Region: South Eastern Australia

Price: $5.99 at Total Wine

ABV: 7.5%

Sight: very pale greenish yellow, fritzy little bubbles

Smell: peach, orange

Taste: sweet, canned peaches/pears, orange

Overall: Yes, really—a $6 Moscato.  Deal with it.  This effort is from Casella Wines, who are also the makers of Yellow Tail.  This sweet little value play is EXACTLY what most of my (OF AGE) college friends are looking for.  If I had to describe this in one word, I would probably just say “cute.”  It smells sweet and peachy with a hint of citrus.  It tickles the palate with a light little effervescence, tastes like a canned fruit cocktail with a hit of orange peel to pucker you up.  The sweetness and the tartness balance each other out nicely, and neither one is over-the-top.  The big peach note and the fritzy bubbles basically make this a Moscato d’Asti-on-a-budget.  If you’re really not looking to spend much, but you’re on your way to a party and want something cold that tastes like candy and summertime, try this.  It’s a $6 bottle that drinks like a $9 bottle.  Ambitious?  No.  But it’s definitely enjoyable for the price.

Region: Barsac, Bordeaux, France

Price: $24.99 at Total Wine

Sight: Versailles gold

Smell: butterscotch, apricot, guava, almond

Taste: sweet, apricot, honey, butterscotch candy, orange, almond

Overall: Glorious.  This dessert wine has a perfume of sweet apricots and buttery almonds.  The texture of the wine is like a luxurious blanket over the palate, and the apricot notes are amplified all the way to the nutty almond finish.  A hit of orange lightly strikes the glands, bringing in some acidity to balance out the filled-out honey sweetness.  The core of the flavor of this entire experience is something like butterscotch candy.  I bought this for my dad for Father’s Day, and when he tasted it, he said, “It’s my grandmother’s house!” and I said, “…What?”  and he said, “Butterscotch candies!”  Something about this wine brought back the memory of his grandmother’s ever-present bowl of Brach’s butterscotch hard candies.  And that’s why wine is so awesome.  It really can take you anywhere.

Region: Utah

Price: $7.99 at Total Wine

ABV: 9%

Sight: perfectly yellow amber

Smell: skunky hops, toffee, honey, orange oil

Taste: toffee, honey, orange, hop bitterness, musky-sweet finish

Overall: When it comes to reviewing beer, I’ve learned not to expect anything, at least for now, because more often than not I’m taken by surprise.  I was not expecting such massive sweet malt at the center of this pilsner.  This isn’t crisp and clean; rather it’s full-bodied and dripping with honey.  It wafts up a sweet toffee aromatic that becomes the core flavor on the palate.  Something like orange oil throws itself into the mix as well.  However, it’s not all candy—the hops create a subtle, skunky sort of aroma; that grassy, musky smell that reminds you of the fact that hops are indeed related to weed.  That particular perfume fades for most of the sipping experience, but it re-emerges on the finish to counteract the honey and play down the sweetness of the beer.  Overall, musk and all, this is pretty delicious.  The creamy body and subtle funk would make this a great pairing for goat cheese. 

Price: $12.99 at Total Wine

Region: Delaware

Style: Witbier

ABV: 10%

Sight: hazy golden amber, beautiful lacing

Smell: black grape, purple Smarties candy, vanilla

Taste: full-body, vanilla oak, cherry candy, ginger, coriander

Overall:  Holy crap, this is not your average Witbier!  Fermented with California Pinot Noir juice and aged in oak, this is a massive, MASSIVE, decadent, candied brew.  Personally, I get very little of the traditional Witbier aromas and flavors.  There’s a lot of sweet red fruit, vanilla from the oak, and candy on the nose.  I think of purple Smarties, or that “grape candy” flavor.  The flavors are quite complex and the beer has a super-full body.  There’s sticky-sweet cherry candy fruit and more vanilla oak, and the finish gets exciting with a spicy, robust ginger-coriander finish.  With the alcohol ringing it at a cozy 10% ABV, this is a perfect beer for the end of the night.  Absolutely luscious, appealing, and dessert-like!

Pairing: Slice French bread.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Season with salt, pepper, garlic, and parmesan.  Bake at 350 until bread is crispy.  Put slices of dill Havarti on top of bread slices; leave in the oven until cheese is melted.

It’s been a while since I last reviewed a Riesling, and I figured it’s about time I do one again, especially since the last one sucked.  I’ve had other bad Rieslings since then, but I’ve also tasted some top-notch ones, and I have to say, there are few things more delicious than a premium Riesling that gets the balance of sweetness and acidity just right.

This next one is a little value play from Washington, called Rock View Riesling.  It’s on the sweet side, and I’ve noticed a lot of people buy this on a regular basis.  Here’s what I thought:

Region: Columbia Valley, Washington

Price: $7.99 at Total Wine

Sight: very pale

Smell: peach, apple, pineapple, mellow

Taste: seashell, golden delicious apple, kiwi, pineapple finish

Overall:  Full disclosure: I think I had this too cold or something, because the bouquet seems a little too quiet.  I was trying so hard to get a good sniff of this wine, and it took accidentally touching my nose to the wine to realize how far into the glass I was.  The aromatics aren’t huge, but I do get some peach up front, appley aromas, and some tropical fruit.  Upon tasting this wine, I realized I had a HUGE announcement to make to all of you: THERE ARE A SQUILLION OF YOU WHO WOULD LOVE THIS WINE.  AND IT’S ONLY EIGHT DOLLARS.  It starts out crisp, like biting into a golden delicious apple, and it gains a momentum of sweetness as lively tropical fruit flavors emerge.  The sweetness never gets too sweet or gloopy—it’s capped by a seashelly mineral edge, followed by a flavorful pineapple finish.  The acidity follows and hits your glands, like candy.  This refreshing, medium-bodied Riesling is much better than I expected—probably because it’s such a flirt.  You’re going to want some this summer; write it down.  It’ll be one of the great less-than-$10 victories of the season.

Price: $14.99/6-pk at Total Wine

Region: San Francisco, California

Style: American Barleywine

ABV: 9.4%

Sight: tawny body, tan head (little retention)

Smell: white raisin, coconut milk, banana, little whiff of alcohol

Taste: banana bread, sweet malt, piña colada candy, touch of mocha, medium body

Overall: In wine, there’s something called “dessert wine.”  They’re extra sweet ones that you sip slowly because they’re so saturated with flavor.  If there was a “dessert beer,” barleywine would be it!  True to form, this barleywine boasts a very candied element—in this case, the flavor is somewhat reminiscent of a piña colada flavored Dum Dum.  Also, there is a TON of banana.  Picture a literal TON of bananas.  There is a bit of mocha on the finish—which is the closest this ale ever gets to “bitter.”  The alcohol is not detectable on the palate, though there is a pleasant warming sensation with each sip.  I paired this with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (classic GRAPE jelly…I mean, come on) on toasted wheat bread because somebody said it would be a good idea.  Incidentally, the two go perfectly together, probably because of the in-your-face banana note that the beer is playing (volume = 11)—it’s almost like eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich.  The jelly somewhat de-emphasizes the sweetness of the barleywine, lending it a slightly more bitter finish.  Some acidity becomes more evident, as well.  I have to say, my palate is still growing, and while I find this beer completely enjoyable, I do prefer it with food.  I’m always the girl who will pick malts over hops, but this is SO malty and sweet that having something with a slight savory edge to pair with it definitely evens out the flavors for me.  In short, this pairing is quite delicious at the end of a long day, especially when you don’t feel like making anything elaborate.  If you’ve never had a barleywine… why not?!

Time to celebrate!  It is the first bubbly of the blog—and no it’s not Champagne… it’s sparkling Moscato!  This is another tasting note you can thank Hannah for.  She had this Maschio Moscato Spumante Cadoro at a restaurant and loved it so much that she just had to track it down and find it.  She searched high and low, found it again, and I was fortunate enough to be there when she opened it.  We paired it with a creamy chicken alfredo.  

Region: Apulia (southern Italy)

Grape: Muscat

Price: $16.99

Sight: Straw yellow

Smell: Pineapple, pear, musk

Taste: Green apple, pear, apricot, pleasant sweetness, zippy acidity

Overall:  I really loved this wine and would definitely drink it again.  The bubbles were very fine, gentle and steady.  The aroma was straight up perfume.  It had a nice tropical scent, but also a little stinkyness that gave it a little maturity and weight.  (I’m always hesitant to call it “stinkyness” because it doesn’t sound appetizing, so I initially called it “musk,” if that’s alright.)  The fruit was crisp and fresh; I was stuck on the green apple, while for Hannah the most prominent flavor was the apricot.  The wine wasn’t overly sweet or gloopy—rather the sweetness funneled off nicely into a slim tartness that kept the finish feeling fresh without puckering me up.  This was a well-balanced wine, and a great pairing for our chicken alfredo.  Kudos to Hannah for her excellent selection!