Two new blogs to ring in the new year. My friend Leah, who knows just about every great restaurant in DC, has started a food blog. Knowing Leah, I am sure there will be a lot of good wine references as well.

I've also been meaning to link to Carolyn at Eat.Drink.DC. Its been around for a few months and is a great resource.

Review: 2002 St. Francis Red

Wine: 2002 St. Francis Red



Review: The simply named and uniquely-labeled (well, there are 12 different labels) Red is an attempt by St. Francis Winery to create a buzz for their blended red wine. The 2002 vintage is a blend of Merlot, Zinfandel, Grenache and Sangiovese.

The wine was rated 86 points by Wine Spectator, a pretty impressive accomplishment given its price point and I agree that it is an excellent value and a great every day red.

The wine has aromas of both raspberry and peppers with a full, spicy taste. The tannins were very light and the wine was very drinkable right out of the bottle.

Price: $12

Grade: 85

I get emails all the time from people looking to promote their sites or products. Most of them wind up in /dev/null, but occasionally one of them catches my eye (I do, however, read all of them).

One of the emails I got recently was for a site called Wines 'Til Sold Out. It is kind of a cool idea. They put a new wine up every day at a deeply discounted price and they sell as many of those wines as they can in that 24 hour period.

I've been watching them for a few days and the prices are really good. Although, I think it would be more fun if they lowered the price throughout the day, to really test the control of the people who want their wines :).

Just to be clear: I am not getting paid to post this link and I get no revenue if you click, I just think it is a cool idea

I saw something on the local news tonight about Frederick Cellars. A so-called urban winery. I don't necessarily think this is a bad idea. I am all for bringing wine to the people, and it is the same thing micro-brews have been doing for years. However, I do take exception to the newscasters saying it was better than going "out to the country" to visit a winery.

I live in Leesburg, a town of 30,000, and we have 6 vineyards within a 10 minute drive. While not as convenient as downtown, it is hardly "in the country."

Ignorant newscasters aside, it appears that Urban Wineries are a growing trend in cities like San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Philadelphia. Instead of a bar-crawl you could have wine-crawl and never leave town :).

WWAs:

1. Willowcroft will be holding a Champagne tasting on Saturday from 12:00 to 5:00.


2. Tarara is continuing with their Holiday Jazz series from 1:00 to 5:00, also on Saturday.


3. The Wine Specialist is also having a Champagne Tasting at 4:00 on Saturday.


4. Finally, Planet Wine is hosting their Annual Sparkling Wine Tasting on Monday, starting at 7:15.