Fattorio La Rivolta, Falanghina, 2004 (Taburno, Italy) - This is a hard to find grape and is described exotically on the DeLong wine chart.  We tried it at work and found it to be rich and complex.  There are floral aspects  Considerable acid.  It was truly different.  I don't think it lived up to the bitter almonds or some other expected descri?ptions but it was still good and unique.  6 out of 10 for upper average.

Lyrarakis, Dafni, 2004 (Greece) - This claims to be an almost extinct variety of Greek white grape which is famous for having a laurel (bay leaf) essence.  We tried it at work.  In general we agree it is aromatic, easy to drink, not offensive in any way, but none of us seemed to get the laurel hints we were expecting.  Maybe the bottle was too chilled?  Anyway, it's OK and unique but not outstanding.  Frankly it's a 5 out of 10 for lower average.  In fact I was wondering if the story about the almost extinct grape and the laurel hints wasn't actually just a marketing ploy.  Who knows?

L'Ecole No. 41, Seven Hills Vineyard, Semillon ice Wine, 2005 (Walla Walla Valley) - We had tried the dry version of this at work and found it to be very interesting - excellent.  This is the ice wine version of the same grape by the same vintner and my original intent was to have this at work to try both side by side - but they chose to do semillon before I had brought this in.  That's fine because frankly I wasn't real impressed with this.  Sure it's tasty.  It's nice and sweet.  Not nearly as concentrating sweet as the Canadian vidal wine I previously reviewed.  And also not nearly as interesting as the dry version of this same grape.  Still it was good - Nancy liked it and drank most of it.  But it was quite expensive compared to the dry and I'm just not thinking it's worth a repeat.  It's still a quality wine so I'll give it a 6 out of 10 for upper average, but I guess I was expecting more.

Red Truck, 2005 (California) - This is a utilitarian red blend wine which I've heard about being a value for the price.  Yes, actually it is.  They blend Syrah, Petite Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and Mourvedre and get a tasty slightly spiced bold layered wine.  Nice.  I'm a little confused who makes it because the vintner says simply Red Truck Winery in Sonoma, however, the cap said Cline.  Well, anyway, I'll call this a 6 out of 10 for upper average (I considered 7) and I'll label this a Cheap Value (it's $10-$15).