Our "Scoring System"

A note about what our scores mean:
5 - Wine your kids buy for you
6 - Would drink. Jug wine. Good for parties and your kids!
7 and above - Good for ANYTHING. Would recommend to friends. The higher the better!

And for PAIRINGS the scores mean:
0 = Wine tastes best alone
1 = Wine tastes best with food #1
2 = Wine tastes best with food #2

About Me

My photo
This blog started because we needed a tenor in the church choir... Bob, Karen and I told Mike that if he joined the choir we would go out after practice every Thursday for drinks and appetizers. After a while we decided that it would be more fun (and less expensive!) to take turns hosting a "wine & cheese" night. Then Bob had the brilliant idea to "Taste the Vine" in alphabetical order. We started with Cabernet Sauvignon. The rules were simple: 1) The wine had to start with your designated letter, and 2) the bottle had to be covered up so we didn't know what we were drinking. I decided to write down our scores so that we would know which wines we liked the best....then was "forced" into writing a blog so that we could share our "finds" with our friends. So, enjoy!!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

"A" new beginning - European wines

ABC wines continued!!
We had so much fun finding and tasting Cabernet Sauvignon wines alphabetically that we decided to continue with our “ABC” search. The new “rules” are: The wine has to be a red from Europe, but NOT from Italy. The name of the wine has to start with the “letter of the week”.

Wednesday November 2, 2011
“A” Hosted by Mike and Becky
This was the week of the BIG snowstorm that hit Connecticut. No heat. No electricity. We drank by candlelight and sat by the fireplace to stay warm.



  1. ViƱa Alarba – Spain $11.99
    Bob 8, Karen 8.5, Mike 8, Becky 8, Jess 8.5, Sean 6
    Karen: “Smells good. Not berry, not fruity. Woodsy. No bite. A little bit dry. Just how I like it.”
    Becky: “It smells woodsy because you’re sitting next to the fire.”
    Bob: “It has a dark color.”
    Becky “It’s hard to see in the dark.”
    Bob “It’s a little cold”
    Becky: “It’s room temperature!! (47 degrees)

  2. Alejandro Fernandez Dehesa – Spain –$25.99
    Bob 6, Karen 4, Mike 6, Becky 4.5, Jess 6, Sean 3
    Karen: “Smells like dirty socks.”
    Sean: “I was going to say dirty feet.”
    Becky: “It tastes better than it smells.”
    Karen: “It tastes a lot better than it smells but it’s not as good as the first one.”
    Bob: “It wasn’t refreshing.”Jess: “Lots of sediment.”
    Karen: “It has a bite.”
    Mike: “I was going to say sour, but a bite.”Bob: “It’s drinkable - Grapes.”
    Karen: “That’s what it smells like – Immature grapes!”

  3. Alto Moncay - Spain $29.99
    Bob 6, Karen 8.5, Mike 7.5, Becky 8.5, Jess 8, Wayne 7.5
    Becky: “This smells a lot better than that stanky one.”
    Bob: “Bitey”
    No!! everyone piped in
    Karen: “Berry. Butterscotch. Finish tastes like a Werther’s Original.”
    Becky: “A lot of nuances.”
    Karen: “First, Second & Third taste.”
    Wayne: “It’s on the spicy side. My guess is this would be a Spanish wine. Bold in our mouth. Big tannin finish.”
    Note: Karen changed her ranking because it’s so interesting
    Note #2: Wayne was a surprise taster…he came by to drop off his generator for Karen and Bob. What a nice friend! Why don’t Becky and Mike have a friend like that?!?