Bota Box - Malbec

Price: $14.99
Region: Argentina
Year: 2011

Wow, it has been entirely too long since I've sat down to write a review.  All hell seems to break loose when you decide to put your house up for sale.  Suddenly, your usually limited free time becomes completely non-existent.  Anyway, I decided to try and get at least one review in during the month of April.  I'll definitely have to make up for it down the road.  So, two weekend's ago as I stopped on my way home from work, I really had no idea what to buy.  It was one of those days where I just couldn't make up my mind.  Not quite sure why, but what I ended up grabbing was a box of Bota Box Malbec.  For the equivalent of 4 bottles of wines, it was very inexpensive.  Even $4 - $5 dollars cheaper then any of the Black Box wines.

There was nothing special on the menu this night, so I sat down with my Friday evening dinner and a glass of wine.  Things started of well enough.  This wine was a nice dark red color as expected for a Malbec.  also, the aroma of this wine did not stand out for any reason in particular, but it wasn't bad either.  If anything it was a touch light, but had a bit of an earthy feel to it that was kind of nice.  So, when I went to take a sip however, I was a bit nonplussed.  The wine to me was short with a much younger impression than I was expecting.  Overall, it wasn't a bad wine, and really for a little under $4 a bottle, it was quite a bargain, but I think for a few dollars more, I'll stick with the Black Box for sure.

Rating: 2.75 corks (Good price, not a great wine)

Lapis Luna - Cabernet Sauvignon

Price: $14
Region: Lodi, Cal
Year: 2006

I enjoyed a couple of bottles of wine this past weekend, but for the first time in a while, each of them were ones I had tasted, and most likely reviewed before. I had a wonderful bottle of V Sattui that was a birthday gift from a friend, as well as a bottle of Petit Petit (http://www.winereviewsyoucanunderstand.blogspot.com/2011/05/michael-david-petite-petit.html), which almost cracked my top 5 list. Anyway, for these weeks review I had to go back a couple of weekends to this bottle of Lapis Luna This is a wine my wife had picked up one Friday afternoon and that we opened on a Saturday night with some Chinese food.

After tasting this wine, I did a little brushing up on the Lodi region of California since I wasn't as familiar as some of the other more popular California wine regions. It actually sounds like it would be a nice place to visit, with some great wineries, and not too far from my favorite city to visit, San Fransisco. So as I sat down with a glass, the wine had a pleasant look to it, and was not overly dark red. The one thing I noticed when I took in a sniff were the earthy undertones. My first impression was more of a Shiraz then a Cab, but then again, I've smelled and tasted plenty of earthy Cabernet Sauvignon wines. I took a sip of this wine, and then another, and I thought it had good structure, and what stood out to me was the 'oaky' taste. Overall the wine had a good flavor, and decent balance, but it wasn't one that I would say I raved about. Definitely worth a try though.

Rating: 3.5 corks (A safe choice)

Courtney Benham - Lucca Red (Blend)

Price: $13
Region: Paso Robles, Ca
Year: ??

The selection to be reviewed this week is a bit odd in that I couldn't find the particular grapes that made up this wine, or the vintage. The bottle indicated it was a blend from various wineries, and that was about it. My wife had picked up a few bottles of wine last Friday, so this is one we decided to open with our Friday night standby, burgers from 5 Guys. This was actually a wine they were doing a tasting of in the store she visited, and she liked the little taste that she had, so she thought she'd give it a shot.

I poured a glass for each of us, and as I took a close look, the wine was very dark red. As I swirled the wine around the cup, it was one of those wines that is dark enough that it just appears to have a syrupy quality to it. When I brought the glass up and took in the smell, my initial impression was wow! This wine had a really great aroma with both some hints of fruit and flowers. I enjoyed it so much, I took another couple of sniffs before I gave it a taste. I think at this point my expectations may have been a bit high, because when I took a sip, I really had a lot of good comments to write down, but I think the taste paled a bit compared to the smell. The wine was very consistent, with a nice flavor of blackberries with a touch of vanilla. I'm not a big fan of a wine that taste heavily of vanilla, but a hint here and there is perfect for me. If I really had to guess the grapes that made up this wine, I would say Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Franc. There might a a bit of Merlot too. Either way, I really enjoyed this wine, and will compare it with the bottle of Courtney Benham Merlot my wife bought on the same trip. Maybe next week.

Rating: 3.5 corks (Very nice wine)

Barboursville - Merlot Reserve

Price: $20
Region: Virginia
Year: 2008

While I wrote a few weeks about the trip my wife and I recently took to Virgina to visit a couple of wineries, this is the first bottle from that trip that I am reviewing on its own. We actually opened this a few Saturdays ago to have with some pizza we were having for dinner. It was a pretty laid back Saturday evening, so the two of us sat down to enjoy a bottle of wine. Since we only brought back about 6 bottles of wines from the wineries we visited, we were hoping that we did a decent enough job of picking out the ones we liked best, but this was the firs test of how well we actually ended up doing.

From the very beginning, I was pretty sure I was going to have to throw out any of the biases I was going to have based on my relative familiarity with California Merlots. The color of this wine was somewhere in between a Cab and a Merlot. It had good clarity, but not overly dark in appearance. The aroma was a bit faint, so I had to give the wine a couple of swirls and subsequent sniffs to get a good smell, and my general impression was one of flowers, but again, a little light. As I took a sip, the flavor was consistent, with the fruit flavor standing out (I would lean toward cherries), but in line with the faint aroma, the wine just felt a little young to me. The wine was just a touch tart, but overall, it was very unique, especially for a Merlot. It is definitely not a wine you would compare to a California Merlot, but it really was a good change of pace. You can obviously find a pretty solid bottle of wine for $20, but would still recommend grabbing a bottle if you happen to be visiting the Barboursville Winery.

Rating: 3.25 corks (Different, but good)

Seghesio - Zinfandel

Price: $17
Region: Sonoma, CA
Year: 2010

I still have a couple of wines to get through that I bought right before Christmas, and this is one of them. I think we actually had this wine a couple of weekends back with some homemade pizza. I actually had a bottle of Seghesio Zinfandel back a few years ago when I visited California on a business trip with some of my co-workers. So, when I saw a bottle at the local wine shop, I thought I'd give the newer vintage a try.

This wine is just a couple of dollars more then the normal everyday Zinfandels I usually buy (like Bogle, etc.), but I do remember enjoying this wine, so for $17, I thought it was worth a try. As I sat down for dinner and poured myself a glass, I was looking at a dark red wine with good clarity, that was nice an bright. It definitely wasn't clouded looking. As with many Zinfandels, it had a bold aroma, but was not unpleasant at all. Sometimes with a bold wine, you get a little too much of one kind of smell, but not so with this wine. So far I was liking my choice. When I finally went to take a sip, I knew the extra couple of dollars was well spent. This wine starts off a bit soft, but with wonderful upfront fruit flavor. The flavor really continues throughout and ends with a very smooth finish. There really wasn't much to dislike about this wine, but maybe the flavor was just a touch light. Overall a very good wine, and one I'll pick up again.

Rating: 3.75 corks (Quality!)

Cueva De Las Manos - Malbec

Price: $15
Region: Argentina
Year: 2009

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I stopped at the local wine store to pick out some bottles of wine as gifts for my team at work. This is a bottle that caught my eye as a highly rated Malbec. Many of the Malbecs I have tried over the past few months I have just grabbed off of the shelf to give it a try. This one was one that was highlighted as a best buy, so I thought it was a safe bet for a gift. The person I gave it to had really good things to say about it, so I thought I'd give it a try for myself. I actually had this wine a few weeks back, but am trying to get to a few reviews that I never got around to writing.

I opened this particular bottle one Friday evening after I arrived home with burgers from our local 5 Guys. It seems that is becoming all too common of a Friday meal, but I guess it could be worse. I noticed right away when I poured a glass that this wine was dark and jammy. It really seemed thick when pouring into my glass. It really had a great aroma as well, and a bit of a fruit/flower mix. When I took a sip, I tasted a really smooth and consistent wine with great flavor. It had nice tannins, and a pretty smooth finish. I think all in all I agree with the person who gave this wine a thumbs up, and I had found yet again, another great value in an Argentinian Malbec. Imagine that.

Rating: 3.75 corks (Yummy!)

Kitchen Sink

Price: $9.99
Region: California
Year:

This was a bottle of wine that I had tasted on a few occasions at my father-in-law's house for Sunday night dinner. Usually however, it was just a taste of a left-over bottle that he opened earlier in the week, but usually not as the main wine he would open for dinner. So, when I went to the store in late December to grab a few bottles of wine, I decided to grab one of these for myself so I could sit down and review it. This particular weekend was one of the Saturday nights that there wasn't a whole lot going on, so just sat down for a quiet dinner with a bottle of wine. Not a bad Saturday in my book.

My general bias going in was that this was a solid wine, and since it was only $10, I really wanted to pay attention and see how solid. As the name would seem to indicate, there are a whole bunch of grapes in this wine. It consists of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Merlot, and Petit Shiraz. With a wine made of of these grapes, there was little wonder it had a deep, dark red color, but it didn't have the really thick look about it when I gave it a swirl. In the same vein, I was surprised that the aroma was a bit faint. I would have to say it was more in line with a Cab/Merlot mix when the Merlot seems to take some of the bold Cab smells down a notch. When I went to take a sip, I was hit with the same bit of surprise as I was with the aroma. It was good enough, but just lacked some follow through. I tended to lean towards bland as the description that came to mind. I think in general it is a good enough wine to have a few bottles around for an every day kind of wine, but nothing that really stands out as a must buy for some some friends are over.

P.S. I forgot to put the name of the wine in on my last review, but it is in there now, so if you haven't checked that one out, please do as it was a very good wine.

Rating: 3.0 corks (So-so!)