1) Fleur du Cap, Pinotage, 2005 (South Africa) - Looking through past entries I noticed I missed a review on this one which was opened by the tasting club at work several weeks ago.  I wanted to squeeze it in now because it was one of the first wines to get a good review by that club.  And I'll start by saying I slammed pinotage from a different brand in one of my earliest reviews.  Maybe I did get a bad bottle of it back then because this version was great.  It had bold red flavors including cherry and a little spice (but not at all like the cherry cough syrup swill I sometimes complain about).  There was some peppery zing and although I wouldn't compare this to zinfandel others in our group did.  Later after the tasting I looked on-line and it turned out this pinotage was one of the top 10 pinotages in South Africa.  Not surprised.  I gave this a 7 out of 10 for above average.

2) Setsugetsubijin, Jyunmai Ginjyou, Sake, Banzai Beverages, year? (Japan) - I'm breaking one of my rules with this review... I haven't finished this bottle, I've only sipped a little of it.  But I suspect I won't be drinking the rest.  This was my first sake.  I deliberately tried to by a pricer and classier sample of it and I'd been reading in a book about sake for pointers on what to look for.  And it is a fascinating and unique product.  They polish white rice down to just a nub of it's original size (this one was 45% polished), then since the rice doesn't have sugars for the yeasts to ferment into alcohol it has to be subjected to a green mold which turns the starches into sugars at pretty much the same time the yeast is turning the sugars into alcohol.  The process is unique in the fermenting world and naturally results in higher alcohol levels than traditional wines.  Well, I unscrewed this, sniffed it, and it smelled sweet and appetizing enough.  Then I drank it and, I'm sorry, it just doesn't feel natural to me.  It has a strong almost medicinal sense to it and personally I taste less of the sweet the bouquet promised and more of the mold used to make it (but maybe that was psychological - I probably shouldn't have read up on this first).  I'm really not sure how I'll finish this bottle.  A friend suggested I use it for cooking.  Most likely it will sit in the back of the fridge until space becomes necessary and then I'll jut pour it out.  Too bad.   I don't think this is a bad sake, I guess sake just isn't my thing.  Since I have nothing to benchmark it against I'll simply give it a 5 out of 10 for lower average for sake.  Frankly if it was evaluated just as a wine itself I'd give it a 1 out of 10 for don't buy it again.