Posts Tagged ‘international wine of the month club’
Varietal: Blended Red Wine (40% Prugnolo Gentile; 30% Cabernet Sauvignon; 30% Merlot)
Region: Italy
Cost: $21
Deep ruby red color with aromas of spring flowers, red fruits, minerals, and subtle earth tones. Fruit flavors are continued on the palate. Pairs well with lentil soup, minestrone soup, rotisserie chickens, or a bread and cheese platter.
Recommendations: This past weekend I was in Charleston, South Carolina visiting my brother-in-law and his wife and I took this bottle with me to share with family – something about Italian wine has always beckoned me to share it with others. While in the space between preparing dinner (hamburgers on the grill) and actually eating dinner, we opened up the bottle to help us relax after a long day.
I was instantly impressed by the color, being a sucker for dark red wines. Aromas of mineral and earth were very noticeable to me, with hints of fruit on the nose as well. The fruit on the palate was subtle, but I did a nice earthiness at the finish that I found very enjoyable. While we didn’t pair this with any actual food, I could definitely see pairing this with a range of foods, from a nice minestone soup to a more robust meal of either pasta or grilled meats.
When asked my opinion on it by the others drinking the wine, I simply said that it was Italian. It’s hard for me to really put into words what that really means, but the second I sipped the wine, I instantly got the image of sitting in Tuscany, sipping wine and munching on fresh baked pizza from a stone oven. My father-in-laws reaction to the wine was more along the lines of “mmm…I like it!” I like to think he means the same thing I do.
Special thanks to the International Wine of the Month Club for supplying the wine for this review.
Varietal: Blended Red Wine (33% Syrah; 33% Barbera; 33%Petite Sirah)
Region: California – USA
Cost: $19.50
Deep purple in the glass with aromas and flavors of blueberry, black cherry, cedar, and mulberry with a tannic zip on the finish. Pairs well with Italian, Tex/Mex, spare ribs, burgers, steaks, pizza, meatloaf.
Recommendations: It was interesting for me to look over the tasting notes from this California wine and not see Cabernet Sauvignon thrown into the mix. Now before I get a bunch of hate mail/comments, I know that California makes more than just Cabernet, just feels like every time I get a blended wine from there, some Cab manages to find its way in, so it was nice to see one without.
When I poured the wine into the glass I almost feel in love right there. The deep purple color of the wine assured me that this would not be a light wine that would be overpowered by my meal. Not that I was worried a quick dinner of pizza would overpower most any red, but I was sure that it would hold up to even the thickest, juiciest, most seasoned steak I could come up with. I was right.
It took a while for the aromas to come out for me as the smell of alcohol was fairly prevalent at first, but after allowing the wine to open up I did start to get some of the black cherry on the nose. I can’t speak to the mulberry on the palate (as I don’t know what a mulberry tastes like to be honest), but the same cherry that I was getting on the nose came through in the mouth.
My favorite part of this wine was the nice tannic finish. I’ve always been a fan of a red that sort of kicks you at the end, and this wine did just that for me. That’s not to say that the tannins were over the top, but they were there and present and there’s no missing them. The wine was good with my pizza dinner, but I could have easily paired this with a steak or some pasta and it would have been just as good if not better.
Fortunately, for being a more bold wine, even after the food was gone the wine was still quite enjoyable. Granted I enjoy fuller wines even just to sip on without food. All in all it’s definitely a wine I would give another go to, especially this time of year as I’m spending a lot of time either grilling steaks and burgers or making quick dinners of pizza or pasta.
Special thanks to the International Wine of the Month Club for supplying the sample for this review.
For those looking for the wine you can order it directly from Home Grown Farms.
Varietal: Zinfandel
Region: California – Sonoma – USA
Cost: $20.50
Aromas of blueberry, bramble, chocolate, and white pepper. Crushed berries, mint, and tobacco on the palate with oak tones. Pairs well with grilled pork chops, braised ribs, Italian sausage, calzones, lasagna, manicotti, pizza, burgers, steaks, BBQ, fried chicken, meatloaf.
Recommendations: I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been a bit wary of Zinfandel of late. It’s not that I don’t like the grape, I’m a fan of it, especially this time of year, but I’ve seen a trend in really high alcohol content on it as of late, and of that I am not a fan. Fortunately, the bottle of Dry Creek Vineyard Heritage Zinfandel that was sent to me by the International Wine of the Month Club had a much more modest alcohol content.
Sporting 13.5% by volume, the aromas of blueberry and white pepper were able to come through on the nose, not being overwhelmed by the alcohol. In the mouth I got tobacco and Read the rest of this entry »
Varietal: Syrah; Grenache
Region: France – Rhone
Cost: $20.50
Red and black fruit aromas dominate the nose with flavors of creme de cassis, herbs, and hints of pepper and spice. Pairs well with roast leg of lamb, ratatouille, grilled meats, grilled vegetables, tomato and cream based pasta dishes, and pizza.
Recommendations: If there’s one area of blatant weakness in my wine knowledge, it’s French wine. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed it when I’ve partaken in it, it’s simply that I haven’t done enough with it to feel truly comfortable selecting it on my own in a store. Because of that, I was actually quite happy when the International Wine of the Month Club sent me a sample of the Guigal Cotes du Rhone Rouge.
Deep purplish red in the glass, I got some aromas of berry, but the 13.5% alcohol was very prevalent. Paired with a dinner of wheat pasta with tomato sauce and ground Italian sausage, the wine was quite enjoyable. Juicy is the best word I can use to describe it in the mouth, with some of the berry that was on the nose coming through and pairing nicely with the sauce from the pasta. Read the rest of this entry »
Varietal: Malbec
Region: Argentina
Cost: $20
Deep purple color with aromas of spice and berry that leads into flavors of crushed fruit, with licorice and tannins on the finish. Pairs well with pasta, smoked meats, pizza, and really anything but seafood.
Recommendations: When I received a box of samples from the International Wine of the Month Club, I’ll admit that I was eager to open up this bottle. My wife and I are big fans of Malbec, mostly because of how versatile the wine is. The Urban Uco Malbec did not disappoint. The deep purple of the wine in the glass was inviting all by itself, and the aroma of spice made it hard to take a moment before sipping the wine.
Crushed fruit and berry was immediately obvious in the mouth, which quickly faded into a licorice flavor with a subtle tannic finish. It was great. Paired with a dinner of pepperoni pizza, it was the perfect compliment to a simple dinner, and enjoyable well after the pizza was gone. What was most impressive about this wine was that if I hadn’t read the label, I wouldn’t have known that the wine had 14% alcohol/volume. Excellent job of masking a high alcohol content behind amazing flavors. 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.
