that really stood out were the ones from Texas Hills Vineyard. They have a Kick Butt Cab which is AMAZING - very complex and delicious, as well as an Orange Moscato which is sweet and light. There were a lot of cabernets there that night and this one was by far the best. I love almost all bold red wines, and I had to get this one. I have visited there once before and was impressed with everything I tried. 

Another winner was the Mcpherson wines. Their Sangiovese and Tre Colore were both amazing, all of us thought so. The Tre Colore was especially interesting, as it was soft and had almost no tannins - very odd! Its almost embarrassing because many of the specs people recognize us when we go there, and know us as regulars. The cheese guy especially is hilarious because he loves to show us his new shipment and can go on and on and talk about cheeses for 10 minutes! I ended up getting a goat cheese spread that he recommended - will be trying soon!

La Noble Merlot-

When I got home from the tasting I was still in the mood for wine so decided to try a bottle I had gotten on sale from Whole Foods. I was vastly disappointed. I give it a meh. It is not too complex and kind of flat. However, I guess its hard to rate a so-so wine after just tasting 20 amazing wines at Specs. The next day I tried it again and was happier with it - maybe it opened up some, or my taste buds were just a little more accommodating. Either way, I think its worth the $5 I paid, but not the $9 it was supposed to be!