I am extremely excited to announce the launch of a new and exciting way for me to communicate, in a very deliciously simple way, the best wines that I come across, each and every week. The brand, spankin’ new WKBadges, spectacularly designed by Mofunsun Enterprises, LLC, are 5 simple notices that tell you a wine is worth the lightening of your wallet. The concept really is quite simple: do they sport a WKBadge? Then they deserve your money. BLEDOW!
I taste a lot of wines every year, indeed, the last three years I’ve tasted over 3,000 wines, with 1,742 logged on my WineLog, as of 08/02/10. I feel pretty confident that I can now break down the biggest winners into 5 badges for you fine readers. Consumers and wine biz peeps can find all of these badges for viewing and download (Creative Commons: No Derivative licensing) at my WKBadges Flickr set.
08/06/10 UPDATE: The interwebs are going wild for the #WKBadges: Twitter, Facebook.
02/05/11 UPDATE: The WKBadges have launched on WineLog.net! See a great example with the 2008 Madeleine Paicines Chapitire IV – Au Rendez-Vous de la Marquise Cabernet Franc.
The AwesomeWK badge.
A WKBadge signifying that this wine is plain awesome and must be bought and tasted if ever encountered with your vinopanions!
The KeeperWK badge.
A WKBadge signifying that this wine is an excellent candidate for laying down and aging in your cellar before it reaches its peak of wonderfulness.
The NewWorldWK badge.
A WKBadge signifying that this wine is a particularly good example of a New World wine: big, bold and balanced.
The OldWorldWK badge.
A WKBadge signifying that this wine is a particularly good example of an Old World wine: elegant, earthy and balanced.
The QPRWK badge.
A WKBadge signifying that this wine exhibits particularly good Quality to Price Ratio, AKA, tasty value for the buck.
You’ll begin to start seeing these badges around not only the interwebs at your favorite spiffy online wine shop, but also in brick and mortar wine stores that reside in the physical world. Without further ado, I’m pleased to announce the first wines that I humbly deem worthy of one (or more!) of the 5 fully radical WKBadges, kindly provided by Mofunsun:
[winebadge id=”55525″]
Marita’s Vineyard Napa Valley Select Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Color: Deep garnet with garnet edges
Nose: Loam, mushroom and good earthy black and deep red fruit, quite good, with savory char, integrating toast and some dried violets.
Palate: Anise, cool and bright red, then angry black fruit showing great complexity. Dried leather, black currants, that loamy wet earth and fine tannins complement the full silky and powerful body. Quite good.
Georis Winery Clos des Moutons Estate Merlot 2004
Color: dark ruby
Nose: thick blackberry, zest of orange, and touch of walnut bouquet.
Palate: middle has smooth Carmel earthy texture w/ finish that projects new French chateau oak amnd light nuance of clove.
Marita’s Vineyard Napa Valley Select Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Color: Deep garnet with garnet edges
Nose: Loam, mushroom and good earthy black and deep red fruit, quite good, with savory char, integrating toast and some dried violets.
Palate: Anise, cool and bright red, then angry black fruit showing great complexity. Dried leather, black currants, that loamy wet earth and fine tannins complement the full silky and powerful body. Quite good.
Marita’s Vineyard Napa Valley Select Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
Color: Garnet/brick core with garnet edges
Nose: Savory herbs here with bright red fruit, dark black fruit lurking and baking spice and toast.
Palate: Bright and cool black fruit in the fore, with more baking spice, sweeter red cherry and fine tannins in the mid with good acid. Finishes juicy, with lurking toast and a sweetness to the red fruit.
Wild Horse Santa Barbara County Unbridled Pinot Noir 2007
Color: Medium garnet
Nose: Spicy, peppery rose petal here, then some darker red fruit comes in with some earth.
Palate: Med full, juicy black cherry and black fruit here, toast and a charred slate finish. Good and darker.
Luigi Bosca Luján de Cuyo Reserva Malbec 2007
Color: Dark violet/ruby core with violet edges
Nose: Earthy, slightly sweet fruit here of dark anise, cassis and wild blackberry, ripe plum and black cherry with a very slight toast
Palate: Full and not overdone, this does well at this price point. All that black fruit and slight char is here too, but then some blue fruit pokes through with some slight black pepper. Medium acidity and a cassis finish.
Wild Horse Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido Vineyard Unbridled Chardonnay 2008
Color: Deeper golden
Nose: Deeper with more tropicals here, but still good bright Meyer lemon and lime with a slight toast and mineral underlay.
Palate: Bigger and fuller, with lemon meringue and some cream, then more great tart lime towards the mid-palate and finishing with tropical fruit, brightness and some pear.
Some other recent wines of note:
B. Legacy Oak Knoll District Reserve Merlot 2006
SOMA Napa Valley Limited Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
So keep an eye out for these badges at a wine store or site near you. Cheers!
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