Conte Priola Pinot Noir

My Dad, who typically sticks to top notch wines, served us this while in Naples in late January. It was good, but not amazing or impressive. What was impressive was it was only $6.99/bottle that came from a manager recommendation. We had never had an Italian Pinot Noir, and it was certainly stronger than your typical Pinot...almost Chianti-like. Conte Priola gets a thumb up for the value of this Pinot Noir Delle Venezie, but an overall 5 out of 10 on the taste scale - it was a bit 'grapey'. It's a good weekday wine when you may just want a glass or two and are fine letting the remainder go down the drain if it happens to turn before you can revisit it. Try it, make up your own opinion, but I don't think we'll go hunting this down again.

Rust en Vrede Stellenbosch Estate Reserve 2003

This was one of the eight wines that were tightly packed in our baggage home from South Africa - and the best of the bunch. We've saved this for a special occasion, and New Years Eve 2007 was it.

It's $45 at wine.com and we paid equiv to $25 over there...well worth every penny, either way. I saw it on the menu at Harry Carey's for $70 as well. Word on the street is Sam's Wine has it too, but it's not on their website.

Since this post is a month delayed, I can't remember the tasting specifics, other than this currently is the wine to measure all others at a 9.5 out of 10. Here are the winemaker notes from wine.com:

Deep purple color. Massively rich aromas with an array of ripe cherry and blackberry, exotically spiced. The palate is packed with these flavors –deeply concentrated. Almost explosively mouth filling, with a fine tannin finish. Chosen as one of Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines four years in a row.

About Us and This Here Blog

The plan is to drink 52 different bottles of wine in 2008. Call it a New Year's Resolution. We'll rate 'em, discuss 'em, compare 'em...most importantly, drink 'em and bring you along on the journey.

We are a 30 yr. old married couple with a newborn. After years on the bar scene, life has calmed down over the past year and the 4am burrito has been replaced with a dinner, wine, and a movie...and a 11pm weekend bedtime.

We love to travel, we love to drink wine, we love to eat...go ahead, read about it. The purpose of this blog is to simply remember the good wine we've had so we have it again and avoid the bad or mediocre, as life is just too short.

At our favorite vineyard in South Africa, there was a quote on the tasting menu which sums it up well: "Water separates the people of the world, wine unites them."

Cheers!