Tasting Notes

Tasting notes for individual wines.

Hyland Estates: Two Oregon White Wines Perfect for Any Season

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Pair white wine with fish and chicken, red wine with red meat. Sound advice, even if it is a bit general. Some would add: drink white wine when the weather is hot, red wine when the weather is cool. This statement I too mostly agree with, except that I really enjoy drinking white wine any time of year. So, as the weather begins to cool, I’m not yet ready to make the switch to mostly red wines.

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Celebrating With Bubbly From Brazil

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There is nothing like a glass of sparkling wine to make any occasion a bit more special, even (or maybe especially) a weeknight evening. On a recent Friday evening we enjoyed a bottle of Salton Intenso Sparkling Brut that we received as a tasting sample.

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Two Interpretations of Santorini Assyrtiko

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It’s always a happy day when we are fortunate enough to receive wine samples for tasting. It presents so many new possibilities. Most times the wines are ones we have not tasted before. We may or may not be familiar with the grape varieties, but even if we are, every winemaker’s interpretation of a variety is unique.

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Arancini Paired with Etna Rosso for #winePW

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I was so happy to see the following post on the Wine Pairing Weekend Facebook page: “Invitation: Let’s Talk Scorched Terroir — and Volcanic Wines — for #winePW ” The invitation for the September wine pairing weekend came from Camilla Mann, who blogs at Culinary Adventures with Camilla. As host for the month’s pairing, she chose the theme for the pairing.

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A Trio of Argentinian Wines Perfect for Summer Sipping

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Summertime for us often means simpler meals, but not simpler wines. Rather than preparing an oven roasted or braised dish, we might grill chicken or pork in our backyard. Sometimes we simply prepare a charcuterie board, add cheese, bread and a variety of accompaniments. Then, we sit in the quiet of our backyard and enjoy the evening.

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Riesling: Right At Home in New York’s Finger Lakes Region

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Situated just south of Lake Ontario in New York state, the Finger Lakes American Viticultural Area (AVA) is named for the long, slender lakes created over successive waves of glacial activity beginning over one hundred-thousand years ago. Retreating glaciers carved out the lakes as they moved south.

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A Sampling of Okanagan Valley Wines — Just In Time For Summer.

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Thanks to the generosity of one of our wine friends, we recently tasted a group of wines from Canada’s Okanagan Valley. Our friend Stephanie travels to the British Columbia wine region regularly to visit friends and of course taste the wine. She recently made such a trip and returned with wine, some of which she generously shared with a group of her wine friends. We were happy to be included in that group.

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Lodi Native Project 2013 Vintage: Letting the Vineyards Shine Through

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We recently had the opportunity to taste the second vintage of the Lodi Native Project. This collaborative project is designed to showcase Lodi’s heritage Zinfandel vineyards by producing single-vineyard wines following a standardized protocol involving minimal intervention in the wine cellar. The idea is to show what the vineyard itself has to offer by taking the winemaker’s individual style out of the wine making process. The first vintage, 2012, was released in March 2014 and we tasted that first vintage as well.

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Arneis Paired with Dungeness Crab and Pea Purée Crostini for #winePW

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Our challenge for the June wine pairing weekend (#winePW on Twitter) came to us from Italy, literally. This month’s #winePW host is Valerie Quintanilla, you can read all of the details of the challenge in her blog post. She is an American living in Italy, so her challenge to us of pairing a summer dish with Arneis, a delightful northern Italian white wine, was spot on.

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