We seem to keep coming back to this small winery because we just like the style of these wines. The winery makes several different varietals and a myriad of red blends, and we just like the style of the winemaker.
The ‘08 Lodi Chardonnay is no exception. It was pasta with Alfredo night and our friends for some reason brought red wine, so we brought out a bottle of Chardonnay and had a wonderful evening. This wine is big on apples and pears both in the nose and on the palate. Somewhere in the background you get a lemon-citrus thing lurking like Santa on the roof waiting for the children to go to sleep. It’s there, you know it’s going to be pleasant, but you just can’t quite touch it. Some vanilla at the mid-palate tips us off to a bit of oak aging. Our guests thought they found creaminess indicative of malolactic fermentation, but we disagreed on that point with them. The jury was split, and you will have to judge when you drink the wine for yourself. All in all, it is a wonderful example of small California winery Chardonnay that is made to be consumed today, and at least two more times this week. Just do it.
With it’s under $12 price point, we give it a very solid 3 Stars — Recommended. Under $10 would boost its rating, but we still think this is a wine that you should have in your cooler all the times, and you should not hesitate to drink it anytime the food would go well with a Chardonnay.
And we were not disappointed. Wildfire Zinfandel is everything you could want in a Lodi Zin, and we consider it to be better than many other non-Lodi Zins which cost as much as $28 per bottle.
What can we say? We have a soft spot for Malbec from Argentina and this one just jumped off the shelf at us last week. For $10.99 we decided we couldn’t leave the bottle in the store so we took it home and opened it on the spot to go with a snowy afternoon movie on pay per view. This wine is a deep ruby color with a delightful nose full of fruity plums & blackberries. On the palate, there is the pleasant “Malbec earthiness” that we so enjoy along with the fruit. We couldn’t help but notice the lovely balance between the fruit, the earthiness, the oak and the tannins. Our overall emotional response was a smile and we give this under $12 wine 
We were so intrigued by our first bottle of LA Cetto that we had to find out more about the wines from this vineyard. We went out and found an ‘07 Petit Syrah to go with our strip steaks over the weekend. This wine is an inky dark violet color that is almost guaranteed to stain your teeth after the first glass. The fruit in the nose is very ripe and sweet and this carries over to the palate. The tannic finish leaves our mouth feeling dusty inside and I had a fleeting image at that moment of my grandmother standing in her attic. It must have been the slight lavender in the fruit and the dust on the palate that did it. Whatever it was, we thoroughly enjoyed the wine and for only the $11.99 we paid for it, we give it an unreserved 
Stray Dog Zinfandel has got to be our favorite economy priced, daily drinking Zin. There is no pretense in this wine, you don’t have to think real hard about it when you drink it and it just goes so well with any kind of food off the grill. We served this to friends at a small wine tasting that we hosted because we had soooooo many wines that we wanted to go through that week. Although our normal choice would have been red meat with this wine, we really liked it with the shrimp cocktail as the spice laden finish of the wine complimented the horseradish in the cocktail sauce beautifully. Next, we went to the chocolate fondue pot (oh yeah!) and the hot fudgie chocolate over strawberries was just wonderful with our glass of Stray Dog.
Arabella Shiraz 2006 — South Africa — From a land often known for the broccoli & asparagus overtones in its red wines, this Shiraz is a pleasant departure from that stereotype. This Shiraz wants to have food served with it; it is not our first choice for simply sitting on the deck and watching the sunset. We served it along side a garlic, vegetable, sausage & Parmesan saturated fettuccini Alfredo and it was a great synergistic pairing. The wine was as rich as the pasta dish and we finished both the bottle of wine and the pot of pasta. Very fairly priced, we give it 4 STARS — RECOMMENDED
Lapis Luna Merlot 2007 — California — $12 — Intense scents of black plum and raspberry carry from the bouquet to the palate and then come cedar, sandalwood and coffee. This wine is lush and juicy in your mouth and then gives you gentle oak and tannins on the finish. For Merlot lovers it is a lovely choice for a weekday supper with a significant other. 4 STARS — RECOMMENDED
Norton Malbec Reserva, 2005 — Mendoza, Argentina. $12 (14% alc/vol) We are big fans of Malbec but hadn’t tried this winery before, and thus we had no idea what to expect from them. To our great joy, we found this to be a thoroughly delightful wine! A huge nose full of raspberries, strawberries and figs gives way to a medium bodied palate full of still more fruit and gentle oak tannins. The 12 months in French oak for this wine was just perfect, leaving the oak understated, yet powerful. This juicy wine finished just the way it started, with lots of fruit and gentle tannins. We paired it with lasagna and were not disappointed, as the two complemented each other beautifully. From a quick tour of the internet, we find that our bottle was probably a bit old, as the current vintage is 2006. But no matter. This wine gets 5 Stars and our Highest Recommendation.
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