2006 Chateau Lyonnat Lussac St. Emilion

 

 After I read the Wine Bible I became a bit of a Francophile for a while. I went in for months only wanting to drink French wine, mainly because all of those obscure wine labels with pictures of large chateaus on label finally made sense to me, I could read them and understand what I was buying, I felt like I had learned a new language - it was fun.

What is also really fun is perusing the bin end section of your local wine shop. You know all the bottles that for one reason or another are marked down below their normal price, usually due to damaged wine labels or whatnot. As you can see from this picture, this wine was originally priced at $20, but due to some wine stains on the label it was marked down to $14. Sweet.

I bought this probably about 6 or so months ago. I don't usually buy wine that I haven't tried before, but every once and a while it is fun to not know what you are getting yourself into.

So, here goes. It was good, very good. I actually thought it could have had more time in the bottle and gotten better, there was a slight green-ness to the wine, it was still great, but I think it would be better in a couple years. (Hmm a novel idea in this wine age, a wine that can actually lay down for a bit and get better, not beg to drunk the day you buy it.)

This is a blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Cab Franc. Now, Cab Franc is one of my least favorite varietals, I haven't come across a 100% Cab Franc that I wanted to drink, most of them give me the smelly fart face. However, in small quantities it does add tannin and heft to wine and it works here. It had a great earthy note and a slight berry flavor...thank you merlot, it was an all over palate pleaser. Now, at $20 it may be more money than people want to spend on a Wednesday night wine, but at only 12.5% alcohol it is the perfect wine to drink on a school night, or if you happen to be driving that night, two glasses won't put you over the edge.

The Particulars

Winery: Chateau Lyonnat
Varietal:Merlot, Cabernet, Cab Franc

AVA: St. Emilion

Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 12.5
Price:  $20 (Bin End at $14)

Rating = BUY IT

Lamplighter Cabernet - the perfect wedding crasher wine

Our neighbors upstairs from us in Vermont like to drink wine and they don't give a shit what kind of wine it is, jug wine, box wine, whatever and we love them because just like us, they always have wine in the house, half of which they have no idea what it is or what it tastes like. We love going to their condo because we can bring whatever wine we want and they don't care what it is or want to talk about it, they just want to drink it. Now.

On Saturday we decided to have a couple bottles of wine at their house before we headed out to hear some live music at a local place. We finished a bottle of Smoking Loon Merlot that they had open when we came, and then we opened this little gem that we had bought at a local market for the whopping price of $5.99. I had no expectations from this wine - but was so pleasantly surprised by this medium bodied wine with the hint of cocoa and dark cherries. It was easy to drink and for the price was a veritable steal!

So, we finished the wine and headed out to the pub to hear the band, we pulled into the pub parking lot and as we got out of the car were greeted with the most amazing music wafting through the hot August night air, the problem was, the music was not coming from the pub in which we were going, it was coming from the restaurant across the street. We decided to check it out and realized that the music was indeed a wedding band, playing at what clearly was a wedding reception.

It was at this point, fueled by the liquid courage of a few glasses of vino at the house that on my bucket list there might actually be a line item for "crash a wedding". So indeed that is what I did, with my neighbor Jan. The husbands hung back and wouldn't go into the open air wedding reception structure. I looked at Jan and stated that you can't actually say you crashed a wedding unless you have a drink and dance, so we went to the cash bar and ordered two glasses of wine, and do you know what the wine was that night? Lamplighter - thats right - between the same wine and the full moon it just felt like we were supposed to crash this wedding. So, we danced under the full moon with about 50 or 60 people who were complete strangers. No harm no foul right? It is Vermont.

The Particulars

Winery: Lamplighter
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon

AVA: Napa Valley, California

Vintage: Non Vintage
Alcohol: 13.8%
Price:  $5.99

Rating = BUY IT

Esporao Reserva 2006

I bought this wine so long ago at a tasting and I've just been waiting for a laid back night to enjoy it. And really, sitting here with the laptop in front of me, glass of red wine by my right hand is the perfect setting for this wine. I just love it. This wine is a mix of Aragones, Trincadeira, Cabernet and Alicante Bouschet (a varietal I became familiar with on our trip to Lodi California a few years ago), if you don't know these varietals, please do not let that stop you from experimenting with new wines, you should always try new shit - and the shit coming out of Portugal right now is pretty friggin fantastic. This wine is huge fruit forward, jammy in your face, with just the hint of sweetness on the end, and the 14.5% alcohol doesn't come through at all, there is no hotness or burn at all. Give it a try.


The Particulars
Winery: Esporoa 
Varietal: Aragones, Trincadeira, Cabernet and Alicante BouschetDOC: ReguengosVintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14.5%
Price:  $23

Rating = Buy It