Wine About It Wednesday - October

Hey There!

I decided that I wanted to dub the last Wednesday of each month as Wine About It Wednesday! No, I didn't misspell whine. No, we aren't going to complain about makeup or anything. We are going to talk about the wine that I drank the past month and what I thought about it. I'll also throw in a few wines that some of my friends drank the past month because if we only go with what I drink, it will be all white wines, all the time!

I'm a sweet Riesling (preferably Washington State) kinda girl. It took me 2 years to figure that out but once I did, ba--by! Once I discovered the secret to finding which wine works for me, I'm almost always able to find a great wine without going through too many duds. Almost. 

I try to attend wine tastings at my local wine shop. I say local, but I do have to travel a bit to get there. But, if you check out your wine store, you'll see that a few Saturdays or week nights each month, they pop open a few bottles and let customer sample for free. They also have classes (for $20 - $40) that you can take on regional or seasonal wines. Anytime you attend a tasting or a class you normally get a discount on the wines mentioned. More than that, after a few tastings/classes, you'll start to learn what types of wine you prefer and you can begin to go out on your own and try new wines.

For the first few months, I only purchased wine that I had tasted during my wine classes.  Then I got bold and went to my local grocery store and sought out like wines and tried them. Sometimes I would miss but more often than not, I'd hit. And no worries, when you miss you can always pass along the bottle or make a sangria.

And yes, I mentioned local grocery store. Many grocery stores and even some drugstores are really going the extra mile in their wine department. I was in my Kroger this past weekend and had a 10 minute conversation with their wine buyer! Grocery stores recognize that they might lose business if they don't cater to their customers. So, they add better lighting, bone up on their wine lists and let you know that you can come to them for great tasting wines.

So this month I have an old fave, a new fave and yes, two duds.

My old fave is my 2011 Late Harvest Riesling by B. Lovely. (Currently, I'm only able to find the 2012 Late Harvest but I'm sure it's just as good). Wow folks! This is one of my go to wines. It's just this side of sweet and so  refreshing that you can drink it chilled or cooled. It's a Washington State Riesling, so I wouldn't expect it to be anything other than fantastic!

(Side note. According to the world wide web, the approximate temperature to serve Rieslings is 47˚. Your fridge is already 35˚ and your freezer is 0˚).

The other lovely that I tried this month was Sweet Baby Bubbly. I picked this up a my Dekalb Farmer's Market. They have several wine buyers that can help with your selections. This is a sweet white moscato. It was so good I thought I was going to just get drunk off of it. I could just chug it down -- but I didn't.

I purchased my final two wines because they were recommended. I'm not speaking to either of those people anymore.

Apothic White Winemaker's Blend is a described as a "an approachable blend that combines Chardonnay, Riesling and Moscato to create a luscious, vibrant wine in the bold style of Apothic. Intense flavors of peach, pineapple, honey and vanilla spice make this smooth white blend unforgettable." Why yes, it was very unforgettable. I'm going to go with unforgettably nasty. I don't like dry wines and I think if the Apothic people took out the Chardonnay, we might have had a party. I'm not a fan.

Cheval Quancard Premières Côtes De Bordeaux comes in a really pretty bottle (you know how the review will go from here). I never thought I'd see the day that I got to say, this wine is toooo sweet! The TW&M website says this is "full-bodied, heady and rich in sugar". No joke sirs.

So, what did my genius behind do (because I am NOT pouring out wine)? I mixed the last two together! It wasn't great but I was able to drink them. I won't be purchasing them again.

And that was my wine drinking for the month. Stay tuned for next month when I'll be sipping on my FAVORITE of all time as well as another pick from the nice TW&M people. Also, I think there will be a red or two in the mix! I have a guest reviewer!

Come back next month, pour a glass of your favorite wine and see what I'm drinking on Wine About It Wednesday.

*Most wine notes were gathered from the Total Wine & More website -- the website where this wino lady gets her drink on. I also attend classes and tastings there (shout out to my peeps!).