Baron Philiippe de Rothschild, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pays D'Oc, 2009, France

We arrived at my mom and dad's house on Saturday afternoon.  We were treated to skewered shrimp marinated in pesto and then tossed on the BBQ, hamburgers and veggies.  We opened this wine to accompany our meal, and much to Jer's dismay settled around the living room with our plates in our laps instead of at the table.  It was a good choice for a casual evening.

• This wine had a deep cherry red colour
• Powerful scents of cedar and black current
• It is a young wine and ready to drink, however the vineyard does note that it could be cellared until 2012
• It has a strong acidity and potent tannins with plum and sweet pepper flavours 

Rating: 3/5 Grapes

Malivoire Albert's Honour Old Vines Foch 2009, VQA Ontario

We had a busy Easter Weekend.  We Traveled down to Niagara Falls for a couple days and then up to Palmerston for the end of the weekend.  On our way from Niagara Falls to Palmerston we stopped at a couple vineyards in Beamsville, Angel's Gate and Thirty Bench, to pick up some wine for Easter dinner on Sunday afternoon.  Easter dinner was wonderful and I have a few wines to review but I am going to start with this Malivoire that my sister and her husband brought to dinner since it is the first one we opened.

• This wine had a gorgeous deep purple colour
• It was medium to full bodied
• Very silky and smooth
• Fruity and floral tastes, mild tannins

Rating: 4/5 Grapes

Don Pascual Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

While out at the LCBO yesterday this bottle grabbed my attention. The wine came from Uruguay. I had never tasted any wine from that area and was quite curious to see what it would taste like, especially that my favorite kind of wine tends to be Cabernet Sauvignon. I would definitely recommend this wine and to be honest I think if it sat an extra 2-3 years it would even be better! We opened up the bottle for dinner, let it breathe for about 30 minutes and had some with our beef tacos.

Notable notes:

• Taste is long
• Beautiful colour
• Would enjoy this with either dinner or as an evening wine
• Stephie thinks it would go well with chocolate

Rated: 4/5 grapes

Terra D'aligi Tatone Montepulciano D'Abruzzo, 2007

We went out to dinner tonight with friends to Il Primo, a restaurant in little Italy owned by a friend of mine.  We had a wonderful dinner with good company, followed by the end of the Habs game at the Prescott across the street.  They won by the way. But I am getting off track.  This was the featured wine at the restaurant. Sorry about the picture, it was taken with my BlackBerry, hence the poor quality.

• This wine was full bodied
• It needed to breathe a little bit, because we didn't have a decanter it took about 30min for the wine to open up properly
• It was a really nice table wine, it would be kind of a shame to drink it on its own, it went well with a good meal.
• It tasted of ripe red fruits, with a long spicy finish

Rating:  4/5 Grapes

Tre Saggi 2006, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo|Talamonti

Tonight after work we hit up Best Buy because part 1 of Harry Potter was released today and Jer had only seen the first hour of the movie and he was as excited about it as a little girl who just got a pony for her birthday.  Needless to say, we spent the night in, I made a nice pork tenderloin and we had sweet potato wedges, expertly seasoned by Jer.  This was our wine choice.  This is the second time we have had this bottle in the past couple of weeks, the first time we couldn't really think of what to write about it and this time we are in the exact same boat.  

• Jer feels the bottle could have probably aged a few more years.
• It was a bit peppery taste wise
• I found it to have a slight cherry flavour to it
• It was medium bodied and quite drinkable

Jer didn't really care for it, I thought it was not bad.

Rating: 3/5 Grapes
(Jer is only giving it 2/5)

Tintern Ridge Red 2009, The Cornerstone Bar and Grill

One of my really good friends is in town from Boston.  She has been having a rough week and needed a little get away.  I was lucky enough to be graced with her presence.  Needless to say we went to Cornerstone's for lunch yesterday, the food was good, the wine was meh.  Granted we did get the cheapest bottle on the wine list, mainly because I cannot justify spending 45 dollars on a bottle of wine I can get for 7 dollars at the LCBO.  I also must admit I am not a huge drinker of Ontario wines, I tend to gravitate more towards Italy and France.

• This wine was exceptionally light in taste
• A little bit fruity
• Very light in colour, almost watery
• Not a strong flavour, kind of bland

I found this wine not necessarily bad, just unremarkable which is almost worse.  I don't really have much to say about it at all.

Rating: 2/5 Grapes

2007 Cellier des Dauphins Cotes du Rhone Carte Noire

This is the bottle of wine that helped me get through the Canadian Election Debate on Tuesday night without swearing.

• It was a dry medium bodied wine
• It was spicy in taste
• It had floral and fruity scents
• It was very smooth to drink

Rating: 4/5 Grapes