Tasting: Jam Jar

Wine: Jam Jar
Variety: Sweet White
Region: South Africa
Year: 2014
Price: $8.95

Critic Review: This charming, easy-drinking Moscato offers flavors of peach, apricot, lychee and orange blossom. A lively jolt of acidity keeps it fresh and fruity. Fancy enough for a special occasion toast, yet sweet-natured enough to enjoy every day, our bright and cheerful sweet wines are sure to capture your heart.

My Review: This wine had a great nose. It smelled nice and clean, and there was a hint of orange and peach. The taste was a little surprising, but very pleasant. This sweet wine had a little zing to it, but it left the palate feeling clean and refreshed. I really enjoyed this wine, and I would imagine it pairs well with a light and tart dessert, like a tartlet with fruit.

Overall, I really enjoyed this wine!

Tasting: Rare Red

Wine: Rare Red
Variety: Zindandel, Petite Syrah, Petite Verdot, Merlot
Region: California
Year: Unknown
Price: $9.95

Critic Review: A multi-vintage blend of Zinfandel, Petite Verdot, Petite Syrah, and Merlot that is full-bodied and fruit forward with a spicy and complex finish. This wine has been partially barrel aged for eight months in American and French oak.

My Review: I was not a fan of this wine. The nose on it had a heat to it, and I got a licorice scent. The taste was surprisingly spicy, and it left my mouth feeling very raw. This wine was not my cup of tea, but for those who enjoy heat in their wine, this would be one for them.

Overall, I did not like this wine.

Tasting: Breca Tovana

Wine: Breca Tovana
Variety: Old Vine Garnacha
Region: Munebrega, Spain
Year: 2013
Price: $8.95

Critic Review: Gnarled vines, grown without irrigation, are a mainstay of Spain’s winemaking tradition and produce small clusters of perfectly ripe Garnacha grapes. Aromas of blackberries, plums, and cherries fill the glass and develop into luscious flavors of black stone fruit. Long, supple tannins complete this extraordinary wine.

My Review: The nose on this wine smelled like fruit, and I was overpowered by the cherry smell. I did not have high hopes for liking this wine. While I was correct, I was surprised about some of the flavoring in this wine. I was able to get some plum mixed in with the cherries, but the tannins really overtook my palate. I was left with a very bitter  taste.

Overall, I did not really enjoy this wine.

Tasting: Marques de Caceres

Wine: Marques de Caceres 
Variety: Verdejo
Region: Rueda, Spain
Year: 2013
Price: $9.95

Critic Review: Vivid straw colour. Fresh, clean and intense bouquet enlivened by notes of citrus fruit with a depth of pears and apples. Deliciously fresh and full in the mouth where racy, focused flavours deliver notes of minerals, lemon rind and green apples. Good length and a refreshing finish. Has all the character of the best from its appellation.

My Review: The nose on this wine was great. It was full of citrus, and it smelled very clean. The taste surprised me a little, and I got a big taste of apples. My palate felt very refreshed after drinking this wine. I think it would pair well with a fruit pie.

Overall, I really enjoyed this wine!

Tasting: Dibon Cava

Wine: Dibon Cava
Variety: Xarello, Macabeo, Parellada
Region: Catalonia, Spain
Year: unknown
Price: $9.95

Critic Review: Made from 45% Macabeo, 25% Xarel-lo, 30% Parellada, the nose offers regal yeast and richness, while the palate has complexity to prop up apple, citrus and grapefruit flavors. Solid from front to back, with health and freshness. Cava, Catalan sparkling wine, is made mostly in the regions of Penedes, and the capital of cava is Sant Sadurni d´Anoia. Dibon is located in Vilafranca del Penedes, approximately 20 Km from Sant Sadurni. The Dibon vineyard is in the process of becoming fully organic. It consists of 75 hectares of trellised vines 1000 feet above the Mediterranean Sea.

My Review: This wine was a little dry for my liking, but it was not too bad. It smelled a little bit fruity, and tasted a lot like a bucket of fruit. I enjoyed the fizziness, and I think it would pair well with a dessert of some sort.

Overall, I enjoyed this wine! 

Wine Dinner: Pizza Night

This week for wine dinner, we kept all of our foods and wines pretty basic. We had cheddar cheese for an "appetizer", Domino's Pizza for the main course, and a peanut-butter cup pie for dessert. For wine, we had a pink moscato, a cabernet sauvignon, and a moscato. We did not put much thought into
these pairings, so we had some very interesting results.

For our appetizer, which really was more like a quick snack, we had Kroger brand sharp cheddar cubes. By themselves, these cubes are pretty basic tasting. The fact that it was sharp cheddar made them a little more flavorful than usual. The pink moscato (Gum Drop Pink Moscato) made the cubes taste more buttery, and much less sharp than they normally are. By itself, it is quite light and fruity with a little bit of a fizz to it. This was quite differnt from the cabernet sauvignon (Century Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon) which made the cheddar cubes much sharper. The cabernet sauvignon was not my favorite wine to begin with, so I was not surprised by this effect. The moscato (Beringer Moscato) was not a bad wine by itself. It was a pretty run of the mill mosacto, but it had an interesting interaction with the cheddar cubes. It definitely lost some of its sweetness, and it sort of enhanced the cheese's bite. It was a very interesting pairing.

Our main course was different kinds of Domino's Pizza. I personally sampled all of my wines with plain cheese pizza. I was not very surprised when a lot of my experience with the pizza was similar to the cheese cubes we had for appetizers. The biggest difference was the crust. Domino's has this nice seasoning on their crust that is somewhat garlicy, which greatly impacts the flavors of wines. The pink moscato lost a lot of its sweetness with the crust, and it replaced it with an odd sort of dry taste. It is a very hard flavor to describe. The cabernet sauvignon didn't go with the pizza at all. It was very hard for me to put my finger on which one impacted the other more. The pizza made the wine more acidic, while the wine somehow seemed to dry out the pizza. I did not enjoy that particular pairing. The merlot with the pizza was yet another mismatched tasting. These were two very different tastes. and they just didn't flow together very well.

For dessert we had a peanut-butter cup pie. The pie by itself was quite sweet, and I had never paired peanut butter flavored anything together with wine before. I enjoyed the pink moscato and the moscato with the pie very much, but the cabernet sauvignon was not a good pair.

Wine and Cheese: The Second Experience

This week, some friends and I got together to do a wine and cheese pairing. We all have very different tastes, so we were very curious to see what each of us would enjoy, and what we wouldn't like so

Goat, cheddar, and brie cheese

much. We had three different kinds of cheese: goat cheese, cheddar cheese, and brie. We also had three different kinds of wine: a merlot, a pinot noir, and a sweet red wine. Each of us took something different away form each pairing, and there were some none of us were fans of.

For our first wine and cheese pairing, we used the pinot noir. This pinot noir was a 2013 Estancia from Monterey County in California. By itself, it was slightly bitter and had hints of earthy tones to it. I actually didn't mind this pinot noir, which surprised me. When I tasted it with the goat cheese, I was surprised. The goat cheese by itself was very smooth and creamy, but with the wine it was quite bitter. The tannins in the wine seemed to be enhanced, and I was not a fan. The cheddar cheese was not much better. By itself, the cheddar had a smooth buttery taste to it. When paired with the wine, it really seemed to enhance the tannins in the

Estancio Pinot Noir, 2013

wine. This wine did not have a good start to how well it was pairing with cheese. Unfortunately, it finished just as weakly with the brie. The brie by itself was smooth and had a bit of a punch to it, but with the wine the punch was pushed up a few notches. Not only did the cheese pack more of a punch, the wine did as well. I was not a big fan of this wine with any of the wines we chose to sample it with.

The next wine we tried for our wine and cheese pairing was the merlot. This Mondavi Merlot was a nice dark color, and it had many earthy tones with quite a bit more tannic acid than I prefer. It left a sort of spicy after taste behind in my palate. Pairing this wine with goat cheese was not horrible, but not great. The cheese again enhanced the tannins in the wine, but the wine did

Mondavi Merlot

not take away from the smoothness of the cheese. The cheddar cheese actually sweetened the merlot. By itself, this cheese was very buttery tasting. Whatever made it buttery rubbed off when eating this cheese with this wine. I liked the pairing of the cheddar and the merlot. I had quite a different response to the brie and merlot. This combination burned. The spice factor in the merlot was greatly enhanced, and my throat had quite and after burn after this combination. 

The last wine we tried with cheese was the sweet red. I have wanted to try a sweet red for awhile, so I decided with cheese would be a good time to do it. I discovered there might not ever be a good time to do a sweet red. I picked up a bottle of Childress Muscadine Sweet Red Wine, and I can honestly say I have never been so disappointed in a wine. My immediate thought when

Childress Muscadine Sweet Red Wine

tasting this wine was cough syrup. My friends didn't think that at first, and they actually didn't mind the wine. As soon as I said cough syrup, that was all they could taste. I hated this wine so much I was not able to stomach it with the cheese. I would imagine that none of these cheeses would have paired well with this wine. I imagine that not much of anything pairs well with this wine. This was very disappointing to me.

Tasting: Hahn Piesporter Michelsberg

Wine: Hahn Piesporter Michelsberg
Variety: Reisling
Region: Unknown, guessing Germany?
Year: Unknown
Price: $9.95

Critic Review: This wine’s light, airy mouthfeel belies its sweetness and intensity of flavor. Honeyed pineapple aromas; similar flavors on the palate, adding gentle citrus notes toward the long, sweet finish.

My Review: This wine had a nice nose on it. It was similar to several other Reislings I have had. It was nice and light, and I was able to get the pineapple scent out of it. The taste was quite nice. The wine went down very smoothly, and it left my palate feeling quite refreshed.

Overall I enjoyed this wine a lot. It was pretty typical of Reisling, and I really enjoyed the pineapple flavors.

Tasting: Tres Ojos Garnacha

Wine: Tres Ojos Garnacha
Variety: Calatayud
Region: Calatayud, Spain
Year: 2012
Price: $6.95


Critic Review: 88 points – Robert Parker. "The 2012 Tres Ojos Garnacha contains 15% Tempranillo (I wonder why), and unoaked cuvée of 200,000 bottles that matures in vat for at least seven months before bottling. What I tasted was a very honest, fresh and fruit-driven red with aromas of cherries, garrigue and thyme with a medium-bodied palate, some weight and tannins that would do better with food. This is a red that sells for a song.”

My Review: The nose on this wine was not my favorite. It smelled a lot like cherries, but when I tried to smell past that I was able to get some light spices. My expectations for the taste of this wine was not that high. I know my palate well now, and I was correct. The cherry flavor was overwhelming to me, and the wine overall just seemed too heavy for my liking. 

Overall I did not really like this wine. I think it would pair well with a red meat.

Tasting: Torre Castillo

Wine: Torre Castillo
Variety: Cosecha Monastrell
Region: Jumilla, Spain
Year: 2011
Price: $7.95

Critic Review: 89 points - Stephen Tanzer. 100% Monastrell, aged in American oak for four months. Bright ruby. Powerful, spicy aromas of dark berry preserves and lavender. Fleshy and round on the palate, offering spicy blackberry and blueberry flavors and gaining sweetness with air. Finishes smooth, long and slightly warm. 

My Review: This wine had a very interesting smell to it. It smelled like flowers, but at the same time smelled spicy. It reminded me a lot of when you put spices on your stove to make the house smell good. The taste of this wine was not my favorite, but it was not that bad. I got some fruity flavors, but to me it felt like it should be a hot drink.

Overall, this was not one of my favorite wines. I think it would pair well with a light dessert.