Sometimes you pick up and move to Colorado

What have you done in the last 30 days? I packed up the majority of my belongings and moved. To Colorado. 

What does that mean for the blog? Different regional awesome microbrews. Many more, and much more often. On my way out here I stopped in the middle of nowhere Kansas, I believe, to make a quick exchange with a friend driving back from the Grand Canyon. I gave him back his book on JAVA programming, and he  passed me a very, very warm american pilsner from the Grand Canyon Brewing company and a souvenir magnet from his trip. At least he knows me and knew that beer is my souvenir of choice. I packed it with me and drank it one evening while i was staying at the Amazing hostel in Durango, Co. It wasn't anything too special, but not bad for a light pilsner. 

Later on in the week when I had gotten a bit more settled, i picked up a 6 pack of the locally brewed Steam Engine Steam Ale, an amber lager. While nothing truly exceptional i thought it had a decent amount of flavor for an amber lager. I also like that it comes in cans, however, they are somewhat pressurized and I didn't manage to open even one out of the 6 without getting beer everywhere....

Finally, I picked up a bottle of wine this week. Unfortunately i haven't found any good cheap wine stores yet, but I haven't been doing much looking either. Anyways, This RACHA wine, imported from argentina was pretty good. This malbec while not super complex or fancy pant, wasn't too bad for about 10 dollars where i purchased it. I'd rate it 3.5/5 for flavor, and 3/5 for value. I've got to get bargain hunting.

Well cheers! And if you make it to the area, lets grab a local beer!

Two tried from Trader Joe's

Since moving back home to look for jobs (don't judge me, i'm pretty sure this is par for the course as of late) I've been going to tj's with my dad once a week to pick up essentials. Well wine and junk food. Last week I picked up a bottle of 3.99 La Finca Tempranillo for which i had high hopes. 

Some of the blogs i've seen have said great things... others, not so much. 

Tempranillo refers to the type of spanish grape that the wine is made out of. Normally it produces a fruity red wine. I would say this was fairly flavorful for a cheap, however, after having a glass, i broke out in the first wine related reaction i've had. Tiny red spots crawled across my stomach arms and neck. Let me rephrase. Tiny, itchy red spots. Boooooooo. That was the last i'll be having of this wine. 0/5 for yumminess since i'm apparently allergic, and 1/5 for value. If only it were good. And I wasn't allergic to it.

The next try from tj's was a little more successful. I picked up a bottle of Epicuro Salice Salentino (refering to the region in Italy) Riserva 2009. Its a blended red wine, with a hearty flavor. Not particularly overwhelming, but for 6 bucks, i'm ok with it. I'm more excited that i didn't break out like last time. I'd give it a 3/5 for yumminess and a 3/5 for value. Its a decent bottle and i wouldn't hesitate to bring it with me to a dinner. 

 Cheers!

Holiday party red's

One of the best things about the holidays is that I get to try wine at other people's homes. Their pick, their price range. Most recently I was at the home of my department head. Her and her husband love to throw holiday parties and have been doing it forever. This was only one of three that I know they threw this year.
Anyways along with a ton of wine and some really good spiked cider (i should have asked for the recipe!) they had a whole bunch of open bottles of this red from Spain. Initially, I thought it was a blended red, however, it appears that Garnacha is its own type of grape. I was super impressed by this fruity, well balanced wine that had just enough acid. It was REALLY GOOD. I was even more impressed when I found out that it runs about 10 dollars a bottle. What? In my price range? How did this happen. Thank you Spain! This wine is also a little on the strong side at about 15.2% apv. 4.9/5 for flavor. Not quite perfect, but still freaking good. And 4.5/5 for value. Only 10 dollars! I shall need to find it!
If i wasn't so full I probably would have had more. The food, however, was amazing. This wine paired with blackberry pie......nomnomnomnom.
Check out the website if you don't believe anything i say. I'm not the only one that things this wine is great.
http://www.lasrocaswine.com/

Now that I am salivating again..... cheers!

Thanksgiving week back blogging!

I'll start from the beginning... if i'm getting them all straight, its been a long week or so. On the occasion that I remember to pick up wine from the i end up with something like this: Kalbarri cabernet savignon. This australian red wasn't that exciting all and all. I'm really trying to remember when it was consumed, but it was a solid 3/5 for flavor and 3/5 for value. I think it was 5 or 6 dollars. Solidly mediocre. But hey, it wasn't a california red, like what i usually end up with (cheap!). Online it says this wine won tons of awards. I might be mistaken, but i'm pretty sure it didn't rock my socks. Check out the website if you don't believer me: http://www.kalbarriwines.com/

The next wine i brought to one of those "buy lots of sex toys!" parties, so i only got a glass or so, which promptly spilled everywhere. This blended Chianti from Italy was actually pretty yummy. I picked it up for 6 bucks at the local Aldi. They did good, but hey, they usually do. At the party I also picked up a few toys for myself. I'm excited to use them. My boyfriend, the gym, might be jealous, but i see him everyday anyways. These toys are for special occasion only ;).

Next up are the wines I bought for the shenanigan filled trip to Red River Gorge, Kentucky. Strangely  both  black themed. I bought the first one for the house, a cheap 5 dollar california merlot. This Black Oak had a nice bottle, but don't let it food you. This wine has no flavor profile. Its flat, and not in the ok, i'll drink the whole bottle way. In the wait, why am i drinking this way. 1/5 for flavor. I"m sorry :(. 1/5 for value. No value, not worth attempting a second time.

The other purchase, in a classy, classy box was a Chardonnay from Black Box. I like to buy the wine boxes to pack out to the woods when i'm done adventuring or sitting around and need to warm up. I honestly thought this was a red wine with how much bite it had. Its just a tasty chardonnay, i guess. 4/5 for flavor, and at 6 dollars for the box, 3.5/5 or value. Hey, i'm cheap. :). Definitely a good buy if you are going to be playing in the woods and don't want to hassle with glass.

Cheers friends! 

Thesis writing reprieve

What to do when your brain is about to explode from staring at statistical output for hours on end? Drink some wine! Relax for a few minutes or you will be even more useless than usual.
Last week i got to take a quick break with Kerri and Tyler and sip on some yummy reds. I brought the Black mountain Pinot Noir on the right, Tyler coughed up the Chateau Ste. Michelle cabernet savignion i believe. Yeah, shit quality pic. I've been working on getting a camera in working order. Soon my friends, soon.
Anyways, the Black Mountain was a 5 dollar trader joe's find. Easy and drinkable, i have nothing to say negatively about this wine. Its a california red, much better than most you can buy. The only caveat, if you like a wine with bite, this isn't for you. 4.5/5 for value, 3.5/5 for yumminess. Nothing wrong with it, just nothing spectacular.
The Oregon wine was also quite yummy. Probably out of my price range, but tasty, and just a little bit on the acidic side like tyler likes it. 4/5 for flavor. But no idea on value. Try it! Even the wine snob in the group enjoyed (not me i swear, although i did like it).
As I come up to my graduation date things will likely get classier (if i have a job to bankroll my enjoyment of wine) or less class (as i imbibe purple jesus, or anything else for that matter) as i search for a job.
Cheers!

When it feels like the holiday season

A cold snap has finally dawned on us. On a run today, i was pelleted with tiny little snowballs. Fun. There are good aspects to the season, however. One of them came from an unexpected place: a box of franzia.
The other day I was out picking up some stuff at the supermarket with Tyler, and I couldn't resist a 6 dollar on sale box of franzia. It was chillable red, but hey, whatever, i'll give it a shot. I threw it in the fridge and popped it open a couple of days later.

Unexpectedly, it brought me back, back all the way to last winter when i spent a couple of weeks bumming around Europe with some of the coolest hobos i know. In Germany and the Czech republic this time of year, well maybe closer to Christmas, is Gluhwein season. Cheap, ubiquitous, and not too bad with a shot of absenthe or rum in it, Gluhwein can also lead to some hearty hangovers and bad decision making. Essentially its cheap red wine, mulled 'til it smells like Christmas. Or popuri. Whichever. I swore after drinking probably a half gallon of this stuff when the hostel i was staying at was giving it away for free to get rid of it, that I would never, ever bother drinking it again. I guess i'm wrong. this box of franzia with its fruity, not really wine at all flavors makes me reminisce for that mulled wine. It might be that it tastes like the cheap red base for the stuff. Who knows, but i might be getting some mulling spice soon, to try this stuff out hot.
Happy November everyone, now i'm off for a pint.

Happy 50th Post!

I wasn't actually drinking in celebration, but i really should have been! This is a bottle that would have been worthy of celebrating with, too!
You may remember that over labor day weekend, I drove out to Colorado with some awesome people and had a great time. One of the adventures i had there also included going to a free wine tasting at the Canyon Wind tasting room, right below the mountain pass we went up. The tasting room offered 4 free tastings, but as awesome people, we passed ours around, and pretty much ended up tasting everything they had to offer.
Sadly, i was too cheap to buy the almost 30 dollar bottle of my favorite there, one of the anemoi series, but this came in a close second. So for 20, i was sold.
Its a yummy Cabernet Franc, which i've never heard of before. I think i mentioned before how its a grape that is most commonly blended for other table wines. It has a nice bite, and a lot of flavor. Its flavorful without being overpowering and has a nice acidity. Yes, i do sound pretentious right now. I'll give it a 4.5/5 for flavor, but a 3/5 for value. This wine went way over my usual budget. I guess once in a while i can pretend i'm not a broke graduate student and drink good wine.
Happy 50th blog post! More to come i'm sure. Actually, i've got some in the fridge i should really talk about, but that's for another day.
Cheers!

Adventures in Colorado (Take me back!)

 What better adventures are there to have than those that combine all the things i love together? Awesome people, awesome views, awesome body breaking treks and BOOZE! My labor day weekend consisted of driving down to Colorado, 18-20 hours in a car, quick camp, hiking like a maniac up a 14,000 foot peak! (WHOOT! we are awesome.) Then packing up and driving home. If you get the chance, you should do it too. It comes highly recommended.

 On the way down our caravan of cars got a little bit separated and we had to wait on a few people. The best way we could think of to fill this time was to head over to the wine tasting room right next to where we had stopped for a bite in the sleepy little Colorado town of Georgetown, Colorado. Canyon Wind (www.canyonwindcellars.com/ )offers 4 free tastings of their wines in their tasting room, which we happily took advantage of. With 3 of us, we tried just about everything on the menu. While mid-priced (meaning above my price range) I still managed to be impressed enough to walk out with a wine bottle. Yeah, I might be a sucker, and I usually do buy something at wine tastings. It is still pretty good, though! After the tasting I came away with a few findings. Their blended table wines, meh, only so so. However, some of their specialty varieties were damn good. They had two in particular that really impressed me. Unfortunately, they were both over 20 dollars. The 32 dollar Zephyrus was spicy, rich, and hardly sweet at all. I was in love. The Petit  Vedot was also quite fruity without being sweet. Really rich in flavor and just overall super yummy. I picked up a bottle of my third favorite, the cabernet franc. I'd never heard of this variety before, but apparently it is normally just blended for table reds. This is a rich, somewhat fruity red. Not quite as complex as the other two reds, it still 100% better than most of the 3 dollar reds i indulge in frequently.
It was quite refreshing to try wines that are left in their less sweet, or even dry states. Oh, Colorado. Don't let me leave you! I give the Cabernet Franc a 4/5 for yummy, and a 2/5 for value. I paid 20 for my bottle. Boo.

 Later on, when we had finally made it to the campsite, up the mountain and back down, it was time for some VICTORY BEER! One of the alumni from a club i'm in brought some delicious local beers that he was willing to share. I hypothesize that some of the reason he shared is because us less acclimated folks are funny to watch get drunk in the high altitude off one beer. Or he's just nice. Thanks either way, i think your taste in beer is amazing. The first one i tried was Old Chub Scotch Ale. This dark malty beer is award winning. At 8% it knocked me to my behind at 11,000 feet. I very much enjoyed its smooth flavors and rich overall taste. 5/5 for taste. I have no idea how much it costs, but since one was good enough to put me in a great mood all afternoon, i give it 5/5 for value.

 A little while later everyone else was drinking some hot chocolate. I decide beer was more my speed and picked up another out of the cooler. This extra special bitter from Ska brewing company, another local to the area, was also really good. In Indiana when they say bitter the beer tastes basically green from all the hops. This on the other hand was well rounded. Rich, highlighting a bitter, but delicious flavor, this is one esb that I would drink again. 4.5/5 for flavor. No idea on value :). It was a good afternoon.
Sadly, now, back to the real world. Boo.

When you aren't sure where or when....

I've still got something of a backlog of wines I have tried to get through. Sadly, however, I don't escpecially remember consuming this one. It was about 2 weeks ago now, but the wine didn't really make a big impression on me. The local supermarket was having a clearance sale making this, if i recall correctly, palatable wine about half or less of what it usually costs, at about 5 dollars for the bottle.
Also I didn't buy it, Mike, the now ex did. I'd hate to enjoy his choice, but it couldn't have been that bad. I always remember a bad wine. Ugh. The internet say this is a fairly fruity red for a noir, that goes down smooth. I'm going to agree for lack of opposition.
Wine. Drink it. 4/5 for taste (unremembered), 5/5 for value. I love a sale wine that i can enjoy enough to not complain about later. (thats 3/5 normally, i'd never spend more than 5-8 on this wine).