The Gourmez

Trader Joe’s Grande Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir 2011 Napa, California I tasted this wine before purchasing it at Trader Joe’s, and I’m glad the sample convinced me to get a bottle. Its rich, medium-bodied boysenberry digs into me and won’t let go. The nose has a fleeting burst of fig newton, but is otherwise lackluster. [...]

2011 Green Fin Cabernet Sauvignon California In the tradition of Trader Joe’s wine, the exact region in California these grapes hail from is murky, but that’s all part of the mystery, right? This Cab smells of berry and nothing else. Thin- to medium-bodied, barely there sweet anise and leather notes come out right away then [...]

Seigneurs de Bergerac 2011 Bergerac Sec Dordogne Valley, France This wine was part of a value pack from my wine shop up the street. It’s pale yellow. The nose is a well-blended mix of flowers and minerals. Mildly sweet, and tannins play against that sweetness for a nicely balanced body. The lime is perhaps too [...]

Borsao 2011 Grenache Borja, Spain   Grenache wines are hit or miss with me. I adore Spanish wines, but Tempranillo has a special place in my heart. Grenache can sometimes be too dry for my palate and not as lively as its Spanish cousin. But when it hits, it’s a memorably layered wine. This is [...]

Protocolo 2011 White Wine Castilla, Spain This white wine blend is very light in coloring. It smells like honeysuckle and citrus with afterthoughts of vanilla and cedar. The wine is thin to medium bodied. Plenty of butter coats the mouth. Other than that buttery quality, there is honeydew and perhaps honeysuckle—I’ve never eaten it, so [...]

We are nearing the end of our recent California adventure. The next two blogs don’t have many food-related pictures, because I was too busy talking with my friends to actually devote time to documenting the places we went—that, and I’ve been to most of them a million times during my college years, so I forget [...]