Wino Wednesday - Fat Cat & White Cab

Welcome to Wino Wednesday which for me and my family and friends will follow what I am calling the Totally Toasted Tuesday Tastings, depending on how many show up to help me out.

So again welcome to,

and I hope others join as well...

First of all, I adore wine...absolutely love it. If you know me, you know I have a deep passion for not only pairing wine to food, but more importantly wine to people. I love the challenge of someone "that hates wine" and trying to figure out what is going on with their palate. I relish the challenge of walking a wine-hater through different grapes and tastes to find something that they like.


I am not a huge fan of the wine snobbery where people with all of 7 bottles at home twist and twirl their glasses, sniff corks (by the way, don't do this), drown you in superlatives when describing a wine, and buy the more expensive bottles because they think price equals quality. This is a "cork dork." If you are one, acknowledge it..."hi my name is..., and I am a cork dork," and move on to a realistic and healthy relationship with wine.

Wine is to be enjoyed and shared. Wine is to intended to be served with food. Wine should not be enjoyed to be deemed fashionable and you should not feel intimidated by it. Some of the fancy wine talk (and quite possibly most of it) is just plain silly. Remember there is an entire community of con artists (some intentional and some not) that are just trying to play you. So if you don't like a wine - just say so, whine if you will (that was horrible). If someone else is gushing over it and they are trying to shame you, remember that wine is primarily subjective and palates vary.

Wine tasting is not a science...wine making is a science,

but tasting is art.
So have your own opinion.

We have a number of wines that are "too good" to drink. My poor husband will come home and inadvertently pick up the "wrong" bottle and I will say, "no, I want to drink that for a really special occasion." The problem is I never seem to find an occasion that warrants the bottle...and we have had some pretty great life moments which leads me to believe (after some introspection) that the problem is not wine doesn't equal event, but I am not really enjoying the true beauty and relationship of wine...to be shared, enjoyed, imbibed...

So my new quest is to really work through low and mid range priced wines. Wines for every occasion. An equal opportunity wine blog is my goal. No wine will be discriminated against...not for age or color...all welcome, and we will even let some immigrants in as well...

Realistically, this is where we buy wine...

We are not invited to private auctions and cellars, we just need a bottle to take to a friend's house...

That being said, I wanted to start out with a cheap wine. Today's feature is a $6.99 wine.

Pic from website because my camera phone pics were pretty bad...

Without further ado, I give you Fat Cat Cabernet Sauvignon 2005...

The winemaker ('s marketing department) described it as "well-crafted, full-bodied dark red lays down big blackberry and cherry aromas before breaking into a riff of rich, round tones and toasty oak notes that hang on for a long and mellow finish." Evidently they are doing a jazz theme...

This wine needs food and Fat Cat knows it! They have a "purr-fect pairings" section on the website (a little vomit in the back of the mouth from even typing that).

The wine was a bit shocking in that it had almost an effervescent quality to it. Almost like it was a little green, but not really, usually I taste green in the finish, but this was kind of a pop rocks feel. It was different and kind of fun.

The wine desperately needs to be paired with something sharp or red meat. They suggest tuna...yeah, I would never do that. I am thinking (and this is what we put with it) more of a stir fry beef and vegetables kind of wine.

The wine had almost no legs to it at all. It was hard to judge the finish because it didn't really have one. So as for "long and mellow" I agree with mellow in that it wasn't offensive and you enjoyed drinking more.

This is a cute wine both taste and appearance. It is a good selection to crack open for a casual meal. Not a good wine for impressing people. So I would recommend just keeping it in the family dinner category and then know that you really only enjoy the picture of the cat. For $6.99 not a total loss, and I might even buy it again...maybe...

Now for a completely ridiculous wine...

Sutter Home White Cabarnet Sauvignon, vintage unknown...because it is a white with a cab...what the hell?!?

The other night at our friend's house I looked into the tub and found it calling to me...

I knew from our first meeting I would love this horrible silly little wine. It's color - absolutely horrible and diluted. It's nose - nonexistent. Taste - sinfully delightful...like grape alcoholic kool-aid...I was drinking the stuff that I was always imagining and pretending to drink when I was a little girl...(what you didn't do that)...in other words, I finished the bottle quickly, Eva Luna provided only minimal assistance.

This falls into a stupid good wine because it is just about fun. It is a chilled summer wine that has absolutely no merit (the wine has it's own podcast). It is the kind of wine that you want to dump in ice cream...but not even to the level of drizzle over cheesecake.

So that is all for today's inaugural Wino Wednesday, I will leave you with a wine quote for the day, that oddly fits into our current events as well:

"By making this wine vine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt." - Thomas Jefferson

Oh, Tommy, how I love your passion and boldness when speaking of wine...

Cheers!