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So it seems like we are in a bit of a Pinot Grigio rut here. And you know what? I don't hate it. The weather is getting warmer and it's time to pop open a bottle of cool white wine and enjoy some pasta. Or shrimp, which is what I did this past week with my girl.

She drew up a recipe for shrimp tacos with a spicy avocado salsa. Even though we had margaritas all ready to go, we grabbed this bottle of Pinot Grigio from producer Vino dei Fratelli for about 13 bucks. We were in her hometown of Long Beach, Long Island, and stopped off at a random wine store for this bottle. Sorry whiners, can't tell you where this one came from. 

But as a consolation prize you get to see a picture of my beautiful girlfriend, Chloe. We really enjoyed this wine and it was surprisingly good considering the cheap looking label. The bottle says that it's "delle Venezie" meaning "form Venice," Italy, of course. Wine Enthusiast Magazine has the following to say about this wine: "It’s thick and slightly sweet in the mouth with a heavy, fat feel on the close." Wait WHAT? 

Actually this is a pretty accurate review. Some Pinot Grigio wines are light and dry while others, such as this one, almost have a syrup texture to them. I suppose it really depends on what your tastes are. If you can stomach cheap red boxed wine then this Pinot Grigio will taste delicious. 

Grade: 7/10

Chloe's Grade: 7.5/10

Zero Otto Nove

A few nights ago, I had the chance to go “Zero Otto Nove” on Arthur Avenue. Deemed as one of the best Italian joints in Old Little Italy, the menu boasts great pastas, authentic brick oven pizzas and an extensive wine list. Although, because the restaurant is pretty upscale the cheapest wine is $20 bucks. And on my budget, you can bet your ass that’s the bottle I bought.

Caposaldo Pinot Grigio is a refreshing and versatile white wine – with the taste of the Italian hills in every glass, it is the perfect wine for weekday evenings and weekend gatherings. The flavor is elegant, medium bodied, with fresh aromas of apple and pear and clean, crisp palate followed by a minerally finish. You’re drunk if you think I wrote that, that’s just what it said on the bottle. 

I didn’t taste apple or pear and I certainly didn’t experience any “minerally” finish (minerally? is that a word? I swear these wine aficionados just use made up words to describe made up tastes). What I tasted was standard white wine and a nice happy medium between being too sweet and too bitter. I'm partial to white wine, mostly because it’s chilled (I had to put ice in my glass of red later in the dinner, what an amateur!) and overall, this white wine met my expectations. 

For dinner, I ate a pizza with spicy sopressata as the main topping and if you never tried that particular meat, do it, it's delicious. The wine went fairly well with the spicy "za", but not as well as it did with the garlic bread dredged in olive oil. In the end, the only real problem was that the restaurant charged $20 and online it goes for about 8 bucks. Even more of a problem when my party of twelve were handed a bill of $328 (**excluding tip). Guess I'm eating White Castle and going with boxed wine and malt liquor for a few weeks.

*Editor's Note: It sounds like Nik enjoyed this bottle so I'll give it a 8/10 grade for him.

Cheap Red Wine

What a glorious day for whiners. In the wine store yesterday I spotted a wine simply called, "Cheap Red Wine." Was this wine made for this blog? Did someone plant it there for me to find? Who knows. After buying it (and getting asked for my ID, which baffles me because I'm there every week now) I was tempted to open the bottle on my walk home -- I was that excited. How often do you see a wine that is advertised as being cheap? Just not even trying to hide anything. 

I got home, popped out the cork, and BAM -- I was hit with a strong smell of vinegar. But hey, for the cost of a move ticket, what can you really expect? I let the wine air out for a little while (or 'breathe' as it is officially called) and then poured myself a glass. Not bad, but not great either. 

Grade: 6/10
Price: $10

The label says that this wine comes form Morgan Hill, California, and is intended to be a general table wine. Fair enough. But while this wine doesn't hide the fact that it is merely cheap red wine, it also tries to be moderately-priced wine. In other words, the wine isn't as smooth and delicious as other table wines that know their place. This wine has a nasty bite to it that isn't backed up with any flavor. 

This wine is certainly drinkable but it literally burned my stomach. If you want a wine that is drinkable, get something else. If you're going for a wine with a nice bite to it, pony up the extra $8 and get something good. I'd only suggest this bottle if you're bringing it to a party and don't want to hide the fact that you didn't break the bank for wine.

The Fashionista of Pinot Grigio

As a huge wine fanatic, I eagerly accepted Paul's offer to contribute with a post on his blog. I mean, let's break it down...my homework for this week is discovering and drinking a new bottle of wine and then writing about it? That, my friends, I can handle. 

Obviously this assignment required a trip to the liquor store. As I walked around the aisles of North End Liquors (what  a classy establishment), I was actually surprised with how many different types of wines were offered. I tend to stick to my dependable bottle of Yellow Tail. Anyways, because I am very partial to white wine, I grabbed a bottle of Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio for a respectable $10.50.

Venice, Italy

The bottle's label immediately caught my eye and after enjoying the wine last night, I'm happy it did. While enjoying the wine I did a little research and learned that this 2009 bottle is made from grapes that come from the Northeastern "Tre Venezie" region of Italy. In this region, the Pinot Grigio grape has apparently been cultivated for more than a century...talk about a legacy. After reading the label I also learned that the Ecco Domani company aims to help "launch the careers of aspiring fashion designers through the Ecco Domani fashion foundation." According to the website, each year the company's foundation awards a $25,000 grant to seven fashion designers to present a runway show at New York's Fashion Week. Delicious wine with an eye for fashion? I don't hate it. 

Grade: 8/10

Price: $10.50

Since I'm not the world's best cook, I chose to simply enjoy the wine in the company of good friends. Pinot Grigio is by far my favorite type of wine and in comparison to my usual bottle of Yellow Tail, I found the taste of Ecco Domani's verson to be slightly more fruity. Though I can confidently say it won't be replacing my usual Yellow Tail, I definitively did not have any trouble getting this wine down. The only thing the fruit-filled win was missing? A beautiful summer night and a porch to drink it on.

Da Vinci

Tonight I grabbed a bottle of DaVinci Chianti from 2009 that is made from 90% Sangiovese grapes and 10% Merlot grapes. The label of this bottle was a little too corny for me to pass up, and I'm glad I didn't -- this is a really, really good wine. There is no unpleasant after taste or bitterness and the wine isn't incredibly sweet. I think this is a perfect combination. 

As you can see in the picture, the label is absurd. At first I thought this was just a play on THE Da Vinci (Leonardo) but I later learned from the wine producer's website that this wine is in fact made outside of a town in Italy called "Vinci." I see what they did here. 

Anyways, this wine is a classic "Chianti" produced in Tuscany. For a wine to be called Chianti it must contain at least 80% Sangiovese grapes and needs to come out of the Tuscany region in Italy. I am a total sucker for Tuscan wines because they offer a great variety of flavors and...different wine varieties. 

 

Price: $11

Grade: 10/10

This particular bottle has a DOCG designation, the highest designation a bottle of wine from Italy can have. DOCG simply means that this bottle comes from a very specific region in Italy and adheres to a defined set of standards. These standards are enforced by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and they place a label on approved bottles of wine. 

You can see this label in the picture to the right. It folds right over the top of the bottle just so you know the bottle has been approved. If a bottle of wine has this label, regardless of price, you know you're getting a pretty good bottle of legitimate Italian wine.

Sausage & Peppers

This week's wine is a 2010 Columbia Valley Riesling from Washington State, USA. I recently reviewed a bottle of Merlot from the same wine producer -- Chateau Ste. Michelle -- and it was very good so I returned to the brand tonight. I made sausage and peppers for dinner tonight a la The Jersey Shore and thought that sizzling the entire dish in white wine for 10 minutes would make it outrageously delicious. So I ran out and grabbed this Riesling, and here's why:

I grew up in Rochester, NY, just a short drive away from the Finger Lakes region in Upstate NY. The Finger Lakes region is well-known for it's production of high-quality Riesling wines and it was always in my house growing up. But Chateau Ste. Michelle is the worldwide leader in Riesling production with over 600,000 cases/year (Wikipedia) and is produced in the German tradition. So we have a German wine, produced in Washington State, used in an Italian sausage and peppers dish. Interesting.

This is the first wine I have ever used wine to both cook and drink with. Riesling is a rather sweet wine with a mellow taste and goes perfectly with the sweet flavors of Italian sweet sausage, peppers, and onions. This is a super easy dish to make and probably one of my favorites. It is cheap, delicious, filling, (rather) healthy with all the veggies, and worst case scenario you end up drinking a bottle of white wine. 

Cost: $11 
Grade: 9/10