Text 23544, 89 rader
Skriven 2009-04-22 13:02:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: recent tastes 520
=========================
Mostly wine:

Ch. Garraud (Lalande de Pomerol) 03 - Pleasantly dry, very
plummy. A brothy taste and a little mint on the finish. Not
a great bargain at $20, but it was a gift.

Bodegas Gandia Hoya de Cadenas (Utiel Requena - Valencia) 97 -
very Cabernettish, dry, rather dusty, dark spice. A nice buy
at $6.

Macmurray Ranch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 06 - pleasant,
lightish, plums and cherries; slightly meaty. Some texture.
Agreeable but a little expensive ($20ish) for what it was.

Mionetto PG del Piave 05 - limpid light yellow, flowers and
grape jelly on the nose, white peach on the palate. Good
acidy finish. Liked. $11.

Fabrizia Limoncello - not bad, flavor actually lemonlike,
which distinguishes it from most of this ilk, which taste
like lemon hard candy. A bit cloudy. Quite sweet. Lemon-lime
finish. A gift, so quite good at the price, which is normally
$17.

Yellow Tail The Reserve Shiraz 08 - pleasantly spicy,
with lots of stone fruit of all kinds; good tannin; sort
of a constructed version of what a good wine is supposed
to taste like, as determined by a panel of random judges
(that's what it seemed like, anyway). The achilles' heel:
way too sweet. About right at $11.

Saint Cosme Cotes du Rhone 06 - very spicy, red fruity,
chewy tannins, as they say. Dark spices. A hair weak and
undistinguished, I thought, for a prestige brand. And more
than a hair expensive at $18.

Little James's Basket Press (Barruol) nv - the dregs
bottling of the Saint Cosme noted above. Tasted pre-aged,
with a little oxidation and thinning. The label said that
it had been bottled in 08, but of course no representation
is made of the ages of the wines that go into this mix.
Not a great bargain at $11 the bottle, but how can one
resist a label that says, among other things, Concerto in
Grenache Major?

==

Fanta Strawberry - not surprisingly, quite like strawberry
candy in a lurid pink carbonated liquid. I had this because
it was one of the few noncaffeinated things available where
I was when I whas thirsty.

Wun-Doe-Mus spice blend - garlic powder dominant, a bit of
pepper. The best part was that it is only 10% salt, so you
get more garlic for your buck.

Nature's Promise vegan soy vegetable burger - very
nasty. Pasty texture; extremely salty. A smoke flavor
that could have redeemed these reminded me of
cigarettes instead. Bits of dehydrated scallion had a
putrefied taste and stuck in my teeth. Oddly, the aroma
in the kitchen after cooking was not unpleasant, sort of
porky. Distributed by Royal Ahold.

Andy's Orchard dried apricots - these come from one of the
most famous orchards in the world (thanks to Gourmet Magazine)
and were brought proudly by my uncle as an example of the
best his part of the world has to offer. They are deep
orange, tender almost to the point of tearing, with great
sweetness and tartness and an intensity of flavor that I've
not encountered often. A pronounced bitterness might be
astonishing to some, but I think that this is part of the
essence of the fruit. Quite remarkable.

==

Placenta Plus Peppar shampoo - I found this in a friend's
bath and checked it out, mostly because I needed to wash my
hair, but partially because it had 1. pictures of jalapenos
on the front and 2. "human placenta protein" in the ingredients.
Where do they come up with this stuff??? Anyhow, it cleaned my
hair fine but didn't taste like much - sort of like minty cream,
no hot taste at all. It did, however, sting like the dickens
when introduced into the eyes, this more likely a result of
the menthol and peppermint oil (listed just after human placenta
protein). I wonder if this qualifies as another mild foray into
cannibalism, by the way.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)