Archetype Shiraz: Sometimes Pairing is Everything

The day before I found out about this blog I drank a bottle (well, my husband and I drank a bottle) of Archetype Shiraz. I had never tried it before and I really liked it. It was a big round flavor. We drank it with some Cambozola cheese and crackers (I highly recommend this cheese if you haven't had it. You can get it at Trader Joe's for under $5. It is good with every wine.)

I loved this wine. I had to go to the store and buy it again to review it because 1) I had no idea how much I paid for it, 2) I couldn't remember anything except I loved it and 3) I didn't know where it came from.

Archetype is from the Barossa region of South Australia. I tend to buy Shiraz if it says Barossa on the bottle because the grapes seem to have a very rich deep flavor.

What was my point? Oh yeah, so I bought another bottle - it was $12.99 at Wine Warehouse, I think they have it featured this month. I brought it home and we drank it with chicken tacos.

It wasn't nearly as good. It tasted sort of bitter with the pico and jalapeno flavors. I am learning, but I am still often surprised at how important pairing your wine is.


I will definitely buy this wine again, but next time I am going to drink it with some steak or a roast or some other red meat. I bet it would be great with hamburgers, especially if you used bleu cheese or Gorgonzola on it. I think the Shiraz needs fat to compliment it. I wouldn't drink it with anything spicy again.

(Check out the cheese - it rocks.)

Keep a LookOut for this one

Unlike the Cape Buffaloes, we didn't couple our wine with dinner -- no, we waited until the 'lil Dubya was asleep and the 'lil Dubyette was chillin' under her Flutterbye Gym to uncork Lookout Mountain's Merlot (2002).

This is a bottle we already had on our wine rack, but a label we'd never tried before -- the Big Dubya picked it up the last time we were in the Berkshires at a favorite wine shop of ours -- the same guys have similarly themed wine shops in the Boston area that I frequented when I was living/working there. The gimmick of the shop is extremely effective -- the lion's share of their wines are less than $15 and they are categorized by flavor, rather than strictly by type. The selection is constantly changing -- so it's never the same place twice -- terrific if you like to try new wines all the time, but kind of a bummer if you find one that you love, love, love...chances are it won't be there the next time you stop in.

This particular Merlot was $10 and classified as a "Smooth" which is defined by Grape Finds as "Medium bodied-red wines. Velvety. Graceful. Deliciously refined."

The thing that struck me immediately was that this wine is subtle...very subtle. There was nothing hitting your throat after you sipped it -- it's very, very smooth and kind of light for a red.

Bottom line -- this is a nice, solid red -- it's got some good berry flavors with a subtle hint of wood -- giving it a little complexity without being too deep or rich. The label suggested a hint of dark chocolate...I didn't pick up on that. And, despite busting it out on a Wednesday night, I felt just fine this morning. If you aren't really into red wines because they tend to be too heavy -- you might like this one, as it's lighter than the typical red.

I would definitely buy it again.