A rather pleasing aroma of fruit and oak, from a wine with a split personality.  Fruit from the central coast, but wine made in Livermore?  No need to seek this one out, but you’ll be pleased to stumble across it.

paid: $10

scored: 88

My fiancee picked up this pleasing surprise, on sale.  Smooth and light 50-50 Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, nice fruit on the finish and tannins that hide in the shadows.

paid: $10

scored: 89

So smooth and delicious.  If I could afford it, I might drink a glass of this every day.  I’m guessing this is a mostly Merlot blend, with a bit of Cab Franc.

paid: $44

scored: 88 (why not more?)

I think this winery used to be called Palomares Vineyards.  We found it by accident on Palomares Road, which I wouldn’t really consider to be part of Livermore Valley — its off the Sunol Grade to the west of the valley, and is actually located in a canyon in some hills.  Very pretty spot.  Climate more reminiscent of the Santa Cruz Mountains rather than Livermore.  ANYWAY decent wine, but not as good as the stuff we sampled at Chouinard (farther up the canyon).  This was our favorite of the 5 we tried, too.  Oh, and they make a lot of Port-style wine here, which I thought was weaker and sweeter than the Portuguese variety.

paid: $20 (at the tasting room)

scored: 88

My welcome home gift after a week in the bowels of… Cleveland.  It was pouring rain here so no hope of actually hitting the trailhead.  This cab is earthy and light, surprisingly soft tannins, with nice fruit and a bit of…spinach.  Not completely kidding there.

paid: $20 (on sale from $26)

scored: 89

Very vanilla on the nose, and yet a rather crisp and clean finish.  A balanced and pleasing wine, and all the more so at 35,000 feet.  Go Continental.  I wonder if the fruit is sourced from Livermore, or from the nebulous central coast?
paid: nada, but it is about $12/bottle

scored: 89

This is the chard we opened in the middle of watching Bottle Shock.  I’m not sure what trick they play to bring out so much oak and vanilla, but I don’t disapprove… although I wouldn’t seek it out.  Pay more, get less (of that) I suppose.  Not to be confused with Chateau MontElena from the movie.  Tasty enough, and a winner at this price.

paid: $10

scored: 87

A Rhone style blend with a petite (Syrah) twist.  I haven’t visited Zayante, and the label had a bit to say about organic farming… Does that mean the goats squach the grapes?  My taste buds thought so.  We were drinking this while watching “Bottle Shock”, and after about 45 mins couldn’t take it anymore.  I got up to open something else, and to my surprise found a bottle of chardonnay that had been sitting in the fridge since August.  It was an apropos recovery.

paid: $17

scored: 80

Another smooth and easy Pinot at the $18 price point.  I’m 3 weeks behind in posting this so no other comments.  I do remember thinking that I’d buy it again.  BevMo probably has it for less than the Korean market where I found it.

paid: $18

scored: 89

I’m always back-logged in updating this blog.  I usually manage to taste 2-3 wines per week, and jot down my impressions 1-2 times per month.  Sigh.  This is an extreme case in point.  I think we opened this in early december.  It was good, I liked it much more than did my fiancee.  There’s really nothing else to say, I find that my memory purges anything short of Epicurean indulgence on a time scale of about two weeks.  But I hope to get back down to Bonny Doon, and try this again.

Side note:  we joined their wine club, then bailed when (a) we found Cinnabar, and (b) they shipped us two bottles (our january shipment) and charged us $15 for the inconvenience (we had specifically requested to pick up each shipment, both to save the cost and to motivate us to get down to Santa Cruz to hit up Wilder Ranch).  Alas.

paid: $15 (at the tasting room)

scored: 88 (subject to change…)