The Desert Wine Guy- IG Winery - Instant Gratification - Allure

Instant Gratification - Allure

  Welcome back everyone to The Desert Wine Guys wine blog. Today we will be looking at my review of a white blend from IG Winery (http://igwinery.com/) which is located in Cedar City, Utah. This particular review wine is of a non vintage, propitiatory blend of white wine varietals as well as grape growing locations. The wine that I am going to review today is the Instant Gratification - Allure. As a side note, the Instant Gratification label is a second label that Winemaker and winery owner, Doug McCombs introduced back in 2014. The red wine of this series is entitled "Seduction" while the White wine is entitled "Allure". For those of you who are interested, I have previously reviewed and rated the 2013 Instant Gratification Chardonnay (https://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-desert-wine-guy-iron-gate-winery.html) giving it a rating of only an 85 unfortunately, let's hope that this wine fairs much better.

Winemaker / Owner Doug McCombs

  Let's go ahead and start this review from the beginning with a very quick mention of the pour. Upon pouring the wine into my glass the wine appeared only a very slightly Golden in color. There was nothing special to speak of about the wine as far as it's appearance in the glass, it was rather plain in appearance and unimpressive. Now don't start to worry about this as it doesn't necessarily mean anything detrimental concerning the wine, at least not in my book. Prior to starting to panic we have to proceed to and answer the the next question. What is that question?  The question was (which to me is the real issue) would the Palette be impressive or would it fall short as in the appearance in the glass? I am sure that I don't have to tell you guys that if the wine doesn't taste good (Palette) what is the use of the wine looking good in a glass or displaying a nice Bouquet. With these questions being thrown out there, let's try to answer them. On the nose there disappointment because really isn't a Bouquet to speak of. Yeah, there is a slightly lemony nose present and perhaps also an ever so slight hint of the Kiwi as well but for the most part there is nothing that really stands out. So we see at the beginning that starting off here we have a wine with an unimpressive display in the glass as well as an unimpressive (for the most part) Bouquet. Are these two (2) aspects of a wine really that important? My answer would be that it all depends on the price of the wine as well as what else the wine offers or brings to the table. With that being said, let's move to the last aspect of a wine and that is how the wine tastes on the Palette.

 On the Palette this wine comes across as rather dry but with a decent amount of fruit yet it is not what I would consider an overly fruity white wine. Immediately after noticing the dryness to the Palette I did notice a surprising Raspberry note that for me seemed out of place, perhaps I was fooled into simply looking at the color of the wine in my glass and by not seeing any hint of a reddish hue it completely in my mind threw out the possibility of a reddish fruit tasting notes appearing on the Palette, I don't know. Continuing on from there I noticed that there was a slight harshness or Alcohol type acidity that stood out in my mouth.  Although the Alcohol percentage is slightly lower than average it still was noticeable. As a side note, lately it seems that in my reviews of white wines I have been for some reason finding a few of them to be exhibiting that alcohol type acidity and I am not really sure why. At times the alcohol / acidity note I found to actually be welcome and seemed to elevate or enhance this wine, perhaps this was due to the other notes the wine possessed. There are times where this same alcohol acidity note that I found pleasing in this wine would simply ruin another wine but that is not the case here. Perhaps it was because the alcohol / acidity note was on the finish and added that dryish aspect to the wine. Further allowing the wine to sit in my mouth I detected a note of Pear hidden to an extent deep within the wine. Black Pepper as well stands out in here and as with all the other notes, I found it rather nice. Not to be outdone, there is a Lemony note in here as well that is not at the level of being tart and blends rather nicely with all the other notes.

The Lemon note added a drying component to this wine that allowed it to present itself as a more than semi dry wine. Be aware however that the wine does take some getting use to on the Palette before you can actually pick up and enjoy the notes of Pear as well as the slight residual sugar on the Palette. A note of Nectarine that is fairly prominent stands out as well here. If this wine is sounding nice to you that's good because it is nice and I am loving it. A quick note here concerning my comment of "slight residual sugar" that I mentioned. This wine is definitely not a "sugar bomb" as some Secondarily Fermented whites can be. This wine stands on it's own as being refreshing and having some nice complexity to it. The wine is overall fairly light yet still maintains a semi-dry and very flavorful wine on the Palette. I really thought this wine was really impressive to say the least. Add to this a moderate Kiwi note and you have yourself a pretty nice white wine. The Kiwi truly was bold and presented itself on mid Palette without any shyness to it whatsoever. O.k everyone, I hope that I have described a wine to you that you are thinking about buying. I think it is time now to wrap this review up so let's get to it because I have some wine to enjoy.

  A nice, bold, ambitious attempt at a second label to say the least has been created here by Winemaker Doug McCombs . While not really an up in your face wine it is  up front with it's citrus / lemony / Acidic side. A wine perfect for some fresh Rainbow Trout or a non-spicy Sushi or perhaps a chicken dinner that is cooked without Lemon (this wine has enough) would go rather nicely as well. So now that we know what the wine brings to the table I will add the last bit of information that you need to know that will make this a wine to purchase and that last bit of information is that the wine costs $9.99. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am going to give this wine a solid 91 points. While the wine did lose a couple of points for the lack of appearance in my glass it gained one (1) point back for it's price.  

Wine Aging In Wooden Barrels

                                                                                                                 The Desert Wine Guy

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The Desert WIne Guy - Sanders Family Winery - Serenity White Wine Blend

  

Non Vintage - Serenity

   Folks if there was ever a wine made for the Summertime and at the same time made for those of us who don't believe that hot weather equates to a highly sugary White wine, this is it. Jack Sanders who owns the Sanders Family Winery (http://www.sanderswinery.com/) came up with this blend of whites and boy did he create a smash hit in my book. Think for a second of a wonderful vacation pool where towels are provided for you and a super hot Waitress (or Waiter for you Ladies) arrives at your pool or ocean side table to take your order, where the only worry is which beach to go to for Dinner or what shorts to wear with those new sandals. Think of the Ocean you are in front of and the Dolphins that are swimming with the tourists just a few steps in front of you. You now have the perfect vision (or memory possibly) in your mind in relation to enjoying this wine. Jack has created the best summer white blend and bottled it up right here for you to enjoy. Let me move on now talk a little bit about what this wine has to offer and what it doesn't have.

Jack Sanders

   The first thing this wine has to offer is a softness that is truly experienced gently and softly on the Palette. While the wine is definitely full of light tropical notes, these tropical notes are subtle yet not not subtle enough where you don't or won't appreciate the level at which they are at. These tropical notes also have a unique way of displaying themselves without any particular one stepping on or exhibiting dominance over the other. Let's discuss now the note of Apple that is on the Palette. I would have to say that the Apple note would be more of the Red Delicious variety rather that of a tart Granny Smith if I had to explain the softness it displays. The light Honeysuckle is just that, light Honeysuckle and adds a sort of softness and subtly to the wine. Little did I know but my whole perception of a white wine blend specifically made for the Summer was about to be turned on it's head. I say so long to the Wine Cooler type Summer White wine that I would in the past have to subject myself to while at the pool if I wanted a really cold White. Moving on with the other notes now, there is a Peach note in here as well which I can only describe as light and tropical, it also feels as if half the sugar was removed from the fruit but yet enough was retained for you to experience the entire flavor of a wonderful peach. In case you are beginning to think that this wine was lacking that Summer punch, please do not worry, it lacks nothing except the overdone sweetness or fruit forwardness that we are all use to in this type of wine. None of the notes presented themselves as flat, dull or bland. None of the notes in this wine present a bitter or off taste in any way. To me folks this is all good as I have truly grown tired of the over the top, slightly carbonated sugary whites that are made for and seem to dominate the hot months. The notes of light tropical peach, light Honeysuckle, Red Apple and Pear (which I will get to in a moment) are more than noticeable and have a way of coming across bright yet not sharp or snappy on your Palette so please don't let the words "subtle" or "light" scare you as you will taste every not at perfect levels here in this wine.  The wine will indeed wake up your Palette without distorting it or overloading it with sweetness. As I have just previously mentioned, there is also a Pear note in this lovely wine that I absolutely believe was half of what helped make this wine great and as in the the other notes in this wine, are nowhere near being over the top. As far as the sugary level of the Pear have no worries, the Pear is right on par (hey, I like that :) with the other notes. As an added bonus there is a note of Jasmine that only adds to the wines gentleness, softness or delicacy on the mouth. So, now that I have told you about what the wine has that makes it great, let me talk about what the wine does NOT have that also makes it great. 

Guest Enjoying Themselves At The Winery

  
  Starting off here I will tell you that there is no harsh Alcohol presence in your mouth since the wine sits at a very reasonable 12.5%. There was no warming or burning sensation on the Palette. My glass in fact had almost no "legs" to speak of and that was good as "legs" are a sign of a wine that has either  high Alcohol or sugar levels. There is also no  "pucker factor" or anything overly bright concerning the fruit notes, nothing even close to being considered over the top that would ruin the unique softness or that would possibly offend the Palette. If you are looking for these things in a White summer blend than you should move on to another wine. As a surprise (at least to me) there was also no carbonation of fizz / tingle (secondary fermentation) that is usually felt on the tip of the tongue and that other light Summer white blends tend to throw into their wines to possibly cover up faults in the wine. One other item of interest that this wine doesn't have and this could go good or bad but in this case I take it as good since it really isn't needed in this wine is a Bouquet. The Bouquet is exactly on par to what the other wines notes are, yes you definitely smell the Bouquet but it is also certainly the epitome of subtlety. O.K, so the wine that I have described to you hopefully has peaked your interest in purchasing a few bottles, at least I hope it has. This is one of those wines where you owe it to yourself to enjoy. This is an awesome wine that is not meant to be taken seriously. That does not mean that it is lacking in anything because it is not, it does an absolutely wonderful job in doing exactly what Jack designed it to do and that job is to compliment and assist you in enjoying the sun and hot Summer months ahead yet at the same time not making it all about the wine. Now, it is time to wrap things up so let's get to that.

Sanders Family Winery

   So, here we go, let's wrap this up now. Straight out I will tell you that on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am placing this wine at 94 points (94–97 Superb a great achievement) for what it is. So, what exactly is it. What it is is a White wine blend made by a Man who knows not only what the books says about growing wine grapes and making wine but also what nature it self says about the vine, grapes they grow and the process of making wine.  This is a wine made by a man who also obviously understands what the word "grace" means. Folks, get online or head on down to the Vineyard and tasting room both located in Pahrump Nevada which is about 45 minutes to an hour North of Las Vegas and grab a bottle (no a few bottles) of this wine that sells for $11.95 than bring it home, relax and enjoy it.

  A previous release of this wine was reviewed by in in September of 2014 (https://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-desert-wine-guy-sanders-family.html) and I have to say that Jack continues to improve his wine making abilities as time goes on.

                                                                                                                 The Desert Wine Guy

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