Review for Tuesday - 02/07/2006 by John

2004 Altos Las Hormigas - Malbec If you don't get anything else from this review, you can at least listen to the audio and hear Steve's authentic pronunciation of Altos Las Hormigas. Most of us found this wine to have a metallic taste that Bill described as "sucking on aluminum shavings". I thought there was a nice color to it, but that meant nothing to me or my decision on this wine. Ssezi, who was suffering from a nasal disability, thought he detected deep plum, and cassis notes. Typically our first wine of the night bodes well, and since Steve complained we always drink his last, we drank his wine first this week. Sorry Steve, but it looks like the patterns in our wine reviews have more to do with whom brought the wine we drink, than when we drink it. Only Ssezi said he would buy this wine, and Ed would not even drink it.

2002 Ravenswood Sonoma County - Merlot In an effort to connect with our numerous readers, we have started an initiative to review at least one wine suggested from our readers each week. We were able to locate and purchase the Ravenswood Merlot out of the suggestions we received. The 20 dollar price tag was a little steep for the cheap bastards here at Real World Winers, and it ended up being the deciding factor for most of our reviews. We all agreed that this wine was very smooth, very pleasant, that it would be a crowd pleaser. The downside of this wine was that there was no edge to it and nothing to distinct itself from any other pleasant, crowd-pleasing wine. Since there are many pleasant wines for less than 20 large, we all would like to get something else for the extra money. This merlot got "drinks" across the board, but nobody wished to shell out the extra money to buy it again.

Liano - Sangiovese Cabernet Sauvignon There isn't a lot to say about this wine. It had an interesting, yet unappealing transparent orange color to it, and the taste left much to be desired. Steve best described this wine as tasting like sucking on a cherry Popsicle stick. It had that mix of cherry syrup with the wood on your tongue. It hard a "barnyard" odor to it, and was found to be tangy and tart. Only Bill and Szesi would drink this wine again, the rest of us preferred not to.

2002 Greg Norman Estates - Cabernet Merlot This Cabernet Merlot did not fare as well as the other Greg Norman wines we have drank to date. This wine was found to be sour and tangy, yet still somewhat drinkable. I want to say Stank you...very much for the nose on this wine. Ssezi compared this wine to having contact with a supermodel, adding that it didn't have a lot under the surface, and needed some time to mature. The interesting thing about this review is that if you listen to the audio you can clearly hear Ssezi say he would not drink or buy this wine, but by wrap up time he said he was a "drink". After the wine got a full round of "drinks" and no "buys", Bill decided to change his rating to a "no drink". Since Ssezi was never really a "drink" in the first place, only 3 of us ended up rating this wine as a "drink".

2003 Bonny Doon Vineyard - Cardinal Zinfandel This wine was found to be very interesting, "interesting in a putrid sense" according to Bill. A strong nose was followed up by a sweet, then sour taste. Overall this wine was not very pleasant, and Ssezi went as far to describe the nose as "Pong". You can hear all about it in the audio clip if you want more information. I wasn't quite sure where Ed was going during his review, and I still don't really know what he was saying, but he was one of only two to rate this wine as a "drink". Coming in at 19 dollars, I don't believe we will be seeing this wine again.