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!

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.

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.

Winery Visit #1 - WhiteBarrel Winery - Apr. 17, 2016

Today I visited the WhiteBarrel Winery in southwest Virginia, only 25 minutes from the great campus of Virginia Tech. I brought along my roommate and best friend Shaan Sharma and he brought along his girlfriend Laura Freas. We decided to do a wine tasting and a tour of the facilities. First we will look at the wine tasting what they had to offer in general. The tasting features 9 wines that where all pretty good. There was a nice range of white to red and dry to sweet wines. The winery is located in the driest part of Montgomery County making for the great wines. 

First we tried white wines. The menu can be seen on the left. For the whites we tasted 5 different types:

1) Vidal Blanc: This was a very earthy with green herbs type of smell. It had a great goldenish color. It smelled clean and collected that wouldn't offer too much fruity flavor. That is exactly how it tasted. With no residual sugar it was a delight and slightly dry finish.

2) Vidal Blanc Reserve: This is the same wine as above but aged longer in barrels. It had an air of orange but really smelled like grandma's perfume or something similar. It also had a very strange orange color that is not typical of whites. The taste was the same as a perfume that tingles on the pallet. All I have to say was that it was interesting.

3) Bin 704: This one had a stone fruity aspect to it with citrus creeping out. It was sweeter than the other wines with a nice light body feel. It also features a nice dry finish to it.

4) Bin 997: This was said to be a blush style wine with a nice raspberry color. The guide had also said that the vines grow near raspberry plants giving it a distinctive raspberry smell to them. It tasted just like raspberry jam or juice. But to my taste too sweet for my pallet.

5) Bin 127: This was the so called desert wine that was way too sweet for my dry pallet. It had a strong scent of mango but in reality wasn't to bad. It reminded me of a summer day that you would be chilling by the pool and drinking.

Now we move on to the red wine selection. First, I'd like to point out the photo we took at the bar while tasting the wines. Bellow that picture is the menu for the red wine selection. We tried 4 different types:

1) Bin 260: This was a nice golden red color with a nice smooth dry finish with a forward taste of raspberry and cherry. It was quite good and tame.

2) Cabernet Franc: This was an interesting one as it features a semi-filtered process which means there is still some sediment in the bottle. The smell was quite funky! It was oaky and vanilla-ish. The taste was funky as well with an intense smokey and black pepper flavor that tingled on the tongue. I think this wine was modeled after Old World Wine that require food to enjoy fully.

3) Cabernet Sauvignon: This was a favorite in my mind. It displayed a nice dark cherry and blackberry sniff. It was soft but not as soft as most Cab. Sauv's I am accustomed to.

4) Chambourcin: The last wine was very good. It featured some earthy characteristics with a nice black current aspect. It featured soft tannins that made for a nice dry finish.

Next we embarked on a tour through the vines and the fermentation facility. The owners started in 2005 by fermenting grapes in their basement and offering wine tastings in their own living room! Later in 2010 they build the winery location for having people visit and enjoy their wines. So this is a fairly new winery. The grapes are harvested yearly in June by volunteers and staff of the winery.

The wines are then brought into a big shed where the grapes are smashed and put into plastic containers to be fermented for how every long is needed. Some of the wines also go through a second post fermentation process in wooden barrels.

The only thing the winery doesn't do on their own is the botteling process. This is taken care of by a truck service that takes the ready wine and bottles it on sight whenever it is needed. Usually they only bottle once or twice a year depending on how the harvest that year went or how much money they have made that season for the bottling process.

After the tour we decided to sit down and enjoy a couple glasses of wine with some food. We ordered some gnocchi, seared artichoke and lastly smoked goat cheese. They were all very delicious plates and the wine actually went very well with the food. We enjoyed the sun and had a great time just relaxing and trying some pretty decent wine. I would definitely recommend this winery as it is a great atmosphere and they have a very large selection of wines to choose from. It is a place that me and my friends will definitely go back to for more food and enjoyment.

Tasting - Casillero del Diablo Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 - Apr. 17, 2016

Name: Casillero del Diablo Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2014
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: Chile
Year: 2014
Price: $12

Winery Review: Dark, ruby red with aromas of cherries, black currant, and dark plums. This Cabernet Sauvignon is very concentrated, rich in flavor, perfectly balanced, and boasts a satisfying and lingering finish. Marries well with robust dishes of cheese, pasta, and red beef. (Winemaker's Notes)

My Review: This is actually one of my favorite wines ever. This is the wine that I would drink before taking this class as it is just a really well balanced product in my eyes. First there are smells of blackberry and cherry just singing through this wine. Additionally a dark red color that invites complexity. The wine tastes marvelous with nice tannins with the dark berry flavors present. The amazing creamy and smooth feel to this wine is like no other I have ever tasted before. It is quite incredible with a dry finish that lingers. This wine is fabulous with a nice red steak that is medium rare or hearty pasta dishes.

Tasting - Mirassou Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 - Apr. 16, 2016

Name: Mirassou Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: California
Year: 2013
Price: $8.99

Winery Review: Displays deep rich blackberry and black currant flavors. These primary flavors are complimented with secondary flavors of vanilla, hints of spice, dark chocolate, black pepper, and elegant licorice and cocoa aromas. This Cabernet is full bodied with a soft finish of moderate length. This wine is at its best if enjoyed within a year of release, but should be able to age in the bottle for up to three years. (TheWineBuyer.com)

My Review: This wine is a fruit forward wine as these cabernet's are known to be like in California. The smell was an intense jammy plum with some nice creaminess deep in there. The taste was as expected with smell. It had a deep plum jam flavor with a slight chocolate taste to it. And just a tad spicy to my pallet. It had a pretty long finish as well that coats the pallet for a good while. If you let it breath though, it does open up to less plum flavors. I actually enjoyed this wine with some Drunken Noodles and it was amazing. The plum really went well with a spicy dish such as that.

Tasting - Lost Vineyards Spumante Italiano Moscato (Non Vintage) - Apr. 14, 2016

Name: Lost Vineyards Spumante Italiano Moscato
Variety: Moscato
Country: Piedmont Italy
Year: No Vintage
Price: $6.95

Winery Review: Pale color. Confected, fruity aromas of yellow apple, honeysuckle, pear tartlet, and honeydew melon with a satiny, shy, spritzy, moderately sweet light-to-medium body and a sleek, fast yellow apple, candied pear, honeycomb, and sweet papaya finish with no tannins and no oak. Simple and approachable with sweet apple, melon and candied pear on a framework of gentle, delightful bubbles. (The Vintage Cellar)

My Review: Oh boy, the sweet wines that I mostly don't like, haha. This one had a strange smell to it that I hadn't noticed before in a wine. I can't even describe it. It was like a plant with some sweetness implanted by apple. I wasn't the fondest. The taste was also too sweet for my taste. Definitely not the wine you would find me enjoying on a regular basis. I think it is going to take my pallet a long time till I get use to these sweet wines.

Tasting - El Cortijillo Verdejo 2014 - Apr. 14, 2016

Name: El Cortijillo Verdejo 2014
Variety: Verdejo
Country: La Mancha, Spain
Year: 2014
Price: $5.95

Winery Review: Golden straw color. Bright, attractive, tropical aromas of creme brulee and fruit tart with a silky, bright, dry-yet-fruity light-to-medium body and a smooth, intriguing, snappy lime and apple finish with crunchy, fruit tannins and light oak. A super smooth and pure white sipper. (90pts, BTI)

My Review: This wine had a nice smell of some pear and tropical hints that I couldn't really pin point. It had a really nice golden color. The taste was quite smooth and less fruity than the smell I would say. Strawberry and apple came to mind when I tried this wine. It was alright in general but not a wine I would pickup or truly recommend.

Tasting - Trattoria Busa Alla Torre Pinot Grigio 2014 - Apr. 14, 2016

Name: Trattoria Busa Alla Torre Pinot Grigio 2014
Variety: Pinot Grigio
Country: Veneto, Italy
Year: 2014
Price: $7.95

Winery Review: A Venetian favorite!  It is crisp and dry, rich and spicy with hints of peach and honey…perfect with salads, pasta, chicken and fish! Musaragno is an organic wine estate near Venice, Italy. (The Vintage Cellar)

My Review: I will start the review by saying that this wine actually only is sold in two places in the world. First is Italy, as you might imagine. And the second, for some reason is the Virginia. Isn't that strange and special? The smell was grassy with some tones of peach and pear. The actual taste of peachy with some apple and a nice light body. It was quite crisp and enjoyable. I would definitely try it with some food.

Wine Pairing Dinner #1 - Palisades: Old World vs. New World - Apr. 13, 2016

Today I have a different blog from the usual. As part of the course, I needed to have a dinner that features a wine and food pairing. Last Wednesday, I decided to go to Palisades Restaurant in Eggleston, VA to try their weekly wine pairing dinner. I decided to bring along my very good friend Saghar Qadir to enjoy this meal with me. Before we start talking about wine and food, I would like to point out the beautiful drive from Virginia Tech to Palisades. Driving down 460W during sunset was absolutely beautiful. The mountains were illuminated by the regressing sun showing just how beautiful southwest Virginia can be. I wish I had taken a photo to show.

The theme of the dinner was Old World vs. New World. It featured wine and foods from various locations around the world. If you look to the left you will see a photograph of the featured menu for the night. First we have a shrimp salad paired with a Meiomi Chardonnay 2014. Next a spicy Pebre Pan Amasado paired with a Terranoble Chardonnay 2015 from Chile. Lastly margarita pizza paired with a Italo Cescon Chardonnay 2014 from Italy. These wines can be seen in picture bottom photo to the left from left to right respectively.

1) Meiomi Chardonnay 2014: The aroma for this wine quite hard to get to. Couldn't smell much as the wine was filled quite high on in the glass not allowing me to swirl. The taste was a tropical bomb though. Citricy with mango undertones that had little residual sugar. I enjoyed it but not a total recommendation. When trying this wine with Shrimp it didn't really add anything to the wine or dish. Really just a bland mix that I didn't enjoy. With Pebre Pan was wonderful with it though. It just went right underneath the spiciness of the dish and brought out some good fruity flavors. Lastly the pizza. This was a resounding no. I hated the fruitiness with the margarita pizza taste.


2) Terranoble Chardonnay 2015: Again it was tough to sniff the wine due to the glass. But the taste was marvelous. Drier and less fruity than the Meiomi from before. It had a taste of light pineapple and was smooth on the pallet. The shrimp combo was again ok. Nothing too special to show for this wine. Now the Pebre Pan and this wine was absolutely amazing. Sincerely the best mix of all the foods. It just mixed so well with the spicy dish. The pizza and this wine was also really good. Since it was more muted with the fruit it really sang through well.

3) Italo Cescon Chardonnay 2014: This was AWESOME. Out of the three wines this was my favorite by far. Muted pear and some grass came through with a nice refreshing yet dry finish on the pallet. No over-fruity taste was felt making it amazing. It was clear in its purpose and execution. Now for the food pairing. The shrimp again had was not a hot pairing. It just had a distant feel too it that I can't explain. No real purpose to mix them. The Chilean dish was again not too hot. I believe the fruity nature of the last too wines helps with the spicy while this dryer wine didn't add that component to the meal. The pizza combo was amazing though. Really was a good mix. It added another level of flavor that I wasn't expecting. Just wonderful!

All in all, this was an amazing meal with a great friend. The environment was wonderful and we enjoyed it to the fullest extent. For my verdict of the meal, the best wine for my taste was the Old World Chardonnay from Italy. It just had this nice clear dry taste that wasn't overly fruity like the New World counterparts. The winner in terms of pairing had to be the Chilean Pebre Pan Amasado with the Terranoble Chardonnay 2015. The Chileans really hit it out of the park with an amazing spicy dish that was complemented well by a semi-fruity wine. I highly recommended this restaurant and dinner package as it is an amazing atmosphere for friends, food and wine!

Wine/Cheese Pairing #1 - Apr. 14, 2016

This is another special blog for everyone. This week I did a wine and cheese pairing. First, I had never done this before and expected it to be a normal activity with wine. But after doing this, I have fallen in love with wine and cheese. The combination is absolutely amazing. I wasn't expecting this to be such a delight. I will forever be in love with this magical combination.

For this wine pairing the featured wines are the three in the image to the left. From left to right the wines are:

1) Alta Luna Pinot Noir 2011 from Italy. It had a nice light smell of blackberry and cherry. The color was light as is typical for a pinot noir as this is a thin skin grape that is hard to produce. The taste was amazing. Good soft tannins with a mid body feel that was just enjoyable to sip on. The overall taste profile was smooth and silky with no real overpowering from any angle. Highly recommend this wine to anyone looking for a good supping wine.

2) Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz Cabernet 2013 from Australia. This was another great wine. It had a stronger color and great smells of black fruits and cherry. The taste had strong tannins and an acid profile at the end that would make my lips pucker. The taste was blackberry intensive but not overpowering. Again a wine I recommend and a wine to drink with some good steak.

3) The Little Penguin Chardonnay 2014 from South Eastern Australia. This was surprisingly a really good wine. I'm not a fan of the whites but this one was tame enough to enjoy. Not overly fruity and semi-dry lead to a good wine to enjoy on a sunny day. I would actually recommend this wine as well.

Now on to the cheese. From the left to right we have a 1 Year Manchego, Jasper Hills Cothbound Cheddar and a Double Creme Brie. Needless to say, these were all fantastic cheeses on their own.

The Manchego cheese was my favorite and went well with the Pinot Noir and the Shiraz Cabernet. They were absolutely amazing. The Pinot Noir slips right through the strong Manchego and softens the tannins a little more to create a perfect balance that was just amazing. The same was happeing with the Shiraz Cabernet where it would balance the stronger tannins and make the wine creamy and delicious. The Chardonnay didn't sing too well with this cheese. It was a little imbalanced.

The Cheddar also went really well with the the red wines. It had the same effect of rounding off the edges of the wine. It was less enjoyable in my view as the Manchego was more forceful and soften it better. The Chardonnay in this case mixed better with the Cheddar. It was strange how it didn't really improve or detract from the wine but was enjoyable to combine.

Lastly, the Brie went very well with the Chardonnay. It was a softer cheese with a lighter wine. It actually was very nice to have the slightly fruitier wine with the soft brie cheese creme. It was very enjoyable to drink. Contrary to the last two cheeses, the Pinot Noir and the Shiraz Cabernet didn't go very well. The wines were too overpowering for the light brie cheese and was actually detrimental to the overall experience.

All in all, wine and cheese is the my new favorite way to enjoy wine. The cheese really rounds off the wine to make it more enjoyable and the creaminess really sings through. I would highly recommend doing this exact pairing as it was delicious and a great platter to enjoy with friends.