Wine, Fatboy, Wine

Last night Robin and I went to a free screening of Run, Fatboy, Run at the Arlington Cinema and Draft House that was preceded by a wine tasting hosted by the Washington Wine Academy. I tried four of the wines they had there but didn't have my recorder with me so I don't recall everything I had, honestly. There was an Irony 2005 Pinot Noir that was functional, for the most part. There was a Chardonnay/Torrontes blend from Argentina that I don't recall being particularly happy with - it was sort of bland. Some Sonoma blend of merlot, zinfandel, pinot noir, and a couple of other grapes that was actually quite good but had a very nondescript label. The label was black with a red blot on it and it simply said something along the lines of 2004 Red Wine Blend, Sonoma, CA. I'll try to hunt the bottle down.

The winner of the night, however, was Chasing Venus 2007 Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Apricot and peach undertones, explosive on the tongue, great price tag - we ended up buying a bottle and enjoying it during the movie which, I should add, we enjoyed quite a bit more with the Chasing Venus. It was an overall enjoyable night. Lots of enjoying.

Speaking of enjoying, I certainly enjoyed getting free promotional running shorts. Here's a picture of me enjoying them. Enjoy!

An Evening of Nortons

Our friends at Virginia Wine Time hosted an evening of Norton tasting. I was (and still am) pretty ignorant when it comes to the Norton grape - going into the evening I thought Norton was the vineyard. We got a little history lesson on the grape, on how it's marketed as a grape native to North America despite evidence that it may be a hybrid of several native varieties and a Mediterranean grape.

Anyway, you don't care about any of this. Here's what we drank and what I thought of it:

Chrysalis 2003 Norton - Locksley Reserve - The winner of the evening as far as I was concerned. Dark berries on the nose and a great finish. It went well with the lamb we had for dinner. I spent most of the evening drinking from this bottle and it certainly got me good and buzzed. The $35 price tag, however, would probably prevent me from ever buying it. Whereas it was good, I've had better wines for cheaper.

Crysalis 2006 Norton - Another solid bottle. A little too much grape on the nose and kind of a fruity taste but it's a good red wine for white wine drinkers. Whereas I didn't rank it high, Robin (a traditional white wine drinker) had it at number 2.

Horton 2004 Norton - Pass. Tasted and smelled like boxed grape juice.

Cooper Vineyards 2004 Norton - I had this one at number 2, Robin had it at number 1. It was also a white wine drinker's red wine but with a slightly better finish and some dried fruits on the nose.

We also had two Zinfandel's for comparison purposes.

Courtney's Angels 2004 Zinfandel - I'm not a big Zin fan, honestly, but I admit it's mainly due to the fact that I never really sought out good Zinfandels. Having said that, I didn't like this wine at all. The bottle design was fantastic, however.

Torre Dei Gesuiti 2006 Primitivo Puglia - Now, I did like this one. The nose, at least, was phenomenal; very strong floral tones. The taste was so-so and having revisited the bottle the next day it certainly didn't seem to sit well at all.