Wine Reviews For The Average Wine lover

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ

Saturday, August 17, 2024

2022 Franciscan - Sauvignon Blanc

There are certain names that to me at least, represent quality. In this particular case, we are discussing wine so I will stick to the names that I consider to be quality in that arena. Names such as Sattui, Peju, BV, Pine Ridge, Matt Parish and Stags Leap, are just some of the names that come to mind when I think of high quality wines. Unfortunately, neither of these wines are available in my area and I have to drive about an hour to purchase them but that's okay as they represent wines that are for the most part, very simply amazing. These wines also represent great memories of having an amazing time at the wineries themselves. Memories such as these come into play when we hit up the wine stores and also possibly even dictate what wineries we specifically look for when shopping, at least I know they do for me. Some things in life are after all, worth searching out guys and I am sure we all know that wine is one of those things. Right now, I want to talk about one winery whose wine I have always considered to be quality and that is the Franciscan winery, let's get into this review now.

Today I will be discussing the 2022 Franciscan - Sauvignon Blanc which I paid $12.99 for. The wine comes in at 12.8% alcohol and the bottle is cork sealed. The bottle simply says that the grapes for this wine come from California which means anywhere in California.

On the nose here, I am getting light lemongrass and a hint of peach which comes in on the back-end. Overall there is nothing impressive or noteworthy here on the nose.

Now, on the palate there is a different story, the wine is good folks and I am not disappointed in the slightest bit. Yes, lemongrass is here guys as expected but, it is very well controlled, this is not a New Zealand, Sauvignon Blanc I promise. Nectarine is here as well but it also is not over the top by any means guys. I am getting this nectarine on the mid-palate and while it is on the lighter side, it is enjoyed nevertheless. To me, what really sets this wine off is a beautiful sense of dryness... of cleanness. There is also a juiciness to the wine without any doubt and that juiciness is... beautiful. Nothing overblown here and nothing to detract from the fact that this is a well made wine. Green Apple is here as well and it is intermixed wonderfully. I think his note is the one that brings that brightness i mentioned earlier in the wine. Acidity wise the wine presents the note at low to medium in its presentation but at the level the wine is offering the acidity up, it simply works, it is nice. I know there are those who demand high acidity in their wines however, if this particular wine offered that level of acidity up I feel it would be out of balance for sure. There is a floral note here as well and it is yet another super positive aspect of the wine guys. This florality note is embedded into the wine and is a base that everything else in the wine is carried on.With all this being said, let's head over to the conclusion section of this review and wrap it up.

Here we are guys, reviewing a rather inexpensive, American, Sauvignon Blanc. How good could the wine be folks? Well... let me tell ya... the wine is indeed, good. Balance... the wine is in balance guys. I don't know who the winemaker is but he or she, is talented for sure. Balance is an aspect of this wine that really is a selling point. The wine manages to express itself just a a great Sauv Blanc should and also knows a good bit about how to show itself without overdoing itself. One last thing here, in my mind at least, the fact that the winery is now owned by E& J Gallo has really brought this winery down from the prominence it use to hold and I think that is sad. Aside from this, on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale, I am giving this wine a very solid 94 points.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ

Saturday, June 22, 2024

2018 Chateau Ste Michelle, Chardonnay - Canoe Ridge Estate

The other day, my white wine fridge wet down, it was not cooling. I thought for a second about getting it fixed but thought again when I remembered that things are being made to be disposable in todays world. Long gone are the days when a product lasted and you could pass actually it down to your children. With prices for repairs being so expensive now, it was sadly better to just throw out the fridge then to try and fix it. I did some searching on the web and found that a 34 bottle wine fridge which is what I had, was actually pretty expensive. Eventually I came across one being sold at Walmart which was the Arctic King, 34 bottle wine fridge and it was available for $159 (https://www.walmart.com/ip/Arctic-King-Premium-34-Bottle-Standard-Wine-Cooler-Glass-Door-AWCA034ADB/737222365). After reading all the available reviews on the product, I figured I would go ahead and buy it as the reviews were portraying it as a very well made appliance. Three weeks later, I decided to do a review of it on my wine YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgp-5uwUo9s). By the way, I would love for you guys to check it out as I think you will be in for a surprise. Having said this, today I will be pulling a wine out of that very fridge and doing a review on it so let's get to it.

Today I will be taking a look at the 2018 Chateau Ste. Michelle, Chardonnay - Canoe Ridge Estate. I paid $11.99 for the wine and the bottle is cork sealed. The grapes (100% Chardonnay) for the wine come from the Canoe Ridge Estate vineyards which are located in Washington State. The vines for these grapes are planted on their own root-stock and the alcohol percentage of the wine comes in at 14.5%

On the nose there is pear and ...well, that is all, I wish I could say more.

As far as the label on the bottle goes, it is well done and very sharp looking. As a consumer, I am convinced that the wine inside the bottle is going to be very nice indeed. Here is yet another case where less is better. This to me seems to always work with a white wine but I have trouble with it on a red for some reason. The font chosen for the winery name really is well chosen and well placed on the label. I remember as I was scanning the shelf and came across this bottle I just had to pick it up to see what it was. Once I saw the winery name on the label, it went into my cart. Did the label fool me into thinking this was a good wine? We will soon find out.

Starting off here I will tell you that the 14.5% alcohol (rather high) is tasted on the palate. Even before I knew the alcohol percentage, I said to Mrs. Desert Wine Girl "the alcohol is high here" and sure enough, I was correct. The second and third thing that I will tell straight out of the gate is that this is a dry Chardonnay and, the wine definitely sat in oak, that is also for sure and for me, and in reference to the oak, a bit too long for my liking. There is also a creamy note (or sense) to the wine that I enjoyed and this note came more on the mid-palate but was overall well placed overall. Another nice aspect of the wine was that you can sense the soil the grapes for the wine were grown in and while that would normally be a good thing, here it is just overwhelmed by the oak. A stone note is presented here as well and while it would normally be good thing as well, it can't overpower the rest of the wine. Green Pear is here but it is almost completely hidden unfortunately and more sensed than anything else. Vanilla is most definitely here and it too is a killer as it is best friends with that oak. I am also picking up a buttery note here that is well integrated but that doesn't mean anything as the note is just... lost and without any value due to the other overdone notes the wine is so fond of displaying. On the sides of the palate was a brightness that was nice but was unfortunately killed by the main body of the wine in general.

Guys, I really don't have anymore to say, the wine was in my opinion at least, bad, I did not like it and will never buy it again. The only thing on point here is the acidity as it is the only thing able to manage the wood/vanilla note. As a last note, there is a weird and deep white pepper type note here that is able to spread itself out throughout the wine and again, would normally be good but here it fails. It is now time to conclude this review, I will see you in the next paragraph.

Here we are guys, the conclusion paragraph. I'll just say this flat out once again, I did not enjoy the wine and would not buy it again. What is really weird is that the wine gets very good reviews, I am left wondering if I am tasting the same wine they are. I am sorry guys but the wine was just killed with oak, a toast type note and a vanilla note to go right along with those other two. There was no real fruit to speak of and what is here, is extremely limited. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale, I am giving this wine 86 points. The wine was very close to being a sink wine guys and I suggest you stay far away from it.

The Desert Wine Guy

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

The Desert Wine Guy - My Review Of Last Bottle Wine Company

There are many places to buy wine on line today with all of course claiming to have the best prices and the best customer service. As with buying anything though, the old saying of "Caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware) is very accurate. Like any business, the goal is (or at least should be) to have you buy the product you want, or need, from them and in that attempt, they will try and convince you that the price they are giving you is the best available anywhere as is their customer service after the sale. Many times guys, these claims of best price and customer service is a deception, a flat out lie. While the business owner(s) themselves may have a true interest in keeping you happy, the employees are lacking at times. Many times you may be given the best price but there are inconveniences that you must be willing to put up with in exchange for that best price. In the end you as the consumer have to ask yourself were you happy with the entire process and, are the inconveniences worth the savings? In referance to wine, as a consumer of wine, we have to keep in mind the fact that there is a lot of money to be made with those on line wine businesses and as with any business, these companies should not only have to fight to have us as customers but fight to keep us as as continued customers as well.

In referance to money making and wine, the on line business named Naked Wines generated $450,472,758.51 in sales for the year 2023. According to the site Future Market Insights Blog (https://www.fmiblog.com/2024/06/08/wine-subscription-market-forecasted-surge-of-20-7-cagr-leading-to-2033-industry-trends-and-consumer-behavior-analysis/) "the market is expected to reach a US$ 3.9 billion valuation. The personalized box subscription type of wine subscription is projected to surge with a projected CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 22.2% from 2023 to 2033." Being that there is so much money involved with the on line wine market, there will be some smart companies that realize they have to stand out in a way that for one, will attract the consumer and, for another, they will realize that once they have the customer, they now have to keep that customer so that they don't stray. Any companies bread & butter is indeed their customer and today I want to talk to you about one company that I am in the process of dealing with that seems in my humble opinion at least, to have some issues when it comes to the customer receiving their product and that company is named Last Bottle (LB).

Last Bottle (Blicker Pierce Wagner Wine Merchants, LLC) is a company that sells "one hand-picked wine per day until it sells out". Last Bottle is not a club you join so that may be seen as a positive for some as no automatic shipments occur and there are no monthly payments made. If you sign up for their email list you get notifications of the daily wine offered and there is never a commitment to buy anything.

The company was formed in 2011 by Brent Pierce and Stefan Blick who call themselves "wine fanatics". They claim to be wine insiders and involved in the "global wine trade" which in turn, helps them to be able to offer up wines "to beautiful people like you every day". Talk about marketing huh? The company also goes on to say that they taste about 40,000 wines every year. In case you are wondering, the infamous James Suckling has 25 employees and they taste 41,000 wines a year (https://www.jamessuckling.com/about-us/) so yeah, it is doable. Now, according to the site Trustpilot (https://www.trustpilot.com/review/lastbottlewines.com), LB does not have great ratings (3.2) with one customer saying "Received damaged wine. Took pictures, sent numerous emails and no response. Going on two weeks. Also left numerous voice messages". Another customer said "Save yourself the aggravation and don’t order from them. I placed an order with them 2 weeks ago and never received it. They haven’t issued a refund yet and take forever to respond to email. They are as horrible as it gets! I will file a complaint with authorities!" Now there are some sites out there that I find rather suspect themselves that rate LB very nicely but these sites as I said, seem to be rather suspect in their legitimacy in my opinion. As an example of Last Bottles prices, today, as I write this review, I looked at Last Bottles website and they were selling the 2018 Gallica Cabernet Franc Oakville Ranch Oakville Napa Valley which sells for $175 at Wine Searcher but is available for $85 on Last Bottle. This seems like an awesome deal if you get the wine and if you do get the wine, what do you have to put up with in order to get it?

Now, I want to talk about my own experience with LB. What about customer service after the sale? What about actually receiving the wines you bought in a timely manner? Should you (the customer) have to run after a company that they bought a product from or do you expect them to keep you updated? The following is a progression of how my order was handled.

May 27th - I purchased four bottles of the Erikson & Caradin Raptor & Crimson Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. After doing my research on the wine prior to purchasing it, I discovered from numerous reputable sites that the wine is supposedly amazing. I also doscovered that the wine sells for $85 at the winery . Last Bottle had the wine available for $22. The next best price I was able to find was $33 which was from Vivino but you had to add shipping even if you bought four bottles and with Last Bottle, shipping was free with four bottles. This was a great deal and I couldn't wait to get and to try the wine.

May 27th - 11:21 am. After I ordered, I immediately received a confirmation email which said the following "This message confirms your purchase. This wine is sold out on the East Coast, but is available in our West Coast facility! We will send the replenishment of wine over to the east coast warehouse to fulfill your order as soon as a truck can be scheduled for temp controlled transport. (Please note there can be delays with this process - if you'd rather ship directly from the west coast, contact us straight away). Tracking will be sent once packed and ready to ship from the east coast facility."

Okay so now I'm thinking, this is a little weird. I had to order the wine before I found out that it was not available at their local warehouse and that there would be "delays with the process". Still I'm thinking that my wine should surely be here in the next few days. Unfortunately, that was not to be.

June 1st - 9:31 am. I contacted LB June 1st saying "I have heard nothing as to where my order is."
Keep in mind that I ordered the wines on the 27th of May and now it was the 1st of June and I had received no followup from Last Bottle.

June 3rd - 6:12 pm. I received a response from Krissy (last name omitted per request) who is a Customer Service Representative which stated the following:

"Hi Marc,

Your order was placed from West Coast stock after the East Coast sold out. We noted this in the checkout process and our order confirmation email, and replenishment timelines can vary between offers. This process can take 4-5 weeks to complete. Your order will be shipped as soon as stock is replenished at our East Coast warehouse. You will receive a tracking email once scanned for transit!"

Now I am being told again that Last Bottle is going to ship my wines from their West Coast warehouse to their East Coast warehouse which could take a month to over a month to complete. Do you mean to tell me that a company that is in the business of transporting products needs wait until "a truck can be scheduled for temp controlled transport"? Do you mean to tell me they don't have a company policy to deal with this as a common occourance? I do believe that I might have an issue here. My response to Krissy was:

June 4th - 1:14 pm I responded to Krssy by saying:
Hey Krissy;

After reviewing your confirmation e-mail, I see that it said ..."but is available in our West Coast facility!" Krissy's email also went on to say " We will send the replenishment of wine over to the east coast warehouse to fulfill your order as soon as a truck can be scheduled for temp controlled transport." Seeing that the wine was ordered on the 27th of May and today is the 4th of June, are you telling me that a "temperature controlled transport" has not been available? Are you further telling me (according to your below e-mail) that I might have to wait over 1 month in order to get 4 bottles of wine shipped to me from the West Coast to the East Coast of this country?

I am actually a wine reviewer based out of Central Florida and I was actually planning on doing a review of your company. As of now, I am not pleased with the response I have gotten in reference to the wines I am expecting.

June 4th at 7:52 PM I received a reply from Krissy saying:
We can absolutely ship from here (as mentioned in the email-"Please note there can be delays with this process - if you'd rather ship directly from the west coast, contact us straight away").

Let me know if you are okay waiting, or if you prefer to have us ship on our temperature controlled trucks this week, to arrive next week. Thanks so much!"

Again I am being told that just to transport four bottles of wine from the West Coast of America to the East Coast of America would take over one month or more. This is not to even include the time for it to be picked up at the warehouse and delivered to me. I responded to Krissy again, this time having just gotten home from work at 2:18 am by saying:

June 5th - 2:18 am - Please do so in the temperature controlled truck so it arrives next week.

June 5th - 12:52 pm - Krissy responded with:
Of course!

June 7th - 1:11 am, I received the following email from LB:

"To Our Favorite Customer:

We have great news! Your shipment has departed our third-party shipper's temperature-controlled facility and is now en route to your area hub (also temp-controlled).

FedEx Tracking Number: OMITTED BY ME
Please note that tracking information will not appear until the label is scanned at the hub by FedEx Home Delivery, which takes about 4-7 business days. Once tracking becomes active, the ETA on your tracking page will be accurate.

So it appears that on the 7th of June, my wine was shipped from the West Coast to the East Coast. The wine will then wait until it is picked yup by FedEx. I had had enough of this. Send me my wine from the West Coast directly without stopping at another warehouse only to be picked up by the delivery company. What a waste of time, I had had enough and responded to Krissy the following:

On June 8th at 11:40 AM, I sent Krissy an e-mail saying:

"Krissy;

Can you please get me in touch with a supervisor?
Thank you, Marc - The Desert Wine Guy

June 11th - 11:59 am I received an email from Kiki (last name omitted per request) who is the Assistant Customer Service Manager stating:
Hi Marc!

I'm the Assistant Manager for our Last Bottle Customer Service team, How can I help today?

June 11th - 2:05pm - I responded with the following:

Good Afternoon Mrs. (last name omitted per request);

I originally came across your company when I was doing some research
on a wine project I was working on at the time. As I am a wine reviewer, I decided to check out your site and when I did so, I came across a wine that was being sold at a great price so I went ahead and ordered four bottles. I also figured that I would do a review of the entire process since I have numerous social media sites relating to wine only. My order was placed on the 27th of May. My first experience with your company didn't start off well as I received an immediate order confirmation stating " This wine is sold out on the East Coast, but is available in our West Coast facility! We will send the replenishment of wine over to the east coast warehouse to fulfill your order as soon as a truck can be scheduled for temp controlled transport. (Please note there can be delays with this process - if you'd rather ship directly from the west coast, contact us straight away)."When I inquired days later about my purchase since I had heard nothing (no update) from your company I was informed via an E-mail by Customer Service Representative, Krissy (last name omitted per request) that my order could take 4-5 weeks*just for it to ship *to the East Coast facility. The product would then go from the facility here on the East Coast to FedEx. With this being said, I have a few questions/complaints.

My first question/complaint is why would your company wait until after the customer ordered the product to then be informed that the item they ordered is out of stock near them? As a customer, I have no idea where your warehouses are located nor do I care so why would that is be important to me? This adds to the second part of this question which is to then be informed as I was by Krissy that "my order could take 4-5 weeks" is crazy which leads me to my next question.

My second question/complaint is, why in the world would any customer wish to wait 4-5 weeks (over 1 month) just to have their purchased product shipped to another warehouse and then be picked up by FedEx? To even have that option is crazy. Is there a benefit to the consumer if they were to have the product shipped from the East Coast rather than the West Coast?

My third question/complaint is, what is the thought process behind your company shipping an item from one of its warehouses to another one of its warehouses rather than ship the customer the item directly from the original warehouse? Doing this only adds to wait for the customer to receive their order (4-5 weeks). No wonder the product takes so long to be delivered to the customer. Again I have to ask, is there a benefit to the consumer if they were to have the product shipped from the East Coast rather than the West Coast?

Having said all of this, as of today FedEx has still not received my package and I (the customer) wait. It has been 15 days since ordering. I have to tell you Mrs. Kikithat unless I get some satisfactory answers to my questions, my review of your company will unfortunately not be a good one. as a last note, I belong to Naked Wines and they deliver me a case of wine in three days without excuses. Yes, this is regular ground shipping.

Thank you for your time, Marc ****** - The Desert Wine Guy

June 12th - 11:38am Mrs. Kiki (last name omitted per request) responded by saying:

HI Marc!

I understand your concern and appreciate your feedback.

Opposite Coast orders can take some time to process, and like Krissy mentioned, this is noted in the confirmation email. Replenishment is shipped to our East Coast warehouse in bulk on temp controlled trucks, and then specific orders are processed at our East Coast warehouse to be shipped individually to customers on the East Coast, so that direct transit time is shorter.

Unfortunately, in cases like this one, delays can happen due to truck availability, issues with the delivery, or even the wine arriving damaged to our East Coast, so the orders are switched to ship from our West Coast warehouse via third party temp controlled trucks so that customers don't have to wait another few weeks for new bottles to arrive at the East Coast warehouse.

I know the wait time is not preferable for you, but we do have quite a few customers that would rather wait and have it ship directly from our East Coast instead of having the longer transit time directly to the customer, as our third party shipping direct from West Coast to Customer in the temp controlled trucks can take a couple weeks, even though these shipments are temp controlled. Our operations team has been looking into ways we can improve this, and I will make sure they know your thoughts and complaints with how things are currently working.

Tracking on our side is showing that this order has arrived at the hub in FL and is being sorted for direct shipping! Once FedEx picks this up and scans the shipment, you should receive an email with updated tracking. This should arrive by the end of the week.

For the inconvenience, I've added a $50 store credit to your account.

Cheers, Kiki (last name omitted per request)

Assistant Customer Service Manager
Last Bottle Wines

Guys, Mrs. Kiki (last name omitted per request) response, while I truly do appreciate $50 being placed onto my account, confuses me for the following reasons.

1) In reference to Mrs. Kiki (last name omitted per request) saying that "Opposite Coast orders can take some time to process", I don't understand why? The West Coast is not in another country so why the delay depending upon the coast the wine comes from. Once again, I have to add that this information was not given until AFTER I completed my purchase.

2) In reference to Mrs. Kiki (last name omitted per request) saying that "Replenishment is shipped to our East Coast warehouse in bulk". I think the issue here is that Last Bottle waits until they have a lot of orders before they ship. This is why it can take up to five weeks before a customer gets their purchased product. This is not a good way to do business.

3) In reference to Mrs. Kiki (last name omitted per request) saying that "delays can happen due to truck availability, issues with the delivery, or even the wine arriving damaged to our East Coast". Truck availability shouldn't be an issue, they are a company that ships country wide and should be prepared for such a thing.

4) In reference to Mrs. Kiki (last name omitted per request) saying "... we do have quite a few customers that would rather wait and have it ship directly from our East Coast instead of having the longer transit time directly to the customer, as our third party shipping direct from West Coast to Customer in the temp controlled trucks can take a couple weeks". Once again we run into Last Bottle not wishing to ship four bottles by themselves and wanting to wait for a lot of orders to be completed. I believe this boils down to money for them. If that is the case, they shouldn't offer free shipping wth four bottles.

5) In reference to Mrs. Kiki (last name omitted per request) saying "tracking on our side is showing that this order has arrived at the hub in FL and is being sorted for direct shipping! Once FedEx picks this up and scans the shipment" I called FedEx on June 11th and they informed me that they did not have my package yet. I have to wonder if throughout all this traveling, my wine was not temperature controlled as I did spend an extra $8 to have this done.

In complete contrast to Last Bottles customer service, I belong to an on-line wine club and I will not mention the name because I do not wish to have this twisted into an advertisement but my last order from them on May 28th and received my wines on June 1st by FedEx, that's including the date I actually ordered. That's four days folks for six bottles of wine to get to my home, why is LB having a hard time?

Want another example? There is a site named Wines Till Sold Out (WTSO) and they offer free shipping if you purchase a minimum of $60. I had placed an order with them April 6th. I received an immediate confirmation email and on the very next work day (the 7th was a Sunday), I received an email stating that the wines have shipped. On the 10th of April I received my wines. This and awesome prices scores WTSO (https://www.wtso.com/last-chance#product_id=88375) a very high rating in my book. By the way, I have no affiliation with WTSO.

June 13th - FedEx finally has received my wine.

June 14th - Finally, my wine is out for delivery. Later on in the day I received my wine and having finally sat down with the box, it is time to open it. Inside I see the wine was packed exceptionally well with a big block of re-usable ice. Huge, thick foam blocks surrounded the wines and I have to say, I was impressed. I will try the wine in a few days.

As I move to wrap this review up, I have to say that I am kind of disappointed in the service LB has offered up in the way of delivery. At this point, it has been 12 days since I ordered four bottles of wine and it seems that all I have witnessed is a company that has been around a long time, acting more like a start up as far as transporting their product is concerned. What caused a delay here that I found to be unacceptable was the fact that they shipped my wine from the West Coast to the East Coast and than to FedEx. Why my wine couldn't be shipped directly from the West Coast to my home is beyond me. Keep in mind here that aside from the shipping from one warehouse to another, I also had to wait for FedEx to prepare and ship the wine to me. This is only more time for me to wait. Also, the potential of having to wait 4-5 weeks (over a month) to receive my product due to LB shipping issue, is crazy. Okay now, my final thoughts. Having received my wines I believe that LB is a legitimate company and and while they do deliver the product they promise and at a great price, I think their company needs to do some big tweaking of their delivery process. Moving product from one coast of this country to another and then to another shipper is ridiculous. I do believe that my noting them I am reviewing the company expidided my delivery.

Having said all of this, I kind of have faith in LB and I actually ended up doing another order from them to see if this was just a fluke, an issue with long distance shipping or if it was an issue with all of their shipping. My order was for four bottles of the 2022 Peju (Napa Valley) Legacy Carneros Napa County Chardonnay and was purchased on June 13th. I will be receiving these wines on the 20th per FedEx. Mrs. Desert Wine Girl opened an account and ordered one bottle of wine, the 2022 Q Appassionata, Cabernet Sauvignon - Stags Leap District as well and both orders will be coming in the same box rom the East Coast on the 20th. Once again I have to note an odity. I never received a notification that this second bottle was shipped.

Has LB redeemed itself? Is the companies only issue their long distance shipping process (shipping in general)? As things stand right now, it appears that way. I also want to state that I had no issues with Krissy as none of this was her fault and she was cordial in her dealings with me, the same goes for Mrs. Kiki (last name omitted per request). By the way, I will be contacting Mrs. Kiki (last name omitted per request) and giving her the link to this review which I hope she passes on so that LB will be aware of the issues that I experienced.

The Desert Wine Guy

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

2018 Stags Leap, Petite Sirah

The other day, Mrs. Desert Wine Girl and I decided to take the kids and some of their friends to spend the day at the mall in Orlando which is about an hour & a half from us. Aside from being an 80's mall rat and loving to hang out there, I also decided to go into Williams Sonoma. I have always liked the store even though they are a bit overpriced but this time I decided that I needed (okay, wanted) a new wine glass and if I came across one that I loved, no matter what the price was (within reason of course), I was going to buy one. This particular day they were giving away some espresso samples from some awesome machines they sold and while the espresso was great, buying the machine would have drained the bank account so off to the wine glass section I went :) I ended up coming across a beautiful (I do mean beautiful) wine glass that cost $30 a piece and one of them was going to be mine for sure, it was coming home with me.

Well, I bought the glass and was walking around the beautiful mall when the bag decided it needed to meet a handrail. Yeah, the glass broke, shattered actually as it was a beautiful crystal. I was devastated! I immediately thought, I have nothing to lose and that I would go back to the store and see what they can do for me so that is what I did. I ended up speaking to Sierra and I explained to her that it was completely my fault that the glass broke and that I was totally upset. I asked her if was there something she could do. Immediately and without hesitation Sierra told me not to worry and she went to the shelf and came back with another glass, wrapped it up and placed it into a box with a smile. I was impressed guys to say the least. I just wanted you guys to know this in case you are looking for some kitchen (or wine) stuff and are concerned about Customer Service. Now, it is time to drink some wine from my new glass so let's get into that.

Today I am taking a look at the 2018 Stags Leap, Petite Sirah. I paid $30 for the wine on sale at an on line site and I have to admit, I am pretty excited to try it. The wine was rated at 93 points from a big time wine reviewer and was aged for 14 months in American Oak barrels with 25% being new. The wine is 95% Petite Sirah along with "small amounts of Syrah, Grenache and other mixed Rhone varietals". The wine also comes in at 14.4% alcohol and the bottle is cork sealed. The grapes for the wine came from the Calistoga, St. Helena and southern vineyards in Oakville, Oak Knoll as well as he Coombsville AVA's.

Label wise I have always thought of the Stags Leap winery as producing excellent wine and relate their labels with that feeling as well. I think that at times a fancy label is nice but at other times, the simplicity of a label as in this case, is all that is need to set the bottle off.

On the nose now, I am picking up a note of light rhubarb which I find rather strange but at the same time, rather nice as well. Black cherry & raspberry are here and they smell very nice. A sense of spice is here as well and while it isn't screaming in your face, it smells delicious. That raspberry is actually really showing itself off nicely and leading me to believe it may lead the palate off as well.

As for the palate, I get notes of a semi-juicy blackberry that are slightly unripe as they seem to lack just a hair bit of juiciness... of freshness. Aside from that, this is a dry wine guys, like for sure. When I say dry here, that is truly what I mean, dry. When you take your first sip of the wine I think that will be the very first thing you pick up. This driness takes over the whole palate and in this particular case, this is one of the things telling me (a feeling) that the wine is not quite ready to be enjoyed just yet. There is also a slight pucker effect to the wine for sure and I enjoyed that aspect of it. There is also a semi dark type spice to the wine that is very nice as I certainly do love that note in my red wines. There is a green type note here as well, almost a sort of vegetative note, and it is also another thing hinting at the fact that the wine is that is not ready for prime time as it just seems a bit off right now. Tannins are grippy but also intermix some dustiness as well. Oak can't be missed here although it is well integrated with everything else the wine is throwing out. When you first take a sip of the wine aside from the driness, you get a bit of a cocoa note and even though it doesn't last too long, it is sufficient to influence the wine in a positively yet delicious direction. That Raspberry I picked up on the nose makes its presence know here and doesn't seem to fade much throughout the tasting, this is a good thing. Black plum is here as well and it appears to be pretty juicy but not in an overly crazy way as it is able to maintain itself rather nicely. Acidity here is on the lighter side but it works well and there is no need for the note to be any stronger. For those of you who love a higher acid wine, or believe a wine needs to be high in acidity to be good, I promise you that having tasted acidity in this wine, it is not needed as it is not on the high side. So there is mt review. Let's get to the conclusion section and wrap it all up.

I have to say guys that when I took the first few sips, I wasn't a big lover of this wine as it hadn't yet had a chance to open up at all. As the wine was exposed to air however, it did come into its own very nicely. Decant! I highly recommend that you decant the wine for about an hour guys and I think you will be impressed with what it has to offer up. This is a very tightly wrapped wine and wine that in reality really needs a couple of more years to fully be able to express what it (hopefully) will. While the wine is certainly drinkable right now, a couple of more years of aging I think will enable it to come out of its shell. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale, I am putting this wine at 93 points which is just shy of the 94 required to make my wine cellar. There is just something holding this wine back from that 94 that I can't quite put my finger on but it is lacking just a bit. Now guys, this is not to say the wine is bad because it isn't, in fact, it is pretty nice. Is it possible the wine will develop in the bottle and become a 94 point wine? Yeah, I think it is a possibility but right here, right now it is at 93 points.

The Desert Wine Guy

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

2022 Château de Beauregard-Ducourt - Entre-Deux-Mers

I am sure that everyone has experienced todays prices on things so I don't have to go into just how much they have gone up. You would think that with prices going up companies would either have no choice but to drop them just a bit or that there would be sales on things as people wouldn't have the money or in the case of wine, disposable income to buy them. That however is not what is happening. Since we are here to talk about wine in particular, I will focus on the prices of that item. The other day I went to check out some wine on some of my favorite wineries and BAM, was I in for a shock. Lets take a wine from the Peju winery in the Napa Valley. Their regular 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is selling for $70...DAMN! Think about that, a baseline Cab for that price. Add in $18 for shipping and that price becomes even crazier. The same thing goes for the Pine Ridge winery, $70 for their base Cab. Tell me people are struggling won't ya. How are these companies staying in business? I have to be honest as always guys, with prices like this they deserve to close down I have zero sympathy for them. Eventually the people shopping for these types of items that have now become luxuries for many, will simply have no choice but to stop bying them. Without getting into politics I will say that we as Americans are caught up in a sad but deadly game of "good cop, bad cop" and I will leave it at that. Right now, it is time to get into wine.

Today I will be taking a look at the 2022 Château de Beauregard-Ducourt - Entre-Deux-Mers . The wine is a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc and cost me $12.99. The bottle is unfortunately screw cap sealed and comes in at 12.5% alcohol. The grapes for this wine come from the Entre-Deux-Mers region of France.
   Alright, let's get into the label on the bottle for a minute. As usual the French label impresses. Just like every other French wine in existence, there is a Chateau prominently front & center on the bottle. I always think this is so impressive looking as the first thing a customer sees. I guess I am a sucker for a nice home :) I also love the font chosen for the lettering and the placement of the words as well. Overall, I think the label presents the wine nicely.
   As far as the nose on this wine goes, I am getting what appears to be fresh & clean notes of stone fruit such as White Apricot and White Peach, both of which come across perception wise as being unripe. I am also picking up some light lemon as well. All of these notes are light and promise a very clean wine but we will see about that.
   On the palate now, the wine is certainly not over the top in the tropical sense although it does offer itself up with enough of that fresh & clean liveliness that I enjoyed. You can taste the clay/limestone soil the grapes were grown in and I like that as well. There is also a driness to the wine but I don't believe it is a driness that will offend those of you (us) who are already appreciate and are very particular about this style of wine. I am picking up some unripe nectarine and peach here as well but these two notes have just enough flavor and liveliness to manage to pull things off rather nicely. Acidity is on the higher side but nothing foreboding.

This acidity is needed here in this wine as it goes right along with its other notes perfectly You can also taste the Sauvignon Blanc here as it offers up its customary lemongrass note but in nowhere near the presence you are use to having it presented in a New Zealand style Sauvignon Blanc. As I said, this is a wine that is overall on the rather lighter side in general but has that acidity going for it in a good way. A nice green note is offered up here as well and it goes right along with the sense of that soil composition that I mentioned earlier. Soft melon is here as well and it is noticeable and adds a nice touch to the wine overall. There is also a sort of spice to the wine as well and while it might sound crazy... it is a stone type spice. Yes, I know there is no such thing but you go ahead and taste the wine and tell me that you disagree. Once again I have to sat the word "unripe" because there is a lemon here that is (you guessed it) unripe. Yes, the lemon works in conjunction with everything else the wine is offering up yet at the very same time, it presents the impression of being a fruit that is not quite ready to eat. In the case of a wine however, this unripeness when done right, can make for a wonderful note as it does in this wine.
In the end although this wine is obviously designed for the Spring/Summertime although I don't see it going over too well for the average pool enjoying, wine drinker. I feel this wine is more geared towards those with discerning palates rather then those looking for a pool pounder type white wine. This wine as I said is on the green side which I have learned to really enjoy but I do believe this to be an acquired taste and not one which the "normal" wine drinker would care for. This is a rather weird wine to describe and I myself find it a rather strange wine to be honest.

Did I enjoy the wine? Yeah... I did but would I buy it again? Nah, probably not. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing "wrong" with it but it is just simply a wine that I would pass on as there are other wines along this line that I would much prefer that I find more appealing. On The Desert Wine guy rating scale, I am giving the wine 90 points.

The Desert Wine Guy

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

2020 Matt Parish, Cabernet Sauvignon - Coombsville

It's not every day that I spend more then say... $20 for a wine but lately it seems that I have been doing so a bit more often then I probably should. I think this upping of my spending has come as the result of a blow-back of sorts after having been very disappointed with the lower priced and lame, Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons that I have been running into for a while now. While I certainly don't think that spending $70 as I did for todays wine is really necessary in order to find a good wine or as in this case, hopefully a good Cabernet Sauvignon, it does seem to help. You might ask, is there a particular price point where quality begins? On my end, I can't really answer that question that is up to your particular palate but what I can say is that I am tired of bringing homes wines that simply do not "cut it", at least in my book anyway. Continuing to keep it real here guys, I kind of feel bad in a way here as I started this whole Desert Wine Guy (DWG) thing looking to review wines for the "average person" and I feel at times that I have exceeded that average person price point more often then perhaps I really should have.

There are some out there who do the YouTube thing just as I do (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ) and faithfully manage to stick to the lower priced (average person) wines but I really think my palate has... grown since the inception of the DWG and I am finding it harder and harder to find any pleasure in most of these wines. So, I ask you, now is your time to chime in, what do you guys think? Are you also not finding satisfaction in the lower priced wines? Have you outgrown them sp to speak? Have I gone over the edge price wise and if so, at what price point would you feel comfortable having me review wines at? However you guys feel, I really want your opinion so please leave me a comment at desertwineguy@gmail.com.

Before I get into the wine that is up for review today, I thought it would be a good idea to talk a bit about the AVA the wine grapes came from. The Cabernet Sauvignon grapes for this wine come from the Coombsville AVA which is located in the Napa Valley. The AVA was officially designated as such on December 14, 2011 and was named after Nathan Coombs who founded the city of Napa. While originally thought to be best suited for the grape varietals of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay due to the cooler climate, this particular AVA eventually came to be known for the Cabernet Sauvignon varietal which comes in as the number one planted grape with the Chardonnay and Merlot varietals coming in at two & three respectively. The soil in the AVA mostly consists of rock, gravel and volcanic ash, and are well drained. Okay so now that we know a little about the Coombsville AVA, let's get a little closer to tasting the wine.

As I previously said, todays wine cost me $69.99 ($70). The wine comes in at 14.8% alcohol and of course the bottle is cork sealed. As I have also already said, the grapes for the wine come from the Coombsville AVA of the Napa Valley. The wine sat for 18 months in French Oak and then sat in the bottle for 12 months prior to release.

Let's go ahead now and take a look at the label here on this $70 bottle of wine. Guys, you know just how important I think a wine label is in selling that wine. I actually have a wine here right now that I spent $17 on and when it arrived at my home I noticed that the label was tilted a bit. The wine ended up being amazing but if I had not received the wine by mail, that label would have thrown me off at the store. For many people that tilt on the label might not be a big deal but for people who pay attention to details, this displayed in my mind at least, a possible lack of care or attention to detail when it came to the wine in general. Presenting a product to a consumer that brings this initial thought to mind is not a good thing. Getting back to the label on todays wine though, I think it totally rocks. Winemaker Matt Parish never lets me down when it comes to the labels on the bottles of the wines he produces. The Matt Parish crest leads the label off here and it is perfectly placed as is the lettering is perfectly placed against the all black label. I especially like what I assume is the actual logistical coordinates of the Coombsville AVA and with those coordinates being the same gold color as the writing on the label, this label has the wine inside offering up a pretty exotic impression in my mind.

Now for the nose on this $70 Cabernet. Starting off here I am picking up a big time sense of earthiness and let me tell you, it is roaring out of the glass guys, I am definitely excited. A nose of intense black fruit is wonderfully intermixed but refuses to take a back seat to that earthiness. A sense of dustiness is here as well which amazingly very much reminds me of Rutherford Dust for all you Rutherford AVA Cab lovers (hello:). Black Plum specifically is intermixed here as well as well as well as some of that beautiful French Oak that the wine sat in. As a last note, I am getting a bell pepper (Pyrazine) note as well. Just based here on the nose of the wine, the first word that comes to mind is "luxury".

Now for the palate presentation. Ahh... yeah, this wine is a powerhouse folks! Let me go ahead and back up a good bit now. The wine when placed onto the palate just attacks it with everything it has which is a lot. On the first sip I got everything that the nose put forward which I find amazing. Pyrazines in the form of a bell pepper note is really making its presence known here on the palate and it is pretty darn nice and while I do find it to be just a hair bit over the top, it certainly doesn't really hurt anything. That earthiness is here big time and I don't believe that I have ever tasted a wine with this sense of urgency to offer the note up. So... Rutherford Dust guys. No, the grapes are not from the Rutherford AVA so what is going on here?

Well guys, I don't know but the wine is showing the note and I for one will not complain or question why it is doing so. To me, a Rutherford Dust type note is one of the greatest things an awesome Cab can bring along and this wine does bring it along. Acidity is pretty high here guys and really gives that bell pepper a run for the money for sure. Black cherry is on the vibrant side here and it is juicy & fresh tasting as well. It is also darkly presented and not willing to have anything stand in the way of offering itself up and in a vibrant way. Vibrancy... yeah, that is the perfect word here as this wine just keeps screaming forward on the palate. Fruit wise, there is that black cherry and black plum but not much else which is a bit weird yet somehow this wine manages to pull it off though and rather nicely I might add. As a last couple of note, I want to talk about blackberry. This particular note seems to manage to mesh perfectly with that black cherry and at times you will have a very hard time distinguishing between the two actually. At other times however, you will pick up both and really enjoy them together. However you taste them, you will enjoy them along with the rest of the wine. Cassis is definitely here also and it really puts the wine over the top and into the luxury arena. Tannin's wine there is a bit but nothing to write home about. What is presented is nice and goes along for the ride so to speak. Having said all of this, it is time to end this review and get to the last paragraph where I will wrap all of this up. I will see you there.

Here we go guys, my final thoughts on the wine. If you love an old school Cabernet Sauvignon... buy two or three bottles of the wine because after you love the first one, you will want to cellar the other two bottles for a few years so it calms down that acidity a bit. I think this wine will jump a point or two in a few years as that high acidity backs off just a bit. I also think that bell pepper will have a chance to tone down the bit it needs.

Everything this wine puts out is needed in order to have it come together as it did. Yeah, there was a note or two that was every so slightly over the top for now that is but these I feel will tone down in time and you will have yourself possibly a 96 or 97 point Cabernet Sauvignon. The one drawback to the wine is that it is rather limited on fruit. Having said this though, the wine still manages to pull its way to a solid 95 points on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale. This is a serious Cabernet guys so for those of you who are weak at heart or, looking for a Cupcake or Barefoot style Cab please do not waste your money here as this wine is not meant for you. If on the other hand, you are looking for a powerful, vibrant, impressive Cab, this is your wine. It will also make an amazing gift or to impress someone who appreciates an old school type Cab.