Drew's Wine List

2018 Cellier des Dauphins Réserve Vintage:  2018 Region:  C ôtes du Rh ône, France Winery:  A to Z Wineworks Varietal:  60% Grenache, 40% Syrah Price:  $14.99 at Wegmans Expert Rating:  97 My Rating:  96 Things to note: Highest rated wine on my list. Grapes picked at peak ripeness from very sunny areas. Really deep, ruby red color. "Astute élevage"- you may see this word, élevage, on occasion when drinking French wines. It's the term for the progression of wine from the beginning of fermentation to bottling. So, "astute  élevage" would mean that the wine had a great fermentation period. The Review: My apologies for a bit of a delay in this post, it's midterm exam season and I'm studying believe it or not. This wine is pretty crazy. As I mentioned, it's the highest-rated wine on my list with a rating of 97 points. It's also pretty complex, which can sometimes get really overwhelming and cause everything to meld into one ...

2018 A to Z Wineworks Chardonnay Vintage:  2018 Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon Winery:  A to Z Wineworks Varietal:  Chardonnay (Unoaked) Price: $12.99 at Wegmans Expert Rating: 90 My Rating:  95 Things to note : Ranked #58 on Wine Spectator's "Top 100 Wines of 2019" The Review: Hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's day. For this week's post, I've got a personal favorite. In case you couldn't tell from my really high rating, this wine is something else. It's an unoaked chardonnay, so it's a lot less buttery than most chardonnays and instead leans a little more acidic and fruity. When you oak a chardonnay (put it in oak barrels), it gains a lot of that buttery characteristic that sometimes will deter people. So if you don't like this, look for these unoaked wines (they'll say it on the bottle if it's unoaked). Anyways, the scent of this wine is citrus to the max. Lots of lime and lemon immediately with a l...

Welcome back! This post will run down the set up of the blog posts as well as go over some of the terminologies that will be used. Hopefully this will clear up some intimidation that can come when people start throwing out wine words... Formating of the blog:  The blog right now is going to be a little "tasting journal." I'd encourage you to keep your own journal with your own notes on the wines that you try! This can help you organize your thoughts and pick out things that you like. In my posts, I'll include some general info about the wine followed by some notes and tasting notes. Simple as that! Here are some wine buzzwords/concepts explained that might help you in the future. Tannins: THE TRIGGER WORD FOR EVERY SINGLE "WINE PERSON." I don't know why in the world everyone is expected to know what these stupid (really important) things are, but here's the skinny (AKA more than you really wanted to know)... Tannins are a really bitter compoun...

Why Drew's Wine List?      You may be wondering how you ended up here... well to be quite honest with you, I'm wondering the same thing. But since you're here, why don't you take a few minutes of your day and read some of this glorious wine blog written by a college kid! Who am I? I am Drew, a recently turned 21-year old who's in college at the University of Virginia up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I study ecology and music and spend my free time either singing or watching the 'hoos. People would probably describe me as "crunchy" if that gives you some insight into my personality.  "You're in college, why don't you drink Busch Lite?"   The burning question on everyone's mind... I'll explain a little more. How did this wine thing start? Let's step back a little. All throughout high school, I found myself obsessed with craft coffee. I was amazed at how drastically different coffee could taste and I found m...