Alex Bruckner's Wine Blog

 Name: Dark Horse Red Blend Price: $8 Region: Modesto, California Year: 2022 Varietals: Tempranillo, Malbec, Shiraz, with the addituion of Alicante Bouschet, Cabernet Sauviginon, and Zinfandel Wine Folly:  Creating the blend might just be the most creative part of being a winemaker. It’s the moment where you get a chance to exercise your skills at flavor balancing. Shop Review: Our classic red blend used gentle winemaking techniques resulting in smooth, velvety notes of jammy dark fruit, brown spice and toasted oak. My Review: This wine was interesting. I got some olive notes which I thought was interesting for a red wine. Given it is a blend, I guess anything can happen. It gave me the idea that it would be good for a cooking wine, but I can't really put my finger on why. I did noticed the round, jammy fruit flavors after a few sips, but the toasted oak flavor was very prevalent throughout.

Name: Josh Cellars Pinot Noir Price: $16 Year: 2022 Region: Central Coast Wine Folly:  At first glance, most Pinot Noir wines are pale to medium in color due to their thin skins. Pinot Noir has a unique profile dominated by aroma compounds known as esters. These give it a complex array of flavors, from ripe cherry and raspberry to intriguing undertones of forest floor, tea leaves, and sometimes even clove. Shop Review: Our Pinot Noir is elegant and refined. This wine benefits from the ideal cool climate of the Central Coast, resulting in lush cherry and strawberry flavors with a scent of lightly toasted oak. My Review: I quite liked this wine(my friends hated it- more for me!). It was very dry, with distinct flavors hard to find at first, so I didn't notice the cherry flavor the Shop Review mentioned right away. However, I did eventually notice it, as well as a strong black pepper flavor. On my second glass, I noticed a bourbon-y flavor while chewing it. It had a light body, much l...

     Our wine dinner consisted of a Gallo Family Sauvignon Blanc paired with macaroni and cheese, a Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and buttered bread rolls(barbeque sliders for them, as I am allergic to red meat), and a Pacific Rim Sweet Riesling paired with key lime pie. The first pairing was the Gallo Family Sauvignon Blanc and the mac and cheese. Gallo Family Sauvignon Bla nc     Year: 2020     Region/Country: Modesto, California     Price: $9      Shop Review: Our Sauvignon Blanc offers a bright balance of fruit notes- honeydew melon, citrus           and ripe apple- with a light, crisp finish     Wine Folly: A popular and unmistakable white wine that’s loved for its “green” herbal flavors and racy acidity. Sauvignon Blanc grows nearly everywhere and thus, offers a variety of styles ranging from lean to bountiful.     My Review: I was not a huge f...