Posts Tagged ‘cassis’
Varietal: 94% Syrah; 6% Petite Sirah
Region: Central Coast – California – USA
Cost: $10 (SRP)
Winemaker’s Notes: Flavors of blackberry and cassis make this wine pair well with pizza, burgers, and spicy kabobs.
My Review: More Syrah? Yep, that’s really happening. Another night without the wife being home meant another steak found its fate on my grill, which called for another bottle of big red wine. The Slammer Syrah from Big House had been looking at me funny for a few weeks, so I decided to give in and twist open its screwcap to see what all was going on in there.
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon (93% Caberenet Sauvignon; 7% Syrah)
Region: California – Livermore Valley – USA
Cost: $15 (SRP)
Full bodied with aromas of berry. On the palate flavors of blackberry, plum, cassis, hints of dark chocolate and nutmeg. Subtle spices on a smooth finish. Pairs well with cheese or your favorite cut of beef.
Recommendations: I had been sitting on this bottle until I could get to the store for a good steak. It was worth the wait. Nice and bold, which is exactly what I wanted in a wine to pair with my steak this past weekend, the flavors of berry and cassis were most noticeable to me. I couldn’t get much beyond crushed berries on the nose as the alcohol aroma was a bit overwhelming, though it didn’t lessen a bit as the bottle continued to open up. Read the rest of this entry »
Varietal: Merlot (89% Merlot; 11% Cabernet Sauvignon)
Region: California – Napa Valley – USA
Cost: $21
Deep ruby red in color with aromas of blueberry, cassis, and cocoa. Berry fruit, tobacco, dark chocolate, and refined new oak all mix in the mouth. Pairs well with beef, lamb, BBQ, roasted chicken, pasta, and grilled vegetables.
Recommendations: I’ve never tried to hide my apprehension about Merlot. I’ve had bad ones in the past that had put a bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended), but had recently decided to give it a second go, partly due to some impressive Merlots coming out of Virginia. With that in mind, I opened the Folie a Deux for a dinner of pasta and red sauce.
I was instantly impressed with the deep ruby/garnet coloring of the wine, and I managed to pick up some white pepper and berry on the nose. Dark chocolate and oak were most prevalent for me in the mouth, which was a fine pairing with the dinner I’d prepared. Tannins on the finish can certainly be attributed to the big of Cabernet Sauvignon added to the wine, but it was a fairly lush, full-bodied wine – what I’d been reading about Merlot but had yet to really experienced from a California bottle.
Now, all that being said, I have a big complaint with this wine – 14.5%/vol alcohol is just too much for any wine. I know that I’ve complained before about the seeming race to see which vineyard can create the wine with the highest alcohol content that people will still drink, but it has to stop. I was barely able to get any aromas or flavors, and only those that were bold because of the aroma and flavor of alcohol that permeated this wine.
While the wine was fine with my meal, the sauce helped to cut the alcohol, by itself I found it less pleasurable. I did appreciate the full-bodied nature of the wine, and I think that with a bit less alcohol it would be a truly spectacular wine. That being said, unless you really like the taste of alcohol I have a hard time recommending this wine.
Special thanks to the International Wine of the Month Club for supplying the wine for this review.
Varietal: Mencia
Region: Spain
Cost: $21
Deep ruby color with aromas of blueberry, violet, and woods. Flavors of cherry and cassis pair with chicken, pork, salmon, and other meats. Pairs well with Spanish flavors and foods.
Recommendations: I had never heard of the Mencia varietal until the International Wine of the Month Club sent me this one to try, but as with most wine, I was open minded and reminded myself that I do in fact like Spanish wines. I loved the deep red color of the wine in the glass, but I didn’t get any blueberry on the nose myself, with the alcohol overpowering the aromas even after allowing it to open up a bit.
Pairing the wine with a steak dinner helped to cut the flavor of alcohol as well (it was 14%/vol), but after dinner with nothing to balance it, the alcohol flavor and aroma was rather overwhelming. It wasn’t until much later as I was finishing off my final glass of the wine that I started to get some of the cherry flavors coming through.
I’m having a hard time recommending this wine because it took so long for the wine to open up enough for the actual flavors to come through. If you do have this wine, decanting and letting it open for at least 20 to 30 minutes is the best advice I can give. Drinking this wine with anything other than boldly flavored food is probably going to result in the wine overpowering the meal.
Hopefully this wine isn’t indicative of the Mencia varietal, and I would certainly give another bottle of Mencia a try as the description of it sounds good, but the Pazo de Arribi Bierzo just fell short for me.
Varietal: Meritage (Merlot; Cabernet Sauvignon; Petit Verdot)
Region: California – USA
Cost: $22
Deeply colored and full bodied. Blackberry, cassis, and jammy red fruit flavors pair well with a variety of foods such as lamb chops, chicken marsala, Osso Bucco, steaks, pork, BBQ, or day old meat loaf.
Recommendations: First of all, I want to clear something up. It’s Meritage (as in “heritage”)…at the Virginia Wine Expo two weeks ago, where there were several Meritages, this became a topic of debate at several tasting tables. Ok…now on to the review.
The Surfrider Red is good. The alcohol on the nose did give way as the wine opened up more into aromas of fruit and cherry, and the red fruit flavor finished with a combination of bold tannins and earthiness that I rather enjoyed, especially since the alcohol that was on the nose didn’t come through on the palate.
Paired with a dinner of grilled BBQ chicken and some mixed veggies, the full-bodied, earthy flavor of the wine did a great job of enhancing the natural smokiness of the food without overwhelming the chicken or being overwhelmed by it. It did what wine is supposed to do – complimented the meal.
While this wine certainly isn’t life-altering in any way, it was very enjoyable both with the meal and after, and was perfect with the BBQ – something that I feel will be a bigger issue as the weather begins to warm. For those getting ready to start grilling, the Surfrider is definitely one to consider.
Special thanks to the International Wine of the Month Club for providing the wine for this review.
Varietal: Blended Red (Sangiovese, Syrah, Carignan, Barbera, Zinfandel, Mourvedre, Montepulciano, Petit Verdot, Tannat, Aglianico, Petite Sirah, Nero d’Avola, Grenache)
Region: California – USA
Cost: $7 – $10
Cherry, raspberry, blueberry, cassis, and chocolate flavors all blend together. Pair this wine with chicken, ground beef, pizza.
Recommendations: I’ll be the first to admit, my wife and I first paid attention to this wine because of the bottle. We thought, if nothing else, it would look good over our cabinets (see my previous post if you haven’t already). Having looked over the list of what was in the wine, we decided that the wine would go better with pizza, and so when we ordered a pizza one evening, we opened the bottle.
I wanted to like this wine, I really did. I’m a fan of most of the varietals that they used to blend it, and I’m a firm believer in table wines that aren’t impressive, but aren’t bad. Unfortunately, the Big House Red just left me shrugging. It wasn’t terrible in a pour the bottle out kind of way, but it just didn’t do anything to make me pay attention – good or bad. Read the rest of this entry »
