Comparative Wine Tasting: Value Sauvignon Blanc

Lately some friends have requested wine reviews of white wines. Although I do drink far more red wine, I like quite a few whites as well. One of my favorite varietals is Sauvignon Blanc. I also want to make an effort to review some “value,” otherwise known as cheap or affordable, wines for people (like myself) who want to save a buck or two.

The result: my first ever comparative tasting.

The Turning Leaf was only $8.99, a fine bargain here in Pennsylvania. At first sip, I thought this was going to be my preferred wine of the two. It was extremely lemony and citrus-flavored, with a very high acid and strong mouth-feel. At only $9.99 the Lake Sonoma Wine was very light and delicate and felt like an innocent bystander to the turning leaf juice. The Lake Sonoma wine had more of a light yuzu and lemon-grass citrus effect, with a little bit of grassiness. The Turning Leaf was more of a heavy-handed funky, grassy wine that really exploded in your mouth. As I continued tasting between the wines and trying them with food, I found that the Lake Sonoma was far better at going along with foods and complementing them, whereas the Turning Leaf was so overpowering that it basically left my palate overwhelmed and made it hard to detect the flavors of the food. Nor did the Turning Leaf really add anything to the party when consumed with food. It clearly stands as more of a single note Sauvignon Blanc, maybe most enjoyed by the red wine drinker looking for a summertime white to quaff. The Lake Sonoma Winery Sauv. Blanc is more of a party pleaser, appealing to a wider palate range and more versatile with a variety of foods.

So, overall for me, the Lake Sonoma Wine wins the day, providing more options and thus more bang for the buck. The Turning Leaf wine is good for drinkers looking for a specific type of high-acid, aggressive mouth-feel wine.

Additionally, the site for lakesonomawinery provides far more information about the wine at hand, which can be really appealing to wine geeks everywhere. Information about the appellation, acid levels, and case production tells you volumes more than the Turning Leaf site, which is comprised mostly of buzzwords and marketing jargon. Very little information about the wine is available other than the fact that the grapes are sourced from all over California.

In the overall scheme of things, I wouldn’t give a terribly strong recommendation to either wine. Neither of them really left any great impression, but the next time you are looking for some inexpensive wine for a summer party, or to go with some seafood anytime, the Lake Sonoma winery Sauvignon Blanc might be worth considering.

Review: Washington D.C. Public Transportation

I spent the week in Washington D.C. and felt compelled to write about their public transportation system. On the weekend, I stayed in Reston, VA with a friend, and we took the Metro into the city every day/night. I had pre-purchased a SmartCard online before I went and it cost $5 for the card. I got it in the mail in 2 business days. Once I got to Union Station, I was able to put a pre-set amount of money on it using cash, debit, or credit. So easy. At each station, the turnstiles have a scanner for your card so it automatically deducts the cost of the trip when you exit the station. If you get to your station and you don’t have enough money left on your card, there are machines that let you add money so you can exit.

The Metro is clean, efficient, safe. It’s very extensive and well marked from the street. The cost is low–within the city, a one-way ride usually doesn’t cost more than $2. From the suburbs, a ride costs around $3.

The buses are also wonderful and easy to use. The “loop” buses that run through the city only cost $1 per ride, and you can use your Smart Card for those as well. Those buses will take you virtually anywhere you need to go around the city.

I never got lost, never felt unsafe, and was always helped by very friendly staff. Take that, SEPTA!
Of course, the metro and buses do stop running at a certain time of night, and at that point you are stuck with taxis that don’t use meters (until June 1) and charge you $10 for a 4-block ride.

Dingle Peninsula: Moran’s Bus Tour

Being without a car on my solo trip to Ireland forced me to take a lot of day tours run by professional companies. This route of travel is a good option for tourists who are either tired of driving themselves around or too afraid to navigate the winding coastal roads on the Dingle Peninsula.

Moran’s Slea Head Bus Tour (E-mail: moransgarage@eircom.net Tel: 066-915 11 55 or 915 11 29.–there’s no website!) was scheduled to leave Dingle by the Visitor’s Center at 2:00. By 1:30, people were milling around the pier asking each other if they were in the right place. Most of the time, in Ireland, no one ever knows if they are in the “right place” to wait for organized tours, but no one ever seems to worry about it too much. Sure enough, eventually a man noticed all of the confused looking tourists and directed us to his van.

A wide range of people takes these organized tours and can be separated into two major groups. Group #1: the backpackers who can’t afford a car and are smart enough not to bike along the winding, traffic-ridden, narrow roads that go up through hills and along the cliffs. Group #2: tourists over sixty-five who never step off of the bus.

The tour guide, who doubled as the driver, pointed out the sights and told unique anecdotes. Despite the dangerous landscape (at some points I looked out the window and couldn’t even see the road we were on—only the cliffs) it was the most beautiful I had ever seen. On one side of the road were endless fields of sheep and stone walls that rose up way above us. There were also sheep on the cliff side that, according to our driver, had a short set and a longer set of legs so they could stand easily on the uneven ground. “But the trouble is,” he said, “Sometimes they get confused as to which way to stand and they fall off the cliffs.” (Cue laughter from the old people and groans from the backpackers.)

We stopped a few times, only because my fellow back-seat companions and I would beg the driver to let us off to experience the surroundings in the fresh air. “Sir, could you please stop the bus so we can take pictures and actually feel like we are a part of this awesome landscape?” Well, that’s not exactly what we yelled, but you get the point. He always good-naturedly stopped and the same few of us would get off, probably for longer than the driver or the members of Group #2 would have liked.

Far and Away and Ryan’s Daughter were filmed on the Dingle Peninsula and our trivia-filled driver identified all of the places where the scenes were filmed. Also on the tour were beehive huts, tiny little stone houses shaped like beehives, which ancient people used to live in and still remained. Another ancient ruin was Dunbeg Fort built on the edge of the cliffs, and slowly falling apart and into the water down to the rocks below.

We drove past the town of Ventry and around Slea Head towards Dunquin where you can catch the ferry out to the Great Blasket Island. Our last stop of significance was Gallarus Oratory—touristy but that meant there were restrooms and coffee (and Magnum ice cream bars). To use the restroom I had to pay the one punt entrance fee to the Oratory but I didn’t even feel like walking up to see it up close—I was becoming a pro at distance viewing. We went back to Dingle via the only straight road on the peninsula, because, according to the bus driver, “there are no pubs on it.” (More laughter and groans–get it?)