Over the course of a week, I taste a bunch of wine, usually with friends, and almost always with my wife. Here are some of the wines we tasted this last week that stood out:

2000 Ca’ Rome’ di Romano Marengo Barbaresco Maria di Brun: Retail ??? I do not have much familiarity with Italian wines, and I have but a few. The Cellar Tracker drinking window (the best time to drink the wine) says that this bottle should have been consumed by 2011. Well, if this is over the hill, then I need to get more wines from this hill. This was fabulous–understated red fruit, an intense earthiness and soft, round tannins. Outstanding. 91-93 Points.

2007 Melville Chardonnay Estate: Retail $35. Melville is one of our favorite producers in the Sta. Rita Hills–they really make great wines and they do not seem to want to gouge the consumer the way that some others do there. We bought a case of this a while ago and have been steadily making our way through it. With this bottle it was clear that the wine has started to take on a bit of color, which leads me to think that I should get to the remaining bottles soon. Still, great fruit to be had here–lemon zest and a bit of pineapple and honey. Rich and full with enough spunk on the back end to hold it all together. Very Good to Outstanding. 89-91 Points.

2010 Martin Pasler Pinot Blanc: Retail $18. This is turning out to be quite a pleasing purchase. I bought a bunch of these on Last Bottle (a flash site similar to Wines Til Sold Out) for $12 and we have been very pleased. Not the most complex wine, but there is great acidity and just the right amount of fruit. Great on the patio or on the table with light fare. Very Good. 87-89 Points.

2006 Patz & Hall Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard: Retail $45. It may be indeed the case that I waited a bit too long on this one. Rich, buttery nose with oak and just a slight hint of lemon. On the palate, there was not a whole lot of fruit to be found, but there was plenty of butter well integrated with the oak. Certainly, the bigger style of California Chard, which is not my favorite, but I do not mind either. Had there been even a slight amount of fruit….Very Good. 87-89 Points.

2011 St. Supéry Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc: Retail $18. This seems to be made more in the New Zealand style: quite tart and grassy with bracing acidity. While this is certainly not my style of Sauvignon Blanc, the wine was well put together and pleasant. Good to Very Good. 85-87 Points.

NV Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut Rosé: Retail $12. Alright, this wine is a departure from the norm for me. First, I bought it at the PLCB (the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is the state run monopoly where I have not bought wine for some time now since it is an unmitigated disaster). Second, it comes from one of the largest winery conglomerates in the county (Ste. Michelle Wine Estates), while I tend to lean toward smaller producers. So why did I get it? It is on sale for $8.49 and I figured “Sparkling wine for under $10? Why not?” For the price, it is not bad–perhaps overly acidic and not enough fruit, but nothing a little Crème de Cassis won’t ameliorate. Kir Royale anyone? Average to Good. 83-85 Points.

2005 Simonnet-Febvre Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons: Retail $35. There are times in your life that you make mistakes. This was one of mine. I bought this back in ’09 from the PLCB (that usually is enough to classify it as a “mistake”) for the stupid price of $10. I should have had it a bit earlier since this was oxidized–so much so that my wife would not drink it. Too bad since there are few greater pleasures than a good Chablis with some age on it. Unrated.

WINE OF THE WEEK: I debated on this for a while since there is another wine that we had this week that does not appear on this list. A while ago, I came across a bottle of 1993 German red wine and bought it (for about a buck). It was rather obscure and it was not in the Cellar Tracker database. It would have taken me a good half an hour to create a new wine on CT since there were about 12 words for the title of the wine and each one was about 37 letters long. I searched all over for info on the wine, but I found bupkiss. I could not begin to tell you what the wine was, but it was pretty darn good. Instead, I opted for a rarity here on The Drunken Cyclist, an Italian wine. The 2000 Ca’ Rome’ di Romano Marengo Barbaresco Maria di Brun was savory and rich and really a treat to drink. I popped it open for a little “flash wine tasting event” that I pseudo-organized on our block. It went largely unnoticed by the others on our front stoop, but it was truly memorable. Maybe I should stop panning Italian wine.

At least the red wines.

What was your wine of the Week?