Andrew and I discovered this fantastic Red at Biaggi’s in Cedar Rapids at a wine tasting last year. Cinnabar Mercury Rising is a Red blend bottled by Cinnabar Cellars in Paso Robles.
It seems that all of the decent restaurants in CR are carrying this wine: Biaggi’s, Teddy’s, Daniel Arthur’s. So, it’s pretty cool that I [...]

My wife and I learned about 337 at a wine tasting at HyVee two years ago. At that time the vintage was 2004. The story is that the grapes used for this wine are a clone of a French Cabernet called 337.
At that time it was our favorite wine and we discovered it about the [...]

On a recent trip to Northwest Iowa I stopped in a truckstop/convenience store that had a selection of Iowa wines. Not being one to pass up a chance to try a new wine I selected a couple different bottles. The first one I tried was “Lucy Lane” from Jasper Wineries. Their website [...]

I bought this wine around the holiday season mistakenly thinking it was a Greg Norman Estates wine. I was wrong tho as Norman Vineyards is completely different. I believe I paid $21 or $23 dollars at the local First Avenue Wine House here in Cedar Rapids. I generally stick to wines under [...]

Another of the $3.49 wines from Crane Lake; this time a Sangiovese. Tart, watery with a slight smoke and chocolate flavor. The tartness hangs around until the next drink. The flavor of this Sangiovese is very similar to others I have had in the past. I hadn’t drunk a Sangiovese until two years ago when [...]

I overheard a guy talking about these $3.49 bottles of wine in the HyVee liquor store a couple of weeks ago. Apparently the guy’s barber was recommending them. He was talking to one of the store employees who was so surprised by the price that she went back to verify the price! We were at [...]

Jennifer and I hit Biaggi’s to celebrate her 35th birthday.  We both like the food there and Biaggis is one of the decent places in town to get a good glass of wine.  Once again I decided on the “by the glass” menu.  I chose the Stelzner Cabernet & Merlot Blend.
Biaggi’s menu advertises this as:
CABERNET-MERLOT [...]

My wife has been coping with food allergies and auto-immune diseases for a number of years. She takes a yearly food allergy test and this last week found out that somehow grapes were added to her food allergy list! This is a major bummer for her (and us) as wine is something that we enjoy [...]

Sycamore Lane is the house cabernet at Zio Johno’s.  Nothing else available by the glass stuck me as interesting and since Jennifer doesn’t enjoy wine a full bottle wasn’t an option.  As it was the house wine I didn’t see the bottle and thus don’t know the vintage.  It occurs to me that in the [...]

2005 Turner Road Appellation Series Cabernet Sauvignon - Paso Robles
$26 at restaurant
Heavy Leather top note that hangs out for the whole bottle. Super Fruity like plums with a hint of pepper. Prevalent warm Alcohol bite spills off the sides of my tongue. Musty finish leaves a fruit taste.
I was looking for a wine that would [...]