Monday, September 19, 2011

Tonight, I'm enjoying a magnum bottle of Frontera's (Concha Y Toro) 2010 Sauvignon Blanc. I've always loved CyT's "bargain" line, Frontera, and it's been my mainstay for the better part of 10 years, particularly during a time of economic drought. Their Cab, Cab/Merlot, and Carmenere are all the absolute best one can do for a $4 bottle of wine, which, when you pick up a magnum, this is. Frontera wines average out at $5, or $8 for a 1.5L, and one would be a fool to round up a cache of Two Buck Chuck for a party, or dinner, or private drinking and dining session (that's my style, you see) when the Frontera can be had for just a dollar more per 750 ml.

Tonight's Sauvignon Blanc is a Frontera first for me: being a red obsessive, I am wretchedly ignorant when it comes to the crisp, citrus-y charms of white varietals. I drink white with seafood and pork and sometimes chicken because I have manners (all rumors of whorefucking and drug-taking notwithstanding) and I have gotten drunk on many whites and pondered them, but never with genuine dedication. But in the eve of my 34th year, I have become seduced, at long last, by white wine, and I look for residual sugar, and pale fruit, and mineral notes, and I consider the "fluttering" notes as well, when before I was only interested in that bottle, which when uncorked - as with so many of my beloved Monastrell wines-, break down the goddamn door and kick your dog in the guts while berating your choice of furniture.

Frontera's Sauv Blanc is a very lemony beast, buttery lemon on the nose and sour vanilla-lemonade-green pepper-candy apple on the palate as well, with a very okay (but somewhat short) finish. It's a god damn delight, friends, and my aim was to begin my red wine blog with a white just to challenge myself and the notion of red as the more dramatic and "spiritual" and seductive of the two broadest categories...but I do believe that I'll be buying more white than red over the coming weeks, and no, I'm not changing the name of the blog...and as I said, my aim was to christen this forum with a white wine, and so I have done...although there's barely anything really in-depth stated about Frontera's 2010 Sauv Blanc....but I've just had two magnums of the stuff (that's four bottles worth, Captain Kirk) and I'm pie-faced. My first wine review is complete, and I am an alcoholic wretch who doesn't know wine as well as he claims to but will write about it anyway. I am returning tomorrow with Anakena's 2010 Carmenere.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Greetings, winos.

I'm going to write about wine here. Seriously, and frequently. Make no bones about it, I am one of the only wine lovers in the world who has both learned sophistication and a felony conviction for assaulting law enforcement personnel. So I'll keep my reports rugged and accurate and to the point, and as vulgar as necessary. I attempted wine criticism on Facebook, but my insights mostly have fallen on deaf ears. I hope to kick up a healthy and passionate debate here...and my first report will commence tomorrow, with a 7 buck magnum of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. I am often contradictory, and that's something you'll just have to accept. I'm a red wine guy, and white wine always tastes of grapefruit and pears to me, which is not interesting. But I'm pairing this white plonk with some Swai fillets, red potatoes, and kale tomorrow. be there or be square, douche bags.