BoozeReviews.net

Feeling a little surly tonight. Wanted to let everybody know that this boozereviewer’s palate is not one dimensional. My Lupulin love affair has not tainted my taste/affection for vino. As a disclaimer, I do tend to prefer reds over whites tenfold. That said, I have been curious about the nature (essence?) of Cali Chards when they aren’t all fucked up by the cloak of vanilla oak. WTF does this grape really taste like? Not a fan of overblown, buttery, flabby whites at all. Usually when I drink a white, I want it to be refreshing (77 degrees in San Diego today) and pair well with food—give me some acidity and minerality! On to the wine…

Pale yellow in the glass—looks like a Sauv Blanc. Nose of citrus soaked pears. No fuckin vanilla! Taste is crisp, apples and pears sandwiched with slate or some damn minerally, rocky shit. Did I mention I was breaking the cardinal rule of booze-reviewing: being inebriated as I type? Sorry. Finish is loooooong ( or maybe its my ability to comprehend time?). I could drink a whole bottle of this with my homemade roasted veggie pizza. Could? Did. Done. Gone.

50 points for containing alcohol. 20 points for being refreshing. 20 points for lacking vanilla/butter impressions. 2 points for being only $13.99 at Costco. 92 points overall on the Boozereviews scale. Going back for more to hold onto for summer.

Despite the love I currently have for the many local breweries in San Diego, I have to admit that at least three of my current top ten breweries are from the northern half of California. Lagunitas (“LAH-goo-KNEE-tuss”) Brewing Company is definitely on that short list. The Imperial Red Ale is 7.6% ABV and 84.2 IBU. The initial whiff out of the glass smelled like caramel covered pine trees (wtf?). My wife said the smell of the beer made her think of smelling a fragrant flower that had been dunked in beer. The initial flavor is caramelly malt and is followed by an intense, long, hoppy finish. As the beer warmed up it either took on other taste characteristics (bread, citrus) or I was feeling buzzed due to an empty stomach. Overall, an abundantly hoppy red ale that is perfect for cold weather drinking. 92/100 points on the BoozeReviews scale.

With the revamped Boozereviews site up and running, I felt compelled to do my part and post some new reviews. The plan was as follows: Load myself, my brother, and one of our best drinking buddies up in the minivan (chauffeured by my wife) with our destination being Obrien’s Pub in San Diego for the first ever Ultimate Hoppiness Night. Read more »

Bonny Doon Vineyards routinely churns out no nonsense wines that usually taste pretty damn good without whalloping you over the head with the price tag. The Cigare Blanc 2004 ($19.99) is a knock off of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape blancs that are dominated by the roussanne grape and usually include a smidgen of grenache blanc as well. This wine is 73% rousssane and 27% grenache blanc.
Let me go ahead with a couple of disclaimers: (1) I have never tried a single Chateauneuf-du-Pape blanc in my life. (2) I am exteremly picky/finicky when it comes to drinking white wines. If it’s white, it better not beat around the proverbial wine bush, it better offer up somethin special or I would just as soon drink a cab in 110 degree heat with my seafood. (3) Being self diagnosed as selectively palate disabled, I frequently plagerize the tasting notes of people drinking with me. We can move on now, or you can choose to stop reading.

The Cigare Blanc started off optimistically with a whiff of pineapple out of the glass. It seemed to go downhill from there. While the Bonny Doon people speak of flavors of “white peach, honey dew, and lemon blossom,” I encountered an overwhelming midpalate of blubbery blah that left my mouth feeling like I was drinking olive oil. This must be what the snobs refer when they talk about a wine being flabby?! Usually when I have a wine experience like this somebody else blatantly calls me out, implying I just don’t understand the wine (or some other jibberish, back-pedaling, ball-less, contrived comment). On this night nobody rescued the Cigare Blanc, comments included “fruit flavored rubbing alcohol with butter,” and “particularly foul wine. Finish sucks.” Hopefully this was just a shitty bottle! 2/100 points on the Booze Reviews scale, one point for containing alcohol, and one point for being cold/initial smell of pineapple.

Nothing shows yo mama that you truly appreciate her more than cracking open six bottles of high alcohol zinfandel on Mother’s Day and proceeding to get the immediate family shit stupid drunk. Being the thoughtful sons that we are, my younger bro and I gathered together a collection of higher end Zins (6), brown bagged ‘em, and set up a six person blind tasting. The six beverages imbibed were: (1) Seghesio Home Ranch Zin 2003 , (2) Rosenblum Carla’s Zin 2003, (3) Rosenblum Rockpile Road Zin 2003, (4) Rosenblum Rockpile Road Zin 2002, (5) Ridge Spring Mountain Zin 2002, (6) Beauregard Beauregard Ranch Zin 2002.

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Duckhorn Wine Co’s more affordable Pinot, made from grapes that didn’t quite make the cut for their Goldeneye brand is a great classic California Pinot…Tastes wholesome, like the kind of juice you pour for your five year old while he annihilates Pb&J. Fruity, maybe missing the depth of “world class” pinot noir (whatever the hell that is?), still, a very tasty pinot noir in the $20 price range.

Don’t let us mislead you into thinking this wine is just a good ordinary wine— I gotta say I’m enjoying the hell out of it. This isn’t one that you stand a fork up in or anything… but instead, place yourself into a spring afternoon… the weather’s not so cold that you want a robust, chewey Cab, and not so hot that you want a Chardonnay or… well… Coors… it’s just one of those comfy days where everything’s green and the wildflowers are crackin’. And you want some red wine, so you crack open this sumbitch, this bottle of Migration Pinot, and you say to yourself, “Damn, self, this is some good shit.”

Hopefully you’ll be with someone else, so you can skip the “damn self” part.

In retrospection, the damn “pour it for your five year old” comment may be plain unfair; the kind of short term thinking that earns you a kick in the nuts and a “insensitive bastard” moniker. Demonstrate some intelligence, pour a few sips as you open the botlte, let the alcohol take effect, and show some goddamn patience (an hour).

We give it a 92, then we’re gonna add 10 ’cause the sun came out, then it rained today, but then we’re gonna take away 12 because the five-year-old puked on my new carpet.

(OK OK, we’re lying about the five-year-old so please don’t send us any hate mail).