Grocery Wine » Sauvignon Blanc

Burgers and Wine – Grilling and Grapes

Phil — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:04:46 +0000

In our house the 4th of July means burgers will be hitting the grill. With that decided we can devote all of our energy to determining what wines to have with dinner. Usually, I’d stay up late for months trying to come up with the perfect pairing for our burgers (not really), tasting thousands of wines (I wish), eating hundreds of burgers (no comment). This year though my fine friends over at Wine Spectator agreed to my request to write a couple of articles on the subject (I actually never spoke with them but I was thinking about it and then the articles were there so I still say it was my idea). Included on their list of wines for the 4th are a few grocery store staples which you should have no trouble finding at the local Safeway, Kroger, Vons, Ralphs, etc. Best of all there are a number of relatively cheap wines on the list with reds ranging in price from $11-$16 and whites from $9-$12. Listed below are our picks from the Wine Spectator articles. Enjoy and happy 4th!

Cabernet Sauvignons (from “Burgers and Red Wine for July Fourth” by Laurie Woolever at Wine Spectator)

COLUMBIA CREST Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley Grand Estates $11
CHATEAU STE. MICHELLE Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley $16
RANCHO ZABACO Cabernet Sauvignon California Dancing Bull Winemaker’s Reserve $12
BOGLE Cabernet Sauvignon California $11

Two White Options (from “Cooking Up a Fourth of July Feast” by Laurie Woolever at Wine Spectator)
HOGUE Pinot Grigio Columbia Valley $9
GEYSER PEAK Sauvignon Blanc California $12

Top 5 Grocery Wines for the Week

Phil — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:11:50 +0000

It’s Friday and what better way to celebrate than by swinging by the grocery store on your way home and picking up a bottle or five of wine. Listed below are our picks for the week.

Champagne – Gloria Ferrer (on sale $15.98 at Safeway / Vons until 6/10)
Chardonnay – Bogle (on sale $8.98 at Safeway / Vons until 6/24)
Sauvignon Blanc – Dry Creek Vineyard (available at Safeway / Vons)
Cabernet Sauvignon – BV (on sale $7.76 at Safeway / Vons until 6/10)
Zinfandel – Edmeades (Costco)

Review: Dry Creek Vineyard Fume Blanc – Buy It!

Phil — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:50:11 +0000

Warning this wine could cause relationship issues! Read on for details, but first a quick tangent: A couple of years ago we were out to dinner with some friends and our waitress recommended a wine to us. Very excited about the wine, the waitress came back seconds after pouring it asking how we liked it. Someone mumbled something about it and the waitress said “It’s really friendly right? I love it!”. From then on describing a wine as “friendly” became a running joke. Who’s going to argue if you say a wine is “friendly”? It’s the perfect non-opinion! Well, we popped open Dry Creek Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc (aka Fume Blanc) and after a bit Amy decreed ”I like it! This is in all seriousness a friendly wine. Very good!”. This California wine is very easy to drink and is definitely worth picking up at your local grocery store (we got it at Vons/Safeway), particularly when it’s on sale for under $13.

But then it happened. From out of nowhere Amy said “I think I like this as well as the Kim Crawford”. As well as the Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc? Are you kidding me? It’s good and variety never hurt anyone but come on! Voices were raised, fingers pointed, old skeletons trotted out: “You used to drink wine coolers!”, bottles were thrown (after we drank their contents of course). The end result, sometime in the near future we’ll post a Sauvignon Blanc shootout and resolve this once and for all. Stay tuned and feel free to sound off in the comments!

Review: Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc

Phil — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:21:00 +0000

Summer is here (even if the calendar still shows it being a month away). And with summer comes warm weather, and with warm weather comes a desire to put off running the air conditioner for as long as possible, and with no a/c comes a house which is broiling by evening, and with broiling comes a need for a cool refreshing drink. Some might say water is a logical choice but those people have clearly never had a tall cool glass of Kim Crawford.

This New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc does just about everything right. At the time of this posting this is currently our favorite white (not counting Champagne of course). Currently under $15 at Costco this wine is a great deal. Amy actually got a little Wine Spectatorish on us and jotted down the following notes:

“Perfect balance of minerals, grass and fruit. Light and refreshing. Good on its own or served with mac and cheese.”

Well, maybe that last sentence wouldn’t have been in the wine spectator review…