2007 Woot Cellars Boss Monster

Woot Cellars. If you don't know them, you can find them at wine.woot.com. Most of the time they sell discounted wine (only one item every few days) but a few times a year they sell six packs of their own private label for sixty-five bucks with shipping. This was offered a bit before Christmas.

Red and especially black licorice on the nose.

Quite a bit of black licorice on this one - not anise, but actual licorice candy. I'm getting ultraripe black strawberry for fruit with an array of dried green spices that are integrated nicely, mint and basil specifically. It's all balanced and quite tasty. Nothing groundbreaking but solid all around.

Sour cherry on the finish with some blackberry fading in the distance.

I think so....ten bucks is a very good price for a wine of this quality. Well played....

Score: 88

update

Not many posts lately - there are quite a few in the pipeline. Blame beer and gin.

We had tentatively planned a run up to Traverse City this week but that is 99% not happening, nothing's booked so you know, but hey...maybe...


In two weeks, however, we are 100% booked on hitting up New Orleans. We've never been, so it will be quite the scene.

We'll be hitting a number of the big name institutions - photos of food and beverages will be posted sporadically the week of July 11.

2008 Chateau Grand Traverse Whole Cluster Riesling

This goes for fourteen bones through the winery. A "whole cluster" Riesling means bunches of grapes - stems and all are pressed without crushing.

Pear mostly on the nose.

Nice balance, definitely on the sweet side but enough acid to bring it all together. I'm getting red and pink apple, a bit of vanilla, green grape, white grapefruit, and even a bit of a stemmy quality.

Green apple and pear on the finish.

Nice balance, good depth, some odd things come out - presumably from the whole cluster aspect - but it all works nicely. Though this bottle was comped, it was tasted and reviewed blind.

Score: 88

Tweet and Taste Michigan - 6/7/10

The Tweet and Taste Michigan for the Old Mission Peninsula was a success and a half.

The seven reviews below this are writeups for the wine tasted. All were, at a minimum, very good with some being truly excellent. If I didn't care for a wine I'd say so, or I simply wouldn't post a review, but they were uniformly SOLID.

I even mentioned at one point in the discussion that I was hoping to dislike at least one. I'm not going to say all were awesomely outrageous and you should buy all seven, but the fact that I liked all seven - and to be blunt I've been kind of aggravated with a lot of wine lately - says a lot. (An argument can be made that obviously all seven showed well since the wineries themselves chose the bottles to sample and one would think they'd choose what they feel strongly about and not their plonk, not that they make plonk of course, no sir.)

Kudos to Shannon and Cortney from Michigan By the Bottle for all their work in putting it together.

I wanted to get the reviews up asap (due to the fact that I won't be able to post much in the next few days) - if there are glaring typos I hope to have them fixed by the end of the week, in the mean time, thanks for reading.

2007 Black Star Farms Sirius Cherry Dessert Wine

This retails for $18.50 at the winery and that is a 375ml bottle. I will say this right off the bat - I find cherry wine next to impossible to describe so bear with me.

Black cherry on the nose - like, ultraripe, BLACK cherry, the sort of cherry you find in black cherry ice cream where you're not 100% sure they're actually cherries.

Quite sweet, cherry obviously dominate, but I do get cinnamon and clove on the mid palate. There's even a ripe red apple thing going on, peel an apple and dip it in cherry juice, there ya go.

I like this a lot, and I mean no disrespect when I say I'd just as soon put this on pancakes, pour this into a milkshake - or hell, even add a splash to a Manhattan. Of course, I won't, but I could see it. The winery suggested drinking it somewhat chilled which seemed wrong to me, but I'll be damned if it didn't work almost perfectly.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: N/A - I have no idea how to score this.

2007 Brys Estate Signature Red

This retails for $30 at the winery. It's a blend of Cab Franc, Merlot, and Pinot Noir.

A trashy sort of nose with a good dash of cherry.

Another wine I want to force down the throat of anti-Michigan snobs. Seriously, now, find me a $30 wine from anywhere that's shockingly better than this. Yes yes, every producer is different and some things are better than others, but if I drop thirty bucks from Bordeaux or California or Washington or where ever and get a wine of this quality I'm content. I'd call this more Old World in style, it has a bit more earth and funk, but it's not harshly acidic as some can be. Cedar, tobacco, a touch of cola, beautiful tannins - very nice.

Cedar and mild strawberry on the finish - this one lingers for a striking amount.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: 91

2006 Bowers Harbor 2896 Langley

This retails for $40 through the winery. It's a blend of mostly Cab Franc with Merlot and a bit of Cab Sauv.

Plum, tobacco, and cedar on the nose.

A few months back I had a Cab Franc from Two Lads blind that, having had it blind, thought was a far more expensive, well crafted, lighter bodied California Cab. This would have been no different. Cherry, oak, vanilla, tobacco, cedar, black strawberry - almost perfectly integrated tannins and acid.

Cherry and vanilla linger for some time on the finish.

The sort of bottle I want to shove down the throat to everyone unwilling to give Michigan reds a chance.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: 92

2006 Peninsula Cellars Gewurztraminer

This retails for $15 through the winery.

White tea and floral qualities on the nose.

In a word - floral. In two words - herbal tea. In three words - I'm digging it. That's really 3 1/2 words isn't it? I once had an Alsatian Gewurz at a tasting (it was $70, so I passed on buying a bottle) that was pungent, bone dry, like drinking perfume straight - it was borderline obscene but it was one of the most fascinating wines I've ever had. This isn't quite that crazy, but it's the closest thing I've had. Bone dry and floral - rosewater, chamomile, vanilla bean - with a touch of underripe pineapple for fruit,

The finish is borderline Chardonnay like - pineapple, vanilla, hints of oak.

This one might be polarizing, I can see why someone wouldn't care for it, but to my palate, this wins the Old Mission Peninsula Tweet and Taste. Kudos.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: 92

2009 Two Lads Pinot Grigio

This retails for $16 at the winery.

Pear and vanilla on the nose.

Solid acid, a touch of sugar, golden pear, green apple, even a bit of green grape, with a bit of vanilla, and even some tropical fruit - mango perhaps.

A solid length to the finish with pear and apple at first fading - way off in the distance - to pineapple.

Pinot Grigio is a tough wine to describe because most of them taste similar, the differences between a good and a great one is in finesse and subtleties. I like this one a lot, I think I may have liked the 2008 a bit more, but regardless I'll probably be buying a fair amount of this next time we're in the tasting room.

Score: 90

2009 Chateau Chantal Pinot Grigio

This retails for $14 through the winery.

Big nose. Almost Sauv Blancy - grassy and grapefruity qualities dominate.

Somewhat lighter than I expected based on the nose - more grass and grapefruit. Fascinating - in a blind tasting this almost certainly would've thrown me off. A good amount of fruit and acid. In the mid-palate I get a bit of vanilla and more tropical sort of qualities.

More grapefruit - where I was getting a bit of a white grapefruit thing on the palate, this is morphing more into the pink category - a bit sweeter, a bit heavier, a bit fruitier even.

An argument can be made that this is simple, but at $13 it won't hold much weight. Serve this blind to your wine snob friend and see what they say.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: 88

2008 Chateau Grand Traverse Ship of Fools

This retails for $14 through the winery. It's a blend of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Noir.

A somewhat sweet smelling nose which I'd describe as peachy.

Surprising! I was expecting a sweet, perhaps flabby peach bomb - instead, it's a very mild, light bodied, dry wine with white grapefruit. The acid is present, but mild - it doesn't really need much though. A nice sort of quaffable summer wine.

Pithy notes - grapefruit or even lime pith - linger on the finish.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased. I enjoyed this wine, but it was probably the lightest and most gulp-able of the bunch.

Score: 87

Tweet and Taste Michigan - Monday June 7

Our friends over at Michigan By the Bottle are doing another Tweet and Taste on Monday June 7, 7 pm CST.

This one is going to be a bit different - it will feature the wineries of the Old Mission Peninsula.

The wines being tasted are:

*2 Lads 2009 Pinot Grigio
*Black Star Farms Sirius Cherry Dessert Wine
*Bowers Harbor Vineyards 2006 2896 Langley (Meritage)
*Chateau Chantal 2009 Pinot Grigio
*Chateau Grand Traverse 2008 Ship of Fools
*Brys Estate 2007 Signature Red
*Peninsula Cellars - 2006 Gewurztraminer

I'll be tasting all seven with a few friends who know don't know much about wine - I will try to get their opinions and post them in the individual reviews. As was the case with the last few Tweet and Tastes, I will be posting reviews for each wine by Wednesday night.

All the important details can be found over at Michigan by the Bottle.

2005 Iron Horse Brut Rose

This bottle goes for $50 through the winery, but as is the case with many Iron Horse wines you can do far far better if you shop around.

I really don't get much of a nose on this. Kind of a Tropical Punch Kool-Aid thing, but seriously watered down.

This is heavy. A bit toasty, some raspberry jam - totally full flavored but a nicely balanced body. A touch of vanilla, even a bit of peach, a nice zip of acid, and even some rather firmly developed tannic structure.

More of the same on the finish, what's interesting is this almost finishes as a light bodied Pinot Noir - rather full bodied, oak qualities, cherry, and ripe golden stone fruit.

So what happened is I wound up falling asleep with a a bit more than a full glass worth still in the bottle. Seeing as I neither chilled nor made any attempt to preserve it, I was about to spill it out the next afternoon when I decided it was worth a taste. Shockingly, a good deal of fizz still remained and the wine was still quite tasty. A cranberry quality took over the palate and finish.

I can see this wine being offputting to some. It's a distinct style - dare I say this would make a good cold weather sparkler? Maybe not winter cold, but if you enjoy sitting outside on a brisk spring evening this may fit the bill. All that being said, I dig it.

Score: 91

Tweet and Taste!

Check out the preview video:



Next week - Tweet and Taste Michigan. Monday, June 7 at 7 pm CST....Get onto Twitter and search #ttmi. If you have any comments make sure to toss #ttmi in there as well.

I haven't tried this in real time, but messing around with TweetChat has been quite enjoyable. I'm going to try it out - basically you just punch in the hashtag you want to follow (remember: #ttmi) and it refreshes automatically all posts AND adds the tag to all of your posts (one of my biggest problems was forgetting the tag).

Should be a good time - check it out on June 7th!