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What’s On Our Wine Rack?

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Do you think we prefer reds to whites!?

First a bit about our wine buying style: For the most part we buy wines that are drinkable now. While we may hold onto a wine for a long time, in general we don’t purchase bottles with the intention of aging (maybe someday we’ll have some neat cellar for that..) For us, wine is typically opened during cocktail hour while we’re beginning to prepare dinner. We prefer it when wines stand on their own for porch sippin’ rather than requiring the perfect food pairing. While I do love a good food pairing, if it doesn’t taste good on its own I’m not likely to buy it.

My dad has a neat system of record keeping where he writes where he bought (or who gifted) his wine and the price on the bottle. I need to start doing that if I’m going to share more posts on wine because I have no record of the exact price on any of these. A funny story: my dad doesn’t use decimal points when he labels bottles so once time we were served a wine and “$75” was written on the back. We thought we were enjoying a $75 bottle! It was actually purchased for $7.50. Ha!

Let’s see what’s hanging out on our wine rack ready to be poured into a glass or carried to a party….

The wine taking up the most real estate is Trentadue’s Old Patch Red. Trentadue holds a special place in our hearts because it was one of our favorite wineries from our honeymoon. Recently Market Street Wine Shop featured it for only $9.99 a bottle! We loved it as much as we remembered during a Friday night tasting and picked up half a case.

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Matt and I love big, bold reds – especially ones described as juicy, chewy, inky, velvety and the like. To fill the rest of our Market Street case we picked out some old favorites and wild cards.

Charles & Charles Red Blend is one we first picked up at Beer Run (that’s right, a beer store!).  We were just looking for a recommendation to go with a grilled flank steak and one of the staff pointed us towards this bottle.  It was described as a winery with rockstar attitude, making wines that are bold and exciting but drinkable now.  We like that the small blended amount of Syrah tones down the Cabernet and adds some fruitiness to the background.

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I recognized this bottle on the shelf as something I had had in a restaurant before and liked, although I couldn’t tell you where. 2010 Bodegas Breca “Breca” Garnacha is a 100% Spanish Garnacha from old vines. I don’t know a ton about wine, but I know that when I see the words “old vines” on a bottle I’m usually going to love what’s inside. Old vines are less productive plants, but the fruit tends to be juicier and more intense.  This is a wine to save for a weekend – it’s got quite the punch to it.

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This 2007 Casa del Canto Roble is a wild card that was on sale for a great price at a weekly tasting, likely for under $10. (I usually jump on any wine $10 and under that gets a thumbs up at a weekly tasting.) Also from Spain, this guy is a blend of Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah and was vibrant and juicy with a touch of pepper.

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This lone white was another wine tasting purchase. It hails from Greece, and my dad purchased is for us while he was visiting and we went to a tasting together. My sister happened to be IN Greece at the time, so it was a fun full circle. I believe we paid only $9 for this guy.

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The last wine on our upstairs rack was a recent purchase I made when our family met at Sans Soucy vineyards in Virginia. This is the 2010 Legacy, their flagship wine. It’s a blend of chambourcin, tempranillo and cabernet franc that was dried in Southern Virginia tobacco barns. I found it to be full bodied and really juicy and knew Matt would like to taste it. At $25, it is definitely the most expensive wine on our rack, but as a memento from the day and a local wine, it will be worth it when we pop open the cork.

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Downstairs in the brewery we have our overflow rack, which is currently half full (not half empty!) These are bottles that won’t fit in our IKEA wall rack or extras we have on hand.

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There are two bottles of our favorite wine of 2013 – the Garnacha de Fuego Old Vines. It’s the cousin to the Breca above. The wine is the definition of “jammy” and rings in under $10 on sale. We love it as our “take to a party” wine. It’s always great to have a crowd-pleaser wine around.  For that category we usually look for something leaning away from bold and tannic, and more towards fruity and medium bodied.

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Here’s a local wine we bought at White Hall Vineyards when we went tasting with Larbs and Matt. We also bought their Cab and Petit Verdot, but apparently we already drank those : ) This Chardonnay is just how I love them – lush and mildly oaked. White Hall has a commitment to making wines that are drinkable now rather than intended for aging.

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Matt can remember any bottle of wine he’s ever had whereas I might only recognize a label or a wine I’ve had over and over. He must have a taste memory. We will often pick a bottle off a shelf and he’ll say “Oh you loved that.” I did!? This is one. I generally love Petite Sirah (and Verdot)! and the McManis is a good one. It’s full of ripe black fruit.

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Old Vine Zinfandels are also high on my favorite varietal list (Merlots are low on it…) and I almost always love them. This Sivas Sonoma comes from our beloved Sonoma, California and was a recommendation from Market Street Wineshop to pair with Osso Bucco. It’s a little bolder and more tannic than most of the Old Vine Zins we like so it’s probably more appropriate to pair with food to soften it up.

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Next time would you like to take a peek in our beer fridge!?

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What’s on your wine rack?

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I’d definitely like to take a peek in your beer fridge! 🙂 I don’t have a wine rack because I generally don’t have much of it at my place. I like really sweet wines like Rieslings and Moscatos, and every once in a while I’ll be gifted a nice bottle by my parents or family friends. My parents are the ones who have the nice wine so anytime I’m in the mood I go to their place and see what they ordered. I am ordering a few great hard ciders for fall, so my collection of those might be interesting!

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  2. Kath I love this post! I too only buy wine that’s drinkable now. I don’t have the storage space (or budget!) to be buying things that I can drink in year(s) to come. And I am a big fan of $10 to $15 wines. Anything more than that, for at-home drinking and not entertaining, I really think twice. Great suggestions!

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  4. I wish I was a wine/alcohol drinker…it gives me an instant headache…sigh.

    So when you thought the wine was $75 did it taste different when you found out it was a frugal $7.50? 🙂 I know people who swear they can tell the difference and refuse to drink anything under a certain price point. It just makes me want to buy them a four buck Chuck from Trader Joe’s and transfer it to another bottle. HA!

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  5. Beer fridge peek? Yes!

    I love Apothic Red for a reasonable bottle of wine!

    And I definitely need to start a wine collection. We have been looking for a good furniture piece to act as a “bar” and I want to get an awesome wine rack for the dining room wall. One day….

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    • i just tried that after a suggestion and i didn’t like it! tragic. usually i am all about the red! i’ll only have sweet with the bf (his pick, hilariously), and everything else with my papa.

      my favorite easy summery wine right now is called adesso. it’s sort of in between “too sweet” and “real red.” i’m also digging zinfandel right now (the red kind).

      i guess i should give apothic red one more try… maybe it was just a bad bottle.

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  6. Give Cline Ancient Vine Zinfandel a try. I’m really liking Australia’s take on Rhone-style red blends (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre or GSM’s for those “in the know.”) I’ve been enjoying Stump Jump lately — perfect for summer grilling. Another, Oxford Landing, is very forward on the Syrah — ‘scuse me, Shiraz in Aussie world — and I love that with BBQ. Plus, Oxford Landing is ridiculous in price, only $9.99! Salud!

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  7. Love this post! I also prefer bold reds like syrahs (or Shiraz) wines. I love trying local wines, on my case from TT he mm Niagara region (Canadian side), and Prince Edward county in eastern Ontario. One of my all time faced was a syrah my husband and I sampled on a wine tour in Niagara-On-The-Lake called Stonechurch winery. It was fruity and smoky all at once….we should have bought more bottles back home!
    And yes I would love to see inside your beer fridge!

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  9. I loved this post and I’m not even a huge fan of red wine. Gasp! My husband is the red wine drinker while I prefer whites and bubbles in my wine. I’m trying to learn to appreciate red wine but I just can’t find it in me to pour a glass of red in the hot summer months of NC. Can’t wait to see a beer write-up!

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  11. I always trust your wine opinion because we have such similar palettes! In fact, De Fuego is my (and my 3 closest girlfriends) favorite wine! We all nearly cried when Wold Market said they were no longer producing it. Thankfully that was short lived! Old Vine Zins and Shiraz are almost always on the top of my list! I also really enjoy Spanish wines.

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  12. I love bold reds too! We spent a week in Napa last December, and planning on 11 days this December. I have a feeling I’ll never want to come home after that long stay. Right now we have a bottle of Prisner that I am waiting to drink for a special occasion. We also have some wines from Amphora, Bennet Lane, and my favorite.. Elanor. It’s a limited edition blend from Coppola.

    Is it bad that you have me craving a glass of wine at 9 AM?

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    • We got these after seeing on a post last year. They look really cool, but beware….not all bottles fit (our favorite doesn’t) and you have to be careful because it tears the labels. We ended up not using and are still searching for a wall rack. Not easily found!

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  14. My husband and I just plain don’t like wine – neither of us has ever tasted one we liked the taste of! So yes, I’d love a look at the beer fridge. 🙂

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  18. We LOVE the Biltmore Estate brand wines. My husband and I went to a tasting there and didn’t know the prices of what we picked as our favorites. We were pleasantly surprised when we went to buy the bottles and they were in the $10-$15 range! The Red and White “century” wine is great-I like white and he likes red but we both liked them! They also had a blush type of wine and I can’t remember the exact name but it was also delish!

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  19. My husband likes red-heavy, like chianti. I prefer dry whites. Our poor wine rack is filled 4 out of 6 slots 🙁 Two of which we will never drink. They are way more than aged and are not supposed to be. One is from when Funnycide won the KY derby 2003- we were at The Derby and the horse that won was from Saratoga NY where we are from. The other is from when our company sponsored the Superbowl in 1997. Remember when Progressive had the commercial with Stevie Wonder driving a car even though he was blind? Not a good marketing campaign. I think we would be sick if ever we tried any of those two. Saving for sentimental reasons!

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  22. Loved this post! Also would love post on your beer fridge.

    We have a red and rose Thumbprint from Healdsburg, CA on our rack. As well as a Chardonnay from Kenwood Vineyards, & Kenwood’s Jack London series Zinfandel, Stags Leap Cabernet, Round Hill Cabernet, some older Korbel’s, and also a white from The Big Island that we thought was interesting from Volcano Winery. That’s all I can think of right now. We usually drink very local wines. I also like to buy wine that you can drink right away.

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  23. I’d love love love to see inside your beer fridge! Like you, my husband loves the porters, the darker the better. I prefer wine myself so I enjoyed this post. I don’t think you’ve posted on this yet (someone please direct me if you have) but how did you manage to still enjoy wine and beer while exclusively breast feeding? I am a mom to an almost 5 week old little boy!! I’ve missed my wine so much and am trying to find a way to balance nursing, pumping, and some delicious cocktails. Not able to get much direction from the Internet searches….this may be a touchy topic for some so I understand if you’re not comfortable commenting! Thanks 🙂

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  24. My family owns a winery and I get “paid” when I run the tasting room in wine. I am pregnant with my second child so I have a full wine rack just teasing me. I love jammy spicy reds too and created a blend for our winery that is delicious. I also love Prosecco after our honeymoon in Italy and always have a bottle or two in the wine cooler.

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  25. We are “tweeners” as they say. We have a ton of Reisling and probably some reds that are on the sweeter side, but we usually like any Reisling.

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  26. This is a really helpful post! I’m pulling this up the next time I go wine shopping. 🙂 I also like reds described as “jammy” and tend to like red zins and garnachas. Have you tried the Octagon red wine at Barboursville? Insane! It’s a $50 bottle but it is the smoothest, most complex wine I’ve ever had.

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  27. I choose not to drink, but I do love cooking with wine (and beer in spicy pumpkin chili during autumn!). I love this post, and all of the bottles are very eye-catching, which makes your storage of them actually quite decorative! 🙂

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  28. I really need to get better at tracking the wines we love. There are several news ones for me in this list. I will need to check them out soon. Love when you can find a good wine around the $10 mark.

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  29. My mom is really into collecting wine, my dad even had his workshop in our basement turned into a wine cellar for her birthday about 10 years ago. I, however, know very little about wine… something I’d love to work on!

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  31. I’ll have to pin this one for later- I love big, juicy reds, especially in the winter. The Garnacha de Fuego looks especially appealing…might take a trip to the wine shop this afternoon after naptime.

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  32. Thanks for this post, such a great idea! Since I left the serving industry a couple of years ago, I feel like I’ve stopped paying attention to what type of wine I drink. I have been know to pick up a bottle based on its good-looking label design…which works sometimes haha. My current favourite is Kim Crawford Pinot Noir!

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  33. The last time you talked about wine and used the term “jammy” or “chewy”, you posted a link in the comments to a site that listed different wine terminology. Do you mind re-posting that link? I lost it. Thanks!

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  34. Well, currently there’s only ONE bottle on my wine rack — Fetzer Cab Sauv from TJ’s. I seem to have a problem keeping it full 🙂

    That Greek wine must be the one we tasted at Market St!

    (Great posts this week, btw. I really liked yesterday’s re: veggies — totally bookmarked)

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  36. Yes to peek at the beer fridge! Question for you: Where did you honeymoom, Napa or Sonoma? We are planning a trip to Napa next fall and I’d love any recommendations 🙂

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    • Sonoma! (We have been to Napa before too). We loved the Inn at Sonoma (part of Four Sisters Inns, which are all great). I am partial to the Russian River Valley and the Alexander Valley. And Dry Creek. ALL the wineries there are good.

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  37. What a fun post! I’ve significantly cut back on my wine intake, but it’s always fun to read about favorites and it is a helpful tool for picking out a bottle for an occasion! 🙂

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  38. I would love a peak inside the beer fridge!

    It’s fun to see your different wines. I don’t recognize any of these, but they’re all great prices. I’ll have to remember them. Pretty much all of our wine collection is from Napa/Sonoma. I live in SF so we often go on day trips for wine tasting, and I usually buy a bottle or two.

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  40. Hi Kath,

    One of our favorite blends now is Apothic Red. We also love Menage a Tois but Apothic is now our favorite red blend. Others that we love are Meiomi Pinot Noir and Wild Thing Zinfandel by Carol Shelton.

    Thanks for your wine line-up!
    Jonna

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  42. It sounds like we have similar wine tastes – I actually recently tried Charles & Charles and really enjoyed it. I’m a big Zinfandel fan, and Apothic Red is one of my favorite red blends, as is Promisqous, both from California. I nearly always pick red over white, but have enjoyed a few different whites over the hot summer months!

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  43. I have that exact same wine rack! I love it! We just moved into our first home, so we’re still working on filling it.

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  44. My wine rack is full of wine from the Shenandoah valley….oh, and my closet is full too since I only have three slots on my wine rack. Im from the valley and did a major stock up at the local vineyards when I was home this summer. LOVE me some VA wines 🙂

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  45. My new favorite wine (especially in the Summer) is New Age White. It is amazingly refreshing served over ice with a twist of lime. Almost like a margarita. Being from Michigan, I tend to change my wine with the seasons. Refreshing white, Sauvignon Blanc in Spring/Summer and a deep red in the Fall/Winter. I also appreciate a restaurant where you can order your meal and trust them to pick the perfect wine to accompany your meal choice.

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  47. That Lovisolo Gavi is actually Italian, not Greek. It’s from the Gavi DOC growing area in Piedmonte, made From the area’s indigenous cortese grape.

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      • I’ve had problems identifying a wine’s origin, too, but I can usually look to the label for guidance. Was that not the case for this particular wine?

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  48. I’d love to see y’all beer fridge! It seem like y’all are always trying/making new beers and I’d love to see what y’all enjoy! I love wheat beers personally!

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  50. We like big red wines too, but seem to drink more whites in the summer. Down by you, Barboursville Octagon is one of my favorite red wines. It’s expensive though so we haven’t had that in a while.

    I heard Charlottesville may be getting a Wegman’s grocery store which would be good news for you. I used to work by the one at Dulles, but sometimes now we drive out to the Gainesville, Va Wegmans just to stock up on wine. They have great prices including some good $6 bottles.

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  51. PLEASE get Alamos Malbec!! It is avail at most grocery stores in Oregon and I’m sure you can find it…not too $$…bet. 10-20 but very very drinkable on its own…watch out 13.5% alc..similar to zins and cabs however, which it seems like you already enjoy. 🙂

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  52. Wines don’t tend to linger in our house…hence no need for an actual wine rack but I bet I would like a lot of the reds you’ve mentioned here..going with a list to the liquor store!
    Latest favourites:

    Grant Burge Cameron Vale Cabernet Sauvignon: rich, dark and oh so good. Pricey but worth it for a special occasion
    Wolf Blass Red Label Shiraz Grenache
    Sledgehammer

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  53. It must be a guy thing because my husband, Adam, can remember so much more about the wines we’ve had than I can. Must be something like all the sports statistics he can recall! When we were in undergrad together we took a wine tasting class and that really started our formal love affair with drinking wine! Our most favorite wines are big, bold, spicy zins. If you get a chance to try any of the Seghesio zins, I don’t think you’ll be dissapointed. Seghesio is a Healdsburg winery…love love love Sonoma!

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  54. Have you tried Cline Old Vine Zinfandel? It is one if our favorites and reasonably priced. Love the wine post !!

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  56. I’m sure you’ve heard of it but apparently there is a place in cville called wine made simple and all the bottles are under 20$! A lady at Afton Mtn Vineyards told me about it and I can’t wait to check it out!

    I like “drinkable” wines as well so I always have a hard time with reds because I feel like I need a big juicy steak to enjoy them- I’ll have to check these out 🙂

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  57. Great list!! I just love the cheap wines! $4 buck chuck (remember when it was $3 buck chuck) and Franzia Chardonnay. Keepin’ it simple!!

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  58. Love the Virginia wines! We vacation in Floyd, VA and became members of Chatteau Morrisette winery. They have a great variety of reds and whites- our favorite is a red blend called The Black Dog.

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  59. I must admit, I know a lot more about beer than wine. I can describe every nuance in the complexity of the flavor of beer. I still enjoy a glass of wine on occasion and am partial to reds. Lately I have been loving 14 hands “Hot to Trot” but I look forward to trying these as well!

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  60. I love your detailed report. I’m no connoisseur of wine, I just know that I like it! 😉 A California blend called Apothic Red was recommended to us at The Tobacco Company in Richmond a few years ago, and then we found it at Costco. That’s always a good thing!

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  61. Great post! Check out the app called “Corkbin”. You can use it to track your favorite wines (with photos!!), and would be a great place for you to record the prices along with the notes for the different wines.

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  62. great post.

    last year when we dropped our middle son off at college in Oregon, my husband and I went to various wineries in the willamette valley and bought 4 bottles.

    1 for each year of his college years, to be enjoyed after his last final. The bottles ranged in price from around $10 for the least cheapest ( freshman year) to a 2006 special reserve Pinot Noir that we paid $50 for ( graduation)

    We dropped our youngest off for her freshman year at Providence College last week, and again, we headed to a local winery in Rhode Island ( the coast of Rhode Island has ideal growing conditions, on the same latitude as Southern France and Oregon) and we bought our 4 bottles to celebrate her milestones.

    We flew in last night from Oregon where we dropped our son off for his sophomore year. Again, we headed to the Willamette Valley and one of the wines that we bought was an ‘orange wine’

    it is tasty now, but will be better in a year…. it’s a Pinot Gris Rose 🙂

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  63. What a great post! Have tried a few in your list and you definitely picked some good ones. Looking forward to taking note and giving a few of the ones I haven’t tried yet a whirl, thanks so much for sharing this! 🙂

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  64. Love the McManus Petite Sirah!!! Also my go to white is locally produced Nova 7! Fruity with a slight sparkle. Perfect for summer! Also for a less sophisticated “easy drinker” and/or sangria mixer both the white and red Bear Flag blends (you know the one with the cartoon label?) are yummy!

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