2008 Maryhill Columbia Valley Riesling for $9.99 at Vintages

This wine comes from the winery that was named 2009 Washington Winery of the Year, and in addition, all the wines from this winery are around the $9.99 price point. We really liked this wine, we paired this wine with lunch and finished the bottle at lunch. This wine is semi-sweet, with good fruit, super easy drinking, with a great price to make it a staple over the summer in my refridgerator.

Cranberry Blush by Cedar Creek Winery for $12 at the winery in Wisconsin

I tried this wine after drinking before hand, and I think I did not get the true tartness and acidity of this wine. This wine is grape wine with cranberry juice. We drank this wine at the Bed and Breakfast that we stayed at for their happy hour of wine and cheese. This wine is very good with cheese and crackers as it balances out the tartness and acidity that I generally find unpleasant in wine. The couple that joined us on the overnight really like this wine, however they really like dry wine and this would fall in the category of a crisp, semi-dry fruit type wine.

Strawberry wine for around $11 by the Vetro winery in Concord, Wi

We went to Cedarburg, Wi for 2 days and drove to next nearest winery in Concord-I am not kidding, WI to check out some more wines since we were out that way. This winery is very quaint, and very cute. The owner did the wine tastings and let you try the entire menu for free-donations for her grandson were appreciated. The wines were around $10-$12, and she had majority fruit wines. Her fruit wines have a reported 9lbs of fruit per bottle, which is 2x what I have heard from Cooperhawk and Lynfred wineries. In addition, her fruit wines are not sweet, they are generally semi-sweet to dry. The blueberry which we did not purchase, was a dry wine. This Strawberry wine, which smells and tastes of pure strawberries is semi-sweet. The wine was not sweet enought for white chocolate to pair with it, and honestly I liked it best on its own. I think it would pair nice with a Caesar salad, or some other type of fruity salad, but stay away from dessert with this wine, the wine is just not sweet enought for a dessert.

Frontenac Rose' for $17 from August Hill Winery

This wine is a very nice Rose' fruity, however there is no sweetness in this wine. This wine is the perfect watermelon color and the bubbles, as usual with August Hill, are just perfect. This wine was paired with pizza and with lobster ravioli-not good. I am thinking that this wine would have gone better with a salad with some sweetness, or a sweeter chicken dish. I like the Mardi Gras and Almond Infusion, and was hoping to try the Raspberry Infusion that last time we were up to August Hill, but no luck. I like too many of their other bubblys to try this one again, but if you like a sparkling rose', this wine would be the one I would buy.

Kishwaukee Blue Spakling wine for around $12 from Prairie State Winery

The Kishwaukee Blue wine was combine with a sparkling stone to add some effervescence to their most popular seller. I love sparkling wine, and I really like the Kishwaukee Blue wine so we were like what the heck. The wine tastes just like the Kishwaukee Blue with a little fizz. The wine is semi-sweet, very light, refreshing, and just a perfect summer wine. I could drink this wine all the time, only the wine drinkers who hate sweetness to the utmost would find fault with this wine. This wine has great fruit flavors orange, peach, without the acidity to give you the need to grab a glass of water. I could drink this wine all the time, year around, and if I make it to the wine festival in September I will buy some more of this wine.

Elderberry Wine for around $11 at Prairie State Winery

I have no idea what an elderberry is, and I am pretty sure I have never eaten an elderberry, but it makes a great wine. This wine is very fruity, made from the juice, and is very good on its own, chilled. The wine is its own fruit flavor, with its own tartness, but not overly tart like a Cranberry wine, and not cloying sweet at times like a Blueberry wine. If you like fruit wines, then this wine is a must try, the wine is semi-sweet, perfect for the upcoming summer weather.

1996 Cabernet Sauvignon for $35 at Lynfred Winery

This wine is a definite special occasion wine. I only bought this wine at the urging of my supervisor since the wine is made with Quintessa grapes which she says make $100 bottles of wine at Binnys. This wine is great. It is so mellow, with very little tannin. The worst part of this wine is trying to get the cork out. We don't even like Cabernet Sauvignon, but this is different. This wine is totally elegant, with smoke and other flavors that blend into flavor that makes you wish you could afford this type of wine all the time. If I win the lottery, I am going to buy the rest of this wine at Lynfred.