Wine Tasting - Elementalist - 2021 Pinot Grigio

Name: Elementalist

Variety: Pinot Grigio

Region: Mendocino, CA

Country: United States

Vintage: 2021

Price: $6.99

Wine and Cheese Pairing 2

 This is the second wine and cheese pairing I am writing about. This time, rather than having 3 wines and 5 cheeses and tasting every combination, we had three pairings total. The three pairings are as noted below.

1. Yellow Tail Pure Bright 2020 Chardonnay paired with Swiss cheese.
2. Bee You 2020 Riesling paired with Muenster.
3. Chateau Saint-Michel 2016 Bordeaux Supérieur paired with Gouda.

Name: Yellow Tail Pure Bright

Variety: Chardonnay

Country: Australia

Vintage: 2020

Price: $8

Fruity aromas paired with hay and floral notes. Buttery fruit flavor as well as a slight moss finish. Not too complex but pretty good for only $8.

Swiss Cheese Pairing:

The Swiss cheese was very mild, so the wine overpowered it a little, but the flavors did work well together. The creamy nature of the cheese as well as the slight funk paired nicely with the buttery flavor of the wine. It also made the wine a little more acidic. 

Overall, this pairing was not bad, but a stronger cheese would have definitely benefited this wine. One of the other people at this tasting decided to taste some pepper jack cheese with this wine and she said the spice did not pair well with the sweet semi-dry wine. 

Name: Bee You

Variety: Riesling

Region: Monterey Country, CA

Country: United States

Vintage: 2020

Price: $10

Floral and honeysuckle aromas as well as slightly fruity (raspberry) and bready. Flavors are very similar being sweet honey and floral. The alcohol comes through decently making it feel a little hot whilst still being sweet.

Muenster Cheese Pairing:

Similar to the Swiss cheese, the muenster was very mild in flavor, so the wine overpowered it a little. The sweet honey in the wine did compliment the creamy cheese making the wine a little sweeter and less acidic. I was very neutral to this pairing, as I tasted very little difference in the wine and the wine itself was a little sweeter than I usually enjoy. I know mild creamy cheeses often go well with sweet wine as the wine can balance out some of the richness of the cheese. However, for me this pairing was only alright. 

Name: Chateau Saint-Michel Bordeaux Supérieur

Variety: Merlot

Region: Bordeaux

Country: France

Vintage: 2016

Price: $15

Aromas of dark berries and fruit such as blackberry and plum as well as an earthy/moss undertone. Very dry and tannic with flavors of black currant and plum. Definitely could have been aged a little longer or decanted.

Gouda Cheese Pairing:

Not only was this the wine and cheese I brought, but this was by far my favorite pairing of wine and cheese I've done yet. The wine was very tannic, so the salty, funky and very creamy cheese perfectly balanced out the tannins. The salt and funk also worked very well with the dark fruits. I did a little research when deciding the cheese to pair with the Bourdeaux I already had. As gouda is one of my favorite cheeses and also one of the recommended pairings with Merlot, I had to try them together.

Conclusions:

This was a pretty successful pairing not only due to the last pairing, but also since the first two taught me a little about what I can pick up when pairing wines. I learned that mild cheeses can be difficult to pair, and a mild wine might be necessary if you want significant differences. This is likely due to my inexperienced palate, but my preferences are very important for me to consider in my future wine drinking.

Wine Tasting - Castleridge Carneros - 2021 Chardonnay

Name: Castleridge Carneros

Variety: Chardonnay

Region: Napa, CA

Country: United States

Vintage: 2021

Price: $12.99

Wine Tasting - CK Mondavi and Family - 2021 Red Blend

Name: CK Mondavi and Family Red Blend

Variety: Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot

Region: St. Helena, CA

Country: United States

Vintage: 2021

Price: $6.99

Wine Dinner 1: Experimenting with Boxed Wine

I decided to have a small dinner in which I experimented with tasting wines that I usually wouldn't consider trying (minus the first wine). Boxed wine has, for many people, given the impression of being cheaply made and low quality compared to bottled wine. However, Professor Boyer stated in one of his lectures that boxed wine can actually be good quality and even has the benefit of lasting longer once opened. 

The three courses I had during this meal were as follows:

1. Salad with berries paired with Risata Moscato d'Asti '21
2. Spicy tuna sushi roll paired with Woodbridge Red Blend '17
3. Carrot Cake paired with Black Box Merlot '20

I wanted to try a few of my favorite foods paired with wines that I probably wouldn't otherwise have purchased to see just how valuable boxed wines can be.

First Course: Salad with berries paired with Risata Moscato d'Asti '21

Name: Risata Moscato d'Asti

Variety: Moscato

Country: Italy

Vintage: 2021

Price: $5.49 (quarter bottle)

Wine and Cheese Pairing 1

Wine has always been known to go well with cheese, but I can't say I've ever spent the time tasting them together. 2 of my friends and I decided to select 3 wines and 5 cheeses to taste together and take some notes on their combinations.

Wine:

1. Pioneiro Vinho Tinto
2. Raza Vinho Verde
3. Alain De La Treille Vouvray Chenin Blanc

Cheese:

1. Cranberry Cinnamin Goat Cheese
2. Dill Havarti
3. Smoked Cheddar
4. Smoked Gouda
5. Honey Goat Cheese

              

                                               

I'll start with my tasting/aroma notes of the wines before we paired them with cheese.

Name: Pioneiro Vinho Tinto

Variety: Castelao (60%), Aragones (30%), Syrah (10%)

Region: Vinho Regional Peninsula De Setubal

Country: Portugal

Vintage: 2020

Price: $12.98

Drink This Now: Lesson 4: Got Wood? The Influence of oak on wine

Today I participated in a wine tasting at the Wine Lab in Blacksburg, VA. This tasting went along with Drink This Now: Lesson 4. The objective of this lesson is to see if you can identify the influence of oak barrel aging on a wine and also see if you can identify different oaks used. For this, three Chardonnays were tasted:

1. Alondra Chardonnay '18 Mendocino, California $12/52
2. Thelema Chardonnay '19 Stellenbosch, South Africa $14/56
3. Harken Chardonnay '20 California $10/40

Step 1:

First, try each glass of the chilled wine. Describe the color, smell, flavors, etc.

Alondra:

    Light yellowish gold color with a fruity nose most resembling apple. Potentially a slight woody flavor but not sure if that is due to my expectations that 2/3 of the wines were barrel aged. The flavor of this wine was mainly apple.

Thelema:

    Similar to the Alondra, this wine is a light-yellow color with much more pronounced oaky and buttery aromas. This one was not nearly as fruity as the wood was the main note. On the tongue the toasted wood also pushed through.

Harken:

    Much darker more golden yellow color in this wine. Aromas of fruit and fruit cocktail as well as a light almost balsa wood. Tasted buttery with light apple and a slight woody flavor.

Step 2:

As you go back and forth from one wine to the next one a few times, be sure to cleanse your palate with a bit of bread or plain crackers, sip some water as well if you need to.

Between each wine I took a bite of a pretzel cracker and rinsed my glass out with a bit of water.

Step 3:

Let the wine sit for a few minutes, until it gets to room temperature.

Alondra:

    The fruit flavor became a little more subtle but otherwise not too much change.

Thelema:

    The woody flavor pushed through the light fruit and made the wine taste more of toasted oak.

Harken:

    Even more buttery and smooth with the wood finish.

Step 4:

Try to guess which Chardonnay is unoaked, French oak and American Oak.

To me, it was obvious that the Alondra was unoaked as the fruit flavors were way more prominent. The Thelema had a more toasted/spicy wood flavor which I guessed to be the French oak after doing some research. Similarly, the Harken seemed to be the American oak with its buttery wood finish.

It turned out that my guesses were correct.

This lesson was very interesting to me because I am a big fan of Whiskey which is aged on roasted barrels. I was assuming the toastier oak wine (Thelema) would be my favorite and I do think this may have been the case.