Wicked Wine Reviews – Page 4 – Trust The Devil You Know

Wine Review: Viva Vidal, Loew Vinyards

A couple weeks ago we took a little field trip out to Loew Vinyards in Mt. Airy, MD. Like many of the local vineyards in our area, Loew is a small, family owned, business. They are listed on Frederick Wine Trail along with two of our other favorites: Linganore and Elk Run.

A general wine tasting at Loew Vinyards is only $7.00 and that includes going home with a “free” set of wine glasses. 🙂

The fact of the matter is that it’s awkward and rude to be taking cell phone photos during a wine tasting when the owner is talking about all the interesting facts pertaining to their various varietals. It’s rude so I don’t do it but I did save the tasting menu and took a photo of it later.

Believe it or not, Xavier and I don’t agree on every single thing in the whole world.

I know, shocking. Right?

My three favorites (in order of appearance) were the Harvest Red, Country Classic and Viva Vidal.

He liked the Honey & Grape, Strawberry Jubilee and Viva Vidal.

So we bought the one we both agreed on.

That being said, I have to say that I thought the Harvest Red was very good. To me, it was smooth like a straight line. Naturally, it was also the most expensive bottle on the menu. Xavier said that he thought it tasted sour. While I honestly have no idea what he’s talking about, this is not an unusual difference of opinion for us.

Different strokes for different folks.

While tasting the Serendipity, the bar tender mentioned that some previous patrons had thought it tasted like grapefruit.

I said, “Well… it is grape.. fruit…..”

And after a moment of crickets and tumbleweeds, she got the joke and we had a nice laugh.

Thank you, I’ll be here all night.

So anyway, about the Viva Vidal.

We came to a unanimous agreement that it literally tastes like a grape Blow-Pop. I am not misusing the word literal in a figurative expression. This wine is blow pop in a bottle.

grape-blowpop_large

Pork chops are good with sweet flavors like grilled onions, sauteed apples or pears, or Blow-Pop wine.

While Viva Vidal does indeed taste like candy, it manages to avoid going into the land of nauseatingly sweet. I don’t know how they pull it off because this wine is quite sweet but I thought it was perfectly fine to have with dinner.

A word of caution: just because it tastes like candy doesn’t mean it won’t knock you on your booty. Vival Vidal is 12% alcohol so be sure to sip responsibly.

Wine Review: 2015 Shiraz, [yellow tail]

I may have gotten a little carried away with the [ yellow tail ] wine this week.

In my defense, it was on sale [ buy one at $6.99 and get the 2nd one for $4.99 ].

I mean, hey, what’s a gal to do?

Unlike Sweet Red Roo, the Shiraz has a cork and a vintage.

We had it with baked salmon and vegetables but then we were still hungry so the rest of the bottle disappeared along with a bag of blue corn tortilla chips and salsa.

Xavier and I don’t own a dining room table so we eat at the coffee table. When the food appears so do the animals. The funny thing is that the dog wants the broccoli and the cat wants the wine. Neither of them is very concerned about the baked salmon.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Shiraz and Syrah are made from the exact same grape.

So why the different names?

Despite being made from the same grape, the final product is very different. Shiraz and Syrah have distinctly different flavors that are accounted for by a wide variety of climate and soil conditions along with different fermentation processes.

Syrah often comes from France and is considered to be more refined and sophisticated while Shiraz comes from everywhere else and is generally thought of as being more crass.

Crass, that was Xavier’s word.

“You mean it swears in public?”, I asked.

“I mean it hits the top of my mouth like a mushroom cloud”, he replied.

Well, that’s one way to put it.

This wine does open with an upper cut to the upper pallet but then diffuses to a softer finish.

Considering it was on sale for $4.99, I say it’s not bad.

Is it exceptional? No, but it’s alright and didn’t give me a headache. I’d drink it again.

Wine Review: Malbec, Menage A Trois

Should you have wine with breakfast?

Absolutely, but only if breakfast is served at 8:30 at night.

Trust me, nothing goes better with cheesy eggs and a baked potato than a nice glass of Argentinian red wine.

This was actually the 2nd Malbec wine that we tried but the first one wasn’t very good so, for now at least, it shall remain nameless.

In case you didn’t know, regardless of the specific winemaker’s locale, almost all Malbec is sourced from grapes grown in the Mendoza region of Argentina.

Anyway, as I was saying, the first Malbec we sampled was mediocre and I wanted to try a different one so I decided to give Manage A Trois a chance, figuring that if anyone could get it right it would be them.

Looking for a red wine that won’t punch you in the throat? Menage A Trois is your huckleberry.

In my opinion, the signature quality of all Menage A Trois red wine is an almost magical soft and velvety finish.

Their Malbec shares in the unique complexities and spicy quality that Malbec wine is known for but it finishes by rolling out a velvet hall runner.

In other words, we loved it!

A brief word of caution though. It is very easy to keep pouring another glass but, despite it’s incredible drink-ability, this is wine is potent!

Slow down and enjoy, don’t give yourself a bad morning.

😉

Wine Review: 2015 Dark, Apothic

The Apothic website describes Dark as tasting like coffee and chocolate.

Did someone say coffee?

In a round about way I would agree with that assessment but I think they left out some adjectives like heavy and deep.

This wine has the specific gravity of an intergalactic black hole from which no light can enter into nor escape from.

My 5 (fluid) ounce serving weighed 104 pounds but it was damn good with baked salmon.

So good that we killed the bottle in one night.

Xavier said it gave me penguin mouth but I say it was his wine goggles.

Wine Review: 2014 Apothic Red Winemaker’s Blend

This one is brief, but gets right to the point.

I’m tired and fed up, coming home late at the end of a long day. Xavier texts me this photo with the caption, “for tonight”.

I say, “hellz yeah”, and hurry home.

I never did take any other photos. Didn’t wipe the gunk off the table and stage something nice with a plate of food. Didn’t even change out of my work clothes, just plunked down on the couch and this bottle was gone before you could say, “hey, who’s wine is that?”

I very much enjoyed the previous bottle of Apothic wine that we tried. That one was the Crush and it was mighty fine. The Red Winemaker’s Blend is not entirely dissimilar but I think it’s more subtle and smooth. The Crush is a little brighter, a little more oak, a little more in your face with it’s wine-i-tude while the Winemaker’s Blend is stronger on the mellow.

Mellow….

The perfect reward for making it through another day without killing anyone.

Wine Review: 2012 Crianza Rioja, LAN

Despite disagreeing with Kricket about California wine being inherently flawed, she has still been successful in peaking my interest in what she refers to as “Old World Wines”.

Xavier and I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Cacique.

Cacique is special to us for a number of reasons. We went to dinner there during my first trip out here to visit. We’ve taken my cousin and his wife there when they were passing through town and we’ve also treated my mom to a dinner at Cacique when she came out to see us. Most notably, we dined at Cacique after our wedding.

So anyway, we had dinner at Cacique, again.

I used to always order a Margarita but this time I asked for the wine list.

I chose the Enate Tempranillo and it was fer-damn-delicious.

There was a depth and a spiciness to the flavor (enhanced by the incredible salsa at Cacique) that I have yet to come across in my wine adventures.

Xavier said something luke warm like, “Meh, it’s ok.” but I was hooked and wanted more. On the way home I requested a field trip to the Frederick Wine House in search of my very own bottle of Enate Tempranillo.

On a side note, the next day my online bank statement read, “FREDERICK WINE HO”, which I thought was funny.

C’mon, it’s a little funny.

As it turns out, they did not have what I was looking for so I picked another Spanish wine made from Tempranillo grapes, 2012 Crianza Rioja from LAN.

The following night we had it with dinner.

Naturally, it was a little bit different than the Enate Tempranillo, but the LAN Rioja still had the depth and the spice coupled with a silky smoothness that makes it very drinkable.

I truly enjoyed this wine, with no adverse side effects, but Xavier started getting a headache almost immediately. Well, you know what that means… More for me!

I’ve heard a rumor that Tempranillo grapes will grow in New Mexico. In fact, there is a winery in Albuquerque growing them right now and I am already making plans for my future garden.

If Maynard from Tool can grow anything at all on the side of a hill in Arizona, I can surely grow some Tempranillo grapes in New Mexico, right?

Sure.

Wine Review: Red Moscato, Beringer

Today is what’s trending on Twitter as #DayWithoutAWoman; the day when women are encouraged to participate in a show of solidarity for equal pay and equal rights by staying home.

I get it, but there is a certain overlooked irony. Go ahead, take your time….

I would say that I’m on strike but, coincidentally, I was off today. I might be a rebel but then again, I may just be an opportunist.

Today is interesting for other reasons. As I write this I am fully expecting to be fired from the gym, thus closing the door on a four year long chapter in my career.

I decided not to renew my personal training certification and I thought they probably wouldn’t notice.

I thought wrong.

They contacted me yesterday requesting an updated copy of my training certificate.

Today I told them that I don’t, and won’t, have it.

So, like I said, I’m expecting to be fired.

On the one hand it makes me sad.

To think I’ve been busting my ass in the fitness industry for the last four years only to have it end this way.

On the other hand, continuing in this professional makes me sad, and mad, for all kinds of reasons. Into every life falls an occasion to decide which fork in the road will lead to money in the bank and peace in the mind.

Which brings me to my next point.

I’ve also been busting my ass at my new, non fitness related, job for the last three months and last week I was rewarded with a promotion and a fat raise. 🙂

Oh yes, now I remember why I didn’t renew my training certification.

When I got home from work that night, Xavier and I celebrated with a bottle of Beringer Red Moscato.

I had been wanting to try it based on how much I enjoyed their Pink Moscato.

As it turns out, the red and pink are not actually very similar but the red is also quite tasty. The pink is sweeter and definitely has more oak whereas the red is almost more of a Rose’. The back label describes it as “semi-sweet” and Xavier describes it as “a liquid sweet tart”.

Margot, the alcoholic cat, describes it as “the best thing ever”.

Down and dirty facts:

This wine costs about $7.

Xavier had no headache but I woke up at 4:00 in the morning with the ice-pick-through-the-temple. He is usually more prone to wine headaches than I am but there’s not always any rhyme or reason to this stuff.

Individual wines affect individual people individually.

My advice: If you’re staying home today, for whatever reason, have a glass of wine with dinner. It’ll make you feel better about the path not taken.

Wine Reveiw: 2015 Crush Smooth Red Blend, Apothic

I read the news today, oh boy….

Bill Paxton died on Saturday. He was 61.

I read the news on Twitter and I couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t particularly old. He wasn’t a drug addict. He wasn’t grossly overweight. He died of complications following heart surgery.

The past year has brought us a mass die off of celebrities. Most of them didn’t cause me too much grief but I am bothered by the death of Bill Paxton.

His magic was in seeming like such a benign and regular guy but his work was anything but benign and regular.

I loved Bill Paxton in Tombstone and A Simple Plan but in 2001, when I saw the movie Frailty, I took a step back and said, “gawd damn…”

It is because of these films that I watched the HBO series, Big Love and, because of that show, I discovered The Black Keys.

A mutual love of The Black Keys is one of the first excuses Xavier and I had to chat on facebook way back in the day.

Last night Xavier and I decided get a bottle of wine and watch Tombstone to honor the passing of Bill Paxton.

I was in the mood for something sweet and wanted to try Beringer Red Moscato. The liquor store down the street had it a few weeks ago but last night it was sold out.

It turned out to be fortuitous because the wine we got instead was fantastic!

2015 Apothic Crush.

Just to avoid any confusion, this is a dry red wine and bares no resemblance to Moscato.

What it is, however, is damn delicious!

Apothic wine is bottled in Modesto, CA and let me tell ya, California tastes just fine.

Crush is a smooth and incredibly tasty dry red that makes it all too easy to keep refilling the glass. Their website says Crush tastes like caramel and chocolate and I say that it doesn’t disappoint. If you haven’t tried this, you’re missing out. Seriously.

I love red wine with red meat and yesterday I spent eight hours slaving over a hot crock pot making a kick ass pot roast for our Sunday dinner. Of course the dog is waiting patiently for his left overs while the cat is more interested in the wine and keeps trying to put her face and/or paw into Xavier’s glass.

Apothic is not messing around when it comes to alcoholic content and Crush is 14.5% alcohol. Despite it’s heavyweight status, I experienced none of the problems that a lesser quality wine would have caused. No icky feeling. No headache. No intestinal complaints. Honestly, didn’t really even feel all that tipsy. I appreciate a wine that I can enjoy without paying for it the next day. It cost about $12 but is absolutely worth it. Don’t waste money on poor quality wine that leaves you feeling crappy. Spend a few extra bucks on the good stuff.

My review of this Apothic Crush is simple. Go buy it, it’s good.

Orchid Cellar Meadery & Winery in Middletown, MD

Orchid Cellar Meadery & Winery. Middletown, MD

On February 19th, Xavier and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary by visiting Orchid Cellar Meadery & Winery for a tasting followed by a drive around Harper’s Ferry to look for cool abandoned houses and later in the evening we had an outstanding dinner at Clyde’s Tower Oaks Lodge in Germantown.

Mead is a peculiar substance that lays somewhere on the spectrum between wine and bourbon. It is made from honey and generally weighs in at around 17% alcohol. A little bit of Meade goes a long way.

Orchid Cellar Meadery & Winery charges only $7 for a general tasting and they let you keep the glass!

On the menu is an impressive selection of handcrafted Mead, wine, and honey wine. I can guarantee that you won’t be tasting anything like this anywhere else.

The honey brings a unique flavor that may seem foreign at first but it doesn’t take long to go from, “Oh, this is different.” to “Why is my glass empty?!?!”

For more information on the finer points of Mead and how it differs from wine, I highly recommend reading their FAQ page.

This wonderfully decrepit barn is just down the road from Orchid Cellar.

Old Barn. Middletown, MD. Photo by d.Nelle Vincent

Venturing across the river into Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, we found several terrific specimens of abandoned house.

When I lived in New Mexico, I would never be satisfied with photographing abandoned houses from the side of the road. I would be all up in there, risking my life climbing stairs that would were barely standing and tromping over dead animals and piles of rat poo to take a good look around and to get the best photos.

In this part of the country, many of these houses are inhabited by vagrants and/or surrounded by No Trespassing signs and, more often than not, there is an overly protective neighbor within eye shot who has already written down your license plate number. Ergo, it is necessary to exhibit a bit more restraint when photographing abandoned houses in the east.

Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Photo by d.Nelle Vincent

This house is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. I stayed at the fence but I could totally see some awesome stuff through that broken window. Sadly, no way to get the shot from so far away.

Abandoned house. Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Photo by d.Nelle Vincent

This house, on the other hand, had no fence and was conveniently missing the front door. There was a No Trespassing sign nailed to a tree but I didn’t actually go inside and was speedy like The Flash so no photographers were shot during the creation of these images.

Everyone knows it’s bad feng shui for the front door to open onto a staircase and the maleficence oozing from the walls of this house will condensate on your face if you stand there too long. Whatever is in the room at the top of the stairs is just barely contained behind that sorry excuse for a door. Trust me, I know about these things.

img_8793-1 — Abandoned house. Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Photo by d.Nelle Vincent.

Wine Review: Big Red Blend, Dark Horse

My friend, Kricket, says that she avoids California wine because she doesn’t like the way the ground tastes.

I’m not sure I can relate but let’s run with it anyway. Every time I’ve been to California it leaves me with a renewed light in my heart for New Mexico. Visiting California makes me glad to go home.

But what does California taste like?

Some may argue that it smacks of Botox and carbon monoxide, I would suggest that the benefit to holding such an opinion is in being overheard expressing it by an impressionable fool.

Kricket is not a fool but she thinks what she thinks so I decided to conduct an experiment by trying a wine that is mostly not from California.

Still being on my Dark Horse kick, Big Red Blend was my choice for venturing out into the world of unfamiliar grapes. That’s right, foreign grapes in serious danger of being deported, were brought together in a harmonious blend proving that, despite the varying color of our grape skins, we can in fact all get along. There is Spanish Tempranillo, Chilean Cab, and Argentinean Malbec in this mix. Coupled with Merlot, Syrah, and Petite Verdot, Dark Horse Big Red Blend is a tall glass of feisty wine ready to pair up with any meal.

We had it with salmon burgers and giant heaps of steamed broccoli.

I enjoyed the Big Red Blend. It’s a little bolder than the Pinot Noir (which is my reigning favorite) but still has an enjoyable flavor once you figure out how to drink it.

Xavier and I used our round glasses with the green stems. We bought them at Goodwill for the purpose of enjoying a cold glass of Moscato on the patio during the hot and steamy summer nights here in Easterville. To me, they vaguely resemble cacti and are tacky for sure but they are not the right shape for optimizing a bold red wine.

What I mean by that is if you allow this wine to splash up into the ceiling of your mouth it delivers a bit of an upper cut to the upper pallet. This is really easy to do in a glass of this shape. If you use a glass with a more narrow opening, it facilitates taking a sip as opposed to a swig. In this instance, the Big Red Blend goes down smooth like butter.

When asked what he thought of it, Xavier said, “It is reminiscent of DayQuil but if you bought it again I would still drink it.”

Hey, I can’t control what the Hubz says but I thought it was pretty good and never once considered using it as a substitute for cold medicine. As for whether or not it tastes “un-Californian”, I honestly couldn’t say but I would certainly buy it again and would be happy if I went to a party where it was being served.