WineLife365

Posts Tagged ‘2005’

From: Alsace, France

Price: $12.99

Gentil is Hugel estate’s entry-level, least expensive, Alsatian white wine.  It is a blend of several white grapes that include: Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Sylvaner. 

The 2005 Hugel Gentil is an easy drinking, oak-free white wine that showcases some nice crisp citrus flavors.  Gentil is by no means a blockbuster Alsatian white wine, but it is a nearly flawless picnic wine or the kind of white wine that you don’t mind just sipping on a hot summer day.  However, this Alsatian white wine does have the ability to transform itself into a more serious food-friendly wine.  It matches up well with foods like sushi, various seafood, spicy Asian dishes, salads, and white sauced pastas.

This wine is a huge crowd-pleaser.  It’s also, in my opinion, consistently good year after year.  It won’t blow your mind, but it’s certainly better than average, and at $13 bucks a pop it’s priced nearly to perfection.   

 WineLife365 Rating: 3-Star

From: California

Price: $5.99

Like a lot of wine writers, I’m always looking for value wines that fly under the radar of most consumers.  My hope is that by discovering and giving them some love and praise in a forum like this one, it will create demand for their finely produced efforts.  However, on the flip side, you never know what you’ll taste along the way to finding that proverbial needle in the haystack. 

I was hoping that the 2005 Mont Pellier Cabernet Sauvignon at $5.99 a bottle would be that needle in the haystack.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t – not by a long wine country mile.

My Momma once told me that if you don’t have something nice to say about someone or something, then you shouldn’t say anything at all.  Thanks Mom for that piece of advice.  Now would you be kind enough to hand me that bucket?

I give the 2005 Mont Pellier Cabernet Sauvignon 1 Star.

WineLife365 Rating: 1-Star

From: California

Price: $8.99

I love trying new wines, and the fact that this wine was an American-made Shiraz priced under $10, it really sparked my curiosity.

I was expecting and hoping for a great inexpensive American-style Shiraz that possessed some or all of that great Australian big ripe fruit and spice flavor to which I have become accustomed.  Unfortunately, the 2005 Ironstone Vineyards Shiraz fell short of meeting my expectations.  This Shiraz is rather watery and had little to no spice to it.  A pepperoni and sausage pizza couldn’t even breathe some excitement into this American Shiraz.  It was just ok to me.

I give the 2005 Ironstone Vineyards Shiraz 2 Stars.  At $8.99 a bottle, you’ve got several better choices “Down Under”.

WineLife365 Rating: 2-Star

From: Italy

Price: $8.99

“If you don’t look good, we don’t look good…” 

Can you distinguish which one of the bottles in the picture is not hairspray, but rather a wine bottle?  I saw this ”hairspray looking” red wine at my local wine store and just had to bring it home for the missus and I to try one night. 

After getting a good chuckle from the unique looking bottle, I was hoping that the juice inside would entice us to take it more seriously.  Unfortunately it didn’t.  This blended Italian red wine was rather light, sweet, and fruity tasting with no silky or shining finish whatsoever to it.

I give the 2005 Vidal Sassoon…uh, I mean the Voga Quattro Red Table Wine 2 stars.  It was a good laugh that you might find funny too!  Just don’t put it too close to your hair products.

WineLife 365 Rating: 2-Star