With the challenge by Derrick to choose a wine this month that's just another pretty face, I wandered around the wine shop, discarding first one, then another, until I saw this wine. Isn't that a cute label? I love a winemaker with a sense of humor (the clever wine names from Bonny Doon come to mind). I was hoping for something a little more....shall we say esoteric...than a chardonnay but I just had to have it! And at $6.00 a bottle how much was I risking?I was making pasta, and picked up a pomegranate at the grocery store. The sauce turned out to be a sort of herbed alfredo with sautéed chicken and pomegranate seeds. (I'll post the recipe when I make it again and get proportions. It was definitely worth making again.)
Some web searching reveals that the winery, Rex Goliath , located in Monterey County, California, makes several varietals under this label, supposedly named after a huge rooster that traveled with a Texas circus in the early 20th century.
We opened the wine and poured it. Our first whiff was not impressive. It seemed a bit short on the bouquet, with dusty overtones, which fortunately blew off after a couple of minutes, leaving a much more pleasant impression to the nose.
We tasted it. A hint of toasted oak, a bit of citrus and maybe apples. A little too acid for my taste at first. But it mellowed out with a few minutes in the glass. The finish, while pleasant, was not lingering. However I must say, the pasta, the creamy sauce and the tartness of the pomegranate seeds really did work well with the wine.
The final comment? I'd give it 8 to10 out of 20 points. Would I buy it again? I think for the price it was far better than I would have expected. I probably will, since it was one of the better inexpensive wines I've tried in a while.
And isn't that an cute label?
1 comment:
Alyce,
I have often seen this bottle, and never picked it up. Thanks for choosing it so that I can get a better sense of it.
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