2001 Fontanafredda Barolo Serralunga d'Alba

On Saturday, February 26, 2011 wine nerds are celebrating Open That Bottle Night - an excuse, basically, to open that bottle of wine you've been sitting on for a special occasion that just never came. I bought this wine years ago for a good price, but the shelf talker warned me not to open it for a while, arguably it's still too early, but I knew I had to sit on it until 2011 for ten years. Retail on newer vintages is about $55. We're pairing this with some deep dish pizza - hell yeah.

Dark chocolate, maybe baking chocolate is more accurate - super dark either way - burnt tire, asphalt, and way in the background some rose perfume

Far more approachable and less funky than the nose would suggest - cherry, strawberry, nectarine - medium body, solid tannins, and still some rather firm tannins. A white tea thing, combined with a bit of black tea, comes through.

More of that white tea and almost a sourdough bread mouthfeel. Impressive length on the finish, lasts for well over a minute with cinnamon and cedar notes.

I dig it...well worth the wait.

Score: 91

N/V Moet and Chandon Impeial

Imperial doesn't get much respect (it used to be called White Star), but neither does Veuve Yellow and I dig that stuff - this can be had for anywhere between $30 and $35ish.

The nose is kind of interesting as it seems to show shortbread and even some peanut qualities.

In one word, I'd call this boring. There are some bready and yeasty notes, some orange pith, but really, not a whole lot. Too sweet to be brut, certainly not sweet enough for dessert - the sorta wine I'd recommend with Thai or Indian food, but too expensive for randomly pairing (unless received as a gift).

A bit of a grapefruit with a bit of sugar on top thing on the finish, maybe some tangerine - the finish is far more interesting and flavorful than the palate.

You know, even if this was half price I wouldn't recommend it, it's certainly not an unpleasant wine, but it's just completely uninteresting and for this pricepoint, that is inexcusable.

Score: 78

N/V Croft Pink Port

This was $17. I snagged it because the notion of pink Port sounded too intriguing to pass up....though one should not take a wine too seriously if the label suggests serving over ice.

The nose has an artificial watermelon thing with some orange as well, can't quite place if it's fake orange or real orange...if I'm on the fence I assume that means reasonably good artificial.

This is kind of goofy...watermelon and sugarfied cherry, it's a heavy feeling wine, but there's really no heat or anything of that sort. There's still just an odd disconnect...it has the flavor profile of almost a White Zinfandel, but the weight of a Port. Peculiar. At 19% alcohol, this could be dangerous.

A Jolly Rancher watermelon finish with some heat finally coming through.

While it's certainly interesting, it's definitely not worth $17 and it's definitely not the sort of thing you should snag if you like Port. It's certainly pleasant tasting enough, but I can see why one would drink this over ice to cut down the viscosity and cover up the heat.

Score: 77

2010 Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc

This goes for about $11 - we don't drink enough Sauvignon Blanc and it seemed like it may be a good pairing with a buffalo chicken pizza.

A "tropical" nose - snow on the ground, this just doesn't smell right with grapefruit, pineapple, maybe even mango.

Fruity, perhaps a tad sweet, but great acid to balance it - a touch creamy, mostly tropical, mango is more pronounced, papaya, pineapple, pink grapefruit.

A bit of white grapefruit on the finish - some more tart qualities come through, stronger (yet less sweet) pineapple, and certainly papaya.

A nice bottle of wine to be sure...if you have one, save it for a warm day, it just seems cruel to open this in the winter.

Score: 88

N/V L Mawby Blanc de Noir Cuvee 168

We've had this one several times and really enjoyed it, but something about this particular bottle grabbed my attention, so I'm revisiting it here. This retails for $19.

A bit of red apple and a bit of bright red raspberry on the nose.

A lot of berries - blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, boysenberry, everything but the elusive Boo Berry really. Red apple as well, and a bit of red pear. "Red fruit" is what some would say. Dry, a bit toasty, a bit nutty,

A nutty finish - walnuts, pecans...I don't like nuts, so I can't rattle off what this may taste like, though I do find it enjoyable. Nuts and a bit of rye toast, perhaps with some blueberry jam. I'm also getting a black tea component...a slice of rye toast, a glass of tea, and a pecan or two on the side...this wine would pair well with breakfast.

I'm not sure how different cuvees are - it could all be in my head and something could be hitting me different this bottle around.. That said, this is, genuinely, outstanding. We have hit up a bunch of $30-50 Champagnes in recent weeks - and this wine was reviewed blind, so for all I knew it was yet another one. If you're willing to drop twenty bucks on a sparkling wine, from anywhere, this gets my top recommendation. If you see it, buy it.

Score: 93

2006 Stag's Leap Napa Valley Petite Syrah

This goes for about forty bucks and came with strong recommendations when I snagged it a while back, though my memory is sketchy with from where or who.

Raspberry licorice and cola on the nose with some mint - for the first hour or so green spice dominates but blows off.

Black cherry and plum dominate, with mere hints of mint, cedar, eucalyptus...don't let that give you the wrong idea though, this is a big, fruity, juicy wine.

More of that raspberry licorice thing on the finish.

Good...quite good....beyond that?

Score: 87

2007 Jean-Luc Colombo Côtes du Rhône Les Abeilles

Grabbed a bottle of this for eight bucks because a shelftalker told me someone - Spectator, I guess - dug it.

Sort of a Beaujolais type nose - raspberry, earth, rotten fruit, perhaps a bit of banana....

Acidic, inching towards harsh, almost seems to scorch the tongue. Dirt and earth dominate, fruit is very mild, maybe some plum, perhaps peaches mixed with strawberry as well.

A dirty, spicy finish - brown baking spice, some mint, perhaps a touch of eucalyptus.

I tend to go easier on cheap swill if it's not a sweet sugary mess, and I find myself wanting to go that way here, but I'll resist....with food, I suppose it would be fine, but I can't get behind this.

Score: 80

N/V De Chanceny Cremant de Loire

This is a sparkling wine from the Loire Valley in France - a blend of 70% Chenin Blanc and 15% Chard and Cab Franc. I don't know if I've had a sparkler wine with Cab Franc before...hmmm. This is about $11 at the local Whole Foods.

Green apples on the nose and almost a Pez kind of thing, chalky I suppose.

Quite nice - crisp and dry with pear and golden apple notes dominating with a bit of that chalky thing.

The finish is tough to place, I normally dislike saying "grapes" because it tends to be a pejorative, but that's what I get - green grapes - and not necessarily in a bad way.

French sparkler, dry and tasty, classy label, change back with a ten and a five? Solid gift for the upcoming holidays, my friends.

Score: 87

N/V Louis Albrecht Cremant d'Alsace Brut Rose

This was on sale at Whole Foods for $18...some places have it for a few bucks less, some for a few bucks more.

A bit of a Fufu Berry nose....Fufu Berry is a Jones Soda flavor, I don't believe such a thing exists in nature.

Cranberry domination. This would be a fine Thanksgiving wine actually....nice fruit, not bone dry but not sweet, not too toasty though some is present, and fine acid make it a good food match. Nice.

While the palate struck me as a real fruit, the finish brings the Fufu back.

If you're considering bubbly next Thanksgiving - and you know what, you should - this would be a solid offering.

Score: 88

N/V Emeri de Bortoli Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc

Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc from Australia - interesting. The bottle ran me $13 - I haven't seen this producer's products before, so I snagged this one first and foremost.

A bit grassy on the nose with some pink grapefruit.

As the nose suggested....pink grapefruit and some grassiness. At the risk of this becoming the worst post ever, this tastes like a serviceable New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with a bit of fizz...I mean, it's so Sauv Blancy, the fizz almost isn't noticeable.

This is the worst review ever....grass and pink grapefruit on the finish...slightly sweet, lingers for a while, all quite pleasant.

You know...it's almost like this wine is a gimmick, it's the kind of thing you'd expect from a crappy molecular gastronomy sorta place...."ooh, this is like a Sauvignon Blanc, only carbonated" and then you try it and think "yep."

Score: 85

N/V Emeri de Bortoli Sparkling Pinot Grigio

I stumbled across a display of a bunch of Emeri sparklers each for $13 each, so I snagged a couple - one doesn't see Sparkling Pinot Grigio often, especially from Australia.

This smells vaguely like white grape juice - in fact, this could totally pass for sparkling Welch's white grape juice.

Shock of the year with this one - this tastes like sparkling Welch's white grape juice on the attack and then once you get to the mid palate, some alcoholic heat as if some vodka were mixed in.

Yep...fizzy white grape juice on the finish, maybe some grapefruit as well.

While I suppose it doesn't taste that bad, it barely qualifies as a wine....I'm not about to dump it down the drain, but I will dump into a glass of ice with a dash or two of maraschino cherry juice.

Score: 70

2008 Raphael Cabernet Franc

You know, I thought for sure we've never had a wine from New York, but it turns out four years ago we had a Marshall Field's brand sparkler from New York. While the new Macy's brand is tolerable, you can't tell me the stores haven't gone downhill since the name change, but that's a post for another blog. This wine ran me $14.

A garbagey nose - chocolate, rotten berries, and almost a red pepper thing.

Odd. Quite odd. Tasted blind I would've guessed some odd hybrid grade from the Midwest. Chocolate, raspberry, plum, eucalyptus, dirt, tobacco in a fuzzy feel sorta way...the tannins are mild on the palate, but there's quite a bit of weight on this...almost a Port feel without the burn or sugar.

Some black raspberry, fruit and leaf, on the finish and way in the back there is something strikingly reminiscent of the original green colored NyQuil.

Interesting? Yes. Beyond that though....

Score: 82

2006 Le Cadeau Diversité Wilamette Valley Pinot Noir

Don't know when or where I got this bottle, but the current vintages sell for S47 direct from the winery.

The nose is all chocolate covered cherries and coffee beans.

Chocolate. Cherry. Blackberry. Black, ultra ripe blueberry. A bit of an herbal quality. Medium body, but not much in terms of tannin or wood really.

Plum, black cherry, and just a hint of cola on the finish - it lingers for quite some time. There's something else going on mostly on the finish but also mid-palate that reminds me a bit of fruit roll up.

I don't know. After finding out the price, I felt compelled to reconsider this one, but I have to call it meh. Well made, not explicitly flawed, just meh.

Score: 85

2008 Carpineto Dogajolo

I wanted a cheap Italian red and found this one for nine bucks. This is a bit of a trend here at The Wineauxs - wanting cheap Italian red and snagging one at random.

Raspberry, blackberry, a bit of funk, a bit of earth - I dig it.

Blueberry. Maybe a light dusting of some brown spices, but there's not a whole lot going - nice acid, good light to mediumish body.

Some tobacco lingers, as well as some stemminess, and some earth.

At nine bucks, I don't feel ripped off - it's a simple Italian red, fine for pizza or pasta, but the fact is there are so many wines just like that...tasty, acidic, excellent with red sauce...that I'm just sort of meh about it. If I want something cheap and simple, I wouldn't avoid this, but I also wouldn't go out of my way to snag it.

Score: 84

2006 Mollydooker Two Left Feet Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon

My records say this ran me about $26 a few years ago - I seem to recall seeing the newest vintage for a bit cheaper than that though...

Blackberry jam and vanilla ice cream on the nose - almost like a sundae.

Black fruit dominate - dark blueberry, blackberry, plum. Somewhat sweet and I can't say I get much wood, but I do get some nice spicy qualities, perhaps some fresh basil and oregano, but mostly a minty.

A surprisingly short finish, anise, black fruit, and mint fade quickly with only some alcohol heat lingering for some time - it's worth nothing there is almost no heat on the palate.

It's big, it's fruit bomb like, it's stereotypically Aussie - it's also quite good. As potent and huge as it is, it's really not all that over the top - if this is your style, I give it a go.

Score: 88

2008 Acquaviva Winery Brianna

Acquaviva is a winery in northern Illinois, we visited them a while back and wrote it all up here. Honestly, I'm bordering on desperate to get back - the food was excellent and while the wine is defintiely of the hybrid acquired taste variety, it's Italian styled enough to work with the food perfectly. I don't recall the retail, but it was defintiely under $20.

Peaches, almost peach Jolly Rancher, candified, in other words.

A fair amount of sweet whites from Illinois bring this sort of flavor profile - loads of acid, loads of sugar, limeade, peach, and grapefruit.

Pineapple comes through on the finish, with a more mellow grapefruit quality as well.

Treat as a dessert wine. I can't say I think it would work with chocolate though, it would compliment key lime pie, though maybe too much....some sort of ginger cake dessert maybe?

Score: 88

2007 Kirkland Napa Valley Meritage

This is a blend of mostly Merlot, a good chunk of Cab Sauv, and just a splash of Cab Franc.

A bit of heat on the nose, black fruit - cassis and plum mostly, though - and this may sound strange -a raw chicken sorta thing.

Smooth and balanced, though not exactly complex - plum, blueberry, black cherry, vanilla. This is a solid middle of the road red, the kind of wine you can pop open and eat with anything from pizza to a steak and be set.

Blueberry lingers and way way on the back end some cherry.

Eleven bucks? Beyond sold - snag it.

Score: 87

2006 Estancia Paso Robles Meritage Reserve

This is a blend of 58% Cab, 34% Merlot, and 8% Petit Verdot. We've had a few of this producer's wines before, including a previous vintage of this one that we dug (not reviewed here though). The retail is about $25.

A plum sorta nose...cassis as well. In fact, this strikes me as textbook cassis.

The thing that struck me about this wine was how approachable it was on pop and pour - everything was nicely integrated and it was drinking fine. Blackberry, vanilla, oak.

The finish has lingering blackberry and vanilla, combined in a Blizzard aftertaste sort of way. You know, the last time I went to Dairy Queen they didn't have blueberry Blizzards anymore. WTF DQ?

It's tasty, perhaps a safe bet if you find it priced reasonably on a restaurant wine list, but I can't say it's exciting or all that interesting when pondered.

Score: 86

Leiffel Bistrot & Creperie - Barrington, IL - December 23, 2010

L'Eiffel has quickly risen to the top of our list of favorite restaurants. We've been here a bunch of times and always had a great time - excellent food, a great wine selection, solid service, and completely reasonable prices.

We both had specials which are not available on the web menu, so forgive my vague descriptions.




Beef carpaccio with Roquefort - the blue cheese was pungent, the beef was a nice balance of meaty and salty.

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Half dozen raw oysters - they were great, but the wine real highlight is a Champagne vinegar shaved ice that's absolutely amazing, I'd come back here for that ice alone.

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Salad with roast duck, arugula, fennel, and a vinegar dressing.

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I hate taking pictures of soup because it's inherently a rather dull looking product dish, but their soups are consistently great - this is a corn and clam chowder.

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What I dig about L'Eiffel most is their wine service - there are many options by the glass, bottles start at under $30, wine flights, and a monthly "ultra pour" - which is a pricey, think $100 bottle range, wine available by the glass. We had the Champagne flight, three real Champagnes...

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And the French red flight.

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Forgive this photo, it's not the brightest place, this is steak frites, a 16 ounce prime ribeye with cajun fries. We actually came here for dinner because of the allure of steak - let's put it this way, we wanted steak, Ruth Chris is in the same shopping center, we chose here.

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Braised alligator, sliced venison, and - I'm sad to admit, I forget what else, lamb? Either way - three meats with a rice pilaf underneath.


If you want French in the Northwest suburbs, look no further - this is the place.

2008 Boom Boom Syrah

I've seen this go for $16 to $20, so when the $15 pricetag at Costco caught my eye, I snagged a bottle.

Kind of a chocolate covered cherry nose.

Blueberry dominates with some chocolate and cherry....little in terms of tannins, earth, or even oak, but some nice acid with the fruit makes it quite approachable.

The finish is kind of interesting, sort of a blueberry infused green tea right away but it fades quite quickly.

Tasty stuff, but admittedly simple - for $15, I actually like it enough to buy it again. We'll be drinking a bottle of this tonight with Christmas Eve dinner and I think it will go well. It's fruity and smooth enough I can even see this working with some spicier foods like Mexican or Thai if you insist on red. I say it's worth a shot.

Score: 86