A little bit of vino

This wasn’t a planned wine tasting so I don’t have a number of images, but I did get some other reviews while we where tasting it.

We had dinner in a nice Italian restaurant here in town (Napa) that has bucked the chain feel, and have come away gathering a large following, the name of this restaurant is Fillipi’s. One thing they had done was gfet a good selection of Napa Valley wines (which shouldn’t be surprising… but is) at reasonable prices. Generally when you go to a restaurant you end up getting raped on the price of wine, so it was nice to get home and find it had only been upcharged about $5-6.

Now for a $20-30 bottle of wine you expect certain things. It should taste good, be smooth and taste good. Well they hit all the points. The 2004 Andretti Selections Cabernet Sauvignon has a nice fuity flavor without leaving a bitter taste. A smooth complextion that went extemely well with the Italian food, and a full body that you come to expect from good Napa Wine. For the price I won’t be stocking a lot of it in my cellar ($20 isn’t bad for good wine, but more then the wife will let me spend on numerous bottles), but it was one of the cheaper wines at the restaurant, so will be my choice when dining there again. Over all I would have no problem suggesting this wine to anyone wanting a nice fruity Cab to go with an Italian Dinner.

In doing some design for a nice guy to create a wine label for a private label, I was given a couple bottles of what I’ll believe was cheap stuff.  The bottle here is labeled to be from Mendicno County and it has that flavor.

I decided to open the 2002 RDLR Syrah and I was pairing it wrong with a Lasange dinner, but I figured I could always roll to another bottle. Well opening the bottle its very much a preivate blend. The quality is surprisingly good for a Syrah. It has a fruity taste that is growing on me. Not that expensive its actually priced middle of the road at $18 on one site. But if you are a Syrah fan I can suggest it. I still am not fully sure what its supposed to pair with, but looking at this one (ad covered) site it looks like its suppsoed to be paired with Hamburger, Pheasant, or Venison, strange combonation. I think for most the reviews I’ll try to stick with basics… the wine is decent just not the highest quality.

Every once in a great while you run across a great wine that you note to yourself to always buy.  You may want it for parties, dinners or dates.  But you know you’ll want to remember it.  Well for the money this has to be one of the best wines I’ve gotten.  I think I paid $7 for it a couple months ago at Trader Joes.  I’ve had Mondavis Coastal before but this is MUCH better.  With a nice smooth taste and a Cab Taste that taste expensive, but isn’t.  Taste wise it’s an atypical Cabernet, but with a smooth taste that really works well for casual drinking.  I didn’t have this with any dinner, so I can’t attest at the time how it blends with certain foods, but it works.

Again I had Karen have a glass (didn’t share too much, was too good) and all I got was “This is really GOOD.”   So if you like cabs, and want a good wine to keep around for dinners and parties.  Then this is a good wine for you.  Its not expensive and can afford to be able to get multiple bottles of it.