Specs Wine Tasting

Last night was Spec's Wine Wednesday and I must say it was not their best. The theme seemed to be wines around the world, since only 2 of the 20 wines were from the U.S (8 were from Italy alone!). Most of them were very dry and had all sorts of weird smells and tastes. We had a wine from Israel that smelled like a certain grass, a wine that smells like corn on the cob or ketchup depending on who you asked, a wine that tasted like you were drinking a glass of Big Red soda and also smelled like cheese, and one that tasted like green pepper. Overall, it was certainly an INTERESTING night. Unfortunately, a full 12/20 wines got x's from me. :( The only wine I ended up liking enough to give a check to was the Marchesi Incisa Moscato d'Asti from Italy.

Oh well, I ended up buying a cheese at least!

Specs Wine Tasting

I bet you thought I would be tired of drinking wine already right? Never! It just so happens that there was a Specs wine tasting 2 days after I got back, so I had to go. One funny thing I noticed was that I was still pouring out my tastings by habit! I have been doing that all week in California, and it feels weird not to now. Like once I have gotten the flavors, I'm done with it and can throw it out (unless I just love the wine).

There was nothing too amazing at this tasting - most of the wines were boring or just ok. None really stood out to me, and honestly this may be because I just got back from tasting $100+ wines that are VERY good.  I did find one thing I was interested in, and that was an Italian vermentino. This is a white wine that tastes a bit like a sauvignon blanc, and was very unique to the tasting. I didn't buy anything because I really don't need any, but I will definitely keep my eyes open for this kind of wine in the future.

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!).

Austin Music and Wine Festival

Yay its time for the annual Austin (Music and) Wine Festival and I was so excited! For $30 you gained entrance into the festival, a commemorative wine glass, and 10 1 oz samples of wine. Last year was very interesting including massive thunderstorms, delicious cheese, lots of wine, and collecting about 5 discarded glasses. This year it rained AGAIN, but not enough to ruin the day. I went with 2 people and we all decided to share tastes to maximize our experience, so I ended up having close to 30 wine tastes. I kept notes and this is what I tasted:

Becker –

Rousanne, Syrah, and Merlot – none too memorable, the Rousanne was the only one I hadn't tasted before and it wasn't very good.

Landon –

Yellow Rose and a Cab/Merlot/Cab Franc blend – both bad :(

Mandola –

Moscato, Dolcetto, Canto Felice – all these were really weird and the ones that were supposed to be sweet were actually sour, which I didn't like!

Spicewood –

Semillion – bad

Flat Creek –

Pinot Grigio – good! This was the first decent one of the day.

Woodrose

Wood Rose was very good – it was a rose that wasn’t too sweet

Tempranillo and Merlot were just alright, I was a little disappointed because this is one of my favorite wineries.

Haak –

White Port – BEST wine there! Very deliciously sweet without being overly so, high alcohol content but doesn’t taste that way.

Blanc du Bois - meh

Brennan - 

Viognier - bad

Llano - 

Signature Melange - meh, the guy told me it was like a pinot noir, which I TOTALLY did not get. 

Retreat Hill - 

Riesling and XOXO - both just ok

Cork This - 

Green Apple Riesling - not as crazy as I'd expect, but not very good - did taste like an apple though.

Perissos-

Hammet Cab, Newsom Cab - I couldn't tell the difference between the two, but this was near the end of all the tasting. 

Viognier - ok

Dry Comal Creek -

Sangria - This was AMAZING!

Random White - not sure what this was, but it was pretty good! Should have found out.

Pillar Bluff-

Kitty (Orange Moscato) - Delicious! I love orange moscatos

Stone House - 

Scheming Beagle Port - Fairly good, but way too alcoholic tasting for a port

Driftwood - 

Orange Muscat - I was out of tasting tickets but used a dollar because I had to try this last wine and Im glad I did, it was fantastic!

I ended up walking out of there with the Haak white port because it was fantastic and one of my favorite things at the festival this year AND last! I have looked all over for it since, and never found it!

Specs Texas Wine Tasting

I was super excited for this tasting, because it was my favorite one from last year. I remember all the wines being so delicious! I was immediately sad to see that my favorite Texas Hills wines were not there this time, the Kick Butt Cab and Orange Moscato L. Apparently they had been at the south Specs tasting on Brodie Lane the day before – is it too obsessive to go to both tastings next year lol? 

Anyway there were a lot of other good wines, some I remembered from last year. There was the Flat Creek Orange Moscato which I loved, and the Fall Creek Chenin Blanc which was just over $5. We actually went ahead and got a bottle of the chenin blanc because it sold out last year! I also got a bottle of Peregrine Chardonnay because it was just $6 and actually quite good! I always like to keep cheap bottles around the house as well as nicer ones.

Specs Wine Tasting

I went to the February Specs tasting last night, but there was nothing very momentous. In fact, I only found a few things I liked. One was the Mud House Sauvignon Blanc which was really good, and I found some sheep gouda called Ewephoria which was AMAZING. There were some brownies there that were also at the Austin Chocolate Festival which were delicious, so I got an orange liquor flavored one.

Kinda meh overall this time.

Specs Wine Tasting

The first Specs tasting of the new year is a cause for celebration! On the menu were definitely more obscure wines than usual which was exciting. There was a torrontes, carmenere, albarino, prosecco, and lots of French and Italian wines. There was an Uma Torrontes, which was clearly the favorite of the night - at only $7 it was the only wine sold out. The Tres Valles Carmenere was good (but not as good as the Terra Andina). There was a white burgundy, which is really just French chardonnay, and that was pretty good, as well as the Martin Codax albarino. Five bad ones (lets not focus on those), and the rest were just ok.

I didn't end up buying any wine this time, because nothing really jumped out at me. I did, however, get some manchego they were sampling, as well as 2 cheeses which were getting a little moldy and so were 50% off. Thats not a problem for me, I just cut off that tiny but of mold.  

I like bad wine

Yes, I really like bad wine. I don’t like to buy a bottle of it, or even drink a whole glass, but I DO like to taste wines I don’t like. For one thing, I think its just fascinating how many ways there are for wine to taste. There are almost countless flavors, and throw in all the smells and its just endless. Sometimes I taste wine and think “whoa yuck… but what IS that taste… is that robitussin? Lentil stew? Grass?” Secondly, the wines I don’t like make me appreciate the wines I do like even more. How will I know what “good” tastes like unless I know what it shouldn’t taste like? And finally, I feel like it helps me develop my overall tastes. Very often, I try wines I’m almost sure I wont like (sauvignon blanc for example), because I’m hoping to be surprised. I love love love to be surprised by wines, and I’m looking for that wow factor. Probably 90% of moscatos and Rieslings taste good to me, so it’s not that exciting to find one I like. However, I do NOT like about 90% of chardonnays I try, so finding one of those I like is amazing.

So that is one reason why I go to all these wine tastings around town, and especially love wine flights. I like to try everything – good, bad, expensive, or cheap. 

Twin Liquors Wine Tasting

Im branching out from Specs and went to the big Twin Liquor wine tasting! Just like Specs, there were 20 wines, but the tasting was set up a bit differently. All the wines were in the front of the store in a row, close together. They gave you a wine glass and you went around to taste the ones you were interested in. Of course we were interested in all of them, so we just went in line.

Everyone was super nice, but there were a few downsides to this approach. For one thing, you end up tasting wines too fast because you feel like you have to keep moving along. At Specs, there are 10 stations around the store, which lets you walk around, chat, and take your time between samples. Because of this, we got wayyy tipsier than normal - not good. In fact, because it was so quick, it didn't hit us until we were about done which is awkward and not safe if you're planning on leaving any time soon. We ended up drinking all the wine in under an hour and milling about the store chatting for another hour just to let it all wear off.

Another thing that was weird was that there was no tasting sheet to tell us what the wines were and how much they cost. No huge deal, but I like to make notes about the wines and take it home with me to look at later.

One very sad thing was that there was no food! This also contributed to the increased tipsiness, as we had nothing in our stomachs. Twin Liquors doesn't really sell food that I know of, so its not their fault... but I was craving some cheese with all that wine for sure.

The upsides: there were some really great wines! I thought overall the wines were more expensive here, with a lot of them being around $18 or 19 and only 1 or 2 were under $10. This, coupled with the fact that we were going to the chocolate festival afterward caused me not to buy any that day.

Another REALLY cool thing about this tasting was that there was a bar area where they were serving wines. Which meant you could put... your... glass... down! This is a small thing, but when you're usually juggling a glass, and food sample, and paper and pencil... it was so nice to just relax with it.

So on to the wines! I cant remember them that well since I didn't have a sheet to bring home, but I'll do my best. We tried some organic wines which were good, but wine is so variable that I didnt see what difference the fact that they were organic made. We also had a really good cab from Alexander Valley and an awesome Montecillo Crianza that we both loved. There was a pink port, which I had never heard of, and the guy served it to us mixed with sparking water which was strange. Other than those, there wasn't anything that really stood out to me.

So I liked this tasting, and will definitely make it a regular part of my monthly tasting schedule, but I would say it didn't quite compare to Specs.

Twin Liquors Wine Class

Whoa so who knew Twin Liquors had all this cool stuff? Apparently they have a wine class every 2 weeks and a huge wine tasting with 20 samples once a month! Aside from that they also have other small tastings every week. I can already tell this is going to be on my regular list of "wine to dos". So of course a friend and I had to check out the wine class... would it be painfully obvious or helpful?

Turns out it was really good! It was a sit down thing, with an instructor and a packet of notes so it was a little more formal than I expected but that was actually a plus. Everyone there including the instructor were laid back and really friendly and I thought it was at just the right level for me.

The main idea was to talk about the six major wines produced, which are riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon. We had about an ounce of each in glasses and talked about them in that order. Mostly it was what they typically smell like, taste like, where good regions to buy from are, and what to pair with them. The reason I loved this is because although I have tasted a lot of wines, I sometimes wonder "ok, but what MAKES it a chardonnay?", so I felt like this class answered some of my questions.

The wines there were pretty good overall too! My favorites were the Carl Sittman Riesling, the Carmel Road Pinot Noir, and the Robert Mondavi Cab. HOWEVER, I didn't get any because of something very important I learned! Wines are not meant to be kept for very long unless you have the proper way to store them... oops! I have wines on my rack from a year or so ago, and I keep collecting them! Apparently I need to start drinking some of my older ones before I buy any more, but I will keep the wines from tonight in mind the next time I buy.

I dont think there is a need for me to go to too many of these classes, as its the same basic idea each time - same 6 wine types although the specific wines differ. Here's an idea: maybe do the NEXT 6 popular wine types in a class, or a class of blends... eh Twin Liquors?

Specs Wine Tasting

Wow what a tasting! Last month I went to Specs I didn't end up getting anything but this time was an absolute goldmine. There were so many amazing wines this time I had a hard time choosing.

The winner of the night was the Helfrich Pinot Gris. Normally I don't like these types of dry whites, but this pinot gris was very fruity and sweet in the middle and dry at the end, making it very refreshing without being overwhelming. My other favorite was the Castello del Proggio Moscato. As I've said before, Im starting to really love moscatos. I used to really like rieslings because they were so sweet and refreshing and have taken the next step in moscatos since they are even sweeter without being overly fruity. I ended up getting both of these wines for about $12 each.

Tonight was really cool because it seemed to be an unofficial Spanish Tempranillo night. There were FIVE tonight and since I love this type of wine it was really cool to try so many different ones almost side by side. The wines ranged from $7 to $17 and my favorite ended up being the Arzuaga la Planta, although I can't say exactly why. Just a personal preference perhaps, but I didn't end up getting it because I had too many other things and all were so good it was kinda hard to choose.

The wines I did NOT like were only three - 2 California chardonnays that tasted very unoriginal and blah and one African Shiraz that was just weird. On top of the 3 I really liked and the 3 I really didn't like, were about 10 other ones that were very good. I decided at the last minute to get one other wine because it was pretty good and only $3.73! It was a sauvignon blanc fron Chile and although it was not fantastic, it was solid and still delicious and definitely worth the few dollars I spent on it. These types of wines are good to have on hand for a super casual night or even as a second bottle of the night :o.

As always happens at wine parties, you get to chat with some really cool people about wine. We ended up talking to this guy about the moscato and he recommended I try a vouvray so we went to look at some and Specs ended up not having the one he was talking about. That brought me to an employee and we started talking about rose's and he had some great recommendations for me. I almost got one of those too, but seeing as I already had quite a few to buy and the rose was not one of the featured (and on sale) wines, I decided to wait. It will probably be the next bottle of wine I get though.

Now for the cheese!

The cheeses here are always interesting to try and I usually get a few. There was a cheese with fenugreek seeds in it that tasted like maple syrup which was really cool but not really my thing. One of the cheeses I ended up getting was a trucket and was really good and wanted to sample it further. Probably the most bizarre cheese was a cheese that had coffee and lavender flavors and when you first try it you think WHOA... but as you keep eating it you keep wanting more and more. So I got the trucket and the coffee/lavendar cheese and found a Parrano that was for some reason 50% off so got that too.

Hooray for Specs wine nights being back on track! Id say 75% of the wines were either good or great, which is how it should be in my opinion!

Specs Wine Tasting

This Wednesday was the monthly Specs wine tasting so I set off with high hopes. One thing I noticed right away was that it was incredibly busy inside. Let me just take a moment to explain how the wine tasting is set up.

There are 10 barrels places around the store... in the aisles and in the corners usually... and there are 2 wines at each barrel. Usually the 2 wines are related in some way usually being from the same winery. There are a few employees at each barrel to punch your tasting sheet (so you cant come back and re-taste) and pour you some wine. Usually they are very chatty and love to tell you about the wines and get your opinions. HOWEVER, when the store is overcrowded, it messes up the flow of the whole tasting. I had to pretty much stand in a line at each barrel to get a taste, and the employees were very rushed and not as interested in talking. The crowds made it hard to move around the store, and a few times I was poured a taste of something with no explanation of what it was. To be honest thats my favorite part of the Specs tastings - learning about the wines.

So I was a bit disappointed but still, its free delicious wine so I cant complain. As I went around the barrels trying wine I realized something else weird though - I wasnt really loving any of it. I write a rating next to each wine I try, an X, a dash for meh, a check or a check plus. At the end of the night there were no check pluses, and only a few checks. Hmmm... usually I love about 5 or 6 wines and have trouble choosing which ones to buy at the end. This time I bought NO wine, which is a first. There just was nothing that wowed me, and everything was very average.

Which prompts me to wonder - how do they choose the wine for the tastings? Is there a theme among the 20 wines? Or are these the wines in the store that haven't been selling very well because they are less well known? (I usually cant recognize 90% of the wines at the tasting) Or are they wines that Specs gets paid to promote? I would like to find this out.

In the end, I just bought one cheese - which was one they weren't even sampling. Its just a plain soft goat cheese that I thought would be delicious on salads. Im trying to recreate that warm goat cheese salad I had on my birthday. So it turned out to be an interesting specs tasting as always, but not terribly productive.

Specs Wine Tasting

I remember it seemed like May was just full of wine events, with 2 specs tastings, a wine festival, and wine circle meeting. June, however, has been soooo busy with summer school and a lot of other stuff going on, and it was finally time for a Specs wednesday wine tasting! WOW what a tasting! As usual, I didn't recognize any of the wines on the list except 2 from Geyser Peak (which turned out not to be very good).

Overall this month's wines were just amazing! Most of them were at least ok or good, but there were 5 stand out wines this time. One of the ones I ended up buying was the Prelada Cresta Azul which was said to be a "needle wine". Its a very slightly carbonated white wine and when you drink it, it feels like tiny needles are pricking your tongue!

I also ended up getting a very interesting chardonnay. I usually despise chardonnays, as I think they are very bland and bitter and are just too oaky and vanilla flavored. The Printhie chardonnay was GREAT though. It was uncharacteristically fruity, and has some odd flavors. One of the cool things about it is that its 95% chardonnay and 5% viognier, so that might explain why it was so good. Almost equally delicious was the Printhie Shiraz which also had a splash of viognier in it - a very yummy combination!

One of the best wines of the night was the King Estate Pinot Noir - it was $22 and soooo smooth. So many flavors, and it just melted on your tongue! I couldn't decide about getting this one because of the price, but kind of wish I had now. There was also a sparkling pink wine called Villa Rogole Fiorosa Brachetto which was sweet, bubbly, and refreshing. It was so good I was going to get this one until I found out it was only 7% alcohol! Thats like not even a wine! Anyway, I will still keep it in mind if I'm ever in the mood for something super light and refreshing. Finally, there was an amazing white blend of 3 grapes I had never heard of. Le Lune & Le Prune Orvieto Classico was also a maybe to buy, but with so many delicious wines I couldn't get them all!

The cheese selections tonight were kind of meh except for one cheese - the Memoire Gouda with truffles. It was just... I cant even explain. It was super creamy and the truffles gave it this earthy robust undertone that was seriously one of the best cheeses I've tried in a long time. If it wasn't $35/lb and I didn't already have 4 cheeses in my fridge it would be in my possession. As soon as I finish some up, it will be the next cheese I buy. In fact, that truffle gouda paired with the pinor noir would just be heaven in my mouth.

Specs Wine Tasting

Overall I wasn't AS impressed with this tasting as much as the Texas tasting last week. Specs went back to the regular format of 20 random wines and lots of food though, so that was good! There was only one bad wine there out of 20, which was the Villa Frattina Pinot Grigio. To me, pinot grigios are pretty hit or miss... they might smell like peppers or cat pee, and taste like a delicious fruity light wines or... cat pee. This one was the latter.

Fortunately there were some really great wines as well. One station had 2 tempranillos - one from 2002 and one from 2005 with a $8 difference between them. It was really cool to taste 2 side by side and see the difference and the older one turned out to be a lot better, although both were pretty good! I also really liked the Broadbent Vinho Verde, which was a little bit carbonated! Very light and bubbly, almost like a refreshing champagne but with fruit. Another table that stood out to me were Pulenta Malbec and Cabernet from Argentina! For the most part Im always impressed with Argentinean wines - they are fruity yet also have some substance and are more interesting that your average wine.

One of the best wines was the last one of the night - the Leaping Lizard Pinot Noir. We were told to watch out for the LL Chardonnay because it "smells like pondwater!" so were surprised that the wine it was paired with was so good! Pinot Noirs used to be some of my favorite wines, and I was surprised to be reminded how good they are. This one was very round and silky and tasted just like a RAISIN. It was like raisin juice in my cup - in a good way! Very complex and like nothing I had ever tasted before.

In the end, I didn't end up buying anything from the night because I actually was getting some wines from the Austin Wine Festival I attended this weekend. The Fall Creek Muscat Canelli and Messina Hof Late Harvest Riesling, which were the 2 sweetest wines there!

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!