Giant catch-up post #1

We had quite a few new tastes before August started, but then got very busy and never got everything  posted and written up.  Because of that, and the delay in updating, we're going to do a few big catch-up posts until we get back on track.

First up, we had some nice pasta one night and opened up a bottle of red for dinner.

348. 2006 Monte Antico Toscana IGT - this is fantastic and an amazing deal for about $10.  You probably won't find a 2006, but this has always been consistently good.

While running errands, we went out to Panera, which is at least regularly pretty good.  Surprisingly to Brett, it appeared they had removed his favorite sandwich, the Chicken Caesar, so he took the opportunity to try a new taste.  Note - the Chicken Caesar is still there, but this is symptomatic of Panera's problems.  (While it's still officially on the full menu, it does not appear on the menu board so unless you ask or you have a full copy of their menu you don't know there are items available that at first glance don't appear to be.)  The second problem Panera has is that their menu board doesn't show you much other than a very basic description of what's on each sandwich/salad.  Brett ordered the 

349. Asiago Roast Beef - As noted above, Panera's menu board doesn't list what's on the sandwich other than "beef and melted smoked cheddar on asiago bread."  What they fail to mention is that it's covered, on both sides of the bread, with a creamy horseradish sauce.  Brett doesn't mind horseradish in cocktail sauce, but thinks that's pretty much the limit of its acceptability.  There was so much on both pieces of bread that couldn't easily be scraped off that he didn't finish the sandwich.  

A few days later, we were running some additional errands but in Roanoke and stopped to have lunch at Cheddar's.  We'd eaten there a long time ago just after it opened and thought it was pretty good and so we thought we'd go back and try it again.  It was actually about 1 PM when we went and the place was mostly empty.   We thought that would mean we could get served quickly and continue our day, but instead it took over half an hour to get our orders to us....   Other people who arrived at exactly the same time as us had eaten and left before we got our food.  Our waitress apologized for the delay but that's it.

350. World Class Chicken - Megan ordered this sandwich that has grilled chicken breast, peppered brown sugar bacon, melted cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and honey-lime dressing.  It wasn't that bad (bacon wasn't crispy), but it wasn't out of this world either.  
351. Napa Chicken Ciabatta - Brett had this sandwich with grilled chicken breast, roasted tomatoes, Fontina cheese, avocado, roasted garlic aioli, and lettuce.   When you could get a bite of everything all at once in your mouth, this was a good sandwich.  However, the opportunity to do so was once or twice during the meal.  The roasted tomatoes were literally half of a medium sized roma tomato which was thicker than any other item on the sandwich.  To "make it work," wherever there was tomato on the sandwich, the chef had placed nothing else on that portion so Brett would just get bites of bread and tomato.  The avocado was okay, but on one half of the sandwich there was so much it was oozing out and dominating the flavor with every bite while on the other half there was barely any.   Getting fed up, Brett removed the roasted tomato halves but then there were empty spots with nothing but bread as the chicken wasn't filling the sandwich.  Brett loves tomatoes and loves roasted tomatoes even more, but having half a roasted tomato as a "slice" on a sandwich is just plain stupid - they need to be in much thinner slices!

We had another Italian meal a couple nights later for dinner and had a red wine with dinner.

352. NV - Villa Appalaccia Winery - Montepulciano - This was a disappointing wine.  We had certainly tasted this before up at the winery itself before we bought it a few years ago, but this was not at all what we remembered it tasting like.  

What follows now is an absolutely huge set of tastes from Vintage Cellar.  They had their normal tasting on Saturday with two different reps and then a humongous closeout.  Because of the number of reviews, we'll only give comments here to the ones that were exceptionally good to us - full comments can of course be found on the CellarTracker reviews.  

353. 2012 - Wither Hills - Sauvignon Blanc
354. 2012 - Bodega Colomé - Torrontés
355. 2012 - Pine Ridge -Chenin Blanc-Viognier
356. 2012 - Bodegas Breca - Garnacha de Fuego Old Vines - dark garnet color, oak, toast, and jam on the nose; raisin/plum and a small bit of tannin initially on the nose, a bit of blueberry mid-taste, smooth, a bit drying on the mouth but very good
357. 2011 - Domaine Lafage Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes - Cuvée Nicolas - dark garnet color, complex on the palate with a hint of sweetness without being jammy. Mild tannins, mild oak - very very good.
358. 2010 - Cousiño-Macul - Cabernet Sauvignon Antiguas Reservas - Smells a little bit hot, toasted. Woody, warm and makes you salivate. Plum notes, not sweet, lightly tannic. Very long finish.
359. 2012 - Las Perdices - Torrontés
360. 2012 - Las Perdices - Albariño Reserva
361. 2012 - Domaine Bellevue - Touraine
362. 2012 - Familia Masera Giol - Malbec Zentas - Malbec
363. 2010 - Las Perdices - Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva - Smells traditional, very slow legs, inky color. Jammy, complex and berry on the palate. Smooth, low tannins.
364. 2008 - Bodegas Epifanio - Rivera Ribera del Duero Erial - Acetone on the nose, age 10 more years? Garnet/inky color, raisins and a bit of a perfumy aroma. Chewy, salivating, not tannic, cherry and tobacco on the palate.
365. 2009 - Castle Rock - Chardonnay
366. 2010 - Castle Rock - Riesling
367. NV - Cinzano - Asti Spumante
368. 2009 - Clos du Val - Ariadne Napa Valley
369. NV - Thorn-Clarke - Moscato First Light
370. 2012 - Fontana Candida - Frascati Superiore
371. 2010 - Fortediga Estates - Vermentino Maremma Toscana IGT
372. 2009 - Labouré-Roi - Mâcon-Villages St. Armand
373. NV - Lamplighter Vineyards - Chardonnay
374. 2012 - Maipe - Torrontés
375. 2009 - Sonoma Hills - Chardonnay
376. 2010 - Wilson-Daniels - Sauvignon Blanc
377. 2009 - Concha y Toro - Malbec Gran Reserva Serie Riberas Palo Santo
378. 2010 - Jekel Vineyards - Pinot Noir
379. 2008 - Lamplighter Vineyards - Cabernet Sauvignon
380. 2008 - Pascual Toso - Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve - Barrancas Vineyards
381. 2010 - Terlato Vineyards - Pinot Noir - Quickfire
382. 2008 - Santa Ema - Cabernet Sauvignon - Amplus One
383. 2009 - Spellbound - Merlot
384. 2009 - Valley of the Moon - Barbera
385. 2007 - Villa Maria - Cabernet Merlot Reserve
386. 2005 - Vina Mayor - Ribera del Duero Reserva - sweet smell, warm and spicy on the tongue, jammy but not drying
387. 2008 - Palo Alto - Pinot Noir Yllum
388. 2009 - Mas de Libian - Côtes du Rhône Villages - Bout d'Zan
389. 2009 - Mas de Libian - Côtes du Rhône Villages - Khayyam
390. 2009 - Bodegas y Viñedos Maurodos - Toro Viña San Román - tobacco, nutty on the nose, super dark color, medium-long legs, smooth but a little drying, velvety mouth feel. cherry, plum, blackberry, and mild black pepper on the finish. tiny bit of burn on the finish, almost port like feel.  very very good
391. 2011 - Chronic Cellars - Sofa King Bueno - Nutty, berry and toasty on the nose, inky purple color, smooth and chewy, long finish, medium legs - really delicious and a cool bottle!
     

Thus concludes the first mega-post.  Next post will include reviews from our trip to the Richmond area, including reviews from Brew, a new gastro-pub near Megan's parents house and Virginia Beer Live.