Friday, April 22, 2016

Tasting - Baci Dolci Mosto Di Uve Parzialmente Fermentado Non Vintage - Apr. 21, 2016
















Name: Baci Dolci Mosto Di Uve Parzialmente Fermentado
Variety: 50% Marzemino, 50% Merlot
Country: Colli, Euganei, Italy
Year: Non Vintage
Price: $15

Winery Review: A blend of 50% Marzemino 50% Merlot. A delicate, slightly frizzante wine with an intense, ruby red color. Fresh strawberry & black cherry aromas with hints of roses. Cherry pie flavors, medium-full bodied with refreshing sparkle to balance the semi- sweet finish. (The Vintage Cellar)

My Review: This wine was another surprise for this wonderful week of tasting. This slightly sweet Italian was just really well balanced and packed its own punch. It had a forward smell of strawberry and plum in strong dosses. The flavor was marvelous with a slight sweet finish that was mid-body feel that didn't hijack your mouth like other sweet wines. The taste was nice strawberry and plum as the smell and was quite delightful.

Tasting - Oasis del Cuyo Malbec 2012 - Apr. 21, 2016
















Name: Oasis del Cuyo Malbec 2012
Variety: Malbec
Country: Mendoza, Argentina
Year: 2012
Price: $12

Winery Review: Deep ruby color. Appealing red fruit nose with hints of tobacco. Medium bodied with a smooth and lush mouth-feel. Finishes dry with lasting flavors. Excellent choice for a young and fruity everyday wine. Enjoy as an aperitif or with meats and pasta dishes. (The Vintage Cellar)

My Review: This wine is again a South American wine that really fits all my wine criteria. This one specifically had a plum, blackberry and blueberry front nose that was delightful. The taste followed suit with a fruit forward taste typical to New World style wines. The fruit tasted mostly like blackberry with some plum injected. The tannins were nice and soft that developed after the first swallow. The acidity was low making for a nice mouth pucker finish. It was so such a smooth yet full body wine it almost felt like it was chewable. I was chewing at the tannic development at the end pallet.

Tasdting - Terranoble Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 - Apr. 22, 2016

















Name: Terranoble Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: Central Valley, Chile
Year: 2013
Price: $8.95

Winery Review: This Cabernet Sauvignon offers an intense and deep color and lovely aromas of red fruit, pepper and tobacco. It has smooth tannins, very freshness and rich fruit, which gives the wine a good balance. Pair with barbecued beef ribs, grilled sea bass, or spaghetti alla Bolognese.

My Review: Oh South America, I love the wines you guys produce. This one is definitely the textbook Cab. Sauv. I enjoy. The nose was really nice with large hints of blackberry, black currant and black fruits. The smell also exhibited some spiciness that I hadn't smelled through a wine in a while. Additionally, some oak and a little bit of a vanilla tone. The mouth was super silky and creamy. It had a mid body feel that was missing the super tannic aspect of these reds. The tannins where so soft I couldn't feel them at first. Lastly, the blackberry and plum sang through the taste that was lush and delicious. I would really like to try a steak with this wine.

Tasting - Terranoble Chardonnay 2014 - Apr. 21, 2016

















Name: Terranoble Chardonnay 2014
Variety: Chardonnay
Country: Central Valley, Chile
Year: 2014
Price: $8.95

Winery Review: This Chardonnay offers a wine with an attractive color and lovely aromas, such as ripe pear and pineapple, mixed with butter and vanilla notes. It is a fresh style of white wine, with medium persistence in mouth. Ideal as an aperitif. (The Vintage Cellar)

My Review: This Chardonnay from Chile was way up my alley. The nose was very floral and slightly citric to me. It also had some basic components of pear to complete the Chardonnay circle. The taste was crisp and filled with flavor. There was a strong pear flavor with acidic back bone. It was refreshing, crisp and clean. I was a actually presently surprised by this wine. I think I'm finally stating to light the lighter white wines and understand what they are all about.

Tasting - Santola Vinho Verde Loureiro and Pederña - Apr. 21, 2016

















Name: Santola Vinho Verde Loureiro and Pederña
Variety: Vinho Verde
Country: Vinho Verde, Portugal
Year: N/A
Price: $7.95

Winery Review: Soft and creamy, although with just the right Vinho Verde bite, this is a crisp and clean wine, boasting light pear and pink grapefruit flavors. Off dry and very fresh. (The Vintage Cellar)

My Review: This was a quite good Vinho Verde. As specified before, these Vinho Verde's a a style from Portugal that is crisp and razor sharp. The bottle features a blend of over 300 types of grapes. This particular bottle had hints of pear, apple and grass on the nose that were delightful. It also had some floral aspects to it. The taste was wonderful. The clear and clean taste was very refreshing, while the dry finish with a wonderful sharp acidity was just perfect. It also had a nice light body.This is a wine that instantly transported me to a hot summer day in a grass field. It was refreshing yet sharp and present in the mouth feel. I would recommend!

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Wine Pairing Dinner #2 - Palisades: Portugal - Apr. 20, 2016

Another wonderful dinner blog was enjoyed at the great Eggleston, VA restaurant of Palisades. The theme of today's dinner was Portugal. This is an area of the wine world that isn't very popular in the United States. They have some great wines like the famous Vinho Verde which is a wine that expresses the town it is from and gathers from a plethora of grapes grown in the area. There are Vinho Verdes that have 300 different grapes blended to make a crisp, refreshing and acidic combo that is a summertime powerhouse. I also was able to meet and talk with the good Dr. Boyer. Pictures were taken as a bonus!
To the left, you can see the menu that was featured for this event. The wine and food pairing were really good and the best part was that the pairing I thought I'd dislike became one of my favorite combos of the meal. To start off, we had a Caldo Verde paired with a Conde Villar Alvarinho 2013. The caldo verde was a great soup with kale, sausage, some potato with garlic and onion. It was quite good and reminded me of typical Dominican soups that are salty and filled with flavor. The second pairing involved a wonderful Rojoes paired with Dao Quinta das Camelias Red Portuguese Blend 2008. The pork was braised in wine and featured some garlic for that extra flair. This was fantastic. Again, a typical food flavor that I am use to from my hometown cuisine. Of all the foods. this would be my favorite on its own. Lastly they featured a Queijadas with a Ferreira White Port 2005. This was one hell of a surprise. It was a cup cake made with sweet egg cake with a wonderful raspberry center. I am not a fan of sweets but this thing was insane. It was really 'sweet' but that is exactly what I like in a desert.

The food and wine can be seen in the image to the left. This review is going to be different from that last one. Since we have a two dry white wines and a sweet alcoholic port, I didn't mix the sweets and the drys. So in this review, the white and the red are to be tried with Caldo Verde and the Rojoes. The port wine was only an experiment with the Queijadas. Next I will describe each wine with the food.

1) Conde Villar  Alvarinho 2013: I didn't know that white wine could be so acidic and floral but this was exactly that. The smell was incredibly floral like walking into a floral shop. The taste was acidic as hell! The sides of your mouth would light up, but this is the type of wine that I love. The body was light with a razor sharp feel that was incredibly refreshing. I want to buy this wine and sip outside with.

The Caldo Verde was the first thing to pair it with and it was amazing. The balance between the salty and full flavor of the soup was really well balanced with the acidity of the wine. The salty sausages was great to taste with the floral aspects of the wine with the dry acidic finish: loved it.

The Rojoes was the next paring to try. The blend was nice. There really wasn't anything special to it though. The acidity of the wine was too powerful for the pork.

2) Dao Quinta das Camelias Red Portuguese Blend 2008: This is another great red wine to add to my list of favorites. It had a great smell of blackberries, blackfruit, and sour cherries. It tasted wonderful. Smooth and silky with an acidic backbone and super soft tannins to complement. The after taste of acidity was perfect for a long taste profile. Simply beautiful and would recommend.

The Caldo Verde was a decent pairing. Since the red wine didn't have the super strong acidic taste, it didn't provide enough 'umph' to restrain the salty sausage and kale.

Now, the pairing with the pork was wild! The Rojoes combo was on point. I don't even know how to describe how these two went together well but it was damn good. It kinda softened the tannins a little while providing the braised pork taste that just floats on the blackberry aftertaste. Marvelous!

3) Ferreira White Port 2005: I was VERY presently surprised buy the port. I am known to really dislike sweet wines but this was so well balanced I couldn't believe it. The nose was strong of PLUM and had a slight smell of brandy in the air. I mean, it was amazing though. The alcohol tingle was great for an after dinner wine such as the port. The combo with the Queijadas was just amazing. The port was so well balanced with the raspberry center of the cup cake that I couldn't believe how good it was. Couldn't recommend this more and frankly, my favorite pairing of the night.

In conclusion, the pairing was marvelous. The wines where all top notch wines that I couldn't believe. The Vinho Verde and the Red Blend were so good on their own it was incredible. The real champ of the night was the port and Queijadas mix. It was something I had never had in my life that was just so good. I want to go and drink a whole bottle of that port with different sweets.


Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Wine/Cheese Pairing #2 - Apr. 20, 2016

Here comes another wine and cheese blog! This wine pairing ended up being much more fun and of equal quality to my last try. I was able to recruit two of my best friends Alex Vliet and Brian Harris. This was their first time doing a wine and cheese pairing. They ended up loving it just as I did the first time. To them, it was incredible that the cheese was able to soften some aspects of the wine and really bring out flavors they never imagined existed in a wine.

For this wine tasting we feature, going from left to right, a Loosen Brothers Dr. L Riesling Dry 2014 from Mosel, Germany, an Alamos Malbec 2014 from Mendoza, Argentina and an Altosur Cabernet Sauvignon 2014, from Mendoza, Argentina. The cheeses features are, from left to right, 2-year Manchego (different from last time), Smoked Gouda and Feta cheese soaked in brine. First lets start off by describing each wine independently.

1) Loosen Brothers Dr. L Riesling Dry 2014 from Germany. This has actually started to become one of my favorite white grape varietals. It is oh so delicious and slightly complex and more full bodied than most whites that I have had in the past. This specific bottle had a taste smell of pineapple and lemon. It was quite citric in my opinion. The taste was razor sharp and acidic as hell. It really left the sides of your tongue holding on for dear life. But this is exactly what I like about the Riesling. Additionally, the dry nature of this white wine is exactly what I desire. Most whites I've had have been too sweet or fruity for my taste. This one was just beautiful and fits my pallet just great. (100% Riesling)

2) Alamos Malbec 2014 from Argentina. Again another great wine from the South American region which I enjoy so immensely. This wine was amazing in my opinion. Very silky smooth, creamy and tannins that were so soft and rounded perfectly. The smell was of blackberry that just takes over the smell. It also had hints of plum to my nose. The taste was magical, with a fruity forward blackberry and spicy peppery feel to it. It was well balanced with no overarching flavors really jumping out. The finish is long and just wonderful to the pallet. I would recommend this wine to anyone that like a good drinkable red wine. (90% Malbec, 6% Shirah, 4% Bonarda)

3) Altosur Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 from Argentina. This again was a home-run from the Argentinians. This Cabernet Sauvignon is exactly what I look for in a wine. It was drinkable by itself but also a great companion to the cheese and most likely a nice red steak. The smell was of blackberry, cherry and slight plum. It did have a slight smell of having a high alcoholic content and heat, but the pallet said otherwise. This also featured and nice creamy and silky full bodied feel. The tannins were a lot stronger on this wine than the previous 2. This made for a strong and long finish on the wine that was delicious. Again, I would highly recommend this wine.

Now, here comes the most exciting part of this experiment, the cheese! I will be using the same format as before. I will be describing one cheese paired with all wines. Then I'll move on to the next cheese.

1) Feta in Brine. This was first of all a very good feta cheese. The feta was razor sharp and coated the pallet like crazy. It was stinky enough to be powerful. The first pairing with the Riesling was amazing! It brought out the fruity lemon and acidic components of the wine will also showing the softer side of the cheese. I absolutely loved it. The Malbec was tried next and didn't have the impact I wanted. The wine was too soft and subtle for this strong tasting cheese. So the great taste from the wine was lost in the cheese. I wouldn't recommend. Lastly, the Cabernet Sauvignon did quite alright. The feta softened the tannins and the after taste took a nice turn for the soft and less acidic. Really enjoyed how the wine was more rounded.

2) Smoked Gouda. This was a strange cheese. The smoked aspect of the Gouda was abundant in the smell but the taste was very muted. Didn't really express itself too well. The Riesling  didn't do too well with this cheese. The low excitement from the cheese and the high acidity of the wine was just a bad combo. The two just brought the worst out of each other. There was no balance between the two. Now, the Malbec was great! The subtleness of both the cheese and the silkiness and soft tannins of the wine was marvelous. It wasn't an in-your-face taste which was really refreshing. I would enjoy on a nice gathering if I didn't want to go too hard. Lastly, the Cabernet Sauvignon was also a quite good pairing. The tannins where softened enought to be great but it did leave some to be desired. This full wine needs a heartier cheese to control.

3) 2-Year Manchego. I absolutely love Manchego cheese! This is the best cheese on earth in my opinion. How the hell do those Spaniards do it?! Big kudos to my Iberian cousins. Anyhow, on to the Riesling. This was an alright combo. The strong milky cheese cancelled out some of the acidity felt in the wine, but this is what I like about it. Now here come the two big boys. The Malbec and the Cabernet Sauvignon were just incredible. I don't know why, but my pallet loves a strong cheese with a good full bodied red wine from South America. Really good combo that exemplifies why I love cheese and wine pairing. The best of the best.

In conclusion, this was another successful pairing. The wines were all really good on their own while providing a great balance with the cheese. Of this pairing my favorite solo wine was the Alamos Malbec 2014. It was so good to have a wine that was soft and silky, something I have noticed this whole semester. The best pairing was the Manchego with Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon. Such bold wines need a good cheese to control, and this one delivered.