Graveyard Chardonnay 2011

I drink red wine a lot more than I drink white wine. Even in summer, I tend to reach for red when I want wine, and stick with beer (hence all these beer posts I've been doing lately) or fruity cocktails when it's hot. So it's just a strange series of events that brings me to reviewing the second white wine from Paso Robles since I started this blog. They're very different wines, though.

The first one was an albarino which was on the sweet and fruity side.  This one is a chardonnay, on the dry and oakey side, from Graveyard Vineyards. It's an interesting winery. It overlooks an old cemetery, hence the name, and they take the theme as far as they can. There are skeleton and tombstone decorations all over the place. We stopped by because it was on the way between two others that had been recommended to us, and we liked it well enough to buy a few bottles.

So, the wine. It's a fairly oakey chardonnay, so it's good with food, but it tastes great on its own. The nose is full of peaches and vanilla. It made me think of peach pie. The taste is big and a little spicy. I got hints of white pepper with some passion fruit in there. It nicely lingers on the tongue with each sip. We had it with pork ribs and wilted kale, and it went really well with it.

I'm not sure why I prefer reds to whites. I think a lot of white wines are boring. It seems like there's not much you can say about them except they taste like apple, or tropical fruit, or whatever it is. It might taste fine, but just not be particularly interesting. So when I do like a white wine well enough to buy it, it's because there is something to it that is a little different. I think it was the spice in this chardonnay that I found particularly appealing. It was a good price too, $22 at the winery.

Allagash Curieux Ale

Costco has really upped their game lately when it comes to beer selection. They've always had a nice wine selection at good prices, but in the past few months I've been very pleasantly surprised to see the quality of the large beer bottles they have for sale. Last weekend, I picked up a bottle of Allagash Curieux for $11.99. That's about $8 cheaper than at other stores.

Curieux (French for "curious") is a Belgian-style triple that's been aged in bourbon barrels. It pours cloudy gold with a nice head and quite a lot of bubbles. The nose is gorgeous, almost like a wheat beer with banana, cloves, and oranges.

The taste is spicy! Really spicy. I think that's the bourbon coming through from the aging. This beer is for sipping. Even if it weren't 11% alcohol, I'd want to take it easy with this beer, to really savor it. The taste lingers on the roof of the mouth after every drink. It's really good, and it took a while to get through the bottle.

The next time you're at Costco, check the beer selection. Try something new. They weren't all $10+. There were also a few different Firestone Walker brews for $5.99.

Firestone Walker Wookey Jack

I saw this beer for $5.99 for 22oz at Costco, which is about a dollar less than it costs at other stores, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's a black IPA, like Back in Black, and from Firestone Walker, makers of Double Jack, which I adore. I thought there was a good chance I'd love this one too, but unfortunately I don't.

It pours black and very dark. It looks really appealing and rich. The nose is IPA all the way. It smells like grapefruit and pine, almost exactly like Double Jack in fact. I'm not sure I could tell them apart by the nose. The taste is kind of complex. Super hoppy, at first, but then it fades a bit to a little caramel. Then the hop comes back with pine notes at the front, and then there's a coffee-like bitterness at the end.

It just doesn't quite mesh well together for me. The mouthfeel is really nice and creamy, but I can't quite get past the bitterness at the end. It seems overwhelming.  I had some pretzels with it, and the saltiness helped cut it a little bit, but I can't see myself reaching for this over Double Jack or Back in Black.

You can't like 'em all. This is why they make lots of beers!

Diamond Bear Southern Blonde

I like to drink local products. Here in the Bay Area, we're lucky to have a huge selection of high quality beer and wine produced right here. Fortunately for the rest of the country, craft breweries are popping up all over the place.

I was in the Little Rock airport over the weekend, so to pass the time before my flight I headed to the bar. I was really happy to see a couple of beers from Diamond Bear on tap, so I ordered a Southern Blonde. I expected a blonde ale from the name, but what I received tasted very much like a kolsch. I was actually wrong on both counts. The description on the brewery website says it's a pilsner. The color was pale gold, with very little head. The nose was really nice, with a biscuity aroma and some citrus in the background, like a nice Meyer lemon. The flavor was very smooth, a little bready and sweet but then with a bitter finish.

I went in with zero expectations, but I really enjoyed this beer. Kolsch is one of my favorite summer beverages, and while I'm not quite so crazy about pilsner, this one didn't taste like other pilsners I've had.  I've got family in Arkansas, so I'm there once or twice a year, and the next time I'll look for it again. The airport bar also had an IPA from the same brewery, but they were out. I'd be interested in trying it too.

21st Amendment Back in Black IPA

I'm a big fan of the 21st Amendment brewery. Their beer and food are both good, and it's in a great location, very convenient for after Giants baseball games. Their beer is easy to find in the Bay Area, and they ship it in cans. They say it keeps the beer fresher, and cans are easier to tote around.

Back in Black is a dark IPA. I've seen a few other breweries with this style of beer. It seems like a logical blending of dark roasted beers and hoppy ones. I think it works really well. The color is very similar to a stout: dark with reddish highlights. There is a nice head that stuck around a while. The nose is toast and coffee and citrus.

It tastes smooth and a little sweet at first then bitter at the end. It's not really noticeably piney but a little citrusy, with some coffee flavors from the dark malt. Overall, it's very balanced and refreshing. I think it tastes more like a red ale than a stout, really, as far as the dark malty notes go. For the IBU (65) it's not really that hoppy or bitter tasting, but easy drinking.

Among the beers they make, 21st Amendment has an IPA that is very good, and a watermelon wheat beer which some people love, but I personally don't care for. I bought a single can of it at the local beer store, and I didn't get through more than a couple of ounces before I decided it wasn't for me and threw it out. I'll stick with the hoppier ones.

Four Winds Petite Sirah 2010

It's been a busy week!  We took a long weekend to go down to the Carmel area to visit some wineries and enjoy the fantastic weather. I had a lot of wine, a beer, some cocktails, good food, and tons of fun. The area is known for chardonnay and pinot noir and we had some notable ones. My favorite wineries that we went to are Marilyn Remark and Joyce, and I'll get to them eventually, but I'm going to review something different today.

After we got back our friends opened up a bottle of Four Winds Petite Sirah 2010. It was really closed up at first, so they decanted it, and as we sipped we noticed how much it opened up. It's a lovely dark color, with a nose of dark fruit and leather. As it opened up, the taste was full of blackberries and deep fruity tones (black cherry? hard to place). Leaving it open overnight probably would have been even better, but even as it was this was a delicious wine.

Four Winds is near Murphys, CA, in the Sierra Foothills. This entire area along Hwy 49 is really up and coming in the wine industry, but they've been growing vines out here for many years. The area is known for zinfandel, but there are many other varietals (like the petite sirah).  I've never been to any wineries there, but we're planning a little road trip in September to check it out.