The last door on the left, at the end of the grand hallway on the ground floor, opens at the butler's touch, revealing a narrow flight of stone steps girded on either side by heavy, rough-cut wooden balustrades. No trace of the estate's elegance here; this is a working passageway! As old as the house's foundation, you suspect, when the butler turns on the lights, revealing the trace of hollowing in each of the steps. Testimony to the countless feet that have taken this pathway.
The butler--his name is Roth, and he has served the estate in this capacity for more than fifty years, as his shock of white hair and the way he seems not outfitted in his valet's coat but rather melded into it, attest--puts his keyring back into his pocket and starts down the steps with a quiet, "If you will follow me, my lords? My ladies?" One by one, you follow him down the narrow steps, counting as you go. Eleven, twelve, thirteen. There! You are at the base of the stone stairway, in a long, narrow corridor ending in an arched door that looks to be of thicker oak than the one guarding the grand hall. It all has the air of a Victorian drama mixed with a murder mystery.
"Not too many guests come down here," Roth says as he removes his key ring and selects a shiny brass one. "Most of them prefer to wait upstairs, and have the servants bring them their selections. They enjoy the drinking well enough, but they don't favor the, well, spirit of the tasting." The way Roth says it, you can tell he is pleased you and your companions accepted your host's invitation to tour the cellar.
Roth inserts the key and turns it. The hallway echoes softly with the turn of the bolt within the staid door. He opens it and pushes it wide. The creak of the hinges brings the smell of straw, oak, and a touch of dust on the cool air that caresses your face. Roth reaches inside and finds the light switch with a sureness of motion bought with years of practice, then stands aside and motions for you to go in.
"The Master's wine cellar, my lords and ladies," he says proudly. "Please choose whatever you will for your pleasure this evening."
You walk inside, speechless at what you see. Bottles lay in neatly ordered rows on phalanxes of tall oaken racks aligned on either side of the stone aisle. At the end of the room, you can see casks in their geometric stacks, silently awaiting their destinies. You breathe deeply, taking in the atmosphere literally as well as figuratively. One by one, your companions begin to stroll the aisle, disappearing here and there to check the contents of this rack or that. You, too, finally join them, drawn by the bottles, by the simple, elegant civility they hold.
Each month, hopefully more frequently than that, I will offer my comments on wines I have tasted. I am not a formal scholar of wine, and I do not claim to be one, but I have been enjoying the fruits of the vineyard for more than twenty years, and I hope that you will sample the wines I list here. At least, the ones that I think are good!
I use a one-hundred-point rating system of my own devise on the wines. The higher the rating, the better I think the wine is, with 100 being superb and 1 being carbon remover. My criteria are (in this order) price, flavor, and durability. All prices are in the Houston, Texas area, and are store-purchase prices unless noted otherwise (e.g., where consumed at a restaurant). The images beside each wine's name will tell you what kind of beverage it is:
Red
wines
White and blush wines
Dessert wines
Champagnes
& sparklers 
Brandies & cognacs
Liqueurs &
aperitifs
For reviews of other adult potables, I invite you to visit the Side Table in the Study, and the Tap Room.
I encourage your suggestions for new wines to review.
Six years? I haven't put up a wine review in six years? I have been remiss, and I have no excuse--not even an attack of temperance. Well, I resume my reviews this week (the second week of March, 2009) with two highly affordable wines. I hope you enjoy the review, and if you try them, I hope you enjoy the wines, too
Little Black Dress California Piñot Noir 2006
I bought this wine on a whim. I was picking up last-minute groceries for family burger night and as I passed the wine selection in the grocery store, the fact that this wine did not some with a price tag higher than ten dollars caught my eye. Now, I'm not all that impressed by wines with "with it" (am I showing too much of my age?) names or cutesy labels, and this one had both those strikes against it. In the end, the price tag won out.
All things considered, I'm pretty glad it did.
I've learned over the years that there are many variations to the body and flavor of a piñot noir. Some are smooth as liquid silk and others tart almost to the point of roughness. The Little Black Dress is about midway between those two extremes, perhaps leaning a bit more toward the acidic. Frankly, it reminded me of a young cabernet sauvignon, but that isn't a negative thing necessarily. The first sip is a little assaultive on account of that dry, acid rush, but it isn't entirely unpleasant and once you've had the first taste there are nice subtleties that come through in this wine. I couldn't decide if it was reminiscent of cherries or currants.
The bouquet is very pleasant, the color a lovely red leaning into the light, almost burnt purples, and the body is respectable without being too substantial. On flavor alone, I would rank this red a bit lower than I have, but the price goes a long, long way toward improving its stature, especially in these days where finding a drinkable wine under $15.00 is next to impossible.
Besides, I've always been partial of the idea of my lady in a little black dress....
Sutter Home Family Vineyard California Merlot 2006
That's right, you read it correctly: A domestic vin ordinaire in the top eight percent of my rated wines, and at less than six dollars a bottle. When I saw the price on this one at the local grocery store, I had to stop and make sure it wasn't on sale. No, that's its current "normal" price.
They only had four bottles in stock. I bought two. I went back today and got the last one. Some other lucky so-and-so got the fourth. Salud, amigo.
Overall, my favorite red wines are the cabernet sauvignon, the merlot, and the piñot noir. I'm listing them alphabetically because I have no all-time favorite. Preferring dry reds as I do, these prove the most serviceable, and the most affordable, but just which one is "the best" varies as I experience different vintages and bottles.
By any standard, the Sutter Home merlot should be a favorite. It had a rich, smooth flavor and a wonderful bouquet--a surprising bouquet, in fact, for it hinted at a much sweeter experience than the wine tasted. That is not a complaint; see my statement above about dry reds.
There was a nice undertaste of oak aging, hearty without being oppressive and noticeable without being so smoky as to dominate the aftertaste. The color was quite good. Drew was drinking this wine with me and his glass seemed to have some sediment on the sides, but mine didn't show any sediment from either bottle we consumed.
Give this one a try. It's more than worth the price.
I heartily recommend my favorite wine merchant, Spec's.
"Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy
stomach's sake and thine often infirmities."
1 Timothy 5:23
"Nothing equals the joy of the drinker, except the joy of the wine being drunk."
French proverb