Heinrich 2005 Burgenland Blaufränkisch (1 week opened, sealed) – Sour plums and gym shoes. Eew.

– All of the below from Trader Joe’s –

La Caumette NV Red Table Wine “L’Authentique” - Berries and volatility up the nose. Thinnish body, tart, a bit harsh, but all in all just plain cheap table wine. Worth what it cost, but no more. Buy more? No. ($4)

La Granja 360 2008 Cariñena Tempranillo – I’ve had a lot of cheap Tempranillo. It all tastes like this. Sour cherries, light to medium body, and that’s about it. Buy more? No. ($4)

Trader Joe’s 2006 Reserve Cabernet, California – Baaad nose of alcohol. Viscous, cough-syrupy fruit and caramel up front, and alfalfa underneath. Unpleasant, but I suspect people like it. Not a chance I’d buy more. ($10)

Ruggero di Tasso 2007 Sicilia Nero d’Avola “Archeo” – Smells a bit like L’Authentique, above, but tastes better. Next to no tannin plus plenty of fruit, very plush and soft in the mouth. Decent acidity keeps it from being hugely heavy. I don’t know that I could drink a glass or two of this, but it’s fine to sip. Has a twist of bitterness to keep your attention. ($4)

Lacheteau 2008 Vouvray – Almonds and quince aromas. This is going to be quite off dry – yup, it is. Initial blast of fruit and acid is far more intense than expected, but it fades a bit fast. This has the Chenin Blanc acid to balance out some of the RS, but not quite enough of it. Faint cheesy notes on the finish. The bottle says it’s good with spicy food (I agree), but all we have on hand is some horseradish – which, served on water crackers, actually works quite well with the wine, masking the RS and letting the apple flavors shine. Well worth the price – I might actually buy some of this. ($6)

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Pure Chenin demi-sec. Bracing, intense acidity and loads of fruit and a hint of RS to balance it. Turns ever so slightly heavy at the end, but this is delightful. The 2006 was classified as a Montlouis, I think. What happened in ‘07? ($8, K&L)

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Pleasantly tart, with that leesy character that I so love in some Loire whites. The fruit is a bit subdued, and there’s a nice steely side to it all. No objections, particularly at the price. ($8, K&L)

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13% ABV indicated. Liquid silken rocks with a splash of lemon. A somewhat larger splash would be better. ($cheap, K&L)

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12% ABV indicated. This is a little bit of happiness in a glass. It’s got fruit. It’s got rocks. It’s got juicy tartness. It’s absolutely adorable, and all of $13/bottle. Delicious, food-friendly red wine without attitude. Sadly, no longer available. ($13, K&L)

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The ghost of an apple haunts this dry, dessicated husk of a wine, its shrill, acidic shrieking almost completely masking the rustle of autumn leaves. ($17, K&L)

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Delicious, but not as extraordinary as the 2006. It lacks the etherial beauty, showing a slightly more masculine profile. Still, it’s great stuff. ($17?, K&L)

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(14.5% ABV indicated) Brilliant ruby wine, redolent of oak and spice, bearing not the slightest resemblance to Cab Franc. Good fruit, but generic. (~$40 direct)

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Floral nose, dense blueberry and blackberry packed into a context of rich tannin. It avoids being syrupy by the narrowest margin - a hedonist’s wine that even fruit-haters like me can enjoy. Delicious. A Larry, but a good one. (Beltramo’s, $20?)

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13.5% ABV indicated. 50% Montepulciano, 50% Sangiovese, aged 9 months in new and used French oak barrels. This has that rustic, prickly, volatile acidity and leathery (bretty?) scent that we find in a lot of lesser-known Italian reds. The wine is not significantly harmed by the new oak, only showing a little sweetness and a little smoke in the finish. Finishes a little sticky. Decent table wine, not worth spending much money on it.

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Lots of fruit, an unusual dark maroon spice tint, and a good bit of juicyness. What does it taste like? Hard to say - I wouldn’t necessarily have guessed it as a gamay/pinot noir blend in a blind tasting, but maybe I would have. Unusual, pleasant, refreshing. Larry. ($14, K&L)

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8.5% ABV indicated. At first it seemed a bit age-faded, with the fruit sort of oxidized and slightly sticky from the residual sugar. Just starting to get that oily aged-Riesling note. Nothing particularly impressive. It was a lot better after a couple days corked and a couple accidental freeze/thaw cycles, strangely enough, with increased zip and zing and interest. Still a Larry, but a much more enjoyable one. ($18, K&L)

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Dried herbs and fall apples and layers of rock and acid. This is absolutely delicious - astonishingly so. I haven’t had many dry wines from Tokaj, but I’m going to need to do some more study of them. Curly. ($10, K&L)

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Pure Malbec fruit in a balanced and clean format. A little small-scale, which is something of a relief after the volatile fruit bombs of Argentina.

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Medium amber
Crystallized brown sugared fruit
And vanilla bean

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14.7% ABV indicated, but tastes like 15.7%. Like brushing my teeth with a barrel stave soaked in pure ethanol. Maybe if this were chilled it would tame some of the heat, but the prickly acidity and alcohol burn obstruct the fruit. Normally I like acid, but this is spiky and out of place. I think there’s some decent fruit hidden in this wine, but it is indeed hidden. Very much a Moe wine.

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Torani Passionfruit Syrup: Somewhat thin, somewhat yellow. Very sweet, with clean, reasonably-believable passionfruit flavor. Could use some more acid and more intensity. 19g sugar per 30ml serving.

Monin Passionfruit Syrup: Much thicker and more syrupy. Harsh, chemical, acrid flavor bears no resemblance to any passionfruit I ever ate. Tastes like the outflow of an industrial flavor plant waste line. Still undrinkable when diluted with water and ice. DNPIM. 25g sugar per 30ml serving.

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Tropical American oak, apricot and spice balanced by decent acid. Not really my style, but competently done. Larry.

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