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Matt K wrote: ↑
December 13th, 2018, 12:21 pm
Agree with Vintner's Collective. A great way to taste some small batch stuff with friendly staff. Had a great time there two years ago (has it really been that long since I visited?)

+1

The Party Is Over -- Chicago’s once-vaunted dining scene has lost its luster. I mostly agree with this article. The author makes a lot of good points; we are too easy on restaurants and many of the restaurant groups have contributed to a somewhat bland environment. Add in recent closures and not en...

Finally! A wine from the US, and it's a... White Zin! [cry.gif] Day-7 White Zinfandel United States of America (California) 11% I honestly don't remember the last time I've had a White Zin. Maybe college? Surely I've had one at some event, dinner, reception? I simply can't recall the last one, so I...

Enjoy photography? A number of photographers are leading trips these days.

Day-4 Pinot Grigio Italy 12% Nice, fresh, clean aroma. Some pectin flavors, bordering on pears. A little dirt and minerality (maybe that's the spice). Just not very crisp (maybe that's the hazelnuts). IMO Pinot Grigio can be hit and miss, and is seldom a "great" wine. My expectations are usually no...

My wife's nephew's high school classmate is one of the guys behind Transient. Some really good beers coming out of SW Michigan these days.

Chenin Blanc.jpg Day-10 Chenin Blanc South Africa, Western Cape 12.5% I haven't had many Chenin Blancs, so not much basis to go on. But without knowing what this was, in a blind tasting, I would have pegged this for a cheap Chard. Light, gold color. Not a lot of aroma. Some toast, some creaminess, ...

Keeping track on which of these are available here in the US?

Malbec.jpg Day-9 Malbec Argentina, San Juan 13% Popped and poured, no decant, served at cellar temp. An Ok wine. Dark color. Some menthol, some herbiness, a little "green," some tobacco. Also, some chocolate, cola, dried red fruit. Some tannin. As like many of the others, tart and tight, but one of...

Interesting line-up. If only that "worst wine of the year" thread had popped in the right order.

Day-5 Merlot Chile - Valle Central 12.5% Popped and poured; no decant. Pretty red color. Some dark and red fruits on the nose. Fruit-forward wine, blackberry, blueberry. Some earth notes, a bit dusty. First of the wines with some nice acidity, although a bit of a bite (maybe it needs to be decanted...

Finally! A wine from the US, and it's a... White Zin.jpg White Zin! [cry.gif] Day-7 White Zinfandel United States of America (California) 11% I honestly don't remember the last time I've had a White Zin. Maybe college? Surely I've had one at some event, dinner, reception? I simply can't recall the l...

Shiraz.jpg Day-6 Shiraz Australia 12.5% If you served this to me blind, I would have guessed a California Zin. Maybe I've had too many over-the-top Shiraz from Australia, or too many impersonating Cabs. This is definitely not a Mollydooker Shiraz (maybe I should have shaken it). Some tart red fruit...

2016 Kutch, Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast

Just got my Kutch shipment today, and I needed to Pobega a bottle of good wine after so many Aldi wines.

Tomorrow I’ll test the hypothesis. I am I guess serious, but don't think you need to be that serious! :-) On a serious note, I appreciate how you are treating these wines seriously. It would be quite easy to make fun of the whole thing. But it seems that some are not terrible -- i,e, the most recen...

Merlot.jpg Day-5 Merlot Chile - Valle Central 12.5% Popped and poured; no decant. Pretty red color. Some dark and red fruits on the nose. Fruit-forward wine, blackberry, blueberry. Some earth notes, a bit dusty. First of the wines with some nice acidity, although a bit of a bite (maybe it needs to ...

Tomorrow I’ll test the hypothesis.

Ron Slye wrote: ↑
December 5th, 2018, 12:14 pm
Perhaps the problem is that you are using high quality glassware. Maybe try a tumbler?

Trying to give these wines every chance to shine

Day-4 Pinot Grigio Italy 12% IMG_3215.JPG Nice, fresh, clean aroma. Some pectin flavors, bordering on pears. A little dirt and minerality (maybe that's the spice). Just not very crisp (maybe that's the hazelnuts). IMO Pinot Grigio can be hit and miss, and is seldom a "great" wine. My expectations ar...

Day-3 Chardonnay Australia 13% IMG_3208.JPG Golden color. Somewhat floral aroma. Toasty. Medium/full body, soft, a little creamy, a little waxy. Not much else. Got to be honest - this just tasted like hot Chard. I'm not a big Chard drinker to begin with (somewhat ABC), and this just reminded me of w...

IMG_3244.JPG The local Whole Foods near me has a beer bar near the front entrance. On Friday they had their BCBS event. Of course the variants were gone by the time I could get there. That said, my brother in-law lives in one of the far NW suburbs, and found the Bramble at his local Binny's today. ...

Jorge Henriquez wrote: ↑
November 29th, 2018, 7:20 pm
Hate to admit it but 2018 BCBS reg is legitimately great! No Coffee this year right?

The Barleywine and Coffee are combined this year.

I look forward to the daily review. I am surprised they don't make a ton of them. I could see a large population of wine drinkers who would love this. As mentioned above it would be cool to see this with better wines. I could see something from Washington State that offers some good, not great prod...

Day-2 Cabernet Sauvignon from South Australia Non Vintage, 13.5% IMG_3201.JPG Not much aroma, nothing much on the nose. First taste I was kinda, "Hmmm..." but it did begin to smooth out some. Black fruits, some smoke and tar, with a touch of cinnamon, and a little vanilla. Had a meaty profile. Thoug...

Robert, it cost about $70. Craig, it was a giant plastic twist off. I’ve seen these on other lesser priced sparklers. I putzed with it for a bit expecting a pop. In the end it just twisted off with little fanfare. I find the idea of a box like this kind of fascinating as well. I’ve seen online a cou...

Glad to hear you're ok.

Day-1 Prosecco Italy 11% Part of the "Festive Collection" [shrug.gif] IMG_2863.JPG First thoughts were that this wine is VERY fizzy, wants to explode in your mouth. Otherwise, crisp and dry. Very much on the pectin side, lots of pear flavor. Light, straw color. Towards the end, it began to get a bit...

Jim Brennan wrote: ↑
December 1st, 2018, 12:21 pm
You should get some Lunchmate to go with the wine, sort of their version of charcuterie

I also got their cheese calendar. Not sure if they are aligned to pair or not.

Aldi, the discount grocery store chain that also owns Trader Joe's, put together an "Advent Calendar" for adults. It's a case of 24 small bottles of wine (187ml), a variety of reds and whites from all over the world. They started selling them locally on Nov. 7 at 9:00 AM. By 8:58 they were all gone....

Jud Reis wrote: ↑
November 29th, 2018, 3:33 pm
2013 Scherrer Old And Mature Vines Zin - Lovely nose of blackberry compote, slate and black pepper. Still youthful on the palate with a lovely balance of exburant blackberry fruit and balancing minerality and acidity. A pinot lover’s zinfandel. Great wine year in and year out.

Love Fred’s wines

Butcher & The Burger
(it's a high-end burger joint)
1021 W. Armitage Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 697-3735
BYOB. No corkage; but lousy glassware.
butcherandtheburger.com/

From the charity thread https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2623474#p2623474 2013 Bedrock, Puccini Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, Zinfandel Popped and poured into cheap glasses with no decant. Big Zin. Deep dark and brooding. Firm tannins and lots of mouthfeel. Somewhat puc...

Last night my wife and I, along with another couple, went to a wine tasting with Kathleen Inman. After some killer Pinots, we walked over to Butcher & The Burger (on Armitage in Lincoln Park, Chicago) - great burgers, and it's BYOB. We brought a Bedrock Puccini. 2013 Bedrock, Puccini Vineyard, Sonom...

I do like Zins

2014 Spy Valley Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand We went to NZ a couple of years ago and hit both of the big islands. Really enjoyed Hawke's Bay and Otago. We both decided that we weren't big fans of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, but we liked some of the other varietals there. We generally ...

Had some Pinots recently from a well known Sonoma Coast producer, and finding everything older than 2011 to be suspect.

2011 Kosta-Browne Sonoma Coast
Hate to say, but I think it’s past it’s prime. Lots of acid. Some cranberry. I’ll try harder next time.

It's been a dozen or so years ago, but we did the "stroll the city" thing as well. Lots of tastings just walking around. Surprised how many, and how accommodating they were, and how good some of the wines were. Lots of Vino Nobile. Can't remember any specific spots, but we had a great time.

You had me talked into buying a couple, but they are all sold-out now.

larry schaffer wrote: ↑
November 18th, 2018, 11:39 am
Say it ain't so . . .

I have a bottle each of your last two, so I’ll keep it going.

Crap. I just had one the other day and didn’t take notes.

Getting into the beers from Off Color (http://www.offcolorbrewing.com/ ). They have a taproom near me called The Mousetrap where they feature their experimental beers, native yeast beers, and sours. Tried these two yesterday: The Miscellanea Really nice sour. Lots of depth. IMG_3154.JPG The Wari Sim...

CBS a once impossible beer seems to be plentiful around here right now, they must be cranking it out? Picked up some bba Expedition stout yesterday which I’m looking forward to this weekend. Had the CBS last week at the local Whole Foods. They had it on tap, and they had bottles for sale. Comes in ...

Joe B wrote: ↑
November 12th, 2018, 4:12 pm

Markus S wrote: ↑
November 11th, 2018, 11:47 am

blarmston wrote: ↑
November 11th, 2018, 7:12 am
.... Sounds like you are the only winemaker in Napa/The World who has never a bad vintage...
In California, the climate is such that every year is perfectly the same. They call it "The Golden Climate".
I thought it was called the state of combustion.

Not funny

2013 Liquid Farm Chardonnay, Four, Sta. Rita Hills
Full body. Golden color. Plenty acidity. Tart cream? Smooth, easy to drink.

Not really sure where to post this, but the place is kind of a BYOB, but has anybody heard of Birch Road Cellar? There is one on Armitage. Appears to be a "private club" where you can store some wine, and then go there and drink it. https://www.birchroadcellar.com/ Wondering if anyone here in Chicag...

Sh@n A wrote: ↑
November 9th, 2018, 9:44 am
I wish Tokaji's came in 375s or 200s! 500ml seems like a lot to polish off by myself. But it sounds like they keep well in the fridge; with a "Repour" on it, should go long.

Whoa! 500ml by yourself in one night? I'm already getting a headache just thinking about this.

2011 KB RRV Pinot
Still lots of fruit. Crisp enough with grilled steak.
Good weather in Chicago. Couldn’t pass on the opportunity.
Easy, easy to drink wine.

But it is, in fact, the only major spirit we don't keep in the house. I'm in the same boat. I don't drink it. I used to keep a bottle for when friends came over, but since it's also the liquor of choice for teens I've stopped keeping it in the house. My sister was telling me... She and her husband ...

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