Nobilis Vinho Verde

ABV: 9%
Price: $4.99 on sale at the local super-mega wine store. The non-sale price was 7.99. Still a steal, and a wine that I could buy a bottle of every week, all summer. This makes me happy.

My overall, general impression...refreshing, easy to drink, not too sweet, not too dry. Great wine for someone just getting into drinking wine.

Step one: Look at the wine. The wine looks nice. It is a pleasant, very super pale yellow. Maybe more like off-white. Or taupe. I need my crayola box for this one. Anyway, it is pale. And bubbly. No sediment. Very clear. It's a fresh-looking glass.

Step two: Swirl the wine, note the viscosity. I didn't want to swirl too much, due to the bubbles, but this wine does not seem very viscous at all. I would say it is more on the thin side. Not like, Jessica Alba thin, but don't expect this wine to stick to you.

Step three: Sniff the wine. This is honestly one of the first wines that I have sniffed that I actually thought smelled nice. It has a light floral aroma, with some underlying citrus. Nothing overpowering. Nothing that is going to surprise, really, but this is an unassuming wine. (I think that was the single snootiest sentence I've ever written. I don't have enough friends named Muffy to write like that often...)

Step four: Taste the wine! Alright. Nice. Just dry enough to be really refreshing. The carbonation makes it feel like you are drinking something wayyyyy more pricey. Seriously. Put this in a fancy bottle and serve it at a froufy party. You will fool and impress all of your guests. Seriously though, this is a great value wine that packs a lot of flavor and character into such a small price tag. Plenty of citrus, but it doesn't leave that nasty sucked-on-a-lemon aftertaste that some cheap wines do.

Step five: Drink a bunch more wine. Go for it! This is not an overly alcoholic wine, so you can have two or three glasses with a meal and not get wasted. I hear it pairs great with seafood. I drank it with Jax cheese curls, because that was all that was in the cabinet when I wanted to drink it. It paired just fine with those, so I imagine if it pairs with Jax, it will go with anything. It would probably be great with a fruit platter. Or some grilled chicken. Not so much with red meat, but then it is white wine after all, so let's not get carried away. I would even drink this wine on its own on a warm day. Definitely serve very chilled for best effect

Overall impression: Buy this wine. It is refreshing, versatile, and easy to drink with whatever is laying around (for the most part). My cat even tried to drink it. In his defense, he is a nosy SOB and eats and drinks everything. He licked the Jax dust off of my fingers too. Do not give this wine to cats. They would surely enjoy it, but wine+cats=BAD. Seriously. You have been warned. But this is a nice light wine that even the newest wine drinking human can enjoy.