Michael, a friend of Darin’s from his Vistage group, introduced us to Orin Swift wines. In particular, “the prisoner” wine (although we are on a family mission to try everything this winery makes).

I will define “the prisoner” as yummy. Not your typical wine tasting notes (I know), but there is not any other simple way to describe this delicious wine. Although this bottle will cost between $30 to $35 range (a bit higher than we like to buy on an ordinary wine run), it is a nice bottle to spend the money on (you will enjoy this, I promise). The Prisoner is a great combination of grapes – mostly Zin (of course, we have been on the Zin kick as you will read below) but has Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petite Syrah, Charbono, and Grenache.

It is a flavorful bottle of wine. We found it to be wicked (in a very, very good way) and we loved that! It is a complex wine. We had it with an amazing flank steak and great sides.

If you happen to be a person who selects wine based on labels (which there are a lot of us out there) I looked into the image on the bottle. The image was inspired by an original etching depicting a prisoner in chains Dave Phinney received as a gift from his mother and father (Orin and Swift).

WineyJanet is all about finding good wines for a fair price that those of us “ordinary” people who love a glass a wine for the purpose of drinking wine can enjoy. Please don’t drink and drive.

Searching for Seghesio Zinfandel '07 Sonoma County

I met up with friends on Friday night for wine (a great little wine bar called Cru in a shopping mall - go figure).

I enjoyed a flight tasting of wines (it was Flight #7, Sexy Reds) and one of the glass of wines in the sample was amazing. It was Seghesio Zinfandel ’07 Sonoma County. Of course, I come to find out (day late, dollar short) during my wine tasting, that it received a 93 rating from Wine Spectator magazine. Of course you can’t find it anywhere (I know this first hand, I’ve been looking). I want to find a few bottles. If anyone knows a site or location that has a few bottles remaining please let me know.

WineyJanet is all about finding good wines for a fair price that those of us “ordinary” people who love a glass a wine for the purpose of drinking wine can enjoy. Please don’t drink and drive.

Good Drink. Good Deal.

For some reason our love for a Zinfandel has taken front and center in our wine drinking life. Darin and I have had a few good bottles of wine lately and they've mostly been Zinfandel. Now we seem to be drifting down the “Zin” isle when we are at a liquor store (which seems more often lately). We are building a good reserve of Zinfandel wines in our small, but filled with love, wine cellar.

One “Zin” wine that we like was the Ravenswood Sonoma County Old Vine from the 2006 vintage. It’s good (actually we thought it was very good) bottle of wine for under $20 (under $15 when on sale – you can’t beat that). Although it has an ageability of 10 years we can’t help ourselves to drink it now. It’s a great Zinfandel and typical in “Zin” style – deep, dark, full and spicy (love that). The flavor of the wine is raspberry and blackberry. Darin smells vanilla and I smell cinnamon.

As we continue with our new love affair with Zinfandel wines we have found that Sonoma County produces some of the best. We are going to keep trying them out and we will let you know.

WineyJanet is all about finding good wines for a fair price that those of us “ordinary” people who love a glass a wine for the purpose of drinking wine can enjoy. Please don’t drink and drive.

To Schug or Not to Schug...that is the question

We are a Schug family. We love this wine. We stumbled upon this wine (not to make you think we were drunk at the time) by pure luck and the wine from the Schug Carneros Estate and it is one you should try. It is above the typical $20 range that we try to stay below here at wineyjanet, but there are times we have found it on sale for $24 (and even less). In all honesty, it is well worth the purchase if you need a bottle for a special event, a special evening, or because you just want a good bottle.

Recently we had the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma Valley and it was a very good glass. It was well-structured. We could taste the ripe flavors of currant and cherry. Darin picked up “spice”, but I couldn’t. This seems to be a classic wine from a very good and solid winery. We had it with a steak and the wine enhanced the dinner experience. Our guy at Heritage Liquours (in Centennial, Co) said that it is ready to drink now but will develop over the next 5 years.

So, to answer the question: To Schug or Not to Schug....I say Schug (if you couldn't figure that out after the first sentence). Keep this wine on your list and if you can pick one up, do so.

WineyJanet is all about finding good wines for a fair price that those of us “ordinary” people who love a glass a wine for the purpose of drinking wine can enjoy. Please don’t drink and drive.

A New Favorite

Last night we enjoyed a great bottle of wine from Rodney Strong. It was a 2006 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon. It is a new release and under $20. The color of this wine is dark. The aromas we could pick out included blackberry, cherry, and cocoa. The tannins were lush and mature. Darin has always liked Rodney Strong. We have not had it in a while (because he was trying to tell me that I did not like their wine) but he bought one yesterday and I had to eat my words (that I don’t recall saying). We went back today and picked up a few more bottles. This is a great cabernet sauvignon and will be good over the next several years.

WineyJanet is all about finding good wines for a fair price that those of us “ordinary” people who love a glass a wine for the purpose of drinking wine can enjoy. Please don’t drink and drive.