What I've Been Tasting This Week

As part of my ongoing wine education, I wanted to post a few tasting notes on some wines I've been sampling and tasting this week. I've got a sweet little part time job doing "Wine Tastings" in grocery stores. It's very part time, but a whole lot of fun! On Friday, I was at a Fresh Market passing out two wines that would be great summer sippers.

The first one was Starborough Sauvignon Blanc. This is a New Zealand wine:

This wine is best served chilled. At first taste, you immediately taste bright grapefruit flavor,  which is very crisp on the tongue. A little hint of lemon sneaks in there as well. There is also a slight mineral taste that reminded me of the bottled water we used to drink in Europe when I was a little girl. This is very crisp and refreshing, but perhaps a little to much mineral for my personal taste. I will say that the mineral taste receded after it had been opened for a while. It retails in Central VA for around $10.

The second wine I opened yesterday was the Garnet Pinot Noir from Monterey, California.

As is common with a pinot noir, this was a lighter style red. It was fairly complex, even on the very first sip. Ripe cherries and raspberries were first on the tongue, and it had a nice, mouth filling feel to it. A little hint of strawberry jam came to the front after it was opened a little while longer. There was a definite woodsy finish to this wine, a little oaky but not too toasted, which I don't love. Slightly out of my normal purchasing price range, this one retails around here for around $19. Would I buy it again? Yes, especially if it was on sale!