Tastes Like the Smell of Mr. Clean

Same lovely French restaurant that I was telling you about last week- different wine altogether (no, we aren't total lushes. We're lushes, sans the "total").

In actual fact we didn't want dessert wine. What we wanted was limoncello. That's right, limoncello. Do you know how many times I have had to defend limoncello's honour? Countless. And guys, come on! It's good! No, limoncello does not "taste like the smell of Mr. Clean." And no, it doesn't taste like lemon juice on steroids. It just doesn't.

I have a giant bottle of the stuff in my wine rack (yes, I realize wine should be in a wine rack, I've got limited space and a limited budget... I'm not storing socks in there yet, so we're still ok), and I just discovered it is a giant bottle of total crap. We made the mistake of ordered one glass of high quality limoncello and one glass of "in the paper bag" quality so we could compare. Turns out we've been drinking crap all this while. Good to know. It would have been BETTER to know this BEFORE I bought 4 litres of crap. It would have even been better to know AFTER we downed the giant bottle of Mr. Clean and forced the majority of it on our guests all the while demanding that they agree how great the taste was. That way we could have downed and forced in ignorant bliss. But knowing now is good too. I'll think of something. I'm sure there's a birthday or wedding coming up somewhere...

Anyway- what we ended up having was Blackberry Wine by Starling Lane Winery. It was very, very good. That is my professional review: Very, very good. There is no way this stuff would ever make it into the Kitchen Wine Bottle, for sure.

And here is another poster because the last one was such a hit.


Overall Review: Very, very good (Thumbs Up)

Wine: Dodgy Little Penguin

This "Little Penguin" bottle, although sitting out by my front step for this photo because it is Oh So Artistic, generally sits on the counter in my kitchen by my stove. You'll notice that the label is slightly torn at the top. In my house, this is a VERY good indication that this bottle has been around for awhile because bottles of wine are NEVER around for long enough for anything to happen to their labels. Nosireebob. Wine enters the house, is corked & is drunk in one fell swoop (a quick shout out to all the small town folks! Yeeah!).

No, this bottle serves a very special purpose: I am thrifty (read: cheap) and, rather than throw out wine that has escaped my gullet and dared to get old, I put it in this bottle and use it for cooking. Is that weird? Does anyone else do this? Please don't write to me and tell me that I am violating some major health code and I am one step away from starting an Off Wine epidemic.

Overall rating: a very wary Thumbs Up because I have no idea what is in that bottle nowadays.