Incanto Chardonnay Pinot Grigio

First, let me lay this on the line:  I have coveted this big ass blue bottle of wine every year when Trader Joe’s brings it out around the holiday time.  TJ’s always have special, super huge wine bottles, and they are sooooo appealing to my eyes!  Seriously, every year I want to buy them.  David and I normally grocery shop together, and I know that he, being the more realistic (and once in a while the more responsible) of the two of us must think these big ol’ wine bottles are ridiculous.  And, in my heart, I have always known he was right.  So, year after year I have held back and not snuck one of these big wines into our cart.

But this year – oh, this year I WENT FOR IT!  I got brave enough to snag one of these bottles on a night I was shopping without David actually 😊 .  But look at it – it is gorgeous!  The shape of the bottle.  The size.  But mostly, the color! I mean, how bad would this Italian blend have to taste to undo all of those positives???

Here is David before the bottle was opened.  See - it is LARGE!

So, this holiday season, I got one and we hauled it down to Florida with us.  I thought we might drink it if we had friends over, but (as almost always happens in our lives), we were hermits and didn’t have a dinner party.  We were invited to a friend’s house for New Year’s Day dinner, and I guess it would have been nice to bring this bottle, but it just felt a little strange.  There were going to be 5 people at the meal, and in we would walk with a huge ass bottle of wine?  What if we were the only wine drinkers?

Close up of the label

Now January is ticking by and we still hadn’t opened this bottle...  One night our friend Sarah said she was going to stop by (and I know she likes wine).   Voila – there’s my chance!  I had David open the bottle and the 3 of us did a taste test.  Here is what we thought:

Well isn't this elegant??  Bottle is too big for the fridge

Susan:  Before I can discuss the taste of the wine, I must talk through the logistics of it.  This.  Wine bottle.  Is.  Ridonkulous!!  It is white wine and we wanted it chilled, but the big bottle most certainly could not stand up in our refrigerator.  It ended up lying on its side and taking up a big chunk of the fridge (though to be honest, for a day or so it served as a “shelf” as David rested his used paint brush (wrapped in Saranwrap) on top of the horizontal bottle…).  OK, now on to the taste:  The taste is sort of water-y to me – there is not much taste.  Because of that I wound up drinking it pretty fast.  So, if your goal is to down wine quickly (and therefore feel a bit tipsy quickly…), this might be a good pick.  Artistically it is beautiful.  Logistically it is stupid.  And to be honest, the actual wine seemed sort of incidental!  I will give the taste of this wine 3.75.  If I gave a score for the look of the bottle it would be a 5, but if I gave a score for the usability of the bottle (squishing it in your fridge) it would be a 2.  So, I will average those scores together and give the overall product a score of 3.5.

David gives Incanto a try

David: “I think this is good, it is nice and cold which is good for this wine.  It has a little bit of a fruity taste.  It has a hint of a chardonnay kind of oakiness – I don’t like chardonnay but this was not too much, so I thought it balanced it out kind of nice.  This is not a wine I would seek out, but I am delighted to drink it.  I guess I will give it a 4.  (David added that he should have docked his score because of the unwieldy size of the bottle.)”

Sarah refilling her glass
 (by the way, this bottle is hard to pour, too!  It comes out super fast.)

Sarah: “I did not like this wine at the first sip, because it tasted like chardonnay and I do not normally like chardonnay.  But I kept drinking, and (like most wines) then I enjoyed it more.   It ended up being more fruity than dry, which I liked.  This is a super easy wine to drink.  I will give it a solid 4.5.”

Overall, I suggest only buying this big bottle of wine if you have plans to drink it all in one sitting.  That way you can chill it, uncork it, and drink it all without having to worry about re-corking it to lay sideways in your fridge.

Price:  $12.99 (cheap when you consider it is the equivalent of 2 bottles of wine)

Rating (average of 3 raters):  4

Kung Fu Girl Riesling

I have been tempted by this wine, Kung Fu Girl Riesling, before, solely because of the totally kick-ass name and label.  I mean, what woman WOULDN’T want to drink some KUNG FU GIRL RIESLING, right??  But at $9.99, it was a bit more expensive than some other tried and tested wines at TJ's, and I had just never thrown a bottle in my cart.

Until they taste tested it one night while I was shopping…

See, this guy was handing out samples!  Thanks Trader Joe's!

Yes, once again, the Trader Joe’s wine taste testing resulted in a sale (DO YOU HEAR ME BAILEY’S CROSSROADS, VIRGINIA TJ’S??  IT WORKS WHEN YOU STAND THERE AND POUR COMMUNION CUPS OF WINE TO HAND OUT.  DO IT MORE OFTEN LIKE YOU USED TO! )  (Actually, they have leased what used to be the music store space right next door and are renovating it to be a wine/beer area, so maaaaaybe they will be awesome like the NYC Trader Joe’s Wine Shop and have tastings every day!!  Oh please, oh please, oh please…)

But I digress…  I mean, I personally do not do kung fu, but this wine has such a kick ass, strong woman name that it was hard to resist!! 

Here it is, sideways in my cart.  I swear I had only drunk a little tiny cup to taste it,
so I am not sure why I took a sideways photo.

Normally Riesling is not my “go to” wine, but this 2015 from Washington State was GOOD!  It was very nice.  It was smooth and not too sweet.  I drank it with a rice, leek, chicken, green pepper, and snow pea stir fry and it was a very tasty compliment to the dinner. 

This sign says "new" but I think that might be a fib.  Sometimes TJ's says writes new
but they should write "new", cuz actually they have carried the product a while...

I recently heard a great story on the NPR show Freakonomics about drinking cheap wine.  They did blind taste tests with “wine snobs” – like, people who really KNEW about wine.  Well lo and behold, they often could not tell the difference between cheap wine and fancy pants wine.  (link to awesome Freakonomics story here - you should listen to it)  Maybe YOU think you can tell the difference, and maybe you CAN, but I think that most people cannot.  So, if you want a GIRL POWER wine for your girl get together (your girlfriend dinner or your book club perhaps!) – HAVE A BOTTLE OF KUNG FU RIESLING out.  It is a “Nevertheless, She Persisted” wine. 

This wine tastes good.  It is not crappy.  So how is that for an endorsement?

Me, doing my best kung fu in our kitchen

I am reviewing this product by myself.  Oh sure, David had some, but I don’t really even care what he thought about it!  Because, you see, this wine is about STRONG WOMEN.  So, all of you strong women out there – BUY IT, DRINK IT, SUPPORT IT!  (And yes, I realize that it may well be made by a bunch of dudes in Washington, but don’t burst my bubble right now, ok?)  Get it!

Kung Fu Girl Riesling would have been the wine they served at the Women’s March in Washington DC (had they served wine).  The bottles could have worn little tiny pink pussy hats, and all of the marchers would have loved it.  Missed opportunity 😊 .  

My hat, our posters, and the capitol in the background!!
Thanks for knitting the hat, Karen Hoyer!

Here is a bonus clip - short video of the crowd at the Women's March in Washington DC on January 21, 2017.  And yes, I realize the pink hats are controversial.  But you can still enjoy the video anyway - there are some great posters!

Price - $9.99
Rating – 4.5

Amancay Winery Reserve Torrontes La Rioja (2014)

This is an Argentinian white wine that David chose when we were on a Trader Joe’s wine binge (well, maybe not a binge, but stocking up before we escaped to Florida, which, while great to visit, does not have a Trader Joe’s anywhere near where we stay). 

We drank this Torrontes La Rioja chilled and paired it with LEFTOVERS J.  Cuz nuttin’ pairs better with leftovers than a cold Torrontes, right?

Very reasonably priced wine from Argentina

And speaking of cold, did you know that the United States is the only country that has refused to switch to metric??  When I was in school I remember that they tried to teach us about the metric system for a couple of years before they gave up - you know, these are centimeters, this is a meter, and hey, how about if we measure temperature in CELSIUS instead of Fahrenheit??  I mention this because this bottle of wine says it should be served at “10 degrees Celsius”.  Then, for the morons in America, they have to save space on the label to let us know that in our slow-to-adapt-something-that-everyone-else-uses, that means 50 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Other than the recommended serving temperature, this label also says that this wine is “An intense white wine, showing mandarin, rose petal, and tropical fruit flavors, along with a crisp, juicy finish that will leave you enchanted.”  Damn – enchanted??  That’s a pretty high bar you are settin’ for yourselves there, Amancay Winery! 

This wine has a fun to say name!

Let me spend just a second more on the LABEL – it looks a bit like a junior high school student drew it…  Maybe it is supposed to be a dock, a boardwalk perhaps, with some fencing around it and a mountain…  The mountain seems to have a bit of DEPTH to it, making me think that they spent extra money to get a fancy LABEL, but they didn’t spend extra money on the ARTIST…  I am gonna guess they held a contest in the local junior high school and the winner got his/her artwork on a bottle of wine. 

See how the mountains have a bit of RELIEF??  Extra money for that, I am sure!

Now – the WINE.  David says he chose it because we hadn’t had it before and it has a name that is fun to pronounce.  “I think this thing is doing all of the things that it wants to do, and doing them well, but they are not things that I really ENJOY.  I think this wine has a little bit too much PAINT THINNER notes to it for my taste…  It out-chardonnays chardonnay in terms of that strong flavor…  I like a LIGHTER white wine.  But if you like to drink turpentine, then  this is your wine!  I will say, it does pair well with leftovers…  I suggest serving it with leftovers (as opposed to wasting a good meal on it)…  I give it a 2.5.  I think it does what it wants to do, it is just not what I like.”

Here is my take:  one time we went to a winery in St. Augustine, Florida* (DO NOT LAUGH, we realize that in and of itself is a ridiculous concept…  Winery + Florida does not = a good experience…)  Anyway, we WENT TO A WINERY IN FLORIDA.  While there, we drank a wine that tasted, I kid you not, like CAT PEE.  It was incredible!!!  It had a cat pee SCENT and a cat pee TASTE!  Not that we had partaken of a glass of cat pee prior to that evening, but we all agreed that the wine being poured was CAT PEE FLAVORED!

David and my sister slamming back some cat pee flavored wine in Florida - ahhh those were the days...

This bottle of wine from Trader Joe’s (Amancay Winery Reserve Torrontes La Rioja) also tastes a bit like cat pee!!!  Not as much as the super pee-flavored one we had at the Florida winery, but this has more than a hint of “cat pee” in it. 

All in all, this is not as horrible as the FLORIDA CAT PEE wine, but it is still not being added to our “Hey, pick up a bottle of that next time you are at Trader Joe’s!” list.   We DID finish this bottle.  Heck, we have only thrown away 2 bottles of opened, unfinished wine ever (one being “Scary Clown Wine” reviewed here:  Scary Clown Wine

I agree with David on the score – I will give it a 2.5, too.  But maybe someone who reads this will like it better than we did.  J

While in St. Augustine, Florida we popped by the Fountain of Youth, but it was closed.
However, that didn't stop us from letting the magical powers of the fountain from erasing all of our wrinkles!

Price – $6.99

Rating – 2.5

*If you want to taste the cat pee wine, I can’t remember which one it was that we tasted, but you can go on the tour of St. Sebastian Winery and taste it for yourself!  The tour was sweet and it was very fun tasting their wines, even if one of them WAS cat pee flavored.  Here is their website:  San Sebastian Winery

Famille Perrin Cotes du Rhone Reserve

So, we have something to CELEBRATE!!!  I knew it was gonna happen when I went to bed last night.  I wanted to stay up for the excitement, but not having slept well the 2 nights before I just COULDN’T stay awake.  So when I rolled out of bed early this morning the first thing I did was check this Trader Joe’s blog – WE HIT 150,000 VIEWS!!! 

But then I got busy.  I worked all day and the time got away from me.  But I needed to CELEBRATE this milestone!  So I finished out the day with a trip to Ormond Beach with my sweetie.  We swam in the warm water.  We breathed in the fresh air.  And we JUMPED. 

150,000 views!!!  Now that is something to jump about!

And now, just a few hours after it officially hit the 150,000 mark, the blog is just shy of the 151,000 mark!  I am serious, something has been happening lately that is bringing in a lot of readers.  What’s the haps, people??  But don’t worry, I won’t celebrate tooooo often, only for the biggies (like 150,000!).

So as part of the pre-celebration last night, we opened a bottle of French wine.  The bottle was a 2015 (ahhh, a very good year for colonoscopies if I remember correctly…).  My wine ignorance is going to show here, but I always thought that Cotes du Rhone wines were RED.  This may be because there are a couple of Cotes du Rhones from Trader Joe’s that I like to drink that are red.  (Ugh!  Now that I look back on the blog I see I have not reviewed either of my “go to” Cotes du Rhone reds!!  What was I THINKING!!!  I know I have all of the documentation for the reviews.  Note to self:  get more organized…)

Anyway, we bought our first bottle of this WHITE Famille Perrin Cotes du Rhone Reserve about a week ago after we tasted it at our local Virginia Trader Joe’s and really enjoyed it.  So when we were stocking up on TJ’s wine to bring on a trip to Florida (no, we did not drink any on the 13 hour drive!), we grabbed a bottle of this, and boy am I happy we did!

Sort of a boring label, but not a boring taste

David’s take on it:  This is a very nice, well balanced wine for when you want a wine that has more character than a fruity one.  It has a nice, kind of WOOD character to it without the overbearingness of a chardonnay.  I don’t know where that comes from; it’s not too fruity, not too sweet, but it is PLEASANT.  And it is cool.   I think it is better served with something rather than on its own.  There is kind of a “tang” at the finish that makes you think, “Hmmm, it would be nice to have something to eat with this, like a piece of cheese…”.  I give this wine a 4.25.

My opinion:  We served this wine chilled.  Like I said before, I thought Cotes du Rhone were always red, so this surprised me.  I really, really like it.  It is a great summer wine that would pair with anything!  It doesn’t have an overpowering taste, so it would not overpower what you were eating.  We served it with a pizza that we made that had a red sauce.  (I am always proud for some reason when we make homemade pizza.  This time we bought a pre-rolled out dough – don’t judge…)  I think this wine would pair well with fish, pasta, salad, a tuna sandwich…  It would also be yummy to drink while just popping cashews in your mouth.

Would you like a glass??

I get a little bit of grapefruit taste, but as you know I am not a wine expert.  Who knows, there may not be a grapefruit note in the whole bottle!  But it is GOOD.  It is a great all-around white wine to have on hand for summer.  OH, it would be good with DESSERTS, too, since it is not too sweet.  I give this wine a 4.75.

David points out that, although we have nothing against a wine of color, we do like a good white.  J  And I agree, especially when it is hot outside, a nice, chilled white wine is what is called for.  So for now, while in Florida in June, I am all about the white (wine)! 

Grab a bottle of this Cotes du Rhone.  Try it!  It will be something different and, while it isn’t the cheapest wine on the shelf, it won’t bust the bank.  Plus, I think it’ll make you smile.  Go for it!  Interestingly, the pricing sign says it USED to be $9.99, but because Trader Joe’s costs to get it have gone down, they have lowered the price they charge to $8.99!  C’mon now, in this day and age, what other retailer is gonna do that???  Thanks Joe!

Thanks for the treasure, Joe!!

Price – $8.99

Rating (average of 2 reviewers) – 4.5

Day 305 - Trader Joe’s Reserve Chardonnay Russian River Valley Sonoma County (2013 Lot 129 )

 I am disappointed in this wine.  It tasted better when I was standing in the store tasting it than it did when we get it home and drank it with dinner.  I think this is because the wine sample lady was pretty cool and explained to us what Trader Joe’s “Reserve” wines are.  She told us that they are somehow “fancy ass wines” (my words, not hers) that TJ’s gets ahold of a shit ton of (again, I promise she did not use this phrase in the store, this is my interpretation of how she explained it to us…) and bottles it up.  But they are not allowed to reveal the true names, see, because they are selling them for less than the hoity toity wine companies are, so they have to keep it TOP SECRET.

We are not kidding around here, this is TOP SECRET!

Now me, I love a secret.  So I played along with the whole “shhhh – it is a RESERVE!” thing.  I LIKE that part of this wine a lot.  And in the store I also liked the taste of it a lot. 

But when we drank it at home, I didn’t like the taste as much.  It wasn’t spectacular or anything.  It was alright.  It was chardonnay.  It didn’t bring anything special to the table.  The bottle says it has flavors of “tropical fruits, citrus, and baked apple” but for some reason the tropical fruit isn’t registering to my taste buds.   David says, “Unless the tropical fruit in question is durian which is famous for smelling like baby’s diarrhea…”.   (While this is a great joke, I must point out that this wine does not in any way shape or form smell like baby poop.) 

Here is what David thought:  Woody.  Sharp.  Pleasant.  Not too oaky.  I am happy to drink it and normally I hate chardonnay. 

Isn't this a nice chalkboard?  This is an example of Trader Joe's Clarendon doin' it right - lookin' great sign maker!

Overall, this wine doesn’t taste BAD.  There is just no excitement to it.  It is higher priced than many other wines at TJ’s.  We are not big chardonnay fans but we thought when we tasted this in the store it might be opening up a new variety of wine to us.  But nah.  Not so much.

Apparently it is vegan, too.  And a flyer item in October. 

Before I wrap this review up, I want to mention one other product that I PLANNED to review but am not going to now.  Kouigns Amann (caramelized Breton style layered pastries) – these were a good reminder to me to “not keep your slip in a drawer”.  That is a phrase often repeated at our house that we heard once in an NPR story.  It means, basically, LIFE IS SHORT.  Wear your nice slip.  Drink the good bottle of wine.  Cuz one day you won’t be around, and if you haven’t enjoyed it before that, well, you missed out, didn’t ya??  And that’s what happened with this product.  They looked super yummy.  I bought them.  I lost them in the freezer and found them 17 months AFTER the expiration date…  I went ahead and tried to “proof” them (letting them rise overnight) but of course they didn’t rise and I had to throw them away.  Let that be a lesson to us all – DON’T KEEP YOUR SLIP IN A DRAWER!  Dance today.  Eat tonight.  Celebrate.  And most importantly, ENJOY.

ENJOY LIFE.  For my 40th birthday one of the surprises David had up his sleeve was a HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE.  It was remarkable.  The whole experience was amazing.  It is something I had wanted to do but "never got around to it".  So what I am saying is - GET AROUND TO IT.  Life is short.  Don't keep your slip in a drawer.

Now for the price and rating of the TJ’s Reserve Chardonnay.

Price - $9.99

Rating – 3.75

Day 298 - Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc

Wow – I have gone through 10 whole months of reviews, almost 300 days, and only reviewed ONE Charles Shaw wine??!  That seems impossible, since TJ’s is pretty famous for their “two buck Chuck”.  But, like I mentioned when I reviewed the Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio way back on day 43 (see review here ), we really do not buy Charles Shaw wine very often since there are soooo many other great wine choices at Trader Joe’s.

Hey look!!!!  A bunch of Charles Shaw wine!  

But recently David threw this bottle of Chuck Shaw Sauvignon Blanc in our cart.  Heck, at only $3.29 a bottle you can’t really complain even if it tastes horrible, right?

But guess what?  It was really good!!  Like, surprisingly good.  Like, “WHY haven’t we been buying this wine all summer?” good.

Simple label.  Cheap price.  Tasty wine.

This is a 2013 California wine (it sounds funny to me to look at the vintage as if this were some hoity toity $75 bottle at a restaurant…).  It was extremely fruity.  If I had to call the fruits out I would guess grapefruit and peach.  It was very good!  We drank it cold and paired it with a crispy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie J.

David said he felt it was “Remarkably well balanced.  It doesn’t have as much high notes, zingy acidity fruit sparkely-ness as some Sauvignon Blanc might, but I think they got the BALANCE just right.  The only complaint I might have it that there might be a hint of mustiness or earthiness in the aftertaste.  Let me try again…”

Editor’s note:  I feel this was a ploy by David to let him drink more of the wine…

He continues, “It is CERTAINLY acceptable and even delightful.  It is a great all-around simple, white, slightly fruity wine.  I like Sauvignon Blanc and this is a good example of it.”

Could it BE any cheaper??  Not much.

This would be a nice spring/summer wine.  Sit out on the porch or deck and eat dinner…  Sit around a fire pit and talk…  David says you could even turn your heat up during the winter and drink it inside while pretending it was summer…

This is a good wine!  And crazy cheap.  Heck, if you decanted it into a fancy bottle and served it at a dinner party I bet your guests would never know it only cost you $3.29.  Try it!

Price - $3.29

Rating – 4.25

Day 268 - White Ribbon Semillon (white wine)

First, let’s try saying “Semillon”.  Apparently it is pronounced “Seh-meh-YON”.  Say it with me – “seh-meh-YON”.  You’ve got it!  (Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know, I totally had to ask.)

The label says “It has been called Australia’s unique wine gift to the world.  It is a crisp and refreshing wine, perfect with seafood, white meats, and salads.  It is from Australia’s oldest wine region.  It is the OTHER white wine…”

Ahhhh – clever!  I see what they did there!  They ripped off PORK’s big ad campaign about being the “other white meat”.  Clever buggers! 

Simple label.  Australians don't need no stinkin' artwork on their wine.

Ok.  So I was going to use “crisp” as my adjective to describe this wine, too, but now that I read the label to you, you are gonna think I just copied that from the bottle!  I did not.  I wrote down “crisp” before I read the label, I swear.  Of course, I say that about the majority of white wines that we drink…

It is nice.  It sets off whatever it is in your mouth that gets your saliva glands going…  Is that citrus?  It is not TOO DRY – we had it with Chicken Quesadillas (reviewed yesterday) and we also had it one night with a vegetarian meal and it was a good match for that, too.

Check it out - the wine peeps at TJ's also used "crisp" :)

David also used CRISP.  He said, “Nice, fine.  Good.  Crisp.  Pretty dry white wine.”

Oops – I said it WAS NOT all that dry…  Well, if you average our “dry” ratings together it is MEDIUM DRY!  J  And if I read the label better I would have seen that it bills itself as a “Classic Dry White”.  Hahaha!  OK OK IT IS DRY.  (But not tooooo dry, in my opinion.)

It has a screw top so it is easy to open.  We used to think screw tops were a bad thing, but the older we get the more we realize that screw tops are easy!  We would buy and drink this again.

G’day Australia!

Dublin, OH Trader Joe's FOUND GROCERY LIST board!

Bonus photo – I don’t have an “action” shot of us drinking this wine, so I will include a photo of this AWESOME bulletin board I found near the bathrooms of Trader Joe’s in Dublin, Ohio.  LOOK!!!  They pin up shopping lists that people leave in shopping carts!  Isn’t it great??  I would love to stand at the bulletin board and examine them.  What exactly were people coming to the store to buy?  Even more fun would be to compare those LISTS to the RECEIPTS to see what stuff they bought that they didn’t come in for!!  Anyway, I thought it was super cool.

Price – $6.99

Rating – 4.0

Day 253 - The Pass Sauvignon Blanc (2014)

This is a New Zealand wine.  The signage told us it was, “Bright and crisp with grassy and tropical fruit notes”.  Even before reading that I identified my first note as GRAPEFRUIT.  I really liked it.  It is not an overwhelming grapefruit, but just enough to make your mouth water and make you drink more wine.  Good on ya, winery, you have a product that will keep people chugging your wine!  J 

The Pass

It is a lovely wine and I think would pair well with everything! 

David agrees and says it is “Great.  Fruity.  Very crisp.  Very, ummm, puckery.  Acidic in a good way – not at all pejorative.”

Here are some adjectives we came up with to describe this wine:

·         Clean

·         Bright

·         Fresh

·         Light

·         Lovely

·         Bold

Then we realized “bold” probably wasn’t right but we were just trying to think of more adjectives…

See - they came up with some of the same adjectives we did!  :)  

I am going to include a photo of a sign in a Trader Joe’s I saw recently that I really like!  It was in the Cincinnati Ohio store.  That is NOT where we bought this wine (however we did buy two bottles of another kind of wine as thank you gifts for people in Cincy!).  Anyway, I am a sign language interpreter so really thought it was cool that they had a sign where the letters W I N E were spelled out in old time looking ASL!  Check it out!  Cool, eh?

Great signage in Cincinnati, OH

The TJ’s in Columbus, OH was sampling this wine when we went through on David’s birthday, so of course we grabbed a teeny tiny sample.  We already KNEW we liked it since we had drunk a bottle a week earlier, but a little sample never hurts! 

Price -$8.99

Rating - 4

Day 238 - Steamed Mussels in White Wine Sauce

I am guessing this was the first time in Indy Fringe history that MUSSELS were served at the BEER TENT… 

We had picked up a box of mussels at the Indy Trader Joe’s on the advice of a really cool employee.  When he heard about the blog he wanted to make sure we got some new products to try, so he steered us to these brand new, reasonably priced MUSSELS.  We bought a box.  Then proceeded to forget we had them in the freezer of the apartment we were staying in for our time in Indy.  Oops!  But the final night of the festival I remembered, so OUT THEY CAME!

Here is the box - find it in the frozen food section

 The box explains that you can leave them in the bag and cook them in the microwave or in hot water.  Since we were trying to get them to the party before everyone left (we didn’t think of them until around 11:00 PM) we chose the faster microwave method.  Lucky for us our apartment was only a couple of blocks from the beer tent, so we poured the mussels and sauce into a bowl, covered THAT bowl with another bowl, and rushed to share them with friends.

We are not huge mussels eaters.  The only time I can remember having them is in Paris, and we have never made them at home, only ordered them while out to eat.  So I was a bit nervous but excited to try them.

Something about MUSSELS made me want to make a FISH FACE

They were pretty good!  They were super easy to cook.  The sauce was good, I really wished we had a baguette to soak it up and eat it.  The garlic was nice.  The mussels themselves were a bit chewy but not too bad.

Laura, the mother of a performer who had come to town to see her son’s shows, tried the mussels.  She said they were very flavorful, in fact, delightful!

Laura likes mussels!

Taylor, a magician, liked the mussels.  As a magician, she made several disappear (into her belly!).  She said the mussels were “not bad”.  She is from the Northeast and claims these were “just a little chewy, but some people like them that way”.

Taylor did some magic on the mussels

David also ate some and he started a discussion at the table of what the HERB was in the sauce…  Tarragon?  Something else?  In the end we learned it was THYME. 

Eating mussels and drinking beer at the end of a long festival - life is good

They are really pretty cheap, considering how much you would pay for this many mussels in a restaurant.

Only $3.99!

Price – $3.99

Rating – 3.75

Day 231 - Villa Borghetti Grigio Luna Pinot Grigio

This Pinot Grigio is okay, but not great.  It’s not all that fruity.  It is somehow sort of acidic maybe? 

We paired it with pasta served with pesto, fresh veggies, and mozzarella balls (review on day 166 of this blog).  Sadly, the food overpowered the wine and we felt that the Grigio Luna Pinot Grigio just didn’t hold up its end of the bargain in this meal. 

Beautiful name.  Pretty label.  Doesn't make you barf.

I gotta say, this wine just brought nuttin’ to the table.  It didn’t make me barf, but it didn’t leave me wanting more.  And really, is “Didn’t make me barf” a good enough reason to purchase this one again when there are so many good (and cheap) wines to choose from at Trader Joe’s?

Looks pretty in the glass!

The best part of this wine is the NAME.  Grigio Luna.  Doesn’t it just sound fancy and pretty?  It means “moon”.  We like the singer Mary Chapin Carpenter and she has a great song about her cat Luna.  You can listen to it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6_0SCtczyc

We saw her sing it in concert outdoors in Northern Virginia.  It was so funny – she explained it is about her cat, Luna, who went missing and they were really upset.  So she wrote and recorded this song about it.  Then Luna returned J.  And the song was already recorded.  So when she sang it she smiled a bit – especially when she sang, “Nothing to give us one thin clue…” and “Guess it’s part of the plan to know we’ll never FIND her…”. 

Try it if you would like to, but it is not our favorite.

So to summarize – we normally like Pinot Grigios but this one is not repeat worthy.

Price – $5.99

Rating – 2.75

Day 227 - Villa Cerrina Italia Chardonnay Pinot Grigio (2013)

We served this wine (a blend of Chardonnay (60%) and Pinot Grigio (40%) with take-out pad thai from our local Thai restaurant.  Don’t judge – we were tired and I didn’t feel well…  It was just a “slap some pad thai on a plate, cover it with sriracha (which got a glowing review on day 45 of this blog), and pour some wine” kind of dinner.

And this wine was a good match for it.  It was light and fruity.  The label identifies the fruit notes as apples, peaches, and citrus but in my tired and stuffy nose state I identified them simply as FRUIT. 

Chardonnay Pinot Grigio blend - go for it

David’s (also sleepy) take on this wine was “Nice, light, but with a good body.  Good for day drankin’…”.  J 

The bottle tells us it would be a good aperitif or good to serve with an appetizer, light seafood or salad.  I say - it’s FIVE BUCKS.  Serve it with whatever the heck you want!  It is cheap but tastes good.  It may not be a winner of any fancy schmancy wine awards, but it is an acceptable white wine to serve at your table.  (Unless your table is super fancy schmancy, in which case, you should shop at Wegman’s or Whole Foods and not Trader Joe’s…  But if you do go to one of those other pricier grocery stores you will not find this wine, because it is exclusive to Trader Joe’s.  So there.) 

Comes in just under $5 bucks.  Cheap, cheap, cheap.

A blog called "The Winey Mom" (see what she did there?  Clever...) says, "I can see why this wine is so popular.  It's got a bargain price and the folks at Trader Joe's recommend it!  It's a great party wine too because you can't really go wrong serving it to a large crowd.  It's the best of both worlds: Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio.  I'd definitely get a few bottles to have on hand.  And in mouth!".  So there - if winey mom likes it you might well like it, too!

Price - $4.99

Rating – 4

Day 220 - Spiral Cellers Sauvignon Blanc

We totally picked this wine because of the signage.  As soon as we notice that “Hey-Wee the Wine Guy” picked this one, we were in.  Not cuz he was the wine guy, but because someone wrote that he pronounced his name “Hey-Wee”.  Is this true??  Is this someone punking him???  We do not know.  But we endorse the signage.

Hey, if Hey-Wee likes it, we will buy it

This wine was good.  We had it with our garden pasta reviewed yesterday (and with dinner the following night).  It was fresh.  It was summery.  It was “Sauvignon Blanc-y” (if a wine can be described that way). 

LIMITED?  Oh my, better stock up :) (not to worry, I am joking, we did not buy 12 cases)

But seriously, don’t take my word or even Hey-Wee’s word.  Look at what some dude named Mike Kopanski, who perhaps has more experience rating wine than I do, had to say about it:

11/15/2013 - MIKE KOPANSKI WROTE:87 Points

Napa Valley seems to have it's own style of Sauvignon Blanc. Often they have seen considerable lees treatment, or even some neutral oak. This one seem to be unaffected by those techniques. This is not a New Zealand, of French Sauvignon Blanc. The fruit is very ripe, showing little or no grassiness. There is a bit of glycerine and lanolin on the palate. There is also a steely minerality. Golden yellowish color. Slightly herbaceous nose. Grapefruit, lemon, guava and white apple fruit. Ypongish, raw acidity. Sweet tart and lemon finish.

(Review found at http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1734656)

See, Mike uses words like “herbaceous”, which I am sure beats my useage of “Sauvignon Blanc-y” all to hell… by the way, he also uses “ypongish”.  This was a new word for me, and odd in that it has a “y” and a “p” right next to each other.  I know some words with a “p” then a “y” (ex. Happy) but I can’t think of any with the “yp” combination.  This might be some fancy wine word that even dictionary.com doesn’t know about, or Mike might have fat fingered his keyboard…

Simple, clean label for a simple, clean wine

I will say THIS – do not leave a half drunk glass of this wine out on the table and expect it to be good the next day.  BLECK.  Of course, that is true of all wines, so I cannot hold it against this one.  J  I am just sayin’, don’t think you can sip it on day 2 if it hasn’t been in the corked bottle…

Price - $6.99

Rating - 4