I Needed A Drink

If you read my previous post, you'll understand the title of this one. Tonight, I needed some wine.
Recently, we had a barbecue and I went out to the wine shop to grab some bottles for that day. While I was there, I grabbed a couple of new wines (to me) for myself. Tonight I opened up the Step Road Blackwing Shiraz 2005, Australia (screw cap). To be honest, I picked up this bottle because I liked the label. Not the best way to pick out a wine, but I thought it looked nice and wanted to try it. I wasn't disappointed. Tonight, I drank this with some spicy grilled lamb and roasted potatoes. I felt it went really well. To me, this wine started off with some red cherries, then hit me with a hint of tar and finished off with cranberries. Overall, I enjoyed this wine and went through 3 glasses with dinner. Perhaps it went better with my meal, but I think I enjoyed it a lot more than those who wrote the reviews of it I read on the web (which I read tonight while searching for the pic of the label). To me, this was a nice smooth wine, which went great with my meal and gave me what I really needed - a drink.
Another bottle of wine I bought during that same trip was Washington Hills Riesling 2005, Washington. I opened this about 1 week ago while we were eating some Indian take-out. I had really wanted a Gewürztraminer, but there were none in my house, so I opened this. It actually went very well with the meal because the food was really spicy and this was very sweet. The only thought I had while drinking this was "apple juice." I enjoyed drinking this with Indian, but it really did taste like apple juice to me. With a nice alcoholic twist.
On the day of the barbecue, I had bought a few different bottles on wine to drink. A couple different whites and some red. The first bottle of white we opened up was the La Delizia Pinot Grigio 2006, Italy. I don't really remember exact things about this wine, but I do remember really liking it. As did my mom and my wife's grandmother. It went pretty fast, so I'm assuming it was pretty good. Also, we didn't enjoy the next bottle of wine nearly as much (I don't remember what that was - I didn't buy that one).
The other type of white wine I bought for the barbecue was Kris Pinot Grigio 2006, Friuli-Venezia Italy (screw cap). I love this wine. It's never disappointed me and I've never bought a bad bottle. Of course it's not the best bottle of wine, but it's light, crisp and tastes as good as a Pinot Grigio is going to taste (I'm not a big fan of the Santa Margherita, which has somehow become some sort of standard for Pinot Grigio). Also, this wine is cheap. Always an added plus!
I also bought a couple of bottles of Rancho Zabaco Heritage Vines Zinfandel 2006, Sonoma, but this was heat-damaged and tasted like crap.

NP: Exit, Population 1