Day 35-Illinois White Wine by Fox Valley Winery Inc of Oswego, Il

This was one of the sweet wines for the sweet wine of the month club for March 2009. This Illinois White Wine was one of the three wines my better half and I tasted this evening in a blind taste test. It is a nondescript blend of wines, gold in color and relatively sweet with some fruit and floral aromas. We are not sure of the exact blend of grapes, we guessed viognier, niagara, but we are not sure. Both of our ratings of this wine ranged in the average and if we were not in the wine club we would not have bought this wine. I would describe this wine as slightly sweet, but nothing special. This wine is not crisp enough for me to be a great summer wine and does not have enough distinguishable grape flavor to work with food. Overall, this wine would be one that you could probably pair with cheeses and fruits due to the various amount of cheese tastes and the different types of fruits.

Day 34-Buccia Terrace Red under $10.00

This red blend was one of the three wines we tasted in the blind tasting. This is blend of reds with a strong smell of concord and very tart finish. We loved this wine at the vineyard, however I find this wine to be very young and needs to be aged. I knew at one time what wines were in this blend, which are unique, but I did not write them down and therefore, I can only tell you the wine smells like concord, but is not a sweet wine. This wine has 11% alcohol volume and finishes like green grapes to me. I find this wine very green, like the wine needs to be aged, however, when I tried this wine originally I found this wine to be much sweeter on the finish. Either way, we enjoyed the wine tasting when we bought the wine, and we finished the bottle when we opened it.

Day 33-Naso Rosso of the Laurello Vineyards of Ohio for $10.00

We decided to do a blind tasting tonight of 3 red wine blends and we, my better half and I, had a great time. This is a drier blend of various grapes, I don't remember the specifics, except that this has some concord grapes in the wine. Troy, my better half, found this wine to be very dry, I found this wine to have a lot of depth and very good with my wine crackers. When I bought this wine while we were in Ohio and I felt for the price and the flavor a great bargain. The winery described the Naso Rosso is fun fruity red wine that is perfect for every occasion which I would agree with, however if a person does not like dry wines, this would not be your choice. My better half thought this was the worst wine of the three and I felt this wine was second best. It is a little higher in alcohol content of 12.5% and with any type of food improves the flavors. I can drink the wine without food but as I finish off the bottle, I truly enjoyed the wine with its various flavors and found that this could be a daily table wine for me.

Day 32-Pom-a Berry by the Village Vintner for $13.99

This was the wine of the month for February 2009 for the sweet/fruit wine club. We have had this wine before, in fact, it was one of the first wines we ever tried and bought when we went tasting at this winery in December 2009. "The Village Vintner's Pom a Berry is a red wine that brings together juicy and sweet flavors of wild berries and the rich and crisp notes of orchard fresh pomegranates. Combined with the rich flavors of Zinfandel, this delicious elixir is best enjoyed chilled." This winery does not use only fruit like Lynfred which just uses 100% fruit. This winery gets its juices from all over the United States and then blends the juices. The wine tastes a lot like juice and my better half, now my fiance, loves this wine. It is low and alcohol content at 7.5% and low in sulfites. This is a wine that you would start a person who does not like wine. I can't taste the zinfandel in this wine and would think most people would think this is more juice than wine, but it is very easy drinking and is very reasonably priced. I think this winery blends fruits with wines very well, we have never been disappointed with their fruit sweet wines.

Day 31-New Age Red Wine for under $10.00 at Binnys

This is the red counterpart to the New Age White Wine which I previously reviewed. This wine is very similar to white zinfandel. I didn't find this wine to be too exciting, no distinct flavors or smells. It is slightly sweet, however the aftertaste is minerally almost metallic to me which I don't like at all. I ate this wine with pasta, and because this wine has really very little depth, it added nothing to the meal. This wine is similar to a boxed wine, nothing great or bad about it and at a very reasonable cost. I would bring this wine to a summer barbeque where no one really cared what the wine really tasted like as long as it wasn't horrible. I would not buy this wine for myself again, because it just was not that enjoyable.

Day 30-La Spinetta 2007 Bricco Quaglia Moscato D'Asti for $16.99 at Vintages in Arlington Heights

I bought this wine for my better half at Vintages as a peace offering since I went to the Champagne/Sparkling wine tasting with my sister while he worked. This was one of the two sweet sparkling wines at the tasting, and is this wine ever sweet. This wine has peach overtones and is one the more sweeter moscato d'asti's that I have tried. The wine is a golden color and has a good fizz to it. I would replace dessert with this wine because of the amount of sweetness. My better half will drink the majority of this wine since I find it to be so sweet it hurts my teeth. Again, this wine is very low in alcohol at 5.5% and is a great wine chilled for the summer. To many, this tastes like sparkling juice, however the moscato d'asti's are rarely bad and tend to be liked a lot by the non-wine drinkers.

Day 29-Village Vintner Pink Catawba for $13.00

This wine was wine of the month for the sweet wines club for January 2009. The Village Vintner which is located in Carpentersville, Il has some of the most unique sweet wines. The vintner describes this wine as a sweet and fruity rose wine made from a native american late ripening grape. It's reminiscent of raspberries and peaches embodied with candied fruit. The vintner believes the wine pairs well with light fish dishes, cheese and crackers, or just sip and relax. The best comparison of a wine made out of Catawba is a white zinfandel. I find the Catawba wine to be sweeter than the white zinfandel. This wine is very good with a tart finish. I am over half through the bottle as we speak, and I am very happy with the purchase. I think this is a very good drinking wine with out food with more fruit flavors of raspberries and strawberries. I have tried numerous wines made out of catawba and blends with the catawba grape and generally they are on the sweeter side and fruity. This is a grape that is grown native to the United States and we have tried it made it in ohio and in illinois and this wine is a great indication of how good a catawba wine can taste.