Unfussy Wine Enthusiasts | Wine Reviews & Articles

As you might had figured out from the title, we are not against Jammy wines.  In fact, quite to the contrary, we love big and delicious red wines.  The part we have trouble with is when they are big jammy wines and have a crap-load of residual sugar still.  That's when jammy just means jam...sweet, sweet jam.  Now, given the trends we have seen in the wines from Australia and other countries, we might now be in the minority. Enter Glen Carlou Syrah....it is definitely a jammy wine on the nose.  It smells super oaky and has tons of strawberry and raspberry jam in there.  So much so you begin to think it will taste like sweet Aussie Shiraz.  So, it is super welcoming to find that it is a dry red wine in all the best ways.  There is tar and leather and all those characteristics but it tastes like a big, bold red wine.  Really nice. From the descriptions we have read it is aged in oak and is picked from a lower yield vineyard.  The...

Having only tried Xarel-lo at the odd wine tasting over the years we did not really know what to expect from this wine. It was a bit of an unknown.  What we found out quickly is that this is basically as close to Sauvignon Blanc as a grape can get without being called Sauvignon Blanc.  It was a very crisp and refreshing white wine and went great after a long day working in the garden.  It had the tropical fruit notes and crisp acidity of good Sauv Blanc but in our opinion finished completely different.  It had an almost bitter orange finish....not bitter bad per se but still a touch on the bitter side. If you were to put a glass of this next to a NZ Sauv Blanc you would be hard pressed to notice a difference.  The wine producer Albet I Noya says it produced in the Ordal Mountains and was cold macerated and was in stainless most of the way (no oak). Overall, a nice warm weather drinking wine with a lot of grapefruit and green mango on the palate. ...

We discovered Pepperwood Grove about 7 or 8 years ago in the United States via their California Pinot Noir which was an absolutely amazing wine for being $7 USD. It was one of those wines that stood out at that price point. We picked it up at our local outlet of The Fresh Market (a chain of gourmet markets on the East Coast of the US and an amazing shopping experience if you ever get the chance...so relaxing).  But back to the wine.  We later tried to find the wine again but alas this version only able to be found a couple of more times.  The next time we saw the Pepperwood Grove Pinot Noir it was clearly marked as Chilean Pinot Noir and not nearly as good.  We have subsequently come to find out the shear size of the Pepperwood Grove brand as part of the Don Sebastiani & Sons wine conglomerate (which is huge).  The complexity of the wine belies the size of the company and its brands. The Zinfandel was something we tried in the US and remembere...

When we bought this wine at $17 locally we had no idea it had a bit of a wine reviewer pedigree. According to the internet, this wine was rated 90 points by James Suckling and the Wine Advocate. So, we tried it without knowing what to expect. This wine is made of 100% Tempranillo and smells like a cigar box packed with chili powder and dried cranberries. It is a dark, almost black, wine and is very thick in the glass. Swirling the wine makes it look like there is a sheet of wine around the edge for a good two or three seconds before it slides back into the glass. Very cool.  Once we got to the bottom of the decanter the amount of crystals and debris was surprising. The wine really took a long time to open up as expected for the age of the wine. A Rioja can age though they say drinking best in 2013 and 2014. It tastes like it could age for a long while. The structure in the wine is very evident with the tannins being very bold and the overall flavour profile being wood a...

This wine was another impluse purchase at the counter. We wanted to get a white that we could easily pair with food and this one seemed to fit that bill. It is an Italian Pinot Grigio from Friuli by producer Sartori . We noted that it did not look like it spent any time in oak with a pale wheat-y colour.  After some research it looks like we were correct.  It has a little green in the colour but overall just looks clean in the glass...standard stuff. The nose has starfruit in there with that clean concept coming through again.  Pretty mild but nice on the nose.  There is a little minerality in there as well which is nice.  That flinti-ness carries through to the flavour profile and is a nice feature. The flavours of soft less acidic fruit (see starfruit or kiwi or something like that) really come through and are awesome.  There is a nice tartness to the wine but it is cut but just a touch of residual sugar (just a ...

Wente is a producer we have heard a lot about anecdotally over the last little while.  We have heard good things and we decided to get this Cabernet which is a tad higher in price than we would normally get ($22.50) but once we opened it....it was totally worth it.  The wine is billed as 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petite Sirah, 6% Merlot, 4% Barbera, 3% Petite Verdot.  So there are a lot of grapes wrapped up in the wine.  The complexity shows throughout. First off as soon as you smell this wine it smells exactly how you think a California Cab should smell.  Big and bold....there is fruit and oak and spice.  It you can ever go to Wine Country in California, take a deep breath cuz that is what this smells like.  It has a delicious nose that smells hotter than it tastes. The swirl is again, exactly what we would expect from California Cab.  Deep and dark with a lot of "legs" forming on the side of the glass, it looks grea...

We have noticed an uptick in the number of articles and mentions on the InterWebs surrounding the growing popularity of sweeter wines, most specifically the increase in Moscato (aka Muscat) sales.  HERE is an article from Philly.com that reflects that trend. Now, we are not haters (or snoots) when it comes to sweeter wines we simply have preferences.  We do love a good Gewurztraminer or Riesling.  We have tried a few Dry Rieslings of late that have been really great.  However, as a wine sensation, to us there is nothing better than the pucker and lusciousness of big, bold, and balanced red wine (whatever the grape).  But, that is preference talking.  So, if we are in a Wine Bar/Restaurant that is what we are going to gravitate to first.  The whites we drink tend to be situational.  Hot day and a patio?  The last thing we want to see is a glass of Aussie Shiraz.  Having a nice seafood feast?  A wonderful flinty Riesling hits the...

We were having a Porchette Pork Roast for Supper and decided to have this wine with it.  At $16 locally from Bishop's Cellar , we thought this Grenache and Syrah blend would go well with it.  How right we were... The tannic acidity in the wine cut through the fattiness of the pork perfectly.  The dryness of the wine also lent itself to the dishes we were having simply due to the fact it was rich (i.e. Polenta).  We thought the wine could stand up on its own, but with a nice dinner it never got the chance. Typical of Rhone wines, there are fresh blackberries on the nose with a cherry sensation once you get your nose right in there.  Really nice. Can't stress enough how good this wine is with food. If we had to put an analogy to this, it would be like having a campfire and not having hot dogs and marshmallows to go with it.  Just a shame to not have food with this wine.     Tasting Notes:   Score: Sight (0-5)  Deep ruby colour ...

We decided to have this one this evening as a match for some lamb and boy did this wine meet the mark.  It is described as a blend of Malbec and slightly dried Corvina grapes.  It is made by Italian wine producer Masi as part of a winemaking venture in Argentina.  The wine is delicious....full bodied and round with a nice balance of all the good things we love in red wine.  The tannins are bold and there is just a hint of sugar which allows for a balance in wine.  Really, really nice. In the glass, there is almost a brownish, mahagony tinge which is interesting for a 2009 wine.  It looks like it is an aged wine which is not surprising given the boldness of the wine.  Looks really nice when you swirl it. On the nose, we got a lot of sour cherry and chili powder which was a great sensation.  We really liked the smell.  Not a lot to say about it other than to say it is a great smelling wine. The taste is where this one is the star....

Shannon has successfully fended off the Strep Throat she was battling so we decided to get her back in the game.  We ventured out for the first time in a few days and surprise, surprise wine shopping was a priority.  This wine comes from Italian winemakers Adalia .  We purchased it from Bishop's Cellar  and we decided to have a homemade pizza with it.  We figured this would be a good match.  At $21.50 locally it is a bit more than we would normally pay for a Valpolicella but it is a nice Spring Saturday...what the heck.  This wine is comprised of 30% Corvina, 40% Corvina Grossa, 20% Rondinella, 10& Molinara. We opened this wine and decanted it for probably 30 minutes before trying it and that was a mistake.  The first glass of this wine was shall we say tight....it was bitter on the finish and over-perfumed (cologned).  We came up with the analogy of this being like that friend who has too much g...

We found the link to this one on WineBusiness.com. It is another Wine-related Documentary this time about the drama around the 2011 Sonoma Valley harvest. It gets into the lack of glamour around what it takes to work the vineyards to make the product enjoyed around the world. Lots of human stories and business on the line. This is another one we hope to see in the near future. Check out the trailer: FYI, this was a crowd-sourced and supported movie and they raised over $6000 for the funding of the project. On a separate note, Shannon has been knocked down with Strep throat so the wine tasting for the next week or so will be spotty at best. Passing her all the good Karma for a speedy recovery because...dammit...I can't drink all this wine by myself. :) Keep on drinking (Strep-Free)! Chris & Shannon

We unfortunately had a wine that we purchased for $20 that had a full-on moldy cork. So, we decided to take it back to the store and it was gladly returned. We took the opportunity to upsell ourselves on a wine we had seen advertised in the Wine Spectator. The Sogrape Callabriga Dao is almost $29 locally. Once we opened and decanted it we noticed that it is either unfiltered or it has thrown a lot of debris in the seven years since it was made. The sight in the glass is extremely cloudy and there was a lot of debris in the glass. So we are leaning towards unfiltered. We were absolutely enthralled by the nose on this wine.  It is amazing...full of dark fruit and oak (not vanilla....oak).  It smells so attractive and fragrant it makes you want to drink it. Wow... First off, let's just say that the flavour on this wine is really great.  It is, however, not as great as the smell.  There is a slight disconnect on the palate compared to the nose.  We reall...

This wine from the Middle Sister Wines in California caught our eye at our local NSLC Port of Wines.  At $18 locally it is a nice wine with a very interesting marketing concept (check out their website at the link above).  This wine is supposedly 80% Cabernet with 20% of other Red Varieties (no details provided).  This wine also does not have a year on the label so it could be a 2010 or 2001 (it sure does not taste like a 2001) so we are thinking that it is a more recent vintage grouping. We decanted it and tried it with a braised lamb dinner and it was delicious.  The wine really goes beyond the marketing play.  It is a fairly soft red overall.  It has a some nice ripe fruit and dried herbs.  On their website it says there was no oak, and we believe that to be true.  The tannins in the wine are fairly round and has some earthiness to it.  It is pretty nice for a non-descript wine. The flavours are plums and the ...

For those who are familiar with Italian Wines the Ripasso style of winemaking will be very familiar. For those of you who might not be as familiar, this style of winemaking basically leverages the use of Amarone wine skins (which are dried) as part of the fermentation of this Valpolicella which is normally made with Corvina, Veronese, Rondinella, and Molinara grapes (according to Wikipedia - though we knew the Corvina part). In any event, this style of wine tends to elevate some of the flavours and this wine was no different, though we started drinking it too soon after opening. Glass number two was substantially better. The flavours (once the opened up) were much more elegant than a typical Valpolicella. There was a softness to the wine that was very pleasant. It is a drinking wine though. Where big-brother Amarone would be a special occasion wine, this is an everyday wine. Lighter in colour in the glass than we would expect it still has a great visual that is Italian red a...

This Cabernet Franc is produced from grapes grown here in our Annapolis Valley.  The vintage of this one is 2005 making it an oldie but a goodie.  We have heard tell of a 2006 version floating around but have yet to see it.  The vineyard where the grapes were grown is near Blomidon Estates winery in Habitant, NS just outside Canning (for those who might be interested). This version is a similar style to the ones we have had from Niagara with a similar flavour profile.  It is a little thinner than some of the versions we had from Niagara but overall has a nice mouthfeel. We are certain the nose is virtually identical to the Ontario versions with plums and violets on the nose but a bit of barnyard.  The Ontario has much more barnyard going on than this one but it is still in there.  The visual is similar in the sense that it looks like a Cab Sauv and has a similar weight in the glass.  It is definitely thin as far as the swirl is concerned but not ...

We had a great Saturday night dinner party with our friends Craig and Cheryl with homemade pasta and all the trimmings. We wanted to have one of our special collected wines and we made the decision to go with the 2002 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from De La Montanya in Sonoma. There was a lot of yeast cells in the wine and we stood the bottle up for a few days and then decanted the wine for a couple of hours. As a prelude we started with a 2007 Stonechurch Pinot Noir from the Niagara Valley. The Stonechurch was an excellent wine with a lot of body and structure for a Pinot Noir.  We really enjoyed the wine with its earthiness and fruit.  It was grassy enough to remind us of NZ Pinot but had that barnyard nose that Niagara is known for (and that is definitely a good thing).  At $20, if you can find it, buy it. The main event was the De La Montanya and after a decade it was a star for sure.  Once in the glass it was all mahogany with the aging front and centre....