Local temperature for Eau Claire, Wisconsin: 97 degrees Fahrenheit.
Local heat index: 105.
Tonight, we considered drinking our wine on the porch while listening to our music through the window.
We reconsidered.

Needless to say, we find ourselves inside our cool, air-conditioned loft sipping on some chilled Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc and listening to The Civil Wars' musky, sweaty album, "Barton Hollow."
Our wine and music combo tonight was not only refreshing, but also intensely reflective of the hot and still summer sky.

Fume Blanc (a title coined by Robert Mondavi), is a savignon blanc which has been aged in oak barrels.  This particular one was brothy and slightly vegetal to the nose, and wonderfully balanced.  The wine was incredibly double-planed with significant highs and lows (we'll explain later).

As for the tunage, we can't stop listening to The Civil Wars.  Seriously.  Maggie would never want to side with Taylor Swift on the topic of music (she tweeted about the bands' music in 2010), but this album was fantastic.

The first song, "20 Years", was a perfect example of the duo's marriage of dark folk and sweet melody.  With musical techniques ranging from pentatonic arpeggios to Eastern-inspired guitar, and from Romantic Period Polonaise style to inverted melodies, the musicality of this album is difficult to find in today's musical artists (particularly the high-reaching yet uninspired indie folk scene).  The second track, "I've Got this Friend" showcased the potential sweetness of the band's music, with childlike melodies overlaying syncopation and dark musical effects.  "C'est La Mort," a dark examination of death and love, was made light and listenable by the sweet effervescence of musical clocks and light melody.  Many dark, folk-laden melodies ensued, but were happily broken up by the title track, "Barton Hollow," a kick-ass spiritual rock melody inspired by both salvation and the devil himself.

The music was Western, complex, gritty and spiritual, but refreshed us with its light vocals, pleasant melodies and superb vocal harmonies.  The wine was savory and sweaty, but had an overlay of well-balanced acidity.  On this sultry day we definitely appreciated its touch of effervescence.  We think our internal temperatures finally cooled down to 99 degrees.  At least, we hope so.

Nick's Review


Audio - 
Maybe it's a sign of music culture today,  but for some reason we keep pulling albums of indie folk bands; not that this is a bad thing (we loved "Hayes Carl" and were early followers of "Mumford and Sons") but repetition is dull for the mind and the soul.  Fortunately for us (and hopefully for you) this was a new type of indie folk.  At times it was bright and childish like an old Raffi album (most likely listened to on tape cassett), and other times it was dark and ghostly, with haunting lyrics that left you feeling as melancholy as Ebenezer Schrooge.

The album starts out with "20 Years," a very meditative song featuring pentatonic scales and eastern harmonies.  This leads into a second track "I've Got This Friend" which is bright and syncopated.  A style of music I would love to play for a young child.  The third song "C'est La Mort" features male vocals reminiscent of Harry Connick Jr. and makes me wonder if the male singer, John Paul White, got his chops in the music scene of The French Quarter.

One of the great things about this music was it's ability to flow from bright to dark, choppy to fluid.  I especially liked how the album was broken up with track eight "The Violet Hour", which was an all-instrumental track featuring beautiful yet haunting cello.

I would put the musical exploration of this group far above the currently popular "Mumford and Sons".  Even if they don't see the success that M and S has had in recent months, I will really look forward to another drop from this band.

9/10


Vino - 
Ferrari-Carano, just say the name and you feel like a more "established" person.  This wine comes in a beautiful silver, gold and white bottle and just screams summer time sipping.  As we mentioned earlier, it's hot outside and we needed something crisp, white and acidic to cool us off.  This Fume Blanc didn't let us down.

Pour it in the glass and you see the inviting bubbles of effervescence.  The wine is very pale and has an almost watered-down appearance.  The nose has hints of oak but what really stands out are the savory notes.  Flavors of cooked carrots and chicken broth emanate from the glass.  The great thing is that despite it's savory bold beginning this wine finishes with a full mouth feel that covers the back of your lips and tongue.  This fullness is slowly burned away, like a sulfur match, by bright acidity back with candied apple flavor.  Think of those green apple suckers with a slab of caramel on top!
With her slick screw-top, this wine just begs to be popped and poured, which we did and certainly will do again.

90 pts (little thin on the mid pallet, otherwise extremely pleasing)


Maggie's Reviews


Audio-
I am a fan of truely good, creative, and appealing alternative pop.  While this music wasn't bubbly by any stretch of the imagination, it was certainly melodic, musically interesting, easy to listen to, and all-together delightful.

My favorite track was "C'est La Mort."  Not only the parallel of "C'est La Vie" ('that's life', for those who haven't heard the phrase), "that's death" was not only beautifully lyrical and musically interesting, it was almost comically lighthearted in its musical attributes, considering the incredibly serious subject matter.  The guitar intervals, reminiscent of clocks, investigate the passage of time on the planes of love and death, and the historic music tropes extend far beyond this particular track.

In the dark tune "Falling," describing the stagnancy of a long-overdue breakup, the melody which accompanies the lyrics "I can't help falling out of love with you" are reminiscent of the melody to the classic "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You."  Little innuendos like this are popular in both Broadway and classical music genres.

The Polonaise in "Girl with the Red Ballon" was masterful and indicative of the subject matter (balloons, parties, carnivals . . . you get it), and the western musical cliches show up in most of the hauntingly beautiful tracks of the album,  such as "My Father's Father."  Just try listening to that one without feeling the presence of a ghost.

This album is a thinkers' album.  Musical ideas are utilized (rare in today's music industry) and carried out beautifully.  Real harmonies are created.  Interesting instrumentals provide the bones of the album, while real, creative basics provide the flesh.

10/10


Vino-


I'm finally feeling cool.

Seriously, this wine was the perfect wine for a hot and steamy summer day.  It's savory and tart affixes provide the perfect means for refreshment, like a savory pork with a tart pear.

The savory layers and the crisp acidity provide savory lows and acidic highs, and the separation of the two flavors is extremely clear in this particular vino.  With the top and bottom palates being so pronounced, my only complaint is that the two layers are so separated.  I wish there were a middle ground, with which to unite the two planes and create a unified product like a savory and sweet pork-and-apple stew.

91 pts.

I'd Rather Have Caramel Corn than Candy Corn

Why do you drink wine?

People have been drinking vino for thousands of years and for fabulously varied reasons.  Some drink wine to appreciate culture and history.  Some use wine's classy persona to mask their alcoholism.  Others drink it to forget that they are living in their parents' basement (more on that later . . . ), and still others drink it to complement food.

The foodie crowd has long appreciated the relationship between wine and food, with its complicated disagreements, occasional perfect unions, and long search for the ultimate marriage of flavor and texture.  When we were approached by Serena Pelowski to do a pairing with Angie's Kettle Corn and Carmel Corn, we were psyched.  As most of our friends know, there are very few people on the planet who eat more popcorn than we do.  Not kidding. 

So, we sat down in our temporary digs in Nick's parents basement (our new apartment is still under construction) with two white wine glasses, a bowl of Angie's Kettle Corn, a bowl of Angie's Carmel Corn, a bottle of Beaulieu Vineyard's 2008 Carneros Chardonnay, and a copy of Arcade Fire's "The Subrubs" album.

There were so many fascets to our tasting tonight!  Not only did we have to critique our audio/vino experience, we also had to pair the two types of popcorn with the vino! 

Nick's Review

Audio

Remember the "new kid in class"?  The kid that got up in front of everyone and told them that they had just moved here last summer 'cause their dad got a new job?  "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire reminds me of the constantly-moving kid.  Track one "The Suburbs" will make you think of riding your bike to a friends house on a hot summer day, with nothing to worry about except for getting home on time.  Tracks three and four take on an industrial feel (the point when the kid moves to the city and is trying to fit in at PS 101).  Track five "Rococco" has a cool coo-coo part and ends with some industrial power.  This mixes into some ethereal strings in track six and this ethereal sound comes back in track eight "Half Light II".  This is the point when the kid moves to the country.  The kid gets along fine in the Suburbs and the City, but what about the country?  He must have done alright, because the ethereal sounds where some of my favorite parts on this album.  My favorite song is track ten "Month of May" which has a spooky, driven, 80's-esque sound.

9/10

Vino 

Everyone probably knows about the "anything but Chardonnay" movement.  It started before I became involved in the wine industry and before I even began enjoying wine.  Now, I think that we are starting to reach the end of this attitude, but we are going to need some decent three-dimensional chardonnays to get there.  Unfortunately, BV Carneros Chard isn't very three-dimensional.  This wine has gotten some decent reviews in past vintages and I would probably be willing to try this wine again someday.  However the '08 tasted as if someone glued some candy corn to a two by four and shoved it down my throat.  Flabbier than my high school drivers' ed teacher, I was yearning for some acidity . . . any acidity . . . even a blip of acidity.  The nose had some nice honeydew, vanilla, peach and nutmeg, but it also smelled of cigarellos dipped in peach flavoring.

The saving grace of this experience was Angie's Kettle Corn.  I paired the Chard with some of Angie's Caramel Corn.  This caramel corn is made just the way I like it, lightly covered yet packed with caramel flavor.  We're not talking cracker jacks kettle corn that causes your back molars to stick together.  No sir, this is light and airy and to top it off it's delicious with chardonnay.  The best part of this experience was that the kettle corn saved the chardonnay.  Nobody is happy to open up a bottle of $20-30 chardonnay only to have three sips and dump it out.  The kettle corn added dimension to the chardonnay and kept me coming back, crunch, sip, crunch, sip, this is a pairing I will definitely be trying again and soon.

So even if this chardonnay never reached that third dimension, I want you to forget about the "anything but chardonnay" mentality.  Pick up that bottle of Chardonnay that you have been eyeing up but were afraid to purchase because of the sneers of clerks and peers!  Pick up some Angie's Kettle Corn to enjoy with it, because I guarantee you will have a new found respect for Chardonnay once you give this pairing a try!

80 pts 

Maggie's Review

Audio

Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" managed to be both refreshing and disappointing.  In the end, I really enjoyed the album . . . but I was hoping to enjoy it a little more based on the recommendations of some friends.

The marriage of etherealism and industrialism was interesting and managed to give the album an edge.  The way that these two themes played off one another was well-done and not at all repetitive, and and really reflected the marriage of country and city (hence - the Suburbs).  

Usually, albums begin interestingly and move into repetitiveness and pure boredom.  Not so for The Suburbs, which impressed me more and more as the album went on.  The title track wasn't much to write home about (although it provided a great backdrop for the personality of the album), and the second track, "Ready to Start," was pretty unimaginitive, despite it's 80's-pop sound and departure from the first track.  As the album went on, though, the contrasts between the industrial and the ethereal kept me intrigued, and Half Light II (a futuristic and haunting canon) really sucked me in.  

My biggest complaint?  Every song on the album ran together, which can potentially give an album a very unified and artistic tone.  In this case, the album grew stagnant.  Relying on interesting syncopations to give dimension to the album, Arcade Fire neglected to give us any variation on the tempo!  That's right - despite some interesting rhythms, the tempo of the album was flat, constant, and droning.  Constant tempos throughout a modern album are hardly a way to get the listener's blood pumping.

8.5/10

Vino

Things-not-quite-as-flabby-as-Beaulieu-2008-Chardonnay:

-Basset hounds

-Kirstie Alley

-Britney Spears post-Kevin Federline

-the contents of a plastic surgeon's garbage can

Seriously, this wine was really disappointing.  Even as a novice, I was able to figure out what this wine was missing (acidity).  We both found peach, vanilla, and even a bit of melon on the nose, but as we went to try the wine we both tasted two things: candy corn and sugar.  

We tasted both the Kettle Corn and the Carmel Corn with the Chardonnay.  The popcorn was fabulous - the wine, sadly, was not.  When we tried the Kettle Corn, we realized that it didn't find a great compliment in the wine, mainly because they tasted so similar.  The Carmel Corn, however, complimented the wine fabulously.  The buttery, sweet carmel brought out the hint of nutmeg in the wine and gave it an ever-so-small sliver of dimension.  I would love to try this Carmel Corn again with a better wine.

75 pts. 

Hey J! Play that 60s Rock One More Time!

Oh, AudioVino, how you continue to surprise us!  One day we're listening to a bad country album, the next we are observers of a psychedelic acid-trip circa 1969 (while we observe this trip, however, we stick to our wine.) Our tasting today led us to try J Vinyards' Pinot Gris, which we were extremely excited about because of our fondness for their fantastic Pinot Noir.  Our music selection, courtesy of the one-and-only Deaf Ear Records, was Susan Christie's "Paint A Lady."

A little background on our music choice: after purchasing our albums, we always read the inserts for info about the band, artwork, etc.  This insert told the story of how the album came to be.  Susan Christie, we learned, was a one-hit-wonder of the late sixties, who never seemed to make it in the music world past the release her initial single.  She was a local artist from Philadelphia, and she continued to perform folk music in the area long after her major hit "I Love Onions" had shriveled up in the sun.  In 2006, Finders Keepers Records released this album featuring tracks that had been recorded in small record studios throughout the Philly area.

And my, what an album!  Susan Christie dates herself in a very good way, with a great folk sound underscored by funky instrumentation and trippy musical sequences.  Her rendition of the folk tune "Ghost Riders in the Sky" is probably the only folk song every recorded over a funky brass horn arrangement, with Cher-like vocals resounding over top.  Then, as if that wasn't original enough, "Yesterday, Where's My Mind?" is preluded with a narrative of a bad acid trip, followed up by twangy blues guitars and purposefully out-of-tune piano.  The key to this record, though, was that it didn't try too hard.  The overall simplicity of the melodies and the chords allowed the album room to breathe--resulting in the strange instrumentation and technique sounding melodic, rather than over-the-top.

As for the wine, we were not expecting what we got.  On the first stiff, we both immediately thought of Parmesan cheese and buttered noodles.  The wine had a definite softness to it, helped along by some butter and bread on the front of the palate.  As the wine evolved, though, we got some bright fruit notes that we enjoyed, and a bit of acidity on the finish.  So, how did we like it?

Nick's Review

Audio 

Susan Christie is best known for her 1966 hit "I Love Onions." I know most of you just stopped reading...for those that didn't, her obscure record "Paint A Lady" is a nice album shot right out of the 60's and with a great mod vibe on a classic style, that was definitely ahead of its time.  Christie's voice is powerful and edgy but at times can sound quite juvenile and gentle.  Think of the wonderful Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane.

Most of the songs on this album play tribute to the era with fairly simple isntrumentations and a very 6's vibe in both sound quality and instrumental effects.  Many of the songs contain brass parts that will remind you of rock/folk greats by Neil Young. 

The music can be very psychedelic like the title track "Paint A Lady" even to the point were they become very trippy, like track 5 "Yesterday, Where's My Mind?" which starts off with a three minute narrative set to percussion, in which Christie recalls a story of taking a pill she bought off of a street merchant and the adventure on the streets that this leads to.  She paints a very descriptive picture of these events.

My favorite track by far was the last, "No One Can Hear You Cry".  Think the Girl from Ipanema live at Woodstock.  Very jazzy and you can picture Christie singing in a blues lounge.  This song is surprisingly upbeat for the nature of the lyrics, which you can guess at by the title.

Looking for a cool 60's retro experience that has enough mod factor to keep you interested?  Than check out this album.  Doo doo dunt (Think Reading Rainbow!)  You'll even get an odd fanboy-esque experience when you listen to track 4 which is Christie's rendition of the song "Ghost Riders in the Sky", which my wife wrote down as "Ghost Writers in the Sky" on our notes...apparently she had blogging on the brain!

9/10

Vino 

What can I say about J?  It's a fantastic American wine producer from the Russian River Valley, well known for it's Pinot Noir and Bubbly. However this day we tried their Pinot Gris.  Popping this bottle is a treat.  J comes in a thick walled Burgundian style bottle that makes you feel like you are more special than your everyday self.

The color is very light yellow and crystal clear, the nose is one dial more opaque and the pallet one dial more opaque than that...but that's the extent.  What I mean is that J is about as light as you can get without being too thin.  "Just about right" is the best way to put it.  The nose has hints of buttered noodles, basil, and canned peas.  The front of the pallet is medium bodied with a light flavor of exotic fruit--think star fruit.  The mid-pallet leaves a bit to be desired but has hints of a nice pesto pasta.  The finish saves what could be a flabby wine with a bit of acidity, but I was still looking for a bit more acidity and a bit more complexity.

I appreciated this wine and would recommend trying it, however if someone is looking for a great wine from J Vineyards they should probably stick with their fantastic Pinot Noirs!

86 pts

Maggie's Review

Audio

I'm still trying to come down from this record . . . seriously, though. What I really can't believe was how Susan Christie didn't become more than a one-hit-wonder.  This album was both fanstastic and ahead of it's time.  Some of the highlights were mentioned in our intro, such as the unique rendition of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and the trippy "Yesterday, Where's My Mind."  As a vocalist myself, I really, really enjoyed the last track, "No One Can Hear You Cry," which showcased a lot of vocal jazz standards in the background, and had a very subtle sway throughout the entire tune.  Norah Jones could have remade that song, while Jewel could have remade other tracks.  The entire album kept on surprising, though it all sounded remarkably cohesive and melodic.  If you're into the 60's rock and folk, this album is gold.

9/10

Vino

I was admittedly a bit disappointed.  I tried J's Pinot Noir when I was first beginning to drink wine, and have heralded it as my favorite wine ever since.  I should have known, however, that J can't do every varietal as exceptionally as it does its Pinot Noir. 

The Pinot Gris was ridiculously smooth, quite buttery, subtle, and soothing.  It was easy to drink, though not fruity at all, and would make a great pairing with bread and olive oil--but that's about as far as it goes.  I appreciate its simplicity and its pleasantries, but it doesn't have much personality.  I would have loved a little more of the Pinot Gris fruits or a punch on the finish, but this wine just didn't have it.  In addition, it didn't have any old-world, standoffish quality either.  It was merely pleasant, like a pretty girl with no personality.

84 pts.

I Wonder if Sour Patch Kids Fall in Love

I Wonder if Sour Patch Kids Fall in Love

This week's AudioVino tasting was a true wine and music experience, and perfectly embodied the reason that we are so passionate about AudioVino.  The wine we drank was a 2008 Arabako Txakolina by Beldui.  Txakolina, pronounced "chalk - oh - leena," is a wine from the Basque region of Spain and is made up of a blend of grapes whose names are just as difficult to pronounce.  The important thing to know is that Txakolina is white wine with touch of effervescence and a whole lot of bang for the buck.

In Spain it is traditional to drink Txakoli from a tumbler poured from a high distance to enhance the effect of the wines effervescent qualities.  We drank the wine out of stemless white glasses (the closest drinkware to tumblers that we own) and decided to pour it normally because we rent and would like to get our security deposit back.

The music we listened to this week was equally impressive and paired very nicely with Txakolina (remember it's pronounced "chalk - oh - leena").  We listened to Belle and Sebastian's "Write About Love".  Bell and Sebastian have a 70's modern vibe with lots of instruments and subtle use of synthesizer that might remind you of playing Nintendo.  Unlike the repetitiveness of Nintendo music, Belle and Sebastian is quite subdued and has a lasting appeal.

The first song, "I Didn't See it Coming", was ethereal and effervescent (much like our wine).  There best thing about this album was the variety; while the entire CD flowed well and sounded cohesive, the group obviously took some musical risks.  The best way to describe songs like "I Didn't See it Coming" and "I Want the World to Stop" is ethereal, whimsical pop, while songs like "Calculating Bimbo" and "Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Profit John" could only be described as 70's ballads.  Norah Jones makes a guest appearance, and delivers a stunning performance as usual.  All in all, the CD's vibe was as great as the wine's, and they made a creative and uplifting pairing.


Nick's Review:


Audio

Belle and Sebastian is the exact type of CD we hope to find when we pick out music for AudioVino.  Something new and different but not so off the wall that you feel buyers remorse for purchasing it.  B&S could be quite ethereal at times, like on the first track "I Didn't See it Coming", yet still have structure and seriousness.

Unlike some of out past albums, the music used a nice combination of both the male and female vocalists.  Another cool thing about B&S is that their music seemed to get better as the CD went on, but that may have just been because I drank my Txakolina too fast!  The best song on the album was track four "I want the World to Stop" it's a catchy pop-rock tune that features an echo vocal effect between the male and female singers.  It might remind some listeners of "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles, (and I know a lot of you are calling blasphemy right now), but it's a decent song.  You'll have fun listening to this CD and will probably find a song you really like on it.

9/10


Vino - Txakolina is an experience you must have if you consider yourself any of the following, 1) a wine snob, 2) a wine fiend, or 3) a wino.  It's a wine that will dance on the tongues of Sauvignon Blanc lovers and mystify even the most serious of Oenophiles.  To start, pour this wine into a glass and take in a big nose of sea breeze and cooked cabbage.  Awkward you say?  Don't be so quick to judge, take a sip and taste a spike of minerality you expect from an icy cold plate of fresh oysters.  As the wine gets to the back of your tongue get ready for an explosion of citrus that will make your mouth pucker.  It's as if you just ate a box of sour patch kids and than dumped the rest of the sour sugar that's left in the bottom of the bag down your throat.  Ok, it's not really that intense but it's sure to make you pucker.  This wine is crying to be paired with oysters but would suit just as well with any type of shell fish or chicken.  The high acidity may turn some people off but that's the fun of this wine, it's new and it's zippy.

90 pts (I don't really have a Txakoli to compare this too, so I'm rating it off of taste and experience)



Maggie's Review




Audio


Loved it, loved it, loved it.  Seriously, this CD has not come out of my CD player in a week.  Belle and Sebastian's soft and whimsical style, catchy beats, and creative elements made it a great CD for those music fans like myself who love pop and wish it wasn't given such a bad name.  This is truly good pop.  Creative, non-repetitive, jazz-inspired, retro-inspired . . . this album has it all.  Totally my style, both musically and vocally.

I have to say, this CD had me at hello.  It's not usual for me to love the first track, but I was hooked right away.  "I'm Not Living in the Real World" was offbeat, "Read the Blessed Pages" and "I Want the World to Stop" had great orchestral touches, "Calculating Bimbo" was deep and sensitive--I just can't stop raving about how different every song was.  I'm definitely going to have to check out more albums!

10/10

Vino


This great experience wasn't just in the music--the wine rocked too!  Txacholina gives a great sour punch after the front of the palate tastes the minerality and sea-salt flavor.  It is like a two-step drinking experience.  I completely agree with Nick about the oyster pairing, and would love to try this with any shellfish that have that true sea-worn taste.  I can just picture drinking this wine on a sailboat with sea salt in my hair.  Can't wait to have it again.

91 pts.

Vary Folk

Vary Folk


Last week, we tried the 2007 Chateau Vary, a white Bordeaux from Cotes de Duras, while listening to Mumford and Sons "Sigh No More."  Nick set out to find this pairing himself, and bought the wine at Festival Foods in Onalaska, per recommendation.  We chilled the wine for about fifteen minutes.  This wine hadn't been rated that we knew of, and from what we could tell it was a pretty obscure wine.  At a price point of $7.99, we were searching for a good value.  We were already fans of the big, citrus-y taste of savignon blanc, but were excited to try a wine from southern France, known more for it's subtlety and minerality.

As we unscrewed the cap and poured the first glass, we noticed that the wine's pale color looked fresh and inviting.  The first sniff found typical sauvignon blanc hints of grass, lime and a bit of cat pee!  The first sip was exciting with the wine transforming from sour apple to sweet apple.  It was as if the fruit was ripening in your mouth.

We started to listen to the first track on "Sigh No More".  The music was vibrant with lots of vocal harmonies, something Maggie really enjoyed.  The driving instrument was the guitar, but the group also experimented a lot with the fiddle and mandolin.  Many of the tracks accelerated throughout the song and went from somber lows to energetic and pulse-raising highs.  The music would probably be categorized as folk, and the band had definate influences of British/Irish folk music.  The banjo in track four gave the music a more American folk feel.  Think "Deliverance", but with more appealing vocals!

Amber couldn't wait to get started with this one!

We continued to drink the wine and noticed the nose start to dull and give off hints of cigarette smoke (and I don't think this was from the people below us who's smoke always blows into our apartment).  The citrus apple flavors mellowed and the minerality of this white Bordeaux started to come out.  The wine began to feel bland after a while and left a bit to be desired.

Interestingly enough, so did Mumford and Sons.  The emotional swings of the earlier tracks became predictable, and like the name of track five, "White Blank Page," this album became a bit of white noise.


Nicks Final Reviews


Audio
When first looking at this album I was drawn to the instrumentation and thought it had a lot of potential.  I was drawn into the initial tracks and their range of emotion and complex vocal harmonies.  The pseudo-Christian lyrics didn't necessarily turn me off but the blah finish of the album did.  Title track "Sigh No More" and track three "Winter Winds" were definitely worth listening to again.  Track three had a nice trumpet line that may remind you of Chumba Wumba's "Tub Thumping".   Probably won't be spinning this again anytime soon.

6/10

 
Vino
At $7.99 I didn't have huge expectations from this wine, but was excited to have something different in my glass, being that I don't drink white Bordeaux on a regular basis.  The wine had great promise to start with interesting apple tones that seemed to transform in the glass.  The clean minerality in the finish wasn't a turn-off; I just couldn't quite grasp what it was trying to do.  The best thing about this wine is that it makes me want to put down a little more money and find another white Bordeaux that hopefully enhances the traits that Chateau. Vary was putting forth.

80 pts. (worth 8 bucks)



Maggie's Final Reviews


Audio
I know Nick didn't really care for this album, but I actually didn't think it was that bad.  Yes, it was predictable by the fifth track.  Yes, if listened to for an hour straight it may seem a little "blah."  Still, the lyrics were inquisitive and interesting, and the emotional dynamics were ever-changing and always anticipatory.  I loved the folk influences and the instrumental experimentation.  Maybe it's because it reminds me of the UK, but I found this CD to be interesting, nostalgic, and thought-provoking.  It's definitely an album that I will import into my iTunes.

8/10


Vino
My disappointment today was definitely the wine.  As a learner, most of the wines we've tried have inspired me to learn and taught be about how a wine can evolve within the space of an hour.  I have come to realize that good wines taste different with each glass, and that wine has a definite life-cycle, progressing from one stage to another throughout a short span of time.  This wine evolved from the first pour to the last sip of the first glass, but then it began to stagnate.  I try to understand the concept of "subtle complexity," but for me, this one was just too subtle.  By the end of my second glass, I had been drinking the same exact wine for quite a while.  I know it's a bargain, but we have tried a lot of low-budget wines that were better than Chateau Vary.

73 pts