First... take a look at the cartoonish bottle image that the producer has on their site. It's literally a cartoon bottle with the label pasted on top of it. Too funny. Anyway, I really liked this wine! Got it for $10 at Trader Joe's. It was the perfect mix of delicate flavors and good body. It still felt light, but had good acid, good minerality, good mouthfeel, good everything. On the nose, I got: honeydew, dragon fruit, some light lemon, green apple, jasmine, honeysuckle, limestone. On the finish: green apple and lemon.

I've been hearing a lot more about new "low-calorie" wines lately-- more of them coming to market, becoming trendy, promoting somewhat "healthier" drinking... I tried this one from Chile a few days ago and unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed. 😒 It was the Klean Pinot Grigio, and it was pretty well-reviewed at Total Wine. I was really surprised at how mouth-puckeringly tart it was-- not very balanced, in my opinion (which makes sense given it's only 8.5% alcohol...). It wasn't very complex, which is not unusual for a Pinot Grigio, but the finish tasted like straight-up apple juice, which I am personally not a fan of. I had to open a different bottle to try and drink for the night! Only drank one glass. Womp womp. I'll take the extra ~20 calories per glass and get a good white wine.

Loved this Vinho Verde I tried yesterday from Trader Joe's for only $5!! I posted about it on social media but was really pleasantly surprised by how clean it was! It was super lemony and had a really nice minerality to it as well. When I went to look at my notes for other wines with strong lemon finishes, I laughed because they were all mostly Vinho Verdes as well. The Destino Fifth Empire was similar to the Espiral but had more of a specifically salty lemon finish that reminded me more of ocean spray, while the Nobilis had a fruitier lemon and green apple combined finish.

Opened this wine up tonight. It was in my first delivery from Vinera Wine Society. 🍷 It is absolutely delicious! 😋 I have no idea how to decipher scents or textures etc yet but I can say that as soon as I opened it, the wine smelled amazing. May be my favorite I’ve ever had thus far. 😍 The taste is outstanding!

So, I had both of these wines this week and was not particularly impressed by either of them, despite both being fairly well-known... they're both technically blends, even though the Hess Select cites Cab Sauv on the bottle (you only need 75% of the wine to be made of one grape to cite that grape in California). Both were medium-bodied, but seemed pretty light for the grapes they include, I thought. In my notes, I classified them both as "red, light," and "on the softer side," all things considered. The Hess Select is 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Petite Sirah, 6% Malbec. The nose was full of dark cherry, blackberry, black currant, some violet, and then black pepper, vanilla, some basil and mint, and then a touch of smoked wood. It had a cherry vanilla finish. I tagged it as "spicy" in my notes because of the pepper and persistent vanilla. Decent complexity overall and I liked it, but I just wasn't particularly impressed...Maybe because there wasn't anything super interesting about the notes and flavors? They were pretty typical of a California blend, and nothing too interesting for me. As far as structure goes... the warmth (alcohol) and the tannins were definitely the most noticeable attributes. Anyhow, I was surprised at my ambivalence because this scored 91 points with Wine Enthusiast. The Conundrum includes Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon (doesn't specify the percentages). The fruit on this was much brighter-- cherry, raspberry, some pomegranate, and then pink rose, some vanilla, marjoram, and hint of balsam, maybe. It had a more bitter hibiscus finish, and was more floral overall (I tagged it as "floral" because of the finish). Whereas the Hess had better warmth and tannins, this one was more about the sapidity and the acidity. I probably wouldn't buy this one again... All in all, I definitely liked the Hess Select more, but still, I'm curious if any of you had had either of these... they're so popular, so I'm wondering if I'm alone! Let me know what you think!