The Gourmez

Ipsus Passito di Pantelleria Dessert Wine Marsala, Italy This dessert wine is made with Muscat grapes, which are often used to produce sweet wines and fortified wines. Its color is light amber with rose tinges, and its nose is nectarine with subtle floral qualities including that rose again. It tastes wonderful. Certainly sweet, as expected [...]

Torrontes Dolce 1591 La Rioja, Argentina Sparkling Torrontes! Hooray! Torrontes quickly fought its way to the top of my favorite white wine varietals, so trying a sparkling version is trés exciting. This bottle has a fun purple rubber cork that contrasts with the simple, elegant label design, but I think that just makes it all [...]

Espiral Vinho Rosé Gaia, Portugal Apologies, but I have no wine label to share with you. This is a bottle I picked up at Trader Joe’s — hopefully, that helps if you’re interested in it? Espiral Vinho Rosé is a rosé version of vinho verde, and I was super excited to see it. I love [...]

Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Rose 2009 Napa Valley, CA It’s a gorgeous soft gold and pink rose color. Smells pleasingly of artificial raspberry flavoring—-this is not a bad smell; think of Chapstick or Fun Dips. The wine’s taste, however, has almost no character whatsoever. It’s very thin-bodied. Raspberry and strawberry notes flee so fast you’ll [...]

Jujube, Chapel Hill $40 per plate Last Tuesday, I had the pleasure of attending another Jujube wine dinner—it had been a while! These dinners are kept affordable by profiling wines in the $10 to $20 range from the Hope Valley Bottle Shop crew, of which Drew did the sommelier honors this evening. Alas, I was [...]