Wine Tasting (Week 8)

Howdy Y'all once again. Sorry about the gap in posts recently, you know how life can be, but don't worry because now have I got something for you. The past two weeks I spent some time experimenting with wines on the cheaper end of the spectrum, just to see what they have to offer, and I think I made some good finds. This week I'll be covering Fünf's Riesling and Ruffino's sparkling Rose.

I suppose I'll actually start with the Ruffino just to get it out of the way. This was probably the only disappointing wine that I had of the lot, despite being the most expensive. At close to $10 a bottle, it promised "red berries and white fruits" and "notes of strawberry and slight hints of rose petals," and I suppose it delivered on those promises, but only technically. I got all of those things, but only the slightest hints of each, like it was the Le Croix of wines. Ultimately, I don't suppose I hated it, but I definitely won't be buying this wine again.

The Riesling Fünf on the other hand was well worth the cost. At only $5 a bottle, it wasn't anything special, but it was a perfectly acceptable Riesling. It was described as having "Asian pear and red-apple flavors" with a "lemon-lime acidity," which for the most part is accurate. I also picked up on something slightly earthy or herbal that gave a nice layer of complexity to it. Overall, its acidity may be a little overpowering, but its not too big of a problem. For the most part, it is just a solid middle of the road Riesling for fairly cheap, which is definitely worth recognizing.

Wines Reviewed:

Ruffino Sparkling Rose: https://www.ruffino.com/us/our-wines/sparkling/sparkling-rose/

Fünf Riesling: https://www.winemag.com/buying-guide/schmitt-sohne-nv-funf-5-riesling-germany/

Comments

Dinner Pairings

This week, I went with Jessica, one of my fellow classmates, to Blu in Norman to do a full meal with paired wines. Our first course was a wonderful mac and cheese paired with Stemmari's Nero D'Avola. The wine tasted and smelled very plummy, although the taste also had serious earthy, spicy, and smoky flavors that really put the fruit in the background. The wine sucked almost all of the flavor out of the mac, but in turn the fruitiness became much more pronounced. Next, we each ordered a different pizza to split and a wine to go with each. Jessica ordered The Med on a flatbread, which had an olive tapenade for the sauce, with goat cheese and pepperoncinis and a balsamic drizzle. We paired it with Jam Jar's Moscato. The moscato primarily tasted like peach and mango, although it had a very smooth cinnamon finish. When combined, the spice in the wine was cancelled out, bringing out the fruit and also enhancing the balsamic flavor of the pizza. Finally,...

Wine Tasting (Week 9)

As a continuation from last week, I'm going to review a couple of piss cheap white Zinfandels. I ended up at the liquor store with a couple of friends looking for something to drink for the night and we came up with the idea of getting a couple wines of the same varietal at different price levels and comparing them. For the absolutely dirt cheap one we picked out an Arbor Mist Strawberry White Zin and for a slightly more upscale but still conservative one we picked up Sutter Home's White Zin. We'll start with Arbor Mist because theres not much to say about it. The artificial strawberry flavor overpowered just about everything else. It basically just tasted like a strawberry apple juice. The only Zin trait that was really able to power through was a slight peppery aftertaste, but it was just barely there. To be fair though, the bottle was less than $5, so what else could you expect. If you like strawberry apple juice, I'd say this is a steal for you. As for the S...

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...

The Young Sommelier [Thomas' Wine Blog]

Search This Blog