Relax Riesling

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.  ~Etty Hillesum 


Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the two glasses of Relax Riesling we drink after a long day. The Wine Slob

Yup you caught me, the wine slob drinking a sweet white wine. Not just any sweet wine but Relax Riesling. A very tasty offering from Schmitt Sohne of Germany.


Heck just looking at the bottle had me in a relaxed mood before I could even twist the cap off.

The aromas of apples and peaches are an aroma therapists dream come true. The hint of citrus would bring tears to their eyes. The natural acidity gives the wine a perfect balance that is refreshingly crisp and leaves your mouth watering.A great wine just to kick back with and relax.

“Chill and unwind”

Cheers!


Wine Tasting With Friends

Kendall Jackson Chards and more!

 What a day today was. Had a few friends over for Easter Dinner and also a chance to share a toast to Jess Jackson the founder of Kendall Jackson.

We decided it would be fun to share a few of his different chardonnays as that is what really set him on the road to wine success. Unfortunately some of the chards cost more than the wines I normally post about, so please forgive me for straying.

 Of course we started with the wine that put him at the top of the wine world. The Kendall-Jackson Vintners Reserve Chardonnay. This wine normally retails around $14 to $18 and is a great chard at that price point.

What I like most about it is the fact you can pick up some pineapple flavors along with mango and a touch of honey and citrus. I can taste why it is one of the top selling chardonnays made. After downing a couple bottles
of this we moved on to his Grand Reserve.

The Grand Reserve is always a high scoring wine and is a much smoother and tasty chardonnay that sells for around $20. This wine has more tropical fruits and citrus flavors to it with the finish having a pronounced vanilla and cinnamon taste.

I still haven;t figured out how or where one of my mates found a bottle of the Highland Estates. I know this one sells for about $30 but the stores I haunt never seem to have it (oh well). This wine has a great finish with a nice mineral taste to it.

I broke out a bottle of Matanzas Creek Chard which I've kept around for a special occasion. I really like this wine as it has great tastes of pear, apples and currants with a great mineral finish. This wine retails around $26 but is well worth it. If I wasn't such a wine slob I would probably drink this one more often.

We finished the night with a nice buzz and a glass of Avant Chard. This is a new chard to the KJ lineup and well worth the $12 to $15 it costs. This chard has less oak to it and the fruit flavors are delectable. Very layered flavors of apple, pear and a zest of lemon with a nice mineral finish.

Jess Jackson, we thank you for great chardonnays. Cheers and may your glass always be full. RIP.

The Wine Slob

Wine Tasting With Friends

Santa Cristina Pinot Grigio

 This pleasant pinot grigio (Santa Cristina) was given to me as a gift. Oh yeah nothing better than free wine except maybe for.....well you fill in the blank.

It had a straw-yellow color, fruit aromas of peach and  apples. A balance of sweetness and tartness. It was chilled a tad to much for my taste when it was first poured, so the aromas and flavors did not come through at first. I let my glass sit for almost ten minutes before I tasted it it again and boy howdy did it ever taste dandy.

The next day my interest was peaked in this wine, so I hit the stores looking for it.
At the first stop it was almost $13.00, the second store didn't carry it but I hit pay dirt on my third stop. This store had it priced at $9.99! Quicker than you can say butter my buns, I had my cash out and paying for two bottles of this wine.

This pinot grigio went very well with my grilled chicken breast the next night.

Pinot Grigio is one of the world's most popular wines. Also known under the French moniker "Pinot Gris", and even the German "Ruländer" among others, Pinot Grigio is a chameleon of a grape. It is produced in a range of styles, from the light fruity Italian style that has gained popularity, to a more mineral, flinty rich wine favored by the French - particularly in Alsace - and emulated by many in the new world.

Mezzacorona Moscato

Recently in one of my manager meetings I was tasting the General Managers on some wines that we were going to be adding to our wine lists when it came to my attention that one of our new managers was not a wine drinker and had no experience at all with wine.

I decided I would take my time with him and explain the wines to him in the wine slob way and not with the wine snob twenty five cent words. He would barely take a sip and then spit the wine out.

It was fun trying to get him to tell me if the wine tasted more like grape kool-aid or cherry kool-aid. Soon he was trying to really guess the flavors but did not really enjoy the taste.

Well a couple of weeks pass and we all had to attend an out of town conference. So being the wine slob that I am, I decided to stock up on some good cheap wines from one of my favorite liquor stores instead of paying the price for room service wine.

Knowing that my new guy was going to be there, I decided to buy a couple of sweet white wines for him to try. One of them was the Mezzacorona Moscato pictured and a Riesling.

We decided that we all would meet in my room for a nice glass of wine before heading out for an enjoyable dinner. I opened a couple of reds and the two sweet white wines. I gave Mr. Newby (not his real name)  the Riesling first to taste, he sipped on it and actually drank some of it before sitting his glass down and ignoring it.

I decided to let him try the Moscato. At first he was tentative about drinking it but by his third sip you could see that he was actually trying to taste it and began trying to pick some flavors out of it. He said it was very sweet and tasted like honey and vanilla.

Holy crap was he right. It was sweet and did have nice hints of vanilla, honeydew melon and peach. Now the wine is a bit sweet for my taste but it was still a pleasant drinking wine and it was only about $7.00 for the bottle. It is a great wine for beginners and for those that enjoy a sweeter wine.

As Mr. Newby said after his seventh glass of Moscato that night "It's Like Drinking Kool-aid Through a Straw"