Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush Sauvignon Blanc (2009)

This isn't a lovable
looking cat. I wanna
drink that smirk
right off his face.

It's stuff like this that keeps me up at night: Someone will give you something to eat/drink/sniff and say to you, "Try this; it tastes/smells like $h!t," and for some stupid reason YOU DO. Why?!?! Perhaps it is as simple as saying to yourself, well it can't be THAT bad, can it?  I admit, that's pretty much the reason I brought home a bottle of Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush Sauvignon Blanc last night. Because it can't REALLY smell or taste like cat pee, right?

RIGHT. I mean listen, I know my cat pee (sad but true). I have cats. Three of them. I am well aware of what that smells like. And I just didn't get it from this Sauv Blanc. My nose is no expert when it comes to wine, though, so I guess I'll just have to go along with the fancy scientists on this one. Sure. It's in there...

This blog is becoming as much
about what I make for dinner as it is
about what I drink WITH dinner.

Anyway, I will be the first to tell you that I judged a book by it's cover with this one, and brought home the Cat's Pee because of the label. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but when I got a fairly straightforward-- albeit powerful-- Sauv Blanc, I was a little surprised. This wine is a punch in the kisser, from the first scent to the tail-end of the swallow. It's super strong and citrus-y, even for a New Zealand Sauv Blanc. Example: if most NZ Sauvs are Sprite, then this one is Mountain Dew (weeeeee!). I definitely tasted lime, maybe some lychee, and some general herbiness (that's a word). Tart and acidic, it was sharp on my tongue and I felt reverberations from my sip long after it was over. I served the CPoGbB with chicken cordon bleu, mashed potatoes, and peas. The combo was "meh" at best. This wine is just so flavorful that it is difficult for me to picture enjoying it with a meal. Several online reviews suggest seafood or citrus flavored chicken, but for me I think I'd fly this one solo.

Price: $

Rating: C

Sidenote: I'm REALLY disliking these ads that now show up as links in my posts. I do enjoy posting appropriate (and random) links, but none of the ones I post are little pocket-sized ads that have NOTHING to do with the highlighted words. Just in case you are wondering.

Mt. Beautiful Pinot Gris 2011

Hooray!

I said it in my first post and I meant it: you CAN get really great wine with a screw top!

For the bottle-opener impaired, I bring you the Mt Beautiful Pinot Gris—a fantastic New Zealand white. Now, since all seven of you have committed my previous blog posts to memory, I don’t need to remind you that I’m a bit picky about white wines. I don’t, as a rule (or a guideline, I suppose), enjoy the drier ones. This wine is different.  It surprised me from start to finish.

I hope none of the anonymous people
in this photo are angry that I used it here...

First the smell: New Year’s Eve, before midnight. That is to say, the Mt Beautiful Pinot smelled like champagne. I also smelled the alcohol; to me, it brought back images of wiping the excess polish off of my hastily painted fingernails with a Sally-Hansen-covered Q-tip. A little nail polish remover never hurt anyone, right?

Thankfully, the Mt Beautiful doesn’t taste like nail polish remover, although the alcohol smell does translate into its flavor, and no wonder—it’s 14.5%.  If you’re strictly a wine drinker, you’ll notice right away; if you generally prefer liquor, this won’t be a quality that'll much impress you. However be aware that this one could pack a punch.

Drunk-texters beware!

Besides being able to easily taste the alcohol content, this wine dealt a few other surprises—depending on what I ate, the flavors changed. After a bite of salad with ranch dressing, it was smooth and fruit-salad flavored. Maybe that sounds generic, but I detected many fruits in there: apple, pear, peach, perhaps some grapefruit and pineapple. After a bite of lemon-pepper chicken it was like drinking an entirely different wine. Much spicier and a little bitter, much of the fruit flavors were no longer detectable. As fun as it was to try and guess what flavors would present themselves depending on what I ate, I eventually went back to my salad; it paired best with the wine.

Hands down the best part of drinking the Mt Beautiful Pinot Gris was how varied it was; besides the chameleon-like flavors, it reads on your tongue like an EKG—there’s a definite spike toward the middle of the sip, where the flavor hits hardest before fading again.

So kids, today’s takeaways for the Mt. Beautiful Pinot Gris:

Tastes like desert animals AND electrocardiograms

Avoid lemon pepper marinade

Screwcaps= YAY!!

Don’t forget you can try it yourself on Friday 7/6 at Personal Wine Cellar. See you there?

Price: $$

My Rating: B+

Drunken Text Picture Credit