2006 Chiusa Grande Tommolo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Ahhhh...housesitting again in the Gorge. No commute, no working on the house, no weeding. Time to sit back and update my neglected blog. I have five wines to post about, a Spanish Mourvedre, a Pinot Gris from Alsace, a...wait a minute. My notes. My notes are in Portland. I finally have a second to write and left all my notes on the coffee table in the living room. Welcome to my life.

No worries! I went grocery shopping before my stay out here and picked up a few bottles. First up the 2006 Chiusa Grande Tommolo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo from, yes, Trader Joe's. $4.99.

Montepulciano is a grape native of the Abruzzo region of Italy. Not known as one of the top wine producing regions in Italy, Abruzzo produces very food friendly, accessible wines. Just what I need to pair with my Italian Sausage sandwich and unobstructed view of Mt. Hood.

My nose in the glass I got kind of a dough smell, and sausage. Like..pizza. Maybe I'm just hungry. Nope. Maybe it's the glass...nope. An interesting nose. After a little air I can pick up some cherry and..violets? Maybe not violets. What is that flower. I have to be honest, after weeding every flipping thing that grows out of the ground smells the same. By product of Spring in Oregon. Grass, tulips, Iris, dandelions. Everything. Very light and clean, tart cherry, nutmeg and cinnamon, soft tannins. The label proclaims it's "Made with Organic Grapes", after a little research I discovered this winery also practices bio dynamic farming. Easy to drink, non-offensive table wine. Hmm. One for the cellar? No. Not really. Worth the five bucks? Definitely.

2004 Columbia Crest Two Vines Merlot

When I started this blog I promised myself I would not review bulk wines. Why should I? There are so many great, value priced wines produced by smaller wineries out there, why would I waste my time on a bulk wine? I mean my God people, when I think of bulk wine I think of that scene in "Sideways" where the wine is being dumped into the tanker by a hose. That, to me, is not the wine I want to drink.

Well, I'll tell you the reasons I'm drinking this. Christmas shopping, spending way too much money on gifts that have a life expectancy of ten days, utter and complete exhaustion, wal mart, and then sending the drinking companion in to the Hood River Safeway for a bottle of wine. His pick? Columbia Crest Two Vine Merlot for a mere $5.85.

Brave choice I thought, knowing if it was undrinkable I had a bottle of the yet-to-be-released Syncline 2007 Mourvedre at home. The nose has an amazing blackberry bramble thing going on, I thought to myself it's probably the stems that were crushed along with the grapes. (The grapes were in fact de-stemed, I'm just being snarky) No matter, I pressed on (no pun intended, really). The wine is smoooth, with flavors of berry and chocolate. None of that metallic aftertaste I usually get with bulk wine. Not a very complex merlot, but definately a food friendly, drinkable wine that paired nicely with the spinach and parmesan pasta we had for dinner. We finished the bottle and debated going out to get another. However it's chilly here in the Gorge and we're in for the night. Time to break open the Mourvedre and watch "Weeds".