2008 Nobilo Icon Pinot Noir

This is Nobilo's top-line bottling for Pinot Noir and they show great attention to detail with this effort.

The Nobilo Icon Pinot Noir is a beautiful medium purple color that leans toward ruby. The aromas are all dark cherries, plums and oak.

The flavors are very forward dark cherries and oak with cola and plum rounding out the profile. I really liked this and was impressed by the quality for a $17 price point. My friend Patrick brought this bottle over and we had similar notes for the tasting of this bottle. This is a very hefty Pinot. Nice body on this wine.

This bottle is gone, but it must have been my lucky week because my friend Michael also brought a bottle of this wine over to be reviewed this week.

2009 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc

Kim Crawford is one of my favorite New Zealand producers for Sauvignon Blanc. The vintage matters slightly, but you always know its going to be good at a decent price. The current vintage is between $16-18 depending where you buy in Louisville, KY. Prices are lower at larger Internet sites, but shipping has to be factored in.

The color on this is pale straw just like most other Sauvignon Blancs, but what I found different about this wine was the aroma. The other Sauvignon Blancs I tasted this week were more fruit forward. The Kim Crawford was the first to be vegetal as the primary with fruit as the accent. I rather liked the aroma, but could not quite pinpoint "vegetal" any further. It bugged me so much I looked at a couple of professional reviews and one explained it as the leaves of a tomato plant. As soon as I read that it took me back to ripping out tomato plants at the end of summer and then smelling your hands. That's what this wine smelled like. Great!

The flavors were typical New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Kiwi, grapefruit, stone...all backed up by that beautiful vegetal quality. Good acidity but remained full in the mouth. I really liked this effort by Kim Crawford. For me, better than the past couple of years. That being said, I still think my favorite Sauvignon Blanc this week was the Brancott Vineyards.

2006 Drylands Pinot Noir

This Drylands Pinot Noir is medium ruby in color and at first had no aroma at all. As the wine opened though I was able to smell a nice mix of red fruits, spice and oak. It wasn't very deep, but you knew it was Pinot Noir.

The taste was very pleasant and did a great job expressing the Pinot Noir grape without trying to get to tricky for the price point. Simple expression of cherries, pomegranate, oak and spices. I thought this was very pleasant and a good option to have on hand for parties.

I am not sure of the price as it was a gift from my friend Michael, but I would expect it falls somewhere in the mid-teens. Tough to find drinkable Pinot at this price point that doesn't taste like fruit juice. Good quality to price ratio.

2009 The Crossings Sauvignon Blanc

My friend, Michael Hawley, and I had this wine while sitting on the patio on a very hot afternoon. From the start this looked refreshing. The bottle glass is clear and colorless and the wine looks almost light bluish green. Very interesting, but when poured the wine is very very pale straw with green tint.

The aromas on this glass of wine jump from the glass. Slight herbal component, but mainly fresh vibrant fruit...lime, melon, and grapefruit.

The flavors are very bright. A lot more lime on this Sauvignon Blanc than others Ive had from New Zealand. Good acidity to give it zip, but still remains soft on the palate. The lime is balanced by the melon and grapefruit.

I believe this was around $14 and although I dont like it as well as the Brancott Sauvignon Blanc from earlier in the week I still this is a great wine for summer. Especially if you want something crisp.

2008 Kim Crawford Unoaked Chardonnay

I used to really enjoy the big, buttery style of Chardonnay that is so prevalent right now, but over the past year or so I've changed to prefer the un-oaked, Chablis style Chardonnays. I have read that New Zealand is starting to exciting things with varietals other than Sauvignon Blanc so when I saw this un-oaked Chardonnay from a great producer I definitely wanted to include this in the blog this week.

The Kim Crawford Unoaked Chardonnay is a pale golden color and has aromas of honeyed red apples, butterscotch and some pear.

The taste on this wine is not oaked, but there is definitely some of that malolactic butter flavor. There is also a lot of apple and pear. I think this wine is decent and well made, but I'm confused what they are aiming to achieve. If you are going for an unoaked style then where is the mineral quality that would drive the fresh fruit?

I think a lot of people will like this wine because it does show good fruit without too much oak and its very easy to drink; however, for me there was just something missing. And at $17/bottle I think there are better options from France at the village level category.

2009 Brancott Sauvignon Blanc

New Zealand is the country of choice for this week. I'm sure there will be 2 or 3 Sauvignon Blancs, but I'll try to balance that with some Pinot Noir, a Chardonnay and maybe a red blend.

The first wine of the week, Brancott Sauvignon Blanc, is great for the current temperatures in Kentucky(90+). Sauvignon Blancs are perfect for summer. They are crisp, light and inexpensive. I have not had this wine before, but it has received favorable reviews.

This wine is a very pale straw color with green highlights. The aromas are slight grass, kiwi and melon. Very pleasant nose on this wine and it just smelled refreshing.

The taste on this wine is very "bright". Great fruit...kiwi, grapefruit, melon and Pineapple. There is also good acidity on the wine to support the fruit, but the mouth feel is still very soft.

I believe this was in the $13 range and I like this better than anything else from New Zealand that Ive tasted on this range. Great wine.

2007 Tikal Patriota

This wine is a blend of 60% Bonarda and 40% Malbec. I have never seen these two grapes blended together so I was intrigued when I saw this on the shelf at Party Mart in Louisville, KY.

The wine is a very dark purple color with nice aromas of spice, dark cherries and maybe some blueberry.

The first thing I noticed about this wine was how easy it was to drink. Very smooth tannins. The fruits were a mix of red and dark fruits balanced wonderfully by good acidity. The dark cherry and spices mixed well with some floral components.

The finish on this was medium length and while I doubt anyone would remember or talk about this wine a year after they drank it...I do think this over delivers for the $18 I paid for it.