California Zinfandel vs. French Bordeaux

While I was at home in Richmond this past weekend, I enjoyed a nice dinner with my family where we decided to have a wine showdown.  The competition was between a California Zinfandel and French Bordeaux wine.  My father had returned from Paris, France two days previous to our family dinner, and brought home some bottles of wine for my family to enjoy. Coincidently, one part of this wine and food pairing went perfect with our lecture on Thursday focusing on French wines, so I felt very knowledgeable around the dinner table and didn’t hold back to offer my wisdom when I could.   

Learning in lecture, that France is still the “Disney World” of wines, I was very excited to try the wine my Dad brought back.  It was a Boudreaux wine from Chateau La Rose Beausejour. The Grand Vin De Bourdeux is from the Cotes De Castillon region.  It was bottled in 2007 “mis en boutelle au chateau”, which translates to bottled at the chateau.  

            I opened the bottle and poured a little in the glass to observe the color, smell, and taste. I brought the glass up to eye level and saw a medium ruby color. I swirled the glass in an attempt to observe the legs and noticed a fair amount of reminiscence on the glass. Upon initial smell, I got hints of cigars, subtle of earthy tones, and a crisp bark. The aromatics enticed me to try the wine and see what it tasted like on the pallet.  Upon tasting it, it went down smoothly and tasted similar to the aromatics.  It was definitely a medium to full-bodied Boudreaux that presented bold flavors on the palate.  I tasted spices with a hint of earthiness in this wine.  Although I have tasted spicy wines before, this spice was not overwhelming and was very smooth in my mouth. 

            After sampling the Grand Vin De Bourdeux, I was sure that no one could compare.  However, I was very impressed with the Summerland 2006 Zinfandel.  The grape used to make this wine is originally from Croatia and is widely planted throughout California.  

            The Summerland Zinfandel is a dark purple color with evident tannins upon swirling.  When I took a sniffy sniff I smelled berries, spice, and a lot of pepper.  I was expecting the wine to be very spicy when I tasted it after the definite spice aroma, but I was very surprised when I tasted it.  I tasted a relatively sweet flavor, almost a mix of berries and vanilla flavoring.  I swirled it in my mouth, and appreciated the smoothness upon swallowing. 

After about ten minutes, I tasted the wine again and started tasting more hints of spice and pepper.  I thought this wine was very balanced and offered a good variety of flavors.  For about $20, I thought this wine offered excellent value and a variety of flavors that make it compatible with an array of foods. 

            My family chose to Asian lettuce wraps to pair with the Boudreaux and Zinfandel wine.  The spiciness of the Asian lettuce wraps paired with I think it paired very well and was compatible with the pallet. 

            The competition was pretty tight between the two wines, but I think I favored the Grand Vin De Boudreaux a little more than the Summerland Zinfandel.  I thought the Summerland almost offered too many flavors that made it confusing where are the Bordeaux was bold and all encompassing of earthy tones.

Wine Dinner with Great Friends

Last Wednesday, my friends and I got together to enjoy some delicious wine and food.  We each focused on buying wine from different regions and different grapes to test our palate and work towards our goal of becoming more ‘experienced wine drinkers’.

            I bought a 2010 Granacha de Fuego from Central Spain, which received 89 points from the wine spectator. The bottle initially caught my eye with its black glass and striking flame label.  I was very pleased with my choice and enjoyed sipping it with dinner. 

First, I poured a little into a class and gave it a whirl.  The wine created decent legs and upon my first “sniffy sniff” I smelled smokiness and a little hint of berries and cherries.  The wine was a medium bodied wine and I tasted a little spice followed by bold fruit on the palate.  

            Before dinner, we paired our wine with Havarti cheese, salami, and crackers.  I thought the Havarti cheese went very well with the wine, because of it’s creamy texture and taste.  I also found that the crackers helped cleanse the palate slightly before I tasted the next wine. 

I was sad because my glass was empty :(

            The next wine I tried was an Alamos Malbec that Gary Vaynerchuck recently taste in one of his shows.  This 2007 bottle of Alamos Malbec is from the Mendonza wine region of western Argentina.  This is a dark purple wine that offers cheery aromas with a little hint of floral tones to the nose.  This Malbec is a full-bodied wine with black cherry, raspberry, and chocolate tastes.  The finish is just as strong as the initial taste and offers apparent tannins. 

            The next wine I tasted was a Senda 66 Tempranillo, which is a great bargain wine for only $9.50. This wine spent 8 months in French oak and is a almost black in color.  This Tempranillo offered a spicy and fruity fragrance.  The wine was incredibly smooth and rich with tastes of blueberry and tart-like fruits.  

            The next wine I enjoyed was a 2007 Biagio Chianti Riserva. This Sangiovese varietal from Tuscany is blood red and smelled of overwhelming spices. This medium-bodied wine tasted like blackberries and currants.  This wine was not my favorite of the wines we sampled, because I felt that the spice was almost overwhelming.  

We paired this wine with spaghetti and homemade tomato and meat sauce with sautéed zucchini and squash on the side.  I thought the spaghetti combined with meat sauce complimented the wine very well and the veggies offered a different taste to the palate.  This wine night was very successful and I was able to taste and learn about multiple wines from different geographic regions around the world.  

Devils Backbone Brewery

I had the opportunity of visiting Devils Blackbone Brewery in Wintergreen, Virginia a week ago.  The brewery is located in a beautiful valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains miles away from the Wintergreen Resort in Nelson County. Usually, I would prefer visiting a winery any day to a brewery, but boredom at Wintergreen led me to Devils Backbone Brewery.  This brewery specializes in original craft beer paired with a traditional southwest menu.  From the outside infrastructure to the inside decorations of stuffed animals and vintage trinkets, the brewery offers a fun ad enjoyable atmosphere for all ages. I went to the brewery with some of my close friends and had an enjoyable afternoon learning about craft beer and enjoying it also!

Thank god I'm legal!

I ordered a Devils Backbone Brewery seasonal sampler to experience their seasonal craft beers and taste the different types the brewery had to offer.  The sampler platter consisted of 6 4oz pours of the brewery’s seasonal reserve beer. The beers ranged from amber colored to dark and hazy shades each demonstrating the uniqueness and vast selection that Devils Backbone had to offer.  

Devil’s Backbone Brewery seasonal sampler

I first sampled the Schwartz Bier (11% ABV, 22 IBUs), which was a mahogany colored beer topped with a white head. The aroma was overwhelmingly wheat and grains.   I tasted a lot of wheat/bread with a little sweetness.

The second beer I sampled was a Wood-aged Kilt Flasher (7.0% ABV, 20 IBUs).  This beer was a Scottish style ale that was a dark chocolate color.  It had a light to medium body and was very smooth.  It smelled like a combination of coffee and chocolate and tasted pretty similar as well.  I definitely could not drink a whole pint of this beer, but it was delicious to taste. 

The third beer I sampled was Old Virginia Dark Lager (4.0% ABV, 19 IBUs).  This was a Dortmund style export lager from Germany.  It had a deep golden color and medium body.   The lager was stronger than most lagers I have tried and had a malty finish.

The fourth beer I sampled was Summer Haze (4.4% ABV, 15 IBUs).  This beer was a golden-amber ale brewed with unmalted grains, English yeast, and coriander. I think the name ‘Summer Haze’ fits the beer well as it had a lighter, citrusy taste with light senses of an herbal tea that would be perfect for a hot summer day.

The fifth beer I sampled was a Blue Ridge Hop Revival Ale (6.00 % ABV, 20 IBUs).  This beer was a light amber color accompanied with a medium body.  It smelled of pines, caramel, and wheat.  It tasted earthy, almost like I was eating dirt mixed in water.  I was not a fan of this beer and had to let someone else at the table finish the 4 oz glass.

The last beer of the seasonal sampler I tasted was an Black Rock Ale (4.2% ABV, 30 IBUs).  This beer was American style rye ale with medium color and body. The description said that the hops and rye blended together yielded this uniquely styled ale.  The aroma gave off a sweet smell and the taste was a little harsher than I expected.  This was my least favorite beer in the sampler. 

After the sampler, I decided to go off the sampler menu and order a pint of Wintergreen Weiss.  It’s a German Hefeweizen style of beer with a hazy, light yellow tint.  The head of the beer is a white, fluffy top that seemed to stick around for a couple of minutes.  It was a cloudy, creamy, yellowish beer that brought many aromas to my nose on my first sniff.  Initially I smelled wheat, lemon, a hint of mint, and a spicy clove scent.  Upon tasting the Wintergreen Weiss it had a surprisingly underlying sweetness, clove taste is apparent, as well as citrus.  This beer had light acidity, which is what I prefer in a beer.  This beer was easy to drink and went down smoothly.  I would rate this beer a 6 out of 10. 

Wintergreen Weiss

To accompany all these beverages I was sampling and drinking I ordered a French Dip sandwich, which was average.  I would say the beer is definitely better than the food at Devils Backbone Brewery; but that is not hard to do when they offer a wide variety of quality craft beers. Overall, I had a very positive experience at Devils Backbone Brewery and would recommend it to any of my friends and family. Cheers!

Old World Wine vs. New World Wine

On Thursday January 28^th, my friend Diana and I set off on an excursion to the Palisades.  Between our shoddy gps system, the incredibly windy roads, and unfamiliar territory it was debatable if we were ever going to actually end up making it to the Palisades for the wine pairing and dinner.  Luckily, we made it to the beautiful restaurant in about twenty minutes and taking in gorgeous views of the mountains and countryside along the way.  From the outside the Palisades doesn’t look like anything special, but upon entering we knew we were in for a treat. 

The theme of the night was Old World wine vs. New World wine and the type of wine was Cabernet Sauvignon.  We received a list of the three wines we would be sampling and the food selections that would be paired with it.  The waitress lined the three wines up in order of sampling and explained each wine and their origin.  Using the tactics we saw explained in the Gary V. video, we examined the wine’s color, swirled it, sniffed it, and then sipped the wine with a little slurping.

We tasted the Bodegas Nekeas (Vega Sindoa), a 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from the northernmost vineyards located on the peninsula in Navarra, Spain.  At first, I tasted spices and then after my second sip I started to taste a little bit of tartness mixed with fruity flavor.  This wine went down smoothly and was very enjoyable to sip on.  This wine was my favorite of the three.

The second wine we sampled was a Dante Californian Reserve Cabernet from 2009.  This was a full-bodied wine that spent nine months aging in American oak.  I thought this wine was a little darker in color than the Spanish wine and tasted very different.  When first sipping the wine, I tasted a little trace of fruit and second sip I tasted something similar to dirt? The description of tasting dirt sounds really disgusting, but this wine was delicious as well.

The third wine we sampled was a South African Buitenverwachting Beyond Cabernet Sauvignon from 2009. This wine was very different from the two previous wines we sampled. It was similar in color but alarmed me when taking my first sip. It tasted like a mix of tobacco and black licorice.  I could also taste pepper.  This wine had a harsher taste and I did not really care for it. 

To accompany our wine, we were served a beautiful plate of food including seared butternut squash with caramelized shallots, truffled lamb ravioli, and blue cheese tart with celery salad.  Everything was amazing, especially the truffled lamb ravioli. 

After drinking the three delicious wines, we weren’t ready to call it quits.  The Bodegas Nekeas was my favorite of the three so I ordered another glass and a pear and Gorgonzola salad to accompany it.  The food and wine were just too good to stop after the pairing! Then, our waitress successfully tempted us with the flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. 

I always assumed that every bottle of wine using the same grapes would taste identical or vary a little based on the year the grapes were grown and bottled,  During our food and wine pairing, I realized just how different wines could taste depending on their region of origin.   Dinner at the Palisades was fantastic and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.  Not only did I have the opportunity to enjoy great food and good company but I learned a lot about wine!

Enjoying the delicious wine and food!