With the Memorial Day holiday upon us I was thinking of something new, different to do. Instead of sitting in my house and drinking Idaho wine while watching QVC why don't I actually explore Idaho wineries. 

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to ask my beer drinking only friend to drive me around or my pregnant friend.  Maybe both, just to have options.  This list wasn't too hard to come up with as I just wanted to try the best wines in Idaho....so that's when google decided to chime in and directed me to the Wine Enthusiast website. Here they rate wines and let you know the top scores.  If you're like me and don't know too much about wine ratings, it basically is a group of people with the best job on the planet. They are blindfolded and only told the varietal and region of the wine.  After those two things are revealed they know nothing more and then rate the wine.  The rating scale is:

  • 95-100 -- Classic; a great wine
  • 90-94 -- Outstanding; superior character and style
  • 80-89 -- Good to very good; wine with special qualities
  • 70-79 -- Average; drinkable wine that may have minor flaws
  • 60-69 -- Below average; drinkable but not recommended
  • 50-59 -- Poor; undrinkable, not recommended

Here are the top ones from Idaho:

1.  Koenig Vineyards 2012 Ice Wine Riesling (Snake River Valley) price: $20

This particular Ice Wine Riesling received a rating of 91 out of 100.

2. Colter's Creek 2011 Syrah (Snake River Valley) price: $13

This blend had a rating of 90 out of 100, but was also considered a "best buy" and at $13 a bottle who can argue with that?

3. Cinder 2012 Syrah (Snake River Valley) price: $27

This also scored an impressive 90 out of 100 from Wine Enthusiast but was a bit more pricey.  This is one of those bottles of wine you tell people to only drink on a special occasion but not like a big occasion maybe a birthday, but not like 30 or 40, more like 34 or 42.

4. Sawtooth 2011 Riesling (Snake River Valley) price: $11

Ah. Now we are back in my price range.  This Riesling from Sawtooth scored 90 out of 100, are you noticing a theme?

5. Ste. Chapelle 2001 Special Harvest Johannisberg Riesling (Idaho) price: $10 

Again. 90 out of 100.  Although this one seems like it would be ridiculously expensive because of the age and throwing in words like "special harvest" but it's the most affordable at $10 a bottle.  I keep thinking they may have missed a zero or two on that price point.

 

 

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