Sonoma Valley Portworks Petite Sirah Port 2007 Clarksburg, CA During my trip last spring to Petaluma, I picked up this bottle of port in a surge of jubilation that I had found a winery specializing in dessert wines (613 2nd Street in the Foundry Wharf building). Plenty of wineries offer one or a handful of
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Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Tawny Port Portugal I failed to take a picture of this tawny port before I recycled the bottle. Somehow, I think you’ll make do. What you won’t do with is not recognizing what tawny means, which I just discovered while researching this post. Tawny ports are ports aged for long enough
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Capital Club 16 16 W. Martin Street Downtown Raleigh Website Entrees: $10–$18 About a week and a half ago, I went to Capital Club 16 with the Social Media Supper Club, which is always a fun time of trying a restaurant together. I quite liked Capital Club 16, which may be related to its reputation
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Lazurro Nero D’Avola 2007 Sicily, Italy The nose of this Italian red smells of fig with clove. It tastes like eucalyptus leaves, fig, raisin, cranberry, and clove. Overall, it’s too tangy but an okay drinking wine. I’m still trying to figure out why it was recommended to me when I said I liked Spanish wines,
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Terrenal Tempranillo and Garnacha 2009 Carinena, Spain Oh, this is so very thin and unappealing. My word, I haven’t had a wine this uninspired in a while. It tastes metallic, with thin strawberry and fig flavors. There’s a little bit of greenery involved that reminds me of eucalyptus. It’s okay, but there are so many
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Col di Sasso Cabernet Sauvignon & Sangiovese Blend 2009 No photo this time! It was a casualty of my trigger finger. It smells mildly of fig and tastes of fig, too, with plum notes also. Besides the healthy portion of fruit, it’s dry, leathery, a bit bitter, and abundant in allspice.  Overall, it was too
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Tres Pinos 2009 Red Wine San Luis Obispo, CA This wine is from my stomping grounds, though I didn’t know much about wine back when I stomped there (that’s only been marginally improved). There is a sharp cranberry smell followed by the lush scent of fresh, moist dirt—a great nose, as far as I’m concerned.
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Quarles Harris Ruby Porto Gaia, Portugal The smell of this port is unappealing, like glue. Luckily, I already know it isn’t a bad bottle, because I used it in a cranberry curry sauce the other day, and there was no sign of foul tastes, so I’ll carry on past the nose—okay, I’d carry on past
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