Wine Tasting - Storyteller Cabernet Sauvignon

 Name: Storyteller 'Got Away' Cabernet Sauvignon

Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon

Region: Sonoma County, CA

Country: USA

Year: 2021

Price: $21.88

Wine Store Review: (Wine Enthusiast review), "This is the kind of Cabernet Sonoma County produces so effortlessly. It's full-bodied, dry and smooth, with a touch of smoky oak. The cherry and blackberry fruit is ripe and luscious. An easy wine to drink now."

Wine Folly: Cabernet Sauvignon originates in France and tends to be full-bodied, has high tannic composition, and high alcohol content. The dominant flavors that present include black cherry, black currant, red bell pepper, baking spices, and cedar. The warmer climates, including California, tend to produce Cabs that are more fruit-forward, with flavors of black fruits, black pepper, and cocoa powder. (Kindle version pages 136-138)

My Review: This wine is certainly very full-bodied and has extreme tannins that come through right away. On the nose, there are hints of blackberry and cherry, but also a peppery smoky smell, almost like a campfire log. The taste was sharp at first with the fruitiness and the high tannic structure, but the finish was smooth and left a smoky/oaky flavor behind. I enjoyed this wine a lot!

Tasting Blog - Scout Wild Sauvignon Blanc

 Name: Scout Wild Sauvignon Blanc

Variety: Sauvignon Blanc

Region: Napa Valley, CA

Country: USA

Year: n/a

Price: $18.99

Wine Store Review: "Our 100% Sauvignon Blanc is fruity and crisp with bright notes of lemon, white peach, and tangerine. It has beautiful layers of tropical flavors with exotic floral aromas. You can pair our crisp Sauvignon Blanc with seafood, goat cheese, or watching the sun set."

Wine Folly: Sauvignon Blanc originates from France and tends to be a fruitier, high acidity wine. The dominant flavors that can be present in a sauvignon blanc are gooseberry, green melon, grapefruit, white peach, and passion fruit. A regional difference is that sauvignon blancs from CA tend to have heavy white peach flavors. (pages 64-66 on Kindle)

My Review: On the nose, this wine is extremely floral and fruity. I get notes of lemon, orange, and peach right away, and it is really pleasant. The taste however is not my favorite. This wine seems to be on the extremely acidic side, with an overwhelming citric taste. There is not much within it to round it out or give it any depth. I wonder if this wine has been in an oak barrel, because if it was, I certainly cannot detect any creamy, oaky, rich flavors. The citrus fruit flavor profile is just too overpowering for me. 

Wine Tasting - Dark Horse Rose

 

Name: Dark Horse Rose

Variety: Tempranillo and four other varieties

Region: Madesto, Central Valley, California

Country: USA

Year: 2022

Price: $8.99

Wine Store Review: (From Wine.com): "Dark Horse Rose is a dry, fruit-forward Rose that is brilliant ruby red in color. The Rose offers aromas of strawberry, pomegranate, and rose petals. Layers of red berries, watermelon, hibiscus, and a hint of orange zest brighten the palate. This summer sipper is juicy and beautifully balanced."

Wine Folly: Rose wines range in taste from dry to sweet. They tend to be medium-bodied and have high fruit flavor profiles. The most dominant flavors within a Rose tend to be strawberry, honeydew melon, rose petal, celery, and orange peel. (pages 92-95 on Kindle)

My Review: This wine proved to be a lot more complex than I had expected. On the nose initially, the main aromas that stuck out to me were fresh berries (raspberries in particular), orange, lemon, and even a hint of sweet vanilla. The taste profile that I got steered me far away from the vanilla notes I was smelling, and led me more towards the citrus lane. There are strong flavors of strawberry, orange, and cantaloupe. There is a slight bitterness and sharpness to the finish, with strong acidity and dryness. This wasn't my favorite Rose I have had, but I did enjoy a few glasses!

Wine Tasting - Yellow Tail Chardonnay

 Name: Yellow Tail Chardonnay

Variety: Chardonnay Grape

Region: Yenda

Country: Australia

Year: 2023

Price: $7.49

Wine Store Review: (ABC Fine Wine & Spirits) "The perfect balance of citrus, melon, and peach flavors combine with a creamy mouth feel to a long lingering finish of peach and white spice. This is a lovely fresh and zesty wine that is also supported nicely by subtle, toasty oak."

Wine Folly: Some dominant flavors found within Chardonnays include yellow apple, starfruit, pineapple, butter, and chalk. It tends to be a fuller-bodied, mild acidity, fruity wine. It originated within France and stands today as the world's most planted white grape. (pages 72-74)

My Review: On the nose, I felt this wine smelled like a mandarin orange cup with a hint of something deeper, like a musky vanilla. There are definite fruity scents emanating through, like citrus, peach, and for me, a tropical fruit like pineapple. Despite all of the fruity aromas hitting me up front, the main profile I taste does not have a super attacking acidity. There are major notes of apple and pineapple for me, and a definite creamy finish that has an oaky and vanilla essence to it. Overall this is a delicious and smooth wine that I really enjoyed!

Wine Dinner Blog Report #3

 Wine Dinner Blog Report

Appetizer: Garlic Crostinis 

Main Course: Alfredo Linguini topped with Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Dessert: Homemade Cherry Turnovers

                                                                        

    For this dinner blog, I wanted to get together with my best friend and treat her to a meal made entirely by me! I am not much of a talented chef, so I chose to stay within my comfort zone and make a meal I had made for myself a few times before                

Boiling the linguini pasta

Crostini bread bites before they went into the oven

Parmesan chicken baking at 400 degrees!

The three wines I chose to incorporate into our meal were a Cupcake Vineyards Pinot Grigio, A Dark Horse Chardonnay, and a Barefoot Pinot Noir. Below I will provide a few tasting notes on the wines by themselves, before I go into more depth about how they paired with the foods we ate.

• Cupcake Vineyards 2022 Delle Venezie DOC Pinot Grigio: This wine was deliciously fruity and light on the mouth. There were definite notes of pear, lemon, and apple which aided in making this a pretty sweet wine, however there was a tangy and medium-bodied quality to it that made it much more complex and gave it more depth. 
• Dark Horse 2022 Californian Chardonnay: This wine was super rich and buttery. A lot more complex of a wine than the Pinot, for it had a deeper muskier flavor profile to it, which I believe can be attributed to it being aged and fermented in oak. It had a nice acidity to it which was cutting and fresh, and had a peachy fruitiness to it that I really liked.
• Barefoot Californian Pinot Noir: This medium-bodied red was very warm and full of flavors, including cherries, vanilla, blackberry, and some spice (maybe pepper). It had a light tannic taste to it which I liked a lot, because it wasn't too mouth-puckering and still had a level of sweetness to it.

The wines

Here are some photos of the final meal!

Paired the pasta with primarily the Pinot

Here is my friend Maya who helped me with the plating!

Major Notes:

    The pasta and chicken were really really delicious. The Alfredo sauce I used was perfectly creamy and savory, and paired with the baked crusted chicken on top (which had a great amount of flavor and spice to it due to the breadcrumb mixture I used), it was a really well rounded meal! The crostini's were crispy and garlicky and served as a great appetizer and pairing side with the main course. I unfortunately did not take any photos of the final course which were the cherry turnovers, but they were flaky, sugary, and rich. 

    In my opinion, the wine that paired best with each course goes as follows:

• Crostinis tasted best with the Chardonnay
• The Alfredo linguini and parmesan crusted chicken paired best with the Pinot Grigio
• The cherry turnovers paired best with the Pinot Noir

    The Chardonnay's fuller-bodied and oaky taste really elevated the buttery crostinis. The wine has a definite buttery aroma and taste to it, so the two really complimented each other in that area. It also helped to subdue some of the garlic just a tad with the acidity, making the bread taste a bit more mellow. 

    The star of the show in terms of pairings was definitely the pasta and the Pinot Grigio. This wine was super fresh and fruity with some deeper acidic complexities woven throughout to keep it away from the super-sweet side. This flavor profile meshing with the creamy and savory chicken pasta dish really helped bring out some new flavors. I noted how the pasta loss some of its heavier tastes and became much more light. The spices on the chicken were highlighted wonderfully with the fruity notes of the wine.

    Lastly, our dessert was a warm and sweet cherry turnover, which went pretty well with the red wine. Because the pinot noir had hints of cherry and blackberry within it, when paired with this dessert I feel like those notes came out a lot more in the wine. The sweetness of the dessert cut back on the fuller tannic structure and left me with a very pleasant and smooth profile. 

Here are some shots of us as we ate (at the couch of course to watch a movie with our meal!)

Tasting - Outlander Cabernet Sauvignon

 

Name: Outlander Cabernet Sauvignon

Variety: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Region: Paso Robles, California

Country: USA

Year: 2021

Price: $11.09

Wine Store Review (from the bottle): "Some say "Cab is King" in Paso Robles. We honor this heritage with a wine that lives up to this lineage. We blend this Cabernet Sauvignon to create a concentrated wine with aromas of currant, blackberry, and hints of caramel, finishing with plum and cherry lingering on the palate."

Wine Folly: The Wine Folly text labels the dominant flavors in Cabernet Sauvignon as black cherry, black currant, red bell pepper, baking spices, and cedar. It is considered a fuller-bodied red, and can contain different flavors based on the region in which they were grown and harvested in. The grape is a natural cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, and is the most widely planted grape in the world (136-137). *I use the Kindle version of this text.

My Review: This wine smelled absolutely delicious on the nose, with vibrant berry and sweet vanilla notes exploding out of the glass. There is a lot of tannic complexity in this wine, producing a pretty sour initial taste. However, even through this prevalent tartness, there are deep blackberry and cherry flavors that emerge. There is a subtle sweetness to it, which I described more as a vanilla taste, however the label says it is caramel. I enjoyed this robust red wine.

Tasting - Yosemite Road Pinot Grigio

 

Name: Yosemite Road Vineyards Pinot Grigio Colombard

Variety: Pinot Grigio

Region: Sierra foothills, CA

Country: USA

Year: N/A

Price: $5.99

Wine Store Review: "A dry wine with a tangy, fruity aroma. If you're looking for a white wine that isn't too sweet, you've found the right one. Our Yosemite Road Vineyards Pinot Grigio is light-bodied and possesses a rich aroma. Notes of zesty lemon married with hints of pear to create a crisp, flavorful finish." 

7 eleven description

Wine Folly: The dominant flavors within a Pinot Grigio are lemon, yellow apple, melon, nectarine, and peach. They tend to be lighter in body, but fuller in acidity. This wine is also more widely known as Pinot Gris. They originate from France and Italy. The fruity and dry style of this wine is primarily made in the USA, Australia, and other warmer climate regions. (pg. 62-64)

My Review: For such an inexpensive wine, I thought it was really delicious! I got really intense apple and lemon scents on the nose right away, as well as an almost salty smell. The saltiness also came through when tasting it, as well as apple, lemon, peach, and an earthy undertone. The flavor is not super robust, but really crisp and refreshing. Not too much tannic composition in it, but definitely some acidic flavors. I will definitely be trying this wine again.