Besides always being on the look out for great wines, I am also happy to find inexpensive wines that are surprisingly good. In fact, knowing that I  got a good deal is at times even more exciting that great wine.

Maddalena vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 is one such wine according to Don. You get a full tasting Dark, near purple red wine, that is fruity (cherry) to the pallet, but with surprisingly less to the nose.

It will age really well, or even gets just a little better if you give it some breathing time before you drink it. for $13 a bottle, this is defiantly a feel good wine.

Wine and food is an obvious combination, as is wine and weather, for sure, lighter whiter wines for the heat of the summer, nicely cooled and fruity ….

I have been thinking, over a bottle of Merlot of course, (what better wine to think with…?) about other activities wine combines with perfectly, and of course, music came to mind, but not all music.

No. Some music is whiskey music, like Tom Waits. No way could I listen to him with a glass of wine.

Opera wouldn’t work with wine either. In fact, Opera has so much going on it it usually, that I think orange juice would suffice.

Leonard Cohen, on the other hand is definitely, with out a doubt, a red winner. Simon from Drinking Out Side the Box found this Saparel Red perfectly Leonard, and without having the pleasure of Tasting it my self, I will just have to take his word for it.

Opening a bottle of wine that you know is going to be great, and enjoying it will great company and good food is about as good as it gets.

The only bad thing about as good as it gets is that it looses its impact if it is a daily routine.

One needs to keep just plain good as well as ordinary around just to be able to appreciate the truly exceptional and wonderful.

Enjoy the simple pleasures as well as the extremely wonderful and complex.

Also, there is a nice surprise in opening a bottle of wine that you are not quite sure what to expect from it.

Brooklynguy wrote about just that in his blog - a solo simple meal and how to choose the bottle of wine that he would drink down with it.

It is a delicious indulgence to open a great bottle of wine for yourself and yourself alone. But in the end, part of what makes a great bottle of wine so special is experiencing it with someone else, talking about it, seeing their pleasure in drinking it. So instead of opening something glorious, what I most certainly would have done if BrooklynLady and/or guests were with me, I opened a bottle of the more humble 2007 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Sauvignon #2, $15, Louis/Dressner Selections. I’ve had great Clos Roche Blanche bottles, and so-so bottles, and this one was great, with a satisfying roundness, finely toned minerality, great texture, snappy acidity, and lovely herbal aromas and flavors. When this wine is good, it’s less about Sauvignon Blanc and more about the hills outside of Tours. It was a kind and generous companion to my seared Tuna steaks with baby bok choy.

photo credit creative commons license a440

The Rioja Coast , a post written by Adrien on his blog Blame it on Rioja, made me want to get onto the internet in search of a ticket to the coast were all is extremely good, it seems.

Sometimes I am drawn to things and or like them for the obvious and logical reasons, like reputation, quality personal experience and so on.

And sometimes not.

Some times the reasons that draw me to things that I want to taste, have or experience are totally intuitive, or strange.

For example, I have just been reading Bigger Than your Head, who always manages to make me hungry, so I try to read him only round meal times, and He posted about a wine called Shoo Fly Buzz Cut 2008 .

Now who could name a whine shoo fly buzz cut - except for an extremely wacky person (in a good way) and what better wine to taste than the wine of such a person?

I’ve got to get me some of that to taste.

Fredric frim BTYH has only good good things to say about it.