Wine #9 in the $100 Wine Challenge
Winery: Ashwood Grove
Vintage: 2006
Price: $8.99
Cynthia’s Review:
OK-Back to Australia- land of screw-top bottles! Fortunately, our Wine Sherpa warned us ahead of time that this wine would not stand up well with food, so we drank this on a “school night” with wine and crackers. The wine was smooth and pleasant, but I can understand why we were warned against pairing it with food- I was even wishing that I had a blander cheese to serve it with. I did like this wine, but I must say that it didn’t inspire me to want to experiment with any other Petit Verdots. Although this definitely was not my favorite wine in our challenge, I still give it a “Yay” along with some strong advice to drink this only as a “stand alone” wine.
Jay’s Review
When selecting our wines for the challenge we gave the other store clerks at Spec’s veto power if they wanted to replace any of the wines selected for us by Gerald with something they thought might be more interesting. Early on in the selection phase Gerald picked out a Petit Sirah which technically we’d had before but also technically fit the rules of the $100 challenge. When one of the clerks used his veto to replace the Sirah with the Verdot my heart sank a little because I LOVE the Petit Sirah. As Cynthia mentioned, we were warned against having this wine food of any substance so we had some mild cheese with some crackers. Overall, the wine was good. Pleasant, smooth and quite drinkable. Sadly, because this wine was a reminder of the Sirah that never was I think it was doomed not to get a totally fair shake from me. I don’t think we’ll repeat this one, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with it. Especially if you are looking for a good wine to have socially or with appetizers. A “yay” from me.