We saw 2008 in with sips of Singing Winemaker Framboise in cups of Dobla Chocolate. Raspberry, chocolate, alcohol…what’s not to like?

Recently, I’ve been putting my wine notes on Cork’d. But I made a mistake with tonight’s wine and forgot to tell the system whether I was entering it to review, to add to my “cellar”, or to add to my wishlist — and then when I tried to fix the problem, it complained that the wine was already in the system but couldn’t find it. So I’ll review it here…and that means I don’t have to use the compressed 100-point scale, either. Not all bugs are harmful!

At any rate, the wine we had with dinner was Saint Clare Marlborough 2006 Sauvignon Blanc (probably purchased at Costco). Both Diane and I liked it (more than half the bottle vanished); it has a good bit of acidity, a medium finish, and lots of grapefruit notes (with a little kiwifruit mixed in). We had it with a spicy spaghetti sauce and Indian vegetables — it didn’t really hold its own against that competition, but it was still pleasant enough for a cool evening.

I hate having to do research during dinner, but it was necessary tonight. We brought some wine with us to dinner, having been impressed with it on our previous encounter — but when we opened this bottle, there were purple crystals at the cork, and the wine was flat, lifeless, and raisiny.

A quick trip across the room to the computer, and the verdict was in: oxygenation. (And I bookmarked three more links on del.icio.us, too.)

I’ve reported the problem to the place we bought the wine; it’ll be interesting to see what kind of response I get.

When I tasted this wine at the winery last weekend, I thought it would go well with beef. But we rarely have beef at home — basically, only when Jeff’s not going to be eating with us. Like tonight, since Jeff was out celebrating the successful conclusion of the production of The Tempest at school. We got beef brisket sandwiches from Sam’s, opened a bottle of Red Skye Zinfandel, and enjoyed.

The beef was nicely spicy, complementing the wine well — more of the bottle vanished than is our wont, too. Even more might have vanished if I hadn’t known I’d have to drive up to Palo Alto to pick Jeff up soon after dinner. Definitely worthwhile.

So, after going wine tasting this afternoon, we looked at what was already in the wine fridge to accompany dinner (Indian take-out from Royal Taj) and found a bottle of 39 Degrees Lake County 2006 Sauvignon Blanc. It was a good choice — definite strong lemon aroma, reasonable acidity, medium finish, not much mouth feel. I thought it went better with the spicy vegetables than it did with the chicken tikka, though.

I’m pretty sure we picked this wine up at BevMo on their 5-cent sale; I’d buy it again.