Unfussy Wine Enthusiasts | Wine Reviews & Articles

So we tasted this one double blind, no vintage, no country, no grape hints.  The wine turned out to be Donatien Bahuaud Les Chartrains Chinon (100% Cabernet Franc). This wine threw us for a loop immediately.  It was sooo floral and perfumed we were nowhere near Cab Franc let alone France as we tasted.  What a crazy nose this wine has.  Notes of ripe fruit for sure and the mahogany rim around the edge let us know if had a bit of age on it (2006).  But, it wasn't until the wine had been decanted and opened for a good hour that we even remotely started to get the herbaceous or vegetal sensations that we would expect from Cab Franc.  Even then those parts of the wine were ever so subtle.  This guessing game was over before it started. After all that, we can say this wine is delicious once it has been open a while.  We had it opened for about 30 minutes and that floral sensation was way too high on the nose and the palate.  Once that dissipat...

This was a recent purchase from Bishop's Cellars and was part of the recent Best Wines Under $25 tasting we attended.  We did not purchase this wine right away, though it was on the short list as a buy.  We find this wine to smell great, really great.  It has a very round nose that encompasses fruit, oak, and spice all in good balance. On the palate it definitely tasted like strawberry and cherry with a vanilla toasted oak layer. The wine's main shortcoming is that the balance of flavours is okay but the tannins in the wine are too sharp on the finish. That spice turns bitter once you swallow the wine. Now, that is a somewhat harsh description, but for a wine that smells that good we were hoping the taste would back it up but it falls a little flat. This is still a very tasty wine that is reflected in our score but with a little more balance on the finish it would be a no-brainer.     Tasting Notes:   Score: Sight (0-5)  Medium dark wine w...

So, this was a sale table purchase and a good one at that.  This is a $23 wine locally and we got it for $16.  We have tried the Kim Crawford Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc and have been very pleased with those, so we figured we would give this NZ Dry Riesling a try.  Now, as we have stated in the past our white wine knowledge could use a boost and neither one of us could remember the last time we had a Dry Riesling so we went with some pre-conceived notions of Riesling in general but the minds were certainly open. In the glass this wine looks like a Riesling (Surprise!), but the nose was all minerality.  This wine smelled like someone poured honey all over beach rocks and then dipped them in lemon juice.  Crazy nose and crazy good.  So, when we tasted it we were thinking Dry Riesling would be heavy on the dry part.  Not so.  Now, to be fair, this wine is absolutely drier than any Riesling we have ever had but it still has a sweeter flavour pr...

This New Zealand Merlot from Hawkes Bay was on sale at our local NSLC down $5 from $16.99.  At the price we decided to give it a go. The wine had a very toasted oak nose with Toffee and Mocha but it was not overly strong.  It was a nice smelling wine and had a very fruity taste profile.  It had a rustic sensibility and we would have a tough time picking this out as a Kiwi wine if we tasted it blind. It wasn't a fruit bomb and being that NZ is not as big a Merlot producer as it is for Pinot Noir that is not a surprise. The wine definitely mellowed once it was decanted and it also became more elegant. We liked this wine but at $11.99 we REALLY liked this wine.     Tasting Notes:   Score: Sight (0-5)  Medium dark Red Wine with the nice body when swirled in the glass.  3.5 Smell (0-5)  Strong notes of toffee and mocha with some fruit but it smelled a lot darker than it tasted.  4.0 Taste (0-10)  When first poured it was ...

This Tuscan white from Poggio Alloro is an interest little wine.  Surprising would be an accurate adjective.  It smells very familiar but tastes quite unique.  The nose is quite reminiscent of Chardonnay with apple and peach notes but definitely some oaky characteristics.  If you were tasting this blind we are sure that the nose would trip you up.  The colour is definitely a reflection of some time spent in oak as there is a little golden hue to it.  It looks again like...you guessed it...Chardonnay.  Where the rubber hits the road so to speak in on the taste.  This smells good but tastes great.  The weight is much heavier than you would expect from a white wine.  Not being a huge Vernaccia drinker we are not sure what exactly the varietal covers in terms of flavour profile but this example is great.  Not too heavy but a heavier white with some aspects of more familiar varietals.  Again, this is a ...

We are big fans of Propeller , especially the Pilsner, so much so, even Carl the Cat wanted in on the action. Slow down Carl there is plenty to go around. :) Tonight was a sushi and beer night. Their Pilsner is a lighter blond beer that is not overly hopped and has bold flavours...love it. Wednesday's are $8 Growler days. Hard to say no. Hey even the most ardent wine lover deserve some variety.....it is the spice of life. Cheers and keep on drinking! Chris & Shannon

With busy lives and short attention spans, when we talk about wine online do we really have a clear conversation about the subject?  Is it something that enhances knowledge, experience, or both?  We are looking to have connections to the wine and the place it comes from but can Social Media deliver on that? We say yes, in the sense that the discussion about a wine or winery enhances our collective knowledge and understanding about a subject that is near and dear to our hearts.  Through this wine journey online we have come to understand that we do have like-minded folks out there who, while interested in what we have to say, are just plain interested and engaged in the world of wine and are looking for an outlet or platform to have their opinions heard, or to at least follow along with the discussion. There is no platform like the one we use to allow for our small and self-important opinions to seek a larger audience.  Moreover, we present it as nothing more than...

This looks like a really cool film.  It is a documentary about some Americans looking to pass the Master Sommelier Exam.  Check out the Trailer:  SOMM Documentary Trailer 1 from Forgotten Man Films on Vimeo . Here is the Film's description: Two years and six countries of filming. Somm is the story of four sommeliers attempting to pass the prestigious Master Sommelier exam, a test with one of the lowest pass rates in the world.  The exam covers literally anything having to do with the entire world of wine and that is just the beginning.  Access to the Court Of Master Sommeliers has always been strictly regulated and cameras have never been allowed anywhere near the exam.... Until now.  How much do you know about wine ? There is no release date for this yet and it will evidently be doing the Film Festival circuit.  Maybe it will make the Atlantic Film Festival. Keep on drinking! Chris & Shannon

These two wines are definitely different versions of Chilean Carménère.  There are so many differences between these two it is amazing.  The tough part is that the lesser tasty of the two is actually not that bad but it just doesn't stack up to the second. The first of the two is the Santa Ema Carménère from the Cachapoal Valley.  This wine is an extremely full bodied and elegant wine with the a lot of herbaceous notes.  There are some fruit notes in this wine but it is not a fruity wine, like at all. The second of the two is a 2010 Adobe Reserva from Emiliana Wines , an organic winery in the Colchagua Valley.  This wine has a lot more acidity on the palate and has significantly more fruit forwardness.  There is a lot of tannin in both wines but where the first is supple and round this one is a lot more tart, even astringent. So they are from different years and different areas of the same country and they could not be m...

This wine was a purchase based upon the recommendation of one of the staff at Bishop's Cellar here in Halifax ( @BishopsCellar ).  We were inquiring about their Chinon/Cab Franc selection and he mentioned this wine from Frederic Mabileau  in the St. Nicolas De Bourgueil region in the Loire Valley, which they found on a recent purchasing trip to the Loire.  This is a smaller producer who makes a lot of Cab Franc based wines.  This particular one was a favorite of theirs, so much so, they imported some for sale. Being we are on the hunt for good Cab Franc, we purchased this one which is just a bit outside our normal purchase price range at $27 Cdn.  So, we decided to break into this one tonight to give it a try.  Once opened and decanted, we noticed right off that the wine is unfiltered and cloudy.  This added a lot of flavour to the wine but also added a slight chaulkiness to it as well (very...

In our journey to be more informed and understand the process that wine goes through, we began making our wine from kits in the Fall of 2010. We get our supplies through a local chain called Noble Grape  who are very helpful and knowledgeable folks. Our first effort was a Chilean Malbec from a company called Cheeky Monkey (interesting name). They have a variety of kits that they provide and this was just one that grabbed our attention. Right out of the gate once you buy all the winemaking materials, we noticed that the process is very refined and very regimented. It is to the point where as long as you are reasonably clean and can sterilize your supplies and then follow the recipe, it is somewhat foolproof. That first batch turned into a wine we could drink almost right away (within a few weeks of bottling). The second kit we tried was from another producer, and though followed a similar 'recipe' was a very different product. It was a wine that required aging (not a shoc...

This wine was a purchase from the Bishop's Cellars Best Wines Under $25 tasting. It was delicious on an empty stomach with 6 wines ahead of it so we were really looking forward to trying it on its own. This is a South African Merlot from Org de Rac  is from the Swartland Region, which until we Googled it was unknown to us.  The Swartland Region is just over 100 kms from Cape Town (getting our learn on).  Further to this, the wine is certified organic, so we are saving the planet by drinking it.  Double win for us! The Merlot is a very dark wine and looks every bit like a big wine, which it pretty much is.  Dark fruit and leather dominate the nose which is complex and delicious.  The nose really makes you want to drink this wine.  Once you do, the wine continues to impress with big, bold flavours of oak and plum.  It is very dry and tannic in a good way and we really like that it lingers on your palate.  So nice! ...

This is our first White Wine review of 2012.  For tonight we tried the Abad Dom Bueno Godello, a white grape grown in the Northwestern section of Spain.  This particular version comes from Bierzo which is known more for being a red wine producing area.  We chose this one because we discovered the Mencia from the same Producer.  The 2007 Mencia from these guys was a game changing wine.  Having never tried Mencia before it was awesome.  The 2008 was really good but the 2007 rocked.  But, enough about that, back to the Godello. This is the first time we had tried this varietal so we had no experience to draw from.  In any event, it was very reminiscent of Chardonnay in the colour and the nose which was markedly apple and pear tart (meaning just a bit sweet smelling).  It is not a sweet white by any means but has a little bit of sugar on the initial taste with some good acidity and just a touch of sparkle (bubbles).  You can tell it s...

Tonight's wine was our first Blind Tasting of 2012 (technically a double blind as we didn't know the grape or the country).  Snap Dragon is a very nice smelling wine that had a medium to dark look to it in the glass.  It smelled familiar but we could not pick out anything that nailed down the grape.  In fact, there were several smells that threw us off, such as butterscotch and coffee.  It was a fruit forward nose and was a bit jammy which pointed toward Syrah/Shiraz or even Pinotage but there was not enough residual sugar on the palate to make that guess stick.   It definitely smelled New World to us, which meant more oak on the nose and even a little spice/hotness.  So, that pushed us (sticking to the Pinotage idea towards South Africa - which was wrong).  Second guessing on that, it did have a California kind of feel to it but it was a little light in colour for us to settle on Cabernet Sauvignon (which it was).  So, after all of t...

For those of you who watch PBS there is a show called Vine Talk where host Stanley Tucci leads a panel of Celebrities through a blind tasting of wines from a certain country and region. The wines normally range in price which can be $15 to $150 and the panel selects a favorite. At the same time, there is a studio audience who taste the wine separately and make their choice on the favorite. At the end of the show the audience favorite and the celebrity favorite are revealed. All this background was listed to say that this wine was selected as the Celebrity panel favorite for the Aussie Shiraz from the Barossa Valley show.  This wine was selected and is $18 CDN and most importantly is amazing. This is probably the best smelling wine we have had in a long time.  It smells awesome.  It is a perfectly balanced nose of fruit, oak, and spice.  Delicious.  Then you drink it and it tastes almost as good.  We love the perfect balance in the wine and the soft ...

This evening we had to opportunity to attend the Best Value Wines Under $25 Tasting at Bishop's Cellars ( @BishopsCellar ) here in Halifax.  It was a great event that was well attended.  This was our first opportunity to attend such an event and we were very pleasantly surprised with the event and wines selected. We were not exactly sure how many wines we were going to taste and we were again pleasantly surprised to find out it was ten wines (4 Whites and 6 Reds).  The wines selected were those items that the staff felt like were the best overall wines under the $25 threshold.  Having tried all the wines in the order that was specified, we took some general notes and wanted to share those.  They are listed in the order tasted and with our overall opinion of the wines: 1) 2010 Poggio Alloro Vernaccia (Italy) $17.25 - this was a very crisp and complex white wine.  It was such a nice flavourful white wine that we purchased a bottle. 2) 2011 Spy Valley S...

Castel is a cool climate hybrid grape that is grown in Nova Scotia. Grand Pre's version is a fairly bold wine that has a nice nose and a deep colour. We were pleasantly surprised by the weight of the wine and the overall flavours. It has a very slight sparkle or light acidity on the first taste. For a cool climate wine it has a nice full mouthfeel which is not overly acidic or bitter. As a local wine, normally there is a slight bitterness in the wine due to the fact the grapes grown around here are more acidic than your typical wine grapes.  This can be at least partially attributed to the shorter growing season here and the fact that these cool climate grapes don't get the same ripeness when the weather is bad. We really enjoyed this wine.  You never want to put an caveat on things but for a cool climate wine it has some of the characteristics we enjoy in other more mainstream varietals.  It smells like it spent time in oak which we really like. Overall, if yo...

There are very specific requirements when storing wine long term. The humidity, temperature, and limited access to light are all important components. The more expensive the wine investment, the more and more essential proper storage becomes. To be fair, there are only a small percentage of wines that are really age worthy beyond five years. French Bordeaux Blends and Italian Barolo are typically able to be cellared for extended periods of time 10, 20, 30 plus years and they come with a normally higher price tag. But, what about the wines we buy everyday? How long can we keep them? Storing Wine in Style The answer varies with the grape but in the red wine world, age ability revolves around tannins and structure in the wine. The stronger the tannins the longer it can potentially stand up to time. On the white wine side, Riesling and sweeter whites (i.e. Sauternes) is able to stand some aging due to the acidity in the wine (and sugars to a certain extent). Basically, you need to put ...

We have had a number of unique wines in 2012 but tonight's might be the leader thus far.  Tonight we had a 2008 Casa Santos Lima Foral de Lisboa from Portugal which is made of Castelao, Touriga Franca and Syrah.  Overall a really tasty red wine.  It smelled like Black Raspberry Cheesecake Ice Cream and that is no joke.  It was a round wine with balanced tannins and just enough acidity to make it spicy.  It was a great wine for $13 and really is a surprise.  We felt like the wine tasted more like a $25 wine.  Overall it is a buy recommendation. So, the question goes over to you.  What is your top wine taste for 2012, or more like, what is your wine of the week?  It is THAT early in the year.  It could be $5 or $50, it doesn't matter what is turning your head this week? Keep on drinking! Chris & Shannon

This Cabernet Sauvignon from Maipu in Argentina is the first 'Bone Dry' wine we have had in a good long while.   It is a dark wine but is not inky dark for the dryness and body on the palate. As an Argentinean Cab it has a lot of the characteristics we would expect like oak, dark fruit, and violets but there is a smell in there we could not quite pick out.  We thought is might be a stinky cheese like a provolone, but that did not quite capture it.  Then we thought it might be like some kind of gourmet salami but it was a fleeting smell. When we tasted it, there was a LOT of tannins in there and the dryness kicked in right away.  That dryness almost sucks all the saliva out of your mouth.  The body is almost there, but there is not enough roundness to the wine.  It is dry and tannic with some acidity but the mouthfeel is very hollow beyond that.  So, it is dry and tastes good but for a Cab Sauv, we were h...

So we have noticed a trend in a number of restaurants, they offer either small, medium, or large or just small and large glasses of wine.  We have seen 3 oz, 5 oz, and 7 oz glasses of wine on the menu.  We don't really like this trend, shouldn't we just get a glass of wine?  Do we really need to think in terms of size?  There was once a 5 or 6 oz glass and that was it.  We can see the benefit to the restaurant in terms of selling more glasses of wine in numbers, but honestly does that really make sense from a customer perspective?  You are most likely making more on the small glass of wine (generally speaking) but the customer really isn't getting the value of the money.  Does the restaurant feel like it is offering more options to their guests?  If you charge an average price for an average size glass, then if I want more I will order more.  Do I need to worry about the size?  We would say that 3 oz is a pretty small quantity for wine...

So we have a number of local purchase options here in Halifax which range from the NSLC Regular Stores to their Port of Wines Shops, to the Private Wine Shops.  Each of them are in the business of selling wine to licensees and to the public.  As a member of the public, we have certain buying habits and preferences. Most of the Retailers organize their stores similarly (by Country) but no one locally is throwing a mixture of flavours or styles in there.  For example, organizing by characteristic such as Bold or Light or Fruity.  Would that improve the purchasing experience for you?  For us, I would say no, the country and region are more important as we do have some understanding of the styles in those regions.  So we gravitate to that type of store layout.  That said, for us we like a good deal.  But then again, who doesn't? We tend to look for those wines on the Sale table or part of a promotion.  We really like a good deal especially ar...

This wine is a little more than our typical Thursday night drinker, coming in at just under $30 (full disclosure - this bottle shot is from the same producer just not for this wine).  The wine is made from 70% Uva Di Troia and 30% Negroamaro, two grape varietals we are not familiar with but are common in the Puglia region of Italy where this wine is produced. The wine itself is a medium bodied wine with a lot of stuff going on with it.  It is a 2006 which shows in the way the wine looks in the glass as it has a bit of mahogany around the edges.  Also, in the glass there is an oily look to it as it hugs the glass when you swirl it.  It is somewhat dull but it looks good overall. On the nose, it is woody notes with nutmeg/cinnamon and rubber tire (if you can believe that).  As for the taste, there was definitely addition wood notes as well as anise and (wait for it) sour cherry Twizzlers (we know they don't exist but if they did, it would taste just like thi...

The Wine Spectator's team of Editors and staff selected the 2009 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir as their Wine of the Year. This wine has a release price of $52 USD. Now, this is not a wine we would readily run out and purchase, but the story of how the two partners came to attain this aware is super interesting. Dan Kosta and Michael Browne worked together as waiters at the John Ash Co. Restaurant in Sonoma (which we have ironically eaten at). They fancied the idea of owning and running a winery and began to save $10 each from their tips to go towards the first step in their dream. When they got to $1300, they had enough to buy a half ton of Pinot Noir grapes, a used De-stemmer/Crusher, and a Wine Barrel. From there they taught themselves how to become winemakers, with many mistakes along the way. Each year, they got a little better and got better at selecting the grapes to use. As self-taught winemakers they worked with one of the most difficult grapes to make good wine ...

The Mas Elena is a blend of Merlot, Cab Franc, and Cab Sauv from Spain.  It is a delicious Red Wine and has more depth of flavour than one might expect at the $14 range.  There is a strong and inviting nose which shows notes of sour cherry and smoke with a little black pepper.  The taste is a bit more subdued but still has the taste of strawberries with black pepper taste and retains some of that smokiness.  We have seen other reviews for this wine and we agree that it certainly is a winner for the price and has some roundness and smoothness on the palate that really work. What can we say....it is a damn good wine.  If you like fuller Reds this one will work for you.  While not a typical full bodied wine it exhibits everything that a full bodied red should have.     Tasting Notes:   Score: Sight (0-5)  Deep Ruby colour  4.0 Smell (0-5)  Cherry and spice notes with a smoky finish  4.0 Taste (0-10)  Round ...

Mourvedre is not a typical single varietal grape in that it is usually blended with other grapes as part of wine from areas like Chateauneuf-du-Pape among others.  On its own it is a very flavourful wine.  This particular version is French Mourvedre from area around Beziers and Narbonne.  It is a medium bodied wine with some minerality and is somewhat fruit forward. The nose was a little better than the taste.  It was certainly a fruity nose with a little oak associated with notes of spice.  The taste was a bit flinty with a lot of cherry or plum but it did not quite live up to the nose.  We liked it for sure, and as a $14 wine it is a good value but it would be better with a little more body. If you see any Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre blends (aka GSM - many from Australia or Spain) give them a try as they are really great.  At the price of this Mourvedre, it is worth a try on its own.     Tasting Notes:   Score: ...