Unfussy Wine Enthusiasts | Wine Reviews & Articles

So, this is Chris from the work road.  Real life does interfere with our blogging on what is seeming to be a regular basis.  That said, when on the road time does allow for a glass of wine here and there.  The nice thing about being outside of our regular selections you get a few that do not exist at home.  This wine is a case in point.  One of our favorite all time finds is from this Producer.  Their 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon registers as one of our all time faves.  This wine is their Garnacha.  I had high hopes for this wine and thank goodness they were achieved. The wine is lighter in color than you might expect for a Garnacha but has all the body and weight you need.  It looks great, somewhere in the cranberry juice range. The nose is fantastic bold and fruity with a nice amount of oak and even a chorizo note in there.  Love it! The flavours are big and bold and has a lot black cherry fruit and a bright acidic finish at is great ...

Not too long ago we were in our local Liquor Store and they were having a clearance of some of the Masi Passo Doble which normally retails locally for $17.  Well, they were selling it for $12.50....SOLD!  We actually saw that there were two vintages in the lot, the 2009 and 2010.  We reviewed the 2009 Passo Doble back in April and found it to be a very good wine so we thought....Flight Time! (Check out our first review here ) So, we have the same wine, two vintages. This wine is made in the Appassimento method which uses partially dried grapes in the wine making process to enhance the flavour profile of the wine.  Well, for Passo Doble regardless of the year, mission accomplished. These wines once they were in the glass, nay as soon as they made the decanter, looked very different.  The '09 had a lot of the Malbec notes we have come accustom to but the overall dark colours are amazing.  Violets and dark colours are the name of the game here, ex...

We were provided this wine from Monkey Bay Wines  and very quickly we decided that we could not review it paired with the same thing as the 2004 we tried when we lived in US which was Papa John's Pizza.  A match made in heaven....we think not.  This time around it was with a Salad Niçoise and went much more smoothly. The first thing, we noted is that this wine has a lot more character than the last time we tried it.  In 2004, we thought it was a refreshing, crisp, light, and citrusy wine.  But, when paired with Papa John's we were not overly high on it.  Surprise, surprise. This time around we took a look at the colour and we were close with our opinion of the 2004, clear, pale, soft vanilla tones (think off-white), kind of a light gingerale colour.  2011 is right in the same ballpark.  The colour is a little on the dark side (golden) when compared to the Kim Crawford version.  Either way, we had the right idea back in '04. The s...

We were given a bottle of homemade wine to taste just for fun.  The wine was made by someone in our extended family and we liked the idea of seeing how someone else makes wine.  We thought about it and decided to give it a review as though we were tasting a commercially made wine, not as formal as we would normally but a review nonetheless. Now we don't know a lot about this wine, in the sense that it was labeled for an event and not as a variety and vintage.  That said, we will give it a guess and see how close we are (we won't be close, we are sure).  Either way, that is not as important as how it tastes.  Is it good or not so good? Well, here we go.... Sight: This wine is pretty middle of the road, not too dark and not too light.  That makes it difficult to determine the style of wine.  It does not look like a Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon (dark) nor does it look like Pinot Noir or Valpolicella (light).  The wine clings to the glass b...

These two wines are the last two holdovers from our visit to the 2011 NSLC Port of Wines Festival.  We tried these two wines and couldn't choose between the two so we got them both.  They are both Tempranillo wines and both are aged in oak; the 2008 Crianza for one year to the 2006 Reserva for three years. To kill any suspense, both these wines are quite good.  At $20 locally the Crianza is a good value with a solid flavour profile that will will expand upon shortly.  At $25 the Reserva is worth every penny of the price increase with an excellent nose and a softer set of tannins (more on that shortly).  We decided to make this as traditionally Spanish as possible and had tapas with it, including Chorizo, Figs wrapped in Proscuitto and Blue Cheese, Aged Cheddar, Crudite, Olives, and good bread. As we have done in the past, rather than our typical rating (which we will provide in a shortened version) we wanted to focus on attributes and food pairing. These...

cancer.ca This has been a very tough week for us here at UnfussyWine.com. You may have noticed for the past few months that our weekly volume of posts and wine reviews has gone down some compared to the Spring. Well, we have been dealing with a very private and personal situation which has unfolded over the Summer.  Chris' Mom passed away last Friday from Stage 4 Metastatic Lung Cancer at the age of 68.  We were treated so fantastically by the medical system here in Nova Scotia from the Oncology staff to the Palliative Care staff and their jobs are NOT easy.  Over the last number of weeks, we were able to spend time together as a family and to be there for her as she went to treatments right up to her passing which was peaceful and quiet and filled with love.  We could not ask for more in a situation such as this.  That said, she has left a huge hole in her family and her community and we are left to try and find ways to make sense of the los...

We were provide this wine from Baron Philippe De Rothschild  and recently also reviewed the Merlot .  We have had a lot of Pinot Noir this year from all over (mainly New Zealand) which has led us to decide that we like green and grassy Pinot.  The fuller bodied fruity Pinot Noir (like California or BC) is nice but the vegetal notes are where it is at for us.  Though the Wall Street Journal did put out an article called What Happened to New Zealand Pinot Noir?  which outlines the challenges Kiwi wines have on the world market.  All of which makes sense.  That said, we still like this wine. This wine looks like a Kiwi Pinot in the glass.  It is very light in body and colour and at 12.5% is right where we would expect this grape to be.  There does not seem to be a lot of French Pinot Noir in this price range ($14 locally) that follows the lightness that the Kiwi versions do.  Overall, it looks nice and reminds us that Pinot Noir is a ...

Just found this rap video for 'Wine Country' produced by a collective of Northern California rappers. They are gettin' their swirl on for wine of all sorts.  Give it a watch/listen.  It might not win the MTV Music Video Award for best rap video but if you can put 'Girlfriend a Spazz? Drink some Shiraz!' as a lyric you gotta be doing something right.... NOTE: Watch the language for those with sensitive ears. Special thanks to  http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/  for the link. Word to your Mother! We out! Keep on tasting! Chris & Shannon

We picked up this number from our local wine store Bishop's Cellar  after a recommendation for a nice value Chilean Red.  We were leaning towards having the Syrah but the Merlot was the recommendation, so we grabbed it. At $18 locally we like the price point and the knowledgeable staff did not lead us astray.   Tabali Wines are from the Limari Valley in Chile. This is a big wine from the get go and makes for a nice tasting experience which is especially when paired with a nice grilled organic beef short rib.  We think this is a really great wine. The colour of this wine is very dark and prune juice coloured which is to say it is almost black.  The fringe of the wine in the glass is a grape juice colour of deep and dark purple.  The 'legs' on this wine go on for days.  It sticks to the glass like glue which is not necessarily surprise considering it is 14.5%.  We counted and it is a solid 10 count to see the legs hit the wine in the g...