Napa River Napa County Merlot 2008 Napa Valley, CA I can’t pick anything up from the nose of this merlot, but I’m not complaining. It’s a delicious wine. It’s thin-bodied, very smooth, and just to the right of dry. The prominent berry flavors are present in equal parts of cherry, raspberry, and strawberry like a
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Bogle Merlot 2009 Graton, CA   This wine strikes me as smooth right away. It’s full of bright fruit, but not tart fruit like so many bottle I drank over the past two months. The main notes are strawberry and a juicy, juicy plum with subtle spice and vanilla.   I enjoy how unobtrusive and
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Gaetano D’Aquino Chianti 2010 Italy Normally, I’m a big fan of chianti because it’s mellow in a way that it makes mellow seem like an art form. This one’s not there. It smells sharply herbal with a tart berry undercurrent of currant or cranberry. It’s tart on drinking, too. There’s almost a fizz to it,
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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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Peter Brum Vino Noire Rhone, Germany I haven’t tried too many red wines from Germany, so I was intrigued by this bottle and its unique shape—it really is all about marketing, folks. It smelled of strawberries and light tobacco. The first thing I noticed while drinking it was a small bit of fizziness, just enough
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Castillo de Monseran Garnacha 2006 Cariñena, Spain The nose of this Spanish wine is full of spiced strawberries. When drinking, the strawberry is joined by raspberry and a helping of twigs from the bushes, giving it a nice, earthy quality. The spice is still there but not as strongly as in the nose. It’s highly
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Kiwi + Strawberry Caipiroska Piola Chapel Hill Website $7 This very pretty drink has the perfect ratio of alcohol to sweetness. The freshly muddled kiwi and strawberry add much to the good quality of the vodka, and the taste is clean and full of tasty bites of pulp. Definitely worth a drink! My only complaint
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Shelton Vineyards Madison Lee Red Wine Dobson, NC I like Shelton Vineyard’s pinwheel logo—it has a bit of renaissance flair to it. This is the first time the filter on my wine aerator has come in handy; there’s a lot of silt in the bottle. It smells of Dove dark chocolate (you know, that somehow
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Beringer California Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 Napa Valley, CA Full disclosure: I’ve been drinking some cheap merlot all night, now to be supplanted by a cheap something else. That something else smells like . . . laundry bleach? It smells like dried strawberries rolled in Clorox. I’m not averse to the smell of bleach, but
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Novella Synergy 2008 Paso Robles, CA This is a very smooth blend of bunches of varietals. The nose smells richly of ripe strawberries and blueberries. There’s a hint of spice. It’s a lightweight wine and easy to drink. Tannins are light, and the strawberry is in full effect when sipping, with a small amount of
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