Wine Tasting #2 February 9, 2012

Coastal Vines Brut, $6.95 from California (no year given)
This wine is a sparkling white wine that was surprising to me. I have never had a sparkling wine that was not markedly sweet, and I like that this wine was not like that. The wine review describes it as a crisp, clean wine which I agree with. I would absolutely want to include this wine with a seafood dinner!

Lazzaro Chardonnay -2010. $6.95 from Mendoza, Argentina

I was not a big fan of this wine, though white wines are never particularly popular with my taste buds. I thought the wine had an oily texture and I didn't really taste it. The wine notes mention that there were hints of spiced apple in this wine that I did not perceive in the least. I'd like to give this wine another shot.

Note: the wine notes described this wine as "pithy," a word that I've never come across outside of the wine world. Apparently it means: brief, forceful, and meaningful in expression; full of vigor, substance, or meaning; terse; forcible

Now we know.

Tres Ojos Garnacha Tempranillo Rose -2010. $5.95 from Calatayud, Spain

This wine again seemed oily in texture. I tasted a smokiness above the cherry red flavors mentioned in the article and I agree that it was fairly dry. Love the mention of tapas as this is a Spanish wine!

Into Zin Zinfandel -2008. $7.95 from Lodi, California

This wine had a lot of spice and smoke taste to me. My initial thoughts were cigarettes and then my impression was that of a well-rounded and classic Zinfandel finish.

Legaris Crianza -2003. $8.95 from Ribera del Duero, Spain

Wine Spectator gave this wine 90 points. I found it to be a bold, earthy wine. After reading the description of the wine review notes which mentioned coffee and mineral flavors I agreed -I was happy to have noticed that. The notes' mention of berry and vanilla flavors on the finish pointed out an interesting taste to savor.

Beer Tasting 1 - For Fun!

On Friday night, I joined a few friends at Vintage Cellar (it seems I'm going to become a regular) to taste a few beers, after our recent topics on beer in Geography of Wine. I had a cool conversation with one of the storekeepers about IPAs (India Pale Ales). I was wondering what differentiated an IPA from another type of bitter, really "hoppy" pale colored ale. I have more learning to do about this, but we did have an interesting conversation about how India Pale Ales are an export style of pale ale, given their name because of their geographic journey from Britain to India. There were a lot of politics and trade and money related things involved in its success and popularity and it is still popular today! Pretty interesting.

Wine Tasting 1, February 2nd

After some solid instruction on how to properly taste wine, some friends of mine and I journeyed out to the Vintage Cellar (my first trip to the store) on Thursday, February 2nd - my first wine tasting!

This wine, The Royal Chenin Blanc, 2009 from South Africa was a not-so-whopping $4.95. Apparently this wine should not be drunk too cold, since the chill would cause you to lose much of the fruity flavors that give a "deceptive punch." I thought this wine had sweet and sour qualities.

Coldstream Hills, Sauvignon Blanc, 2009 from Yarra Valley, Australia. This wine was also incredibly expensive -not, at $7.95. I did not have much of a taste for this wine as I found it had a musty, earthy, almost vinegar-type taste to it. Considering the (to me) abnormal tastes in this wine and the rather complicated description of the wine, I think this wine is one for me to revisit as I and my pallet and sensitivities mature.

Marques de Moral Crianza Tempranillo, 2007 at $7.95. This wine's origin comes from Valdepenas, Spain. It has been given 87 points by Stephen Tanzer. I liked this wine because i agreed with the notes given regarding the cherry and rose aromas that came through to me. I liked that I picked up on the same things as the description did. This wine was very interesting, but it initially reminded me of cough syrup.

La Lapin, Multiplicity costing $6.95 and traveling from Paso Robles, California. I bought this wine to try at length. I thought it was earthy and sweet and really enjoyable. I agreed with the description that it had dark, deep fruity elements in the smell and taste.

This was a fun one! Opera Prima Moscato, costing $5.95 from Spain. This wine made me think "pink" and "fun" and "sweet," and that was pretty much it for me. It didn't seem to have a lot of depth, but the description noted things like honeydew and lime which I did not pick up on. After consideration, though, I thought I sensed a taste of grapefruits and sweet oranges.

Dinner Blog 1

Wine Wednesday at Boudreaux's! Really great wine at a really great price!

Our wine of choice was "Fuego," for starters!

This is Garnacha de Fuego, a 100% "Old Vines" wine, 14.5% Alcohol by volume; "grape of fire" from Aragon Spain.

This was an inexpensive, but very rich red wine. It had a lot of taste and a very strong aroma that seemed to me to be a classic scent for a red wine.

We ordered Boudreaux's well known hush puppies.... very good, but not the best match for wine, it seems.

The evening's second wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon.

We decided that instead of fried fish sandwiches (which may have been better with white wines?), it would have been better to choose a red meat or a pasta dish.

Overall, this first experience was a good trial run. I really think this is a beneficial experience, socially as well as educationally. As I learn more about wines through Geography of Wine, dining with wine will become more of an intentional and well-understood experience. At this stage of the game I'm not yet reaching the full benefits; proof that it is a learning experience that requires growth! (P.S. Since this dinner I've had two class periods and a wine tasting, and even in that short period of time I already can see where I would have made different decisions in my drinks, foods, and how I would have approached tasting a wine for the first time. Very cool.)

Wine Tasting Directions

WINE TASTINGS BLOG REPORTS

Another weekly assignment where you can go out to free wine tastings at local wine shops (not

wineries!) on the weekends and write up your [extensive] tasting notes on your blog. You can do

these for 5 different wines each week (Sunday midnight to the following Sunday at midnight). You

need to include a photo of the wine label (either taken yourself or found online) the name, variety,

region, country, year, price, the winery/magazine review (found online) or whatever information

they give you at the store, and your personal review of the wine, and if you had it with food or

not.

Format for the wine tasting report:

Title: Tasting - "Wine name"

In the body of the blog:

•Photo

•Name

•Variety

•Region

•Country

•Year

•Price

•Shop/wine critic/winery review (these will be cross-referenced with info provided by the shops to

us)

•Your review (this is in your own words and opinions, it IS NOT a re-wording of the provided shop/

critic review)

•If you had it with food or not and if you did how it effected the wine.

example: http://kpritcha-wine.blogspot.com/2012/01/tasting-adrian-fog-pinot-noir.htmlEach wine review is worth 3 points, and you can do up to 5 per week, for all 13 weeks of the semester, so it is possible for you to earn a whopping 195 points...and more importantly, you will

have an awesome log of all your wine experience to carry with you into the future.

To earn the points, you must have posted your tasting notes for up to 5 wines EVERY WEEK! You

cannot wait until the last weeks of class to post 50 wines at one time! The TA's will grade your

blog sites several unannounced times during the semester, so retro-actively post-dating your blog

entries for weeks earlier won't cut the mustard either.

And this shizzle is free too! Here is the list of places that I know of that do free tastings, usually on

Fridays and Saturdays although there are many other special wine tastings events that occur

sporadically. Check their sites for times and dates of tasting, and even sign up on their email lists

to get up-to-date info all semester:

Vintage Cellar, Blacksburg http://www.vintagecellar.com/

Gourmet Pantry, Blacksburg http://www.gourmetpantryonline.com/

Oasis World Market (mostly sake and beer) http://www.oasisworldmarket.com/

Mr. Bill's Wine Cellar, Roanoke http://www.mrbillswinecellar.com/Mr._Bills/Tasting_Schedule.html

In addition, I think that maybe Kroger's does tastings every now and again (can someone confirm

this?) as does the ABC store (liquor only), and there is a wine bar at 622 North

http://www.622north.com/ at which there are many wines by the glass...but they do not have free

tastings. They are also an awesome restaurant that you could utilize for the Wine Dinner Blog

Report as well if you like, which is next: