Red Wine: Searching for the right bottle!

One of the benefits of now being 21 is that I can pursue the wine connoisseur within me...minus the fact i'm probably gonna be carded for the next 20 years bc I look like a 9 year old- i'm pumped!

So, being young and green to the world of red wine, I have made a promise to myself- one I believe will help me on my journey to discovering the perfect bottle years and years from now. The promise, which i'm sure will get increasingly harder to keep, is this: I’m going to try very, very hard to buy a different bottle of red wine every time I shop for a new bottle. Simple, good idea right? Who knows, maybe i'll condition my pallet, become more sensitive to the different tones and levels of flavor and acidity, and hopefully get buzzed along the way to help me bullshit my 'vast' knowledge on the subject...yess...

So far I’m doing alright: I have thus far generic yet enjoyable tasting Casillero del Diablo 2006, 2007, and a very smooth bottle of Robert Mondavi Private Selection 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon. Both Casilleros were great, but thus far Robert Mondavi has become my favorite- its deep and full but not harsh when it goes down. At least that's what she said.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked up some information on Mondavi's Private Selection 2004, and found this great website called 10dollarwine.com- this is what they had to say about it (and in my limited knowledge and intoxicated state, I couldn't agree more):

General Impression:

This wine is something a bit different then most sub ten dollar domestic Cabernet Sauvignons. Not the typical crisp, fruity feel, it is much fuller bodied and honestly quite wonderful. Mondavi has really pulled off producing a value priced wine that tastes and feels more like some of the higher end Sauvignons that sell in the mid twenties and higher.

Flavors:

The flavors are a lot of tropical fruit notes which are characteristic of Central Coast Sauvignons with the toasty, creamy, buttery characters. There is also ripe pear, apple and peach and some butter cream, vanilla, honey and baked bread. That is a lot going on for nine dollars a bottle. The aromas are mostly of pear and oak. There is some great oak character in this wine but as only 20% of the wine is aged in oak it is not dominant like some more oaky chardonnays. It is a nice balance and a very full bodied rich chardonnay.

So thats it! A full bodied wine with a lot of flavor for under ten bucks! 10dollarwine.com...great reviews on wine bottles for under ten dollars, I'll be checking out their archive more often.