Wine Dinner Blog Post 5/4/14

Wine Dinner Post 

During a nice warm spring evening, in between doing homework to prepare for the coming week my roommates and I enjoyed a wine dinner pairing three wines with a three course meal. This was a great way to begin the end of the semester and we plan on doing this more often in the future.

Appetizer

 To begin my wine and food pairing meal I first decided to start with an appetizer of crackers with sharp cheddar cheese and thinly cut salami. I paired this with a cheaper jug wine of wild Irish rose. I've tasted this wine before but I wanted to see if it would improve being paired with some food as I had yet to do that in the past. This was not a dinner planned very early, but me and my roommates decided it would be fun to try this. Prior to trying this wine paired with food some noticeable tasting notes are that it is a darker rose color wine that smells a little "funky" compared to most nicer wines I have tried and kind of smells like a cleaning product you would use to clean counter tops.. One characteristic to note is the taste is not very hot on your pallet and leaves a strange after taste. Once paired with the food however kind of helped mitigate the overall strength of that taste and it was ok with the salami taste especially. This is not a wine with a lot of body and doesn't form legs really on the glass as this could be an indication of the lack of body. Not much going on this this wine to become excited about. After a glass of this wine we were ready to move on and try the other wines with dinner and the appetizer as well. 

Main Course

As the main course with my vast cooking knowledge I made some baked beans with a simple cheese burger. However, I didn't cheap out with this wine as I paired this meal with a Greyson Cellars 2011 Zinfandel from California. I have grown to really like the zinfandel grape wines and it has quickly become one of my favorites. This wine was extremely good and interesting. It had a very dark deep purple color with a grape juice smell mixed with some berries. This wine has a much better body than the previous one and was not too hot on the pallet. It had a very nice after taste that left me wanting more. My roommates agreed that they really enjoyed this wine. We had this wine with our appetizer as well which I found very enjoyable especially with the salami and sharp cheddar cheese. This is by far one of the best wines I have tasted thus far this semester. I purchased this wine at the vintage cellar earlier in the day. Another intriguing taste with this wine even more so than the burger which went very good with this wine was the baked beans with chunks of bacon mixed in. The bake beans sauce tasted very good with the light fruity taste of the zinfandel. I was curious to the wine tasting notes on the wine itself but there were none listed for me to compare with what I was tasting to give me a better idea of the descriptors I could of been tasting. I would definitely recommend this wine to my friends and family in the future as it was very reasonably priced at ten dollars. 

Dessert

Lastly, we ended our wine pairing adventure with a nice Australian Shiraz paired with some girl scout trefoils cookies. This 2012 Shiraz comes from Southern Australia's Milton Park Vineyard and it was surprisingly ok with these cookies. Prior to tasting it this wine was also a deep dark purple that had some hints of berries on the nose. In tasting this delightful wine I found that it had more bit than the previous zinfandel but was not much hotter on the pallet. I tasted some more fruit with this wine but it had a much different after taste than the zinfandel which was very distinctive. This wine was a very full bodied wine and it presented that with the legs on the glass. It was very smooth as I washed it and coated my mouth with it. This is another wine I would definitely recommend to my friends and family as well as a very good purchase at nine dollars. I only had a few cookies with it, but from those few I was able to taste how the short bread cookie taste mixed with the wine leaving a very sugary after taste which I enjoyed. This concluded our wine pairing dinner and I believe it was very successful.

Wild Irish Rose-Red

Wild Irish Rose- Red

This week I decided to try a cheaper wine I was unfamiliar with that had a very high alcohol content. At 17% this fortified wine was very interesting as it did not display the high alcohol content in the form of heat on the pallet. It was a fruitier than I expected, but it was hard for me to pin point the types of fruit I tasted. It had a rosy red color which is very different from the past grape varietal wines I've tried in the past as they were much darker in color. I also chose this wine with no knowledge about what is in it as the label is very bare with little to no descriptors. I however did not really like this wine and don't foresee myself buying this again. 

 

The Naked Grape- Pinot Noir

The Naked Grape- Pinot Noir

From California

This week I decided to go a different tasting route and tried a California Pinot Noir. This wine had a lot of flavor and felt like a punch in the face with the blueberry taste. It was a very deep dark purple color with a strong of blueberry smell. Surprisingly this wine had a very powerful tannic presence and was very hot on the pallet. This was a much dryer wine than I expected and has very little sweetness to offer. I believe this wine is a little too powerful and doesn't offer the balance that it should. At least for what I'm personally looking for in a wine. I do like dry powerful wines but this seems like a little much. It did pair ok with a cal-zone that I had for dinner which included some darker meats and vegetables. This was not a very expensive wine however so for the price and alcohol content I'm ok with the purchase in that sense. However, this will not be a wine that I will purchase again in the future.

Sutter Home Merlot

Sutter Home Merlot

California 2012

This week I felt like trying another dry wine and chose a modestly priced one I found at the grocery store. It had a deep dark red wine color with a berry smell. I enjoyed this wine and had it at dinner with a burger and a pasta with a garlic butter sauce. I felt this wine tasted very well with the burger, and the pasta offered a different kind of taste. This was worth the purchase, but it didn't offer much to anything extra for a Merlot. Also, it didn't have an overwhelming fruity flavor, but the blackberry and cherry taste was pretty powerful. I probably won't try this wine again in the future. I may have to raise my price range to find a more exciting wine.

   

Oak Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon

Oak Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon

This week I tried a cheaper Cabernet Sauvignon and was very pleased with the outcome. I paired this wine with a sesame chicken dish from a local Chinese restaurant. I enjoyed this combination and look forward to trying other cuisines with different kinds of wines. Upon smelling the wine I found it to be of a similar smell to most other red wines I've encountered where a strong blueberry or raspberry smell was present. This wine had a medium body with a deep dark almost grape juice purple color as well. The after taste was not bitter and it tasted very tannic. When first tasting this wine I had an overwhelming taste of Welsh's grape juice. It was hard however to smell and taste any other fruits or flavors which I can only conclude if they are there they aren't very potent or obvious. I feel that this up coming week I may try to purchase a new blended wine to keep things interesting. This was a tasty wine, but I was overall pretty bored with what was going on there. Hopefully this weeks wine will have some more to say than this wine. Can't ask for much more from a cheaper wine however.

   

Red Rock Winery Winemaker's Blend

Red Rock Winery

Winemaker's Blend

I found this wine to be very enjoyable and at a very reasonable price of $11.00. It was a mix of Sirah, Zinfandel, and Merlot. This wine was a deep dark wine with a lot of tannin's and not as much sweetness to the body. The lack of sweetness would make me think that the Sirah wasn't as present compared to the other grapes in the wine. This wine has a fruity berry smell and a smooth finish to the wine when tasting. I enjoyed this wine paired with a chicken and pasta meal which I felt it went very well with it. I look forward to experimenting with more blended wines as this is the first one I can recall trying in my life. I feel that a blended wine could offer a much more exciting wine compared to just one varietal wine. As a California wine I believe that this wine did a very good job encompassing the different grapes into a very nice blend. This is definitely a wine I would recommend to my friends and relatives to try. I like this wine enough that in the near future i will try this wine again, possibly in another vintage and see what differences I taste. I hope by then my pallet will be able to better describe the different smells and tastes to wine.  

Oak Leaf Moscato

Oak Leaf Moscato

This week I tried an Australian wine called Moscato. I have never had this type of wine before. It was a white wine which I had while watching a movie this Sunday night. It has a very clear color with a light body. When I went for the sniff and swirl it smelled like a fruity car freshener. Upon tasting it the first time I felt blasted with a water flavor blast. I feel like this was the most fruity tasting wine I've ever had. I have now experienced two very different sides of the wine spectrum the last two weeks. Last week's Merlot displayed exactly how the tannin's are very prevalent in red's as opposed to this white wine. However, I felt that this wine had a little more of a pucker than I've been accustomed to with other reds I've been trying. This wine did not seem as "hot" either, which makes sense as its only a 10% alcohol content. Overall, I don't believe this is the wine for me. I think this was a little too fruity for me. I didn't feel as though I was getting the full taste of the grapes in this wine. It maybe some time before I retry this type of wine.

Oak Leaf Merlot

Oak Leaf Merlot 

         This week I decided to try Oak Leaf Vineyard's Merlot from California. This is the first Merlot that I have blogged about and I am very excited about this because Merlot is a wine that I have enjoyed in the past and it is one that I am very fond of. However, this is a cheaper Merlot so I wont get my hopes up for a really delicious wine... I will keep an open mind though. I chose this wine because it had an interesting flavor profile on the label that intrigued me. It describes the wine as "medium-bodied, soft Merlot... blackberries, and ripe plum." I was curious to whether I would taste the plum flavor and what that may bring to the wine.
         Upon pouring the first glass I noticed it had that dark purple-black color that is distinct for Merlot. As I did the sniff and swirl i smelled the blackberries and raspberries along with a little plum. It seemed like the body of the wine was a little thin and watery. I confirmed this once I tasted the wine. It didn't really leave any bitterness as an after taste and I didn't taste much very acidity. Making this wine not very "hot" to the taste. It also had a small smokey taste combined with a little oak. I also decided to get a little fancy with my experience and had a couple different cheeses and a few crackers with the wine which I enjoyed. I'm not sure how different my experience with this wine was because of the food. I would like to think though that the food did make it taste better. Overall, I think this is a very easy to drink wine that didn't really bring any complex flavor pairings which was a little disappointing but also expected. For the price of this wine I think it was a very good purchase and one that I could see myself maybe making again.

Rosemount Shiraz 2012

Rosemount Shiraz 2012

For my first wine tasting on my own I chose to try a type of wine I had never had before. The Shiraz flavor was now something I was accustomed to and I found it very pleasant how easily it was to drink. As wines go for me personally I find the bitterness defines how easily I personally think the wine is to drink. This wine was much less bitter than previous Merlot and Malbac wines I have had before. This was a cheap purchase as the wine was only eight dollars but it had won over 230 awards making it an intriguing choice to me.

I unfortunately have a poor sense of smell that seems to get worse each year. However, starting with the sniff and swirl I found the fruity aromas to be the first smells that I recognized. Next, after tasting the wine i could taste some blackberries, raspberries, and an oak wood finish to it. This wine seemed to be a little more watery than most, with a lighter purple color. I am still however training myself to look for slight variations during the mid-pallet when tasting wines.

My final conclusions about this wine is that as easy as it was to drink a Shiraz is not my favorite kind of wine. While it lacked the bitterness of other types and had a very easy to drink fruity flavor I felt like it lacked a little bit in the alcoholic "punch" one may taste when drinking red wines. I will look to explore this type of tasting in the future with this weeks wine purchase and tasting. I will also experiment with different foods that may go good with these wines.

Journey to Wine Appreciation 2/1/14

Journey to Wine Appreciation

The start and maturation of my wine tasting pallet

Geography of Wine

By: Shane Brandon

Prior experience and exposure to wine:

Recently I just became of age (21) to start legally consuming alcohol and have decided to take my pallet through the lifelong journey of tasting different types of wines. However, my experience with wine first began when I turned 13 and tried wine, beer, and coffee for the first time. Which by the way, I was not a fan at first of any of the three and have since learned to love and enjoy each drink. (for most part responsibly) I truly believe it takes an acquired taste to learn to like these beverages. Wine however was the last of these drinks for me to learn to really enjoy.

Prior to taking this course I had yet to understand that all wines are very different and that is what makes wine so personal and intriguing. I also had no understanding to the process and what it takes to produce a barrel of wine. After the first two weeks of class I have already gained an idea of the process it takes to create wine and the correct etiquette to open and consume this complex beverage. 

Over this past month I have started to try different types of red wines my family drinks at dinner. This was a great treat as I got a chance to taste some really nice dinner wines, and thanks to my mom and dad I was able to learn a little bit about what they look for in a wine as well as their personal preferences. As I start to make those same choices for myself I am very excited to learn to taste the different complexities to these wines. My choice of wines are unfortunately limited due to my budget to cheaper wines, however as I progress through life I will be able to try nicer wines and should form a greater appreciation for those wines.