David Finlayson: The Pepper Pot

This wine is called The Pepper Pot by David Finlayson, and is made with Syrah, 43% Mourvedre, Tannat, Cinsault, Grenache and Carignan grapes. The place of origin is South Africa and has a vintage year of 2018. This wine costs $14.95.

Tim Atkins gave this vintage a score of 90 and had this to say about it: "Great value from David Finlayson, this is (almost) the South African equivalent of a Cotes du Rhone blend, marrying Syrah with 43% Mourvedre, Tannat, Cinsault, Grenache and Carignan. Light, floral and spicy, with a hint of wood, red berry fruit and subtle reduction." 2020-23

 Because this is a blend of so many different types of grape, I will be referencing the section of Wine Folly for Rhone/GSM blends, on page 156. "GSM stands for Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre. These three grapes create the base of Southern France and Northern Spain's most important red wine blends." While this wine is from South Africa, I chose this entry because it was described as the South African equivalent of a GSM. "The GSM Blend is a versatile food pairing wine that works particularly well with dishes featuring Mediterranean spices including red pepper, sage, rosemary, and olives." It should be served in an oversized glass at 60-68*F, decanted for 30 mins and spend 5-15 years in the cellar.

 I did not have this wine with any food, as I had it at a tasting at Vintage Cellar. This wine smells spicy and of florals at the same time, and the nose reminded me of hydrangeas. It had a very tannic dryness with a strong peppercorn flavor with a slight taste of red fruit and berries at the front of the tongue. It was not sweet or acidic, and had a light body.

In conclusion, I give this wine a 4/10, although it was a very interesting wine to experience as it was my 'spiciest' tasting yet.

 

 

Thomas Goss- McLaren Vale

This wine is called McLaren Vale by Thomas Goss, and is made with 100% Shiraz grapes. The place of origin is McLaren Vale, Australia with a vintage year of 2018. This wine costs $17.95.

James Suckling gave this wine 90 points and had this to say about it: "This is a bold, rich style of Shiraz that has a core of ripe plums and chocolate on the nose. The palate is smooth, fleshy and flavorsome and has plenty of dark plums and berries, served in approachable mode".

 On page 172 of Wine Folly, Syrah is described as "A rich, powerful and sometimes meaty red that originated in the Rhone Valley of France. It's the most planted grape in all of Australia, where it's called Shiraz. Darker meats and exotic spices bring out the fruit notes of Syrah. Try it with lamb shwarma, gyros, Asian five-spice pork, and Indian tandoori". It should be served in a red glass at 60-68*F (room temperature), decanted 60+ minutes and spend 5-15 years in the cellar.

 I did not have this wine with any food, as I had it at a tasting at Vintage Cellar. This wine smells of blackberries and plum and had very strong legs. It tasted of black pepper and was very dry and tannic. Honestly it didn't taste like much else to me, maybe a slight aftertaste of blackberries but the tannins were so intense it was difficult to taste anything else. It had a medium body with no sweetness or acidity.

In conclusion, I give this wine a 3/10, this wine was simply too dry for me to enjoy.

 

Beaujolais-Villages

 

Albert Bichot Beaujolais-Villages

This wine is called Albert Bichot Beaujolais-Villages by Chateau de Varennes, and is made with 100% Gamay grapes. The place of origin is Beaujolais, France with a vintage year of 2019. This wine costs $14.95.

Here is a Wine Enthusiast review provided by Vintage Cellar at their tasting, rated at a 90: "Floral and fruity, this is an immediately attractive, ripe wine. Full of red cherry flavors, balanced by soft tannins and a lightly smoky character, it is ready to drink".

 On page 113 of Wine Folly, Gamay is described as "a fruity, floral and sometimes earthy light-bodied red that is the main variety planted in Beaujolais. Outside of France, Gamay has a tiny but devoted following. One of the red wines that pairs with all manner of dishes...". It should be enjoyed in an aroma collector glass at 55-60*F, decanted for 30 mins and spend 1-5 years in the cellar. 

 I did not have this wine with any food, as I had it at a tasting at Vintage Cellar. This wine smells of sweet berries like blackberries and cherry with notes of spice (I think sort of like allspice?). It tastes like blackberry with light tannins and it was sort of watery. It had undertones of grapes and florals like rose, with a light body. Not acidic or sweet, and slightly smoky.

In conclusion, I give this wine a 4/10, as I am not a huge fan of reds but I didn't hate it.

Friends White

 

 Friends

This wine is called Friends White by Pedroncelli, and is made with 43% Gewurztraminer and 57% Sauvignon Blanc grapes. The place of origin is Sonoma County, California with a vintage year of 2019. This wine costs $13.95.

 While I couldn't find any wine critic or winery reviews of this vintage, here is a Wine Spectator review from Pedroncelli's website for the 2018 vintage: "84 pts. [Good: a Solid, Well-Made Wine] 'Spicy floral notes mingle with pear, apple and melon flavors on a soft, smooth body, offering a refreshing finish. Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer. Drink now.'". 

 On page 115 of Wine Folly, Gewurztraminer is described as "treasured for its intense floral aromas, Gewurztraminer has thrived for centuries in Europe. Wines are best enjoyed in their youth when acidity is highest. Sweet floral aromatics and ginger-like spice paired with fuller body make Gewurztraminer a great partner to Indian and Moroccan cuisine." It should be enjoyed in a white glass at ice cold and kept in the cellar for 1-5 years. On page 165 of Wine Folly, Sauvignon Blanc is described as "a unique tasting white wine with strong herbaceous flavors that are derived from compounds called methoxypyrazines (also found in bell peppers!). It should be enjoyed in a white glass, at 45-55*F and spend 1-5 years in the cellar. 

 I did not have this wine with any food, as I had it at a tasting at Vintage Cellar. This wine smells sweet, almost like cotton candy grapes with a hint of jasmine. It tastes sweet and slightly acidic, with no dryness as there are no tannins and it is not aged in an oak barrel. It tastes of sweet green grapes with an aftertaste of mixed fruits and honey. It has a very light body and refreshing taste.

In conclusion, I give this wine a 7/10.

Italian Wine Dinner Blog

Wine Dinner Blog: Italian

 

For this wine dinner, I invited my friends Noah and Sara Ann to join. Neither of them are taking this class, but I definitely wasn't about to make 3 courses by myself, so I told them each to bring a dish. The 3 courses were as follows:

 

To start we had a burrata and arugula salad, dressed with balsamic vinaigrette, made by Noah.  

Next we had the main course, a homemade baked ziti, made by yours truly with ground beef, marinara, a LOT of seasonings and cheese, and ziti noodles.

 

Lastly, dessert: a tiramisu cheesecake topped with coffee and regular whipped cream, homemade by Sara Ann. 

    Obviously we were going with an Italian theme and stuck to it as best as possible, including pairing the wines. The 3 wines we included were a Belmondo Pinot Noir, a Giulio Straccali Chianti, and a Canavese Rosso.

    To start I will be talking about the Pinot Noir. 

 

Name: Belmondo Pinot Noir

Variety: 100% Pinot Noir

Region: Veneto

Country: Italy

Year: 2017

Price: $6.95

My review by itself: 

    Cherry and blackberry notes on the nose. Tannic with pear taste, and cherry and asian pear notes. Not sweet, not earthy at all, and slightly acidic. Light body.

Review of the wine with the foods:

    The salad and the wine were decent together, the wine was relatively balanced with the creaminess of the cheese and the bread makes the wine taste less sour. The freshness of the arugula with a bit of bite complimented the wine well. 

    This wine accentuates the red pepper spicy flavor of the ziti and tastes very sour with it. The flavors of the wine are very overpowered by the food making the only flavors that come through are sour and spicy.

    The wine made the coffee aftertaste by cleansed away entirely but accentuates the bold flavor of the wine while making it taste less sour. 

Winner: Salad

Loser: Tiramisu

  

 Second I will be talking about the Chianti.

 

Name: Giulio Straccali Chianti

Variety: 85% Sangiovese; 15% Canaiolo and Merlot

Region: Tuscany

Country: Italy

Year: 2018

Price: $9.95

My review by itself:

Smells fruity, like concentrated syrup of grapes and apple. Slightly sweet with an aftertaste of fruityness like apples, pears and asian pear. Slightly tannic, in the same way an asian pear is dry. Not earthy, but slightly acidic. Light body.

Review of the wine with the foods:

     This wine was just terrible with the salad, it leaves the taste of the bread in your mouth and cancels out all of the other wonderful flavors in the salad. It cleanses the palate when you want it to be accentuating the freshness of the arugula and creaminess of the cheese, but it just tastes like bread and makes the bitterness of the arugula stand out.

    With the ziti this wine tasted extremely sour and just like with the salad, cancels out all the good flavors in the food you want to be experiencing like the spiciness and meatiness of the meat and red pepper flakes. It accentuated only the sour taste and everything else drowned under that one flavor.

    This wine also turned extremely sour with the tiramisu, but surprisingly also cleansed the palate of the coffee that usually has a very long aftertaste. 

Winner: None. All of these recipes lost with this wine, and I strongly disliked all of the pairings

 

 Thirdly I will be discussing the Rosso.

Name: Canavese Rosso Tenuta Roletto

Variety: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Freisa

Region: Canavese, Piedmont

Country: Italy

Year: 2018

Price: $7.95

My review by itself:

    This was a very dry wine, with a tannic starchy aftertaste. It smells a lot like hand sanitizer and slightly like pears. It was not sweet at all, and slightly acidic. Slightly earthy. Medium body.

Review of the wine with the foods: 

    Eating this wine with the salad accentuates the tannic dryness and hand sanitizer flavors as well as enhancing the fresh and grassy aftertaste of the arugula.

    Drinking this wine with the ziti makes the flavor of the ziti itself go away almost entirely and cleanses the palate, while leaving a slight aftertaste of pear and hand sanitizer.

    This wine accentuates the taste of the coffee in the tiramisu cheesecake and makes the coffee aftertaste last 15+ seconds, however it cancels out the sweetness of the tiramisu frosting altogether.

Winner: Tiramisu

Loser: Ziti 

    Honestly, this dinner was pretty much a disaster for me. I had a really hard day and I'm not an experienced chef, so even making this 'easy' baked ziti recipe Noah gave me was really stressful. I disliked all of the wines since I chose all reds to try and pair them with the food specifically, but that's kind of my own fault. I had a good cry with my friends, finished the assignment and vowed that the next wine dinner we do I'm buying a rotisserie chicken from Kroger and buying the fruitiest sweetest wines I can find so I can enjoy the experience a lot more next time.

 Drink This Now! Lesson 4

     This week I did the Drink This Now! Lesson 4 content. The objective of this is to taste wooded and unwooded wines, and determine what a difference the presence of oaky flavors can impart on the wines. When I went to Vintage Cellar to acquire my wines, I was brought over to the Yalumba 'Unwooded' Chardonnay from Australia which was a perfect match to the book. However, even though they didn't have an exact match to any of the 'wooded' wines, they directed me to something very similar to the Butterfield Station Chardonnay, which was the Butter Chardonnay from California. I also went to Kroger and picked up some unsalted table water crackers in order to cleanse my palate between the wine tastings. 

    The first thing I needed to do (Step 1) was perform a tasting on both of the wines, cleansing my palate with the crackers between them (Step 2), and make sure that they were still room temperature.

    The first wine I tasted was Butter Chardonnay, which is produced by Jam Cellars in Lodi, CA. The vintage year for this wine is 2020, and the price was $19.95. It uses 100% Chardonnay grapes.

Wine Review:

 

My Review:

    This wine was a very pale yellow, almost clear. It had a smooth smell, toasty, and almost like sawdust. It had a strong nose of vanilla extract, surprisingly. It tasted smooth, warm, creamy, a little bit dry on the center of the tongue. Had strong notes of green apple with undertones of butter, lanolin, and nuttiness, with a medium body.

    The second wine I tasted was the Yalumba 'Unwooded Chardonnay' produced by The Y Series in Angaston, South Australia. This wine had a vintage year of 2021, and the price was $13.95. It is made of 100% Chardonnay grapes.

 

Wine Review:

My Review:

    The color of this wine was just slightly yellow, even more close to being clear than Butter Chardonnay. It smelled a lot more fruity, like pear, apple, and maybe even a hint of citrus like tangerine. It tasted bright and fruity like apples, cucumber, and peach. It was a bit sour, with a slight dryness on the center of the tongue, and a light body.

Step 3 was to stop and take a break to assess the descriptors I used for each of the wines. 

     I noticed that I used a lot more 'smooth' or 'creamy' sort of descriptors for the Butter Chardonnay than the Yalumba Chardonnay. This would make sense since it has an oaky influence and tastes of malolactic fermentation, and the Yalumba Chardonnay has no oak influence. Of course it still had slight notes of fruit though, since it is made of grapes after all. The Yalumba had many more fruity descriptors because there was no notes of oak or malolactic fermentation overshadowing the easily overpowered tastes.

Step 4 was to throw the bottles in the fridge to put a good chill on them, and repeat the tasting exercise. 

Butter Chardonnay:

     After being chilled, this Chardonnay exhibited notes of nuttiness and vanilla extract, while still having undertones of grape and toastiness. It was a very smooth texture, even more so then when unchilled, and was slightly sweet, not very dry/tannic at all and had a very creamy feeling in the mouth. It also exhibited a light body.

Yalumba Chardonnay:

     After being chilled, the Yalumba Chardonnay smelled almost sort of sour, like fruit that has gone a little bad. It tasted not sour at all, but close to water with a finish of slight florals (jasmine?) and a cucumber peach aftertaste with undertones of the same tangerine citrus. This wine was not sweet or dry after chilling, with a light body.

How the wines changed:  

    I noticed that after being chilled, most of the dry, tannic flavors of the wine were masked by the temperature and they both tasted more smooth. The Butter Chardonnay had more notes of nuttiness than it did before chilling, and felt more creamy. The Yalumba Chardonnay smelled more sour than fresh compared to when it wasn't chilled, and after chilling the florals came through more strongly. The Butter Chardonnay also exhibited a slightly lighter body after chilling.

    This lesson taught me a lot about the difference between wooded and unwooded wines, and I don't think I would've had this type of experience in the future had it not been for this lesson, allowing me to directly compare and contrast the two. I also love the addition of complexity by adding in doing chilled and unchilled tastings, as it really did change the flavors of both of the wines. It was almost like two lessons in one. I'm excited to try more wooded wines in the future to see how the oak or other wood barrels impart different flavors on different wines. 

 

 

19 Crimes- The Banished

     This wine is called The Banished, and is a non-varietal wine, made predominantly with Shiraz grapes with finishes of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. The place of origin is the South Eastern Region of Australia. The vintage year is 2019. The cost usually $15 but because it was featured at a tasting at Vintage Cellar, it was on sale for $6.95.

    Vintage Cellar had this to say about the wine: "Nose- Intense lifted dark chocolate and vanilla aromatics balanced with blackberry and plum fruits; Palate- Full and round on the palate with a distinct sweetness making the wine rich and mouth coating. The dark chocolate and vanilla aromatics carry through on the palate and compliment subtle flavors of cloves and cinnamon spice."

    Wine Folly says that Syrah, or Shiraz grapes are "rich, powerful and sometimes meaty red wine that originated in the Rhone Valley of France. It's the most planted grape of Australia, where it's called Shiraz. Darker meats and exotic spices bring out the fruit notes of Syrah. Try it with lamb shawarma, gyros, Asian five-spice pork, and Indian tandoori." (pg. 172) It should be served in a red glass at 60-68*F (room temperature), decanted 60+ minutes, and spend about 5-15 years in the cellar.

    I did not have this wine with any food, as I tried it at a tasting at Vintage Cellar. It has a strong nose of vanilla, and slightly of berries like blackberries and raspberries. The taste was slightly dry, a little bitter and doesn't actually taste like the scent of berries it had at all, mostly like grapes and vanilla. However, it did have an aftertaste of cocoa powder bitterness. It was not sweet or acidic at all.

    In conclusion, this wine was okay, I give it a 5/10 for its interesting cocoa powder flavors and blackberry notes (I really like blackberries and wish it tasted more of them).

 

I Basalti

    This wine is called I Basalti, and is made with 100% Garganega grapes. The place of origin is Verona, in northern Italy’s Veneto region. The vintage year is 2020. The cost usually $10 but because it was featured at a tasting at Vintage Cellar, it was on sale for $7.95.

    Vintage Cellar had this to say about the wine: "With light aromas of almond, pear, and manzanilla tea, this Garganega-based Soave offers a pleasing, creamy soft texture in the mouth. Lightly flavored but with good acidity, it would be a good companion to lightly sauced fish."

    Wine Folly says that Garganega grapes are "an important Italian white that's loved for its lean, dry style and the rich tangerine and toasted almond notes it gains as it ages. Garganega is the main grape of Soave. Try pairing lighter meats, tofu, or fish and season with citrus tarragon dressing and other aromatic green herbs." (pg. 114) This is a light wine which should be served in a white glass at around 45-55*F, should not be decanted, and should stay in the cellar 3-7 years. (pg. 114 Wine Folly)

    I did not have this wine with any food, as I tried it at a tasting at Vintage Cellar. This wine smells mostly like green grapes and slightly like pears. It tastes like citrus, not very bitter/dry and leaves very little aftertaste. Not extremely sour either, but imparts a very bright pear flavor. I did not detect any notes of almond as mentioned in Vintage Cellar's review and in Wine Folly, but this may be because it wasn't aged long enough.   

    In conclusion, this wine was okay, I give it a 6/10 for its good citrus flavor and palate-cleansing abilities.