Archive for August, 2010
Varietal: Pinot Gris
Region: France
Cost: $16
Light in the glass with aromas and flavors of pear and baked apple. Pairs well with smoked salmon, Peking duck, or mushroom risotto.
Recommendations: Looking to try something new, and having a distinct lack of white wine in the house, my wife and I picked up this bottle after a Friday night tasting at one of our favorite Richmond wine shops. The following day we had the opportunity to open it when we made some shrimp kabobs for dinner. It was a good pairing.
The pear and apple were quite evident on the palate, along with just a hint of sweetness and effervescence on the finish. Normally I would be hit or miss on the sweetness, but the shrimp we grilled was well seasoned and the kabobs also had peppers and onions, so there was a bit of heat to the dish – not to mention some roasted red pepper risotto as a side.
The sweetness of the wine did an excellent job of Read the rest of this entry »
So, raise your hand if you’ve registered for the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia. Ok, I know you can’t actually see, but my hand is raised. While I wasn’t able to attend this years (Washington state is a bit far for me to travel to be honest), next years WBC will be right in my back yard.
If you’re a wine blogger and haven’t registered you should definitely get on it (here’s a link: WBC Registration), and while it’s still nearly a year out, taking place from July 22 to July 24, I’ll be sure to post updates leading up to, and definitely during the Conference. I’m supremely excited to participate, and I’m really looking forward to meeting more of my fellow wine writers.
Varietal: Chianti
Region: Italy
Cost: $9
Ruby red in color with aromas of spice, cherry, and hazelnut. Flavors of fruit and berry in a medium-bodied wine. Pairs well with pasta, pizza, and most traditional Italian dishes.
Recommendations: I picked up this bottle last night after a long day of work. I’d had other Ruffino wines before and enjoyed them and was just in the mood for Chianti and thought this would be a safe bet. I should have grabbed another one. While the color and the aromas of the wine were nice – ruby red and cherry – I felt the wine was lighter than I was expecting in the mouth. The flavors were all there, berry, some cherry, and a noticeable tannic finish, but while Ruffino claims it’s medium-bodied, I felt it leaned more towards the lighter side.
While this bottle hasn’t turned me off of Ruffino wines, I definitely won’t be getting this one again, especially as there are other Chiantis out there for about the same price that have delivered for me in the past. Kinda disappointing.
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Region: California – Sonoma County – USA
Cost: $21
Lighter red in color with aromas of cherry and flavors of rose petal, pomegranate, and cherry. Time in French Oak barrels adds a hint of toasted spice on the finish. Pairs well with lamb, pork, chicken, steak, mild cheese…pretty much anything.
Recommendations: Ah Pinot Noir…my one true love (of wine – I love my wife very much). I’m always in the market for a good Pinot, and back in July, during a tasting at my local wine shop, I had the opportunity to try, and then buy, this Rodney Strong pinot noir. To be honest, I had almost forgotten it was on my wine rack until the other day when grilling some pork chops and I kicked myself for forgetting about it.
Nice and light in the glass, aromas and flavors of cherry were the most noticeable to me, with just a hint spice on the end. When paired with the grilled pork chops, the wine held up well, adding Read the rest of this entry »
Varietal: Chardonnay
Region: California – Sonoma County – USA
Cost: $11
Light in the glass with aromas of tropical fruit. Flavors of pear, apple, and pineapple with a creamy finish that pairs well with cream-sauced chicken, salmon, and mild cheeses.
Recommendations: While at Costco this weekend doing our monthly shopping trip, my wife and I picked up a bottle of the Simi Chardonnay to pair with the salmon we had already grabbed earlier in the shopping trip. The back label of the wine claimed it would pair well with salmon, and I’ve always liked Chardonnay to cut through the fat of a good piece of salmon so it sounded like a good idea.
When we cooked the salmon, we put it under the broiler with a mustard herb crust that was, at least in my opinion, quite tasty. My wife really outdid herself on that one. As for the wine itself – meh. The color was nice – a light golden color, and the flavors weren’t bad, pineapple, pear, and apple with just a hint of the creamy, buttery finish that I expect from Chardonnay, and while it did a good job of cutting through the richness of the salmon, I can’t honestly say that I would buy it again.
It’s a lowest common denominator wine. What I mean by that is that if I was having a wedding, and I had to select a red and a white to offer, this is the kind of white I would choose. It will satisfy the largest number of people, won’t cost a lot, and will go with chicken, fish, or cream pasta. It’s a generic wine. It reminded me a lot of a Yellowtail Chardonnay, which is another lowest common denomination wine.
So while the wine was ok with dinner, in the end, I know I could have done better for the price point, or at least the same for a few dollars less. Not worth picking up.
Varietal: Petite Sirah (97% Petite Sirah; 3% Petit Verdot)
Region: California – Livermore Valley – USA
Cost: $15 (SRP)
Deep red in color with aromas of fresh berry fruit and flavors of blackberries, chocolate, mocha, and plums with notes of molasses, cedarwood, and ripe mulberries complementing creak oak tones on the smooth finish. Pairs well with barbecued chicken or lamb.
Recommendations: I don’t have a lot of experience with Petite Sirah by itself, seeing it more blended in with other wines as a small piece instead of the main attraction. I had been sitting on this wine for a while, looking forward to it as I enjoyed the 2008 Concannon Conservancy Chardonnay a couple of months earlier, but regularly putting it off to have this or that wine with this or that meal. Last night I finally stopped putting it off.
I specifically threw some chicken on the grill, basting it in barbecue sauce to pair with this wine, and it was a good pairing. The flavors of plum and molasses were most noticeable to me, though I suspect that the sauce brought those flavors out more on my palate than anything and pairing the wine with something like lamb would pull out more of the other notes.
I did appreciate the smooth finish, which I’m sure the small amount of Petit Verdot had a hand in, but Read the rest of this entry »
