McGregor Vineyard, Finger Lakes

Ever since I started this blog, I've been looking forward to writing a post about the Finger Lakes. As hard as it is for me to remember labels and names with liquor store wine, it's that easy to remember names, locations, and varietals when I've actually visited the winery and drank the wine right there. The Finger Lakes is one of our favorite places: we visited there a few years ago on a whim and fell in love with it. When we got engaged, we both immediately agreed that it was the place we wanted to get married. Planning the wedding was nothing but fun, getting to go up there and drink delicious wine all weekend, and only occasionally pausing to meet with a caterer or DJ.

I could go on, but I still need to talk about our all-time favorite winery, and the amazing wine we had recently. McGregor is a pretty out-of-the-way winery off of Keuka lake. The whole tasting experience here is head and shoulders above the other wineries. You sit in their wood-cabin-y tasting room at a giant picnic table and enjoy a cheese and chocolate plate while super-friendly employees bring you wines of your choice and actually hang out to chat about wine, food, whatever. They never look at you like an idiot when you ask a stupid wine question, they never make you feel rushed, and they make the whole tasting experience so pleasurable that you just want to hang out there all day. And the wine, OH the wine. As much as we love the Finger Lakes, they are not known for their reds. But I have sweet dreams about the McGregor reds for days. Most of their best wines are far from cheap, but every last one is well worth the price.

A few weeks ago we enjoyed McGregor's 2007 Rob Roy Red with a Turkish lamb platter at a local BYO restaurant, Zeina. The wine is amazing. A smoky, full-bodied, dry red that went perfectly with the rich, flavorful meat. I could tell you I detected hints of cherry or chocolate or something, but can never taste any of that stuff. It's just a fantastic wine.

The tragedy here is that McGregor wines (and most Finger Lakes wines in general) are not distributed to stores in NJ, and due to some stupid New Jersey law they cannot ship us wine if we order it. So, I realize that this post will be useless to many people as a wine recommendation, but instead, think of it as a travel recommendation. I am evangelical about the Finger Lakes. They are easily accessible, inexpensive, and just such an amazing place to visit, not just for wine but just for plain old natural beauty. And if you do go, take time to visit McGregor. It's well worth the trip.

Lindemans 2009 Bin 70 Chardonnay Riesling

This was another $10-$15 impulse buy. I like both of these varietals (when they're good) but I've never had them in a blend that I can recall, so I figured I'd give it a try. It wasn't a terrible wine, but I was hard-pressed to find any of the riesling in this blend. When I actually checked the percentage of each varietal (guess I should have done that before buying it) I found that it's overwhelmingly chardonnay, which is exactly what it tastes like. It's too oaky and too sweet for my taste, so while we did manage to finish the bottle, I don't think we'll be buying it again.

Wild Rock 2008 Pinot Noir

I guess bad memories are stronger than good ones, because even though I drank this one a while ago, I still remember exactly what I thought of it. Or it could be that I didn't like it, so I only drank one glass, so my memory is unclouded... you be the judge.

For a Pinot, this wine was just plain too sweet. The flavors themselves weren't unpleasant, but sweet and Pinot just don't mix. Not liking your wine is sad enough by itself, but it's a double shame because the food we had with it would have gone beautifully with a more traditionally dry pinot. We had pasta with tomatoes, spinach, and a gorgonzola cream sauce, more or less based on this recipe. If you like a sweeter wine this one might be good for you, but with so much else to drink out there, I wouldn't go for this wine again.

Alamos 2009 Malbec

Where the heck have I been? I have no idea, and no good excuse except that I tend to drink beer a lot more than wine in the summertime. But I'm back, and I'm still on my Malbec kick, though it's waning a touch.

This Argentinean Malbec was a blind Costco purchase by Eric, and all he can tell me is that it was probably around $15. In turn, I guess I'm living up to my forgetfulness, because all I can tell you is this wine gets a thumbs up. What—specifically—did it taste like? Not a clue... What did we pair it with? Couldn't tell you... Would I buy it again? YES!

Getting a little philosophical, I think this whole wine blogging thing is a learning process. I started this in the first place because I couldn't even remember the varietal I was drinking, let alone the name or year. I'm making progress, but I do need to actually write down the specifics if I want to remember anything more than whether I loved it or hated it. I promise to at least attempt to do better next time. In the meantime, I guess I just need to buy this wine again so that I can refresh my memory!

Ménage à Trois, 2007, California

Grabbed this wine on the way to a BYO dinner, and in a huge hurry. It's got a pretty distinctive name, so I remembered having had it before, but I didn't really recall anything specific about it.

Turns out it's on the sweet side, with a pretty big, tannin-y taste. It's too sweet for me, so I probably wouldn't go for this one again. But aside from the sweetness, this is a good-tasting wine, so if you're into sweet red wines you'd probably like this one. In the future, though, no more Ménage à Trois for me (tee hee, maybe I will buy it again just for the name :-)

Steele Pinot Noir

Stupid camera phone. Probably need to either get a phone that was made sometime this century, or start carrying a real camera around. The Steele website (www.steelewines.com) tells me they make several types of Pinot. My best guess is that I had the 2007 Carneros, but I can't be completely sure.

What I can be sure of is that after 45 minutes of traffic and arriving half an hour late for dinner with my sisters, this could not possibly have hit the spot more than it did. The Thai food we combined it with might have been a slightly non-traditional pairing, but it worked for me!

This is the second time I've had this wine, and I loved it both times. The only negative is the price. At nearly $20 it's not breaking the bank, but with so many good wines closer to $10, it's hard to justify…unless…someone else brings it to dinner!! (my sisters rock :-)

Mirassou 2008 Pinot Noir, California

Ok, to start off, Pinot has a "t" in it, which I'm more than a little ashamed I missed in the last post. Bad editor. Bad!
Whew, glad I got that of my chest. On to the wine… I'm fairly sure this was an "ooh, pretty label" purchase, but it was a good one. After the last disappointing Pinot, this was a refreshing change. Just the tiniest enough hint of sweetness to drink on its own (which I did!) but with a nice dry, oaky flavor to make it interesting. I drank this quite a while ago, so I can't remember anything else about it, but overall it gets a thumbs up and a "buy again" vote. Plus it has the added bonus that the label is super distinctive and easy to remember, so this one will be an easy re-buy. Delicious and pretty…a double threat!

Apollo Creek Riesling and Pino Noir

Numbers 2 and 3 of our $6 wines, these are grouped together because I don't have much to say about either one.

The Riesling didn't taste a whole lot like Riesling to me. It didn't have the scent of citrus or honey, the bright fruity flavor that I look for in a Riesling. On the other hand, at least it wasn't sweet. I can forgive a lot in a $6 Riesling if it isn't sweet. This one just tasted like a nondescript semi-dry white, a little acidic without much else going on. I used about a cup of it in some homemade lobster and crab ravioli, and those came out fantastic, so I guess I don't have much to complain about here.
The Pino Noir reminded me why I only sometimes like this varietal. I can handle a mediocre Cabernet or Carmenere, but a so-so Pino is pretty undrinkable for me. My overwhelming impression of this wine was dry dry dry. Duh, it's a Pino Noir, it's supposed to be dry, but it didn't seem to have anything else to it. A little research at http://www.wineanorak.com/tannins.htm confirmed my hunch: this wine was, for me, too heavy on the tannins without other flavors to balance it out. I wouldn't go for this one again, probably not even for $6… maybe for $5 tho…

Vinho Verde

Let me start by saying that this is the first of 3 wines Eric got at Pino's $6 wine sale, so the bar is a little lower when the bottle costs less than a Tastee-sub. My first interest in this wine was linguistic—it says white wine, but its name translates to "green wine"…very confusing. It may have been that power of suggestion, but the first and strongest flavor I got was green apple. Coming from me, this means it's pretty powerful, because I NEVER taste the fruit / chocolate / earth that I'm supposed to taste in a wine. It's not exactly "Pucker," but the flavor is unmistakable, which made it really interesting. Other than the apple, it has a fresh, crisp, not too sweet taste. It went beautifully with the jarlsberg (or maybe gruyere?), olives and bread we had with it. I don't know if this is a wine I'd reach for all the time, or to go with a wide range of foods, but with something that goes well with the apple flavor, it's a tasty wine and a nice change of pace.



EDIT: Had a little bit of this again last night at a party. It tasted WAY sweeter than I remembered it being last time. I'm not sure what causes differences like that: temperature probably plays into it (the wine last night wasn't as cold as when we had it at home) but it's gotta be something more. For now I'll just chalk it up to my highly uneducated palate. From the way it tasted last night, though, I wouldn't necessarily go for it again. Way too sweet.

Montes 2008 Malbec, Chile

What better thing to hear your significant other say on a random Tuesday night than "my boss told me to go home and have a glass of wine"? So we opened up one of the $10 malbecs we picked up this weekend. This one was simultaneously drier and fruitier than the previous malbec (Pascual Toso). The combo of dry and fruity was strange at first, when I had a glass without food. It's probably just habit, but when I taste a very fruity wine, the last thing I expect is for it to have a very dry, not the least bit sweet, finish. However, when we combined it with food — pasta with a rich Parmesan-y tomato cream sauce — it was significantly more delicious. The fruity flavor went very nicely with the tomatoes, and the rich sauce balanced the dryness. I wouldn't go for this one without some food to balance it out, but if you're looking for something to eat with dinner, go for it!

p.s. The girl scout cookies in the background of the pic are not a recommendation for a pairing. I recommend a glass of 2010 milk for the samoas and thin mints.

Pascual Toso 2008 Malbec, Argentina

I've been really enjoying malbecs lately, which isn't a wine I've had a lot of experience with. So when we went to our friendly neighborhood discount wine store, we asked them to point us in the direction of some good, cheap, malbec. This one, for less than $10, did not disappoint. It was on the dry side (which I consider a good thing), and had just enough going on that you could drink it on its own, or with food.



We paired it with 2 homemade pizzas, one with bbq chicken, and the other with goat cheese, slow roasted tomatoes, and eggplant. We finished the night with plenty of leftover pizza, but not a drop of leftover wine.

Red Truck, California

This is one of the few wines that I can remember from a couple of weeks back, mostly because of the simple name and fairly simple flavor (not necessarily a bad thing). We opened this up after polishing off a pricier and drier bottle with dinner, so I'll put in the caveat that my taste buds may have been a bit dulled by this point. This wine was medium-sweet and very jammy. In my opinion, it would be best to drink either after dinner, or slightly chilled on a hot summer afternoon, maybe with some simple bread, cheese, and fruit. This was a shot in the dark for us (one of those random $8 liquor store grabs), and we got lucky by opening it at the right time. I don't think we'd have been too pleased to drink this with our steak, but as a slightly dessert-y after dinner drink, it hit the spot.

Welcome!

So here's the deal: I really like drinking wine. I'm far from any sort of expert, but I know what I like. The problem is, I'm also really forgetful, and a few bottles of wine doesn't help that any. After the name and label of one too many delicious bottles was reduced to nothing but a vague memory ("I'm almost certain it starts with an S, and the label is definitely blue"), I decided I'd better start writing things down. If I'm the only person in the world who ever looks at this blog, it'll still serve its purpose of saving me another desperate wander through the wine store, hopelessly staring at labels and hoping for a spark of recognition. If my musings help other people find wines they want to try, all the better. Enjoy, and happy drinking!