Wine Samplings with my Family

I was in Nashville, TN over the weekend spending time with my family. It was a celebratory weekend for many reasons (my mom's birthday, my sister is getting married, I am graduating) so we had lots of wine this weekend!! I tried some great wines.

Cupcake Pinot Grigio

Name: Cupcake Pinot Grigio
Country: Italy

 Year: 2011

 Price:  $8.95

Wine Review:
Our Pinot Grigio is full with a nose that shows hints of pineapple, pears and sweet lemons. The body is full and gives way to a creamy mid-palate, integrating tropical fruits with the vibrant zing of citrus fruits. It is reminiscent of a pineapple upside down cupcake.”

My Review:

This wine was enjoyable. It was smooth and crisp with a hint of sweetness. I tasted some hints of fruit in the flavor.

 

Rombauer Chardonnay

Name: Rombauer Chardonnay
Country:Carneros

 Year: 2010

 Price:  $32

Wine Review:
Golden yellow color with a pale hue. Seductive aromas of peach, melon, and citrus are balanced with honeysuckle and vanilla. On the palate, flavors of pears, peaches and melons are backed with lively acidity. A nice touch of vanilla-scented oak provides an added flavor dimension. The creamy palate has a lingering finish of melon and citrus fruit with a satisfying buttery complexity. Our favorite pairing for this wine includes scallops in a cream sauce, pasta carbonara, chicken risotto and Cornish game hen.

My Review:

This was a great bottle of wine. One of the nicer wines I have had the opportunity to try! It had flavors of melon and fruit while still remaining oakey and buttery. It was a complex taste that I enjoyed a lot. 

Korbel Champagne

Name: Korbel California Champagne
Country: Italy

 Year: 2010

 Price:  $19.99

Wine Review:
Variety of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, French Colombard and Pinot Noir

My Review:

This was just a fun wine we opened to celebrate! The champagne was very bubbly and sweet. It was fun to have a glass of, but not something I would want to drink often. It kind of gave me a headache. I think the champagne was rather sweet and lacked complexity. 

Cupcake Riesling

Name: Cupcake Riesling
Country: Columbia Valley, Washington

 Year: 2010

 Price:  $8.95

Wine Review:
This year's Cupcake Dry Riesling is bold, with the luscious aromas and favors of grapefruit, pineapple and nectarine. We maintain a regimen of stirring the wine on its lees to add a creamy mid palate and long subtle finish. True to form, this wine finishes with length and leaves one wanting another glass. Enjoy with any and all Asian cuisine, shellfish risotto, or a spicy chicken tagine.

My Review:

Loved this wine. Riesling has definitely become a favorite of mine, and this one was great. It was a dry Riesling which I really enjoyed, because it was more complex and deep than a simple sweet Riesling. However, it was still sweet and fruity which I loved.

Chateau St Jean Cabernet Sauvignon

Name: Chateau St Jean Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: California

 Year: 2010

 Price:  $12

My Review:

Deep wine with a deep red color. It was very intense and had a dry, complex taste. However, it also had a subtle sweetness to it that I really enjoyed and that helped make it more complex.

Wine Tasting 4/5

Vintage Cellar Tasting

April 5, 2012

gPG Garganega Pinot Grigio

 

Name: gPG Garganega Pinot Grigio
Country: Italy

 Year: 2010

 Price:  $8.95

Wine Review:
gPG is from the delle Venezie regions of northeastern Italy. A clean and crisp palate with plenty of texture and weight follows aromas of apples and zesty lemons. It's perfect with grilled white fish or light risotto.

My Review:

This wine was very crisp and refreshing. I tasted hints of apple and citrus in this wine. It would have been great with a light fish or chicken recipe. I enjoyed this wine a lot. 

Montebuena Rioja Crianza

 Name: Montebuena Rioja Crianza
Country: Spain

 Year: 2007

 Price:  $6.95

Wine Review:
100% Tempranillo. Dark red. Spicy red berries and cherry on the nose, with hints of cracked pepper and dried rose. Crisp and dry on the palate, with spicy redcurrant and cherry flavors, light tannins and a fresh, energetic finish. An excellent value, and surprisingly elegant for this price point.

My Review: 

This was a very rich wine. The color was deeply red, and the smell was intensely alcoholic. It tasted very dry, and even had a hint of spice to it. I could definitely also taste a cherry flavor in it. This wine was maybe a little too intense for my liking.

Varas Vinho Tinto

 Name: Varas Vinho Tinto
Country: Portugal

 Year: n/a
Price:  $5.49/bottle ($21.95 for 4 bottles)

Wine Review:
This smooth Portuguese red is a blend of Castelão (45%), Tinta Roriz (25%), Tinta Barroca (20%) and Pinot Noir (10%). The vineyards are located near Lisbon, planted in sunny gentle slopes of clay and limestone soils. The wine was aged in oak barrels.

My Review:

This wine was definitely very oakey. I was not surprised to read it had been aged in oak barrels because that is the flavor I tasted most. Like the one before, the color was also very dark and the flavor was very rich. The body was pretty smooth and I liked it a fair amount.

Cantina di Casteggio

 Name: Cantina di Casteggio
Variety: Moscato
Country: Italy
Year: n/a
Price:  $7.95

Wine Review:
Bright, light golden color. Very aromatic nose of ripe apricots, sage, honey and a slight minerality. Medium bodied, sweet and fruity with flavors of apricots and tangerine. Well balanced acidity and medium finish with layers of sweet and citrus fruit.

My Review: 

This was my kind of wine! Super sweet! Almost too sweet actually... I could taste almost no alcohol and mainly just sugar. If you can handle the super sweetness, it was a good wine. I definitely tasted the fruitiness in the wine. 

Oveja Negra

 Name: Oveja Negra
Variety: Syrah-Cab Rose
Country: Chile
Year: 2010
Price:  $6.95

Wine Review:
Oveja Negra Reserva Rosé is bright cherry-red in color and has an attractive nose with aromas of raspberries and strawberries as well as plum and a bit of green apple. Crisp and juicy on the palate with a slight sweetness that accompanies the red fruit flavors. Pleasing natural acidity with medium high intensity, nice persistence, and a fresh finish.

My Review: 
I really enjoyed the complexity of this rose wine. It had noticeable fruitiness to it, while also remaining somewhat acidic. This wine had a great finish and aftertaste of berry.

Vintage Cellar Tasting 3/29

Vintage Cellar Wine Tasting

3/29/12

 Name: Primo Amore Moscato
Variety: Moscato
Country: Italy
Year: n/a
Price:  $8.95

Winery Review:
Straw-yellow with golden reflections and a delicate mousse. Fruity and very inviting, with intense scents of peaches and exotic fruit. Fresh and pleasantly sweet with a taste that reveals its varietal
characteristic.

My Review: The wine smelled fruity with hints of honey and nectar in it. It tasted very sweet and sugary, maybe too sugary. However, I did enjoy the taste of fruit on my palate when I tasted it. 

 Name: Faraway Farms Shiraz
Variety: Shiraz
Country: South Africa
Year: 2008
Price:  $5.95

Winery Review: Fresh, modern style, with lots of plum pudding, sweet chocolate, mocha, blackberry and boysenberry flavors supported by round, sweet tannins and toast.

My Review: Like the description says, this wine did smell like plum and blackberry. It smelled sweet and fruity, but also rich and decadent. It was sweeter than I expected to taste, and pleasantly good. I liked the sweet aftertaste.

 Name: Oak Vineyard Chardonnay
Variety: Chardonnay
Region: Napa and Sonoma California
Country: United States
Year: 2010
Price:  $5.95

Winery Review: Quite an interesting Chardonnay, in an era when so many are too sweet and extracted. There’s plenty of orange and apricot fruit flavor, but also a brilliant streak of minerality, like a lick of cold steel, and the overall taste is dry. Really easy to like, with lots of complexity to warrant repeated sipping.

My Review: This was an interesting wine. I was expecting a somewhat sweeter taste because it was a chardonnay. But it did taste very buttery and oakey, much like Chardonnays from California usually do. It also had a fruity taste to it. It was a very complex wine with many different flavors going on.  I enjoyed that a lot. It would be fun to pair with some appetizers. 

 Name: Obikwa Sauvignon Blanc
Variety: Sauvignon Blanc
Country: South Africa

 Year: 2010
Price:  $7.95

Winery Review: OBiKWA Sauvignon Blanc is the ideal summer wine and smacks of crisp tropical fruit with a smattering of gooseberries and fig. If you're planning a night out with mates - don't forget to bring along a bottle of this yummy potion!

My Review: This wine smelled and tasted very citrus. I could immediately smell the fruitiness that I later tasted. The aftertaste was sweet and interesting; I enjoyed it. Like the description says, it would be a great summer wine on a warm night. 

 

Name: Tres Ojos Old Vines
Variety: Garnacha
Country: Spain
Year: 2009 

Price:  $6.95

Winery Review: Bright ruby color. Primary dark berry aromas are simple but offer very good purity and focus. Juicy blackberry and bitter cherry flavors are youthfully tangy, with good back-end acidity adding snap. The clean, brisk finish leaves behind notes of sweet dark berry preserves and cracked pepper.

My Review: This wine smelled very much like alcohol and very intense. It had a peppery smell to it as well. It had a dry and bitter taste while also having some fruit undertones I tasted.