Taste Along w/ Adam the Wine Guy # 23 - Frias Merlot

Yummy..y'know Merlot got a bad rap a few years ago and sales tumbled..but the growers kept on pluggin away and the winemakers kept on making some great juice..this Frias is no flabby Merlot..its a big boy, balance with depth that a Cab. drinker would love..ive found that napa is the best place for growing merlot in california..you get such rich and round styles, that are reminiscent of their French cousins in Bordeaux, but with layers of fruit that the old world just cant compare..

Grill up a ribeye and enjoy some of this Frias 2005, Napa, Merlot

Taste Along w/ Adam the Wine Guy # 22 - Indaba

Steen, Steen, Steen...hmmm, what the heck is a Steen, sounds like a guys last name who i went to high school or camp with when i was a kid or something..but really, its another name for Chenin Blanc..that wonderfully ripe and refreshing wine that you usually see from the Loire, but in S. Africa they are making wines that are really world class, i think they are doing their best jobs on Pinotage, and the Steen..its not soo well known, but, they have been making wine in S.Africa for centuries..this country is located about what was once 1/2 around the world before the Panama Canal, so all the sailors had to pass around the tip to S.Africa to continue the journey..it was here the Dutch settled, and while there they planted some of the first grapes in the southern hemisphere..so, the tradition is rich, figure they have a few hundred years of practice..

way south of the border with the Indaba, Steen, 2006

Taste Along w/ Adam the Wine Guy #14 - Chameleon

out of california, and even more so in napa, you generally see the basic cabernet, merlot, and chardonnay, but there are producers out there really trying different things..these guys at chameleon really make some interesting wines out of traditional italian grape varietals..they also do a pretty cool barbera, but i think that this one's my favorite of their wines..also, i generally stay away, and i mean far away from labels with animals, particularly of the cartoony variety..but, hey, there a some exceptions and this is one of em..and this charbono could be really great w/ foods..i think it would rock with some barbeque..which i found out on one of my recent trips to france is a french word..barb-from the word for beard, and que-from the butt..so if you think about a long skewer and a fire pit and a pig..it would be skewered from the barb to the que...hence barbeque..yeehah!..i think thats french also..

drink up the Chameleon, 2001, Charbono, from Napa