Eschew Obfuscation: Category Wine and Whiskey

Boarding Pass Shiraz 2005

Max Dunn — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:46:00 -0800

Anyone can walk into a wine store and spend a lot of money to get a good bottle of wine. However, for my wife and me the fun part about buying wine is trying to find a good wine for less than $20 – preferably less than $15. These are not easy to find, and we end up with a lot of wine that is fine, but not great.

That is why we were very pleased to find that the Boarding Pass Shiraz 2005 was a really nice wine for about $15. It has a high alcohol content at 15.7%, but the fruit was not overpowering and it has a particularly nice herbal undertone. My wife is not a big Shiraz drinker, but she also enjoyed this wine, so that means it must be good!

Barrel Monkeys 2004 Shiraz McLaren Vale

Max Dunn — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:21:00 -0700

I have always thought that I liked over-the-top wines that were reeking with jammy flavors. I even like syrupy ports. However, I have discovered with the Red Heads Studio Barrel Monkeys 2004 Shiraz McLaren Vale that even I have my limits and prefer wines that don’t slip over to the dark side of being port-like. Now, just to be clear, this is a dry wine with no trace of residual sugar. But the nose has these dark port-like aromas that caught me by surprise. Being a Shiraz too, it had these dark earthy flavors that crusted my tongue. I actually drank a few glasses, so it wasn’t all that bad. But it was interesting to finally find a wine that went slightly over my limit for jamminess.

3 out of 4 stars

Available at:

Ridge 2003 Lytton West Syrah

Max Dunn — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 11:26:14 -0700

Last night, we finally were able to co-ordinate with our friend RexD to come over for dinner. It almost didn’t happen because RexD was up on Montebello Road in Cupertino putting bird nets over the grapes at a small vineyard that he and a group of friends are taking care of. It took longer than he thought, and then he was dirty and sweaty so he went home and showered before coming over. He finally made it 2 hours late, but we are glad that he did because it was great seeing him.

Norman 2003 Zinfandel "The Monster" Paso Robles

Max Dunn — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 11:04:44 -0700

Last spring when we were down in Newport, dinner was going to be ready in 25 minutes and we realized that we didn’t have any wine. So Suzanne and I tore over to Hi-Time Cellar, headed straight downstairs and asked the first employee we saw for the biggest, jammiest zinfandel they had under $20. He thought for a moment and then led us to the Norman Vineyard 2003 Paso Robles Zinfandel, nicknamed “The Monster”. At 15.8% alcohol, it looked like it would fit the bill, and we were not disappointed.

This wine does have the jammy fruit you expect in a zinfandel, but it also has an intriguing nose of oak and vanilla and a level of acidity that gives it a nice complexity. It is a little over the top maybe, but that is okay.

4 out of 5 stars.

As of August 4, 2006, here are some places you can find this wine:

Allimant-Laugner 2004 Pinot Blanc

Max Dunn — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 23:48:11 -0700

For our 16 wedding anniversary, Suzanne and I went to Cafe Marcella and had a great dinner. They had three features wines by the glass, and since we didn’t recognize any of them, asked the waiter for his thoughts. He recommended the Allimant-Laugner 2004 Pinot Blanc, and it turned out to be a great recommendation. It was a dry wine but with a hint of sweetness and a nice layer of vanilla. It had the floral overtones of a sauvignon blanc with the slight buttery finish of a chardonnay, but certainly not overly oaked. Both Suzanne and I really enjoyed it and thought it was one of the best white wines we have had recently. (Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be in wide distribution, but many restaurants do carry it.)

4 out of 5 stars

Teldeschi Zinfandel, 1995 Lot 1

Max Dunn — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 21:27:11 -0700

MD: Fruit has dissapated somewhat, high acidity, nose of straw, drinkable, but not exceptional.
SC: Much better than Barron Herzog, little too acidic.
SD: Lost its fruitiness, taste of cherry, drinkable but Zins should be jammier.

2.5 out of 5 stars

7 Deadly Zins 2004, Zinfandel, Michael and David Phillips

Max Dunn — Sat, 20 May 2006 21:46:00 -0700

It is hard to admit that we like trashy things. Whether it is People magazine, Daniel Steele novels or the O.C., we secretly enjoy them but rarely admit it. So we are bravely standing up and proclaiming that we like 7 Deadly Zins.

This is not the most sophisticated wine, there is not much oak or complex flavors. But it is jammy and friendly and that is why we like it.

3 out of 5 stars

Rivola 2003, Sardon de Guero

Max Dunn — Fri, 19 May 2006 23:49:00 -0700

We have been starting to enjoy Spanish wines, particularly since we are running into quite a few high quality wines at low prices. However, many of them are quite earthy, which I enjoy but Suzanne finds a little to much like they fell on the floor and were sweeped up again.

However, we have both really enjoyed this Rivola since it has nice fruit overtones without too much earth. Suzanne says she is not sure what flavors she tastes in it, which definitely makes it interesting since she always can articulate the subtle flavors in wine.

We got it at Hi-Time, might be some left.

4 out of 5 stars

Tobin James Ballistic, 2004 Zinfandel

Max Dunn — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 21:38:00 -0700

Last week when we were on vacation, one of the highlights was to visit Hi-Time Wine Cellar in Costa Mesa, CA. We enjoy going there so much that we visited it 3 times that week!

On our last visit, I was in the Zinfandel section and saw a women walk right up to the Tobin James Ballistic, 2004 Zinfandel grab a bottle and leave. Intrigued, I looked at the wine and saw that it had 15.5% alcohol and with a name like “Ballistic”, expected it to be a big, bad, bold Zinfandel – just the type we love. So I bought a bottle too.

Boy, was I wrong. Reminds me of when I was a freshman in college and copied an answer off my frat brothers paper, and got it wrong. Cribbing off of someone else just doesn’t pay. This wine was jammy all right, it just didn’t have any character. It tasted more like grape juice with vodka, or maybe a watered down port. No, that is a little harsh. I have had worse red wines in the Czech Republic, but this wine still was pretty much at the bottom of my list of wines I have had in the last year. Give me a 2 Buck Chuck any day over this.

0 out of 5 stars.

Synergy 2002, Richardson Vineyard

Max Dunn — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 23:42:00 -0700

Suzanne and I enjoy finding and drinking good wines, and especially when we can find a great wine under $20, or better yet, under $15. However we often will drink a wine and then forget if we liked it or not, so we are going to blog about some of the wines we liked.

The first wine is a Synergy 2002 from Richardson Vineyard which is a blend of 66% Syrah, 15% Merlot, 13% Zinfandel and 6% Cabernet. Overall, we really enjoyed this wine. It had a nice overall complexity with some earthy tones. The one drawback was that it was a little to acidic for drinking by itself, which is how we usually drink wines.

This wine received a gold medal at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition

We bought this wine at the Wine Club, but they don’t have it on their web site anymore. Wine.com and BevMo also do not have it

The only place I could find it on the web was at The Cellar Door restaurant. However, Wine Club sometimes has some wines in stock that don’t show up on their web site, so check out their store and grab a bottle or two if you see it.

4 out of 5 stars

Single malt whiskey recommendations

Max Dunn — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 16:43:00 -0800

A friend asked for a few recommendations for single-malt whiskeys to give as a gift this holiday. However, like I often do, I couldn’t stop myself and ended up going on-and-on about all sorts of whiskeys that I like.

In case anyone else is interested, here is my little tour of single-malt Scotish whiskeys.