Tag: product review


Aug
2016

Ancient Oak Cellars 2013 Chardonnay

categories: Booze, Wine

I’m walking down the wine aisle of my local Safeway, filling up that six-pack wine crate so I can get my awesome bulk-buy discount. Who do I run in to? Ken Moholt-Siebert — owner of Ancient Oak Cellars. I originally met Ken at SF Pinot Days where I tasted two very different Pinots, both of which were noteworthy (in fact, I encourage you to read my notes).

So knowing the love they put into their Pinots, I was quite curious to try Ancient Oak’s Chardonnay. Ok, this wine is so special, even those lame Safeway-provided dixie cups couldn’t hide the depth and complexity of flavors. I had to buy a bottle — and I’m not going to lie, I drank it that night…

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Aug
2016

Event: Paso Robles Seminar/Tasting

categories: Booze, Wine

I was at the Paso Robles Wine Country Grand Tasting Event in Oakland last week when I overheard one of the winemakers saying that the most frequent question he gets asked by consumers is, “Where in Napa is Paso Robles?”

Ok, let’s download for a second and just talk about where Paso Robles is and what that means in regards to wine…

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Jul
2016

Chateau Ducasse 2015 Bordeaux Blanc

categories: Booze, Wine

Here I am, still going strong with my French wine kick. A heads up, this is going to be one of my first critical reviews, but it’s all in good spirit I assure you….

I feel like I need to give some back story. When I was I bought this wine I had a specific flavor profile in mind. I wanted something with a soft mouthfeel, something oaked (but not oaky) that would lessen the severity of any potentially dominating fruit flavors. I guess I wanted Chardonnay and Sauv Blanc to have a baby. I had a few different varietals in mind, but apparently they were too obscure for my local shop. Very sad. Now, I kind of knew when I picked up the 2015 Bordeaux Blanc from Ducasse that this wine wouldn’t quite fit the brief, but I took a chance, gave it a go, and here’s what I learned.

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Jul
2016

2013 Tractor Shed Red

categories: Booze, Wine

True story: I was perusing the wine aisles at Costco looking for my fav generic red blend when a Costco employee stopped to ask if he could help. Turns out they didn’t have what I was looking for. “But,” he says, “if you like that, you’ll love Tractor Shed Red.”I kinda looked at him like he was crazy-go-nuts. The thing you have to know about me is that I find blends — of any kind — hard. In my experience, everyday blends found at the local shops with cute, funky labels listed at under $20 tend to be…imbalanced. Imbalanced in aroma, taste, texture, and ultimately enjoyability.

So the fact that I even had, what I’d call, a “favorite” red blend was kind of a big deal — and I was willing to deal with the fact that they did not have it in stock. But the Tractor Shed Red price was right for experimenting, so I took a bottle home. Now, every time I go to Costco, I take two.

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