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Showing posts from September, 2018

Wine Tasting (Week 4)

This week, some friends decided to throw a little dinner party, so I volunteered to pick out some wines to try and pair with the meal. This was my first chance getting to really try my hand at pairing, so I was excited to give it a go. We ended up eating lemon pepper chicken with mashed potatoes and vegetables, so I decided to try it with a Sauvignon Blanc. However, I also had to be fairly careful in picking out wines, because the group of people I was dining with are notoriously averse to dry wines and red wines in general. Due to this, I just decided to go with a Gewürztraminer on its own for a safe sweet dessert wine. So for the Sauvignon Blanc, I chose a 2015 vintage from Carving Board in California. I found it on sale at one of our local wine stores for $12 instead of $14, which made me a little wary. But, the flavor profile for it that I initially found noted its strong lemon component and floral notes, which I felt was a nice balance between appropriateness for the dish and th...

Wine Tasting (Week 3)

All right boys, we're back at it again. This week I bring you one mediocre California Sauvignon Blanc from Leese-Fitch, and probably my favorite wine that I've had so far, the 'Zinzilla' California Zinfandel. We'll get the more underwhelming one out of the way first. Leese-Fitch's 2017 Sauvignon Blanc was by no means bad, especially for its price range around $10. Their winery describes it as "...thoroughly refreshing, with aromas of guava, papaya and pear. These enticing characteristics are followed by vibrant citrus notes of grapefruit and lime on the palate, which enhance the wine’s juicy body and highlight its crisp, balanced acidity," and I find that fairly accurate. It's nose had a much stronger vegetal smell than the description implies, and I couldn't quite place it; somewhere between cut grass and a tangy herb. Its taste however, was in fact distinctly citrusy, with heavy acidity. It wasn't necessarily off balance, but something ...

Week 2 Wine Tasting (Roscato / Creme de Lys)

This week I decided to go for something a bit more traditional than last week's tasting and had a go at one of Roscato's Rosso Dolce Sweet Red from Lombardy, Italy as well as a Belcreme de Lys Chardonnay from California. The Roscato Rosso Dolce is a non-vintage blended wine, and was a departure from my typical experience with red wines. It was both the first sweet and sparkling red that I've had, and I was very impressed. Coming in at around $10 a bottle, its quality was quite surprising. The winemaker describes it as "Brilliant ruby red in the glass with intense aromas of blackberries and ripe wild berries. This wine is fresh, lively and frizzante with a soft lingering finish," and honestly thats fairly accurate to my experience. I placed its fruity taste more along the lines of cherry than berries, but thats not too far off, as well as noting that it had a distinct 'balsamic' quality to it that I found very pleasing. Its body was silky and smooth, wi...

My First Wine Tasting Pt. 2

As I discussed in an earlier post this week, some friends and I had a little wine tasting party, where we paired a few wines with cheeses, but we also had a couple of unpaired wines. Two of the more zany members of the party ended up picking out a couple of wines because of their... aesthetic appeal? I will henceforth refer to them as Blue Wine and Fish Wine. Labeled Blú Perfer, the Blue Wine is a 2016 Spanish Chardonnay and is self-described as "Fruity, fresh, soft, tasty, with its own personality," although I hesitate to vouch for any of those claims. We were able to get this bottle for around $12 and – while that isn't particularly expensive – I imagine most of that price comes exclusively from the unique experience of being able to drink "Blue Wine." That and maybe the sturdiness of the packaging. After breaking our corkscrew trying to get it out, we ended up resorting to a pair of pliers to actually uncork it. And while that may not be ideal for custome...

My First Wine Tasting Pt. 1

A group of friends and I decided to get together and have a big tasting party this week. We all went out to the Cellar in Norman and grabbed a bottle of wine each, as well as some cheese to pair with the most conventional wines. We ended up with three conventions wine and cheese pairings as well as two – lets call them 'experimental' – wines to try out, which I'll cover in my next Wine Tasting Post. To begin the evenings festivities, we started with a 2013 Chianti Riserva paired with a sharp asiago. This is  the pairing that I picked out, but I have to say that it was probably the most disappointing of the lot. I am not typically a fan of dry reds, which is partially why I wanted to give one a try, but my expectations were fairly accurate. It had a distinctly tannic red wine smell that was very slightly warm and fruity, to the point of almost not being there. The taste itself was also about as typical of a dry red as you could get. It had all of those same subtle notes...