Tasting notes for individual wines.
Our Thursday Night tasting this week consisted of six wines from South Africa.
Ferrari is a well-recognized name around the world. The fast, red, sexy car might be your first association. But consider this. Ferrari is also about sparkling wine made in the north of Italy, in the Trentino region, and Ferrari Rosé NV is perfect for Valentine’s Day.
A recent tasting of Cabernet Franc from around the world got me thinking about the variety. I love the flavors and aromas Cabernet Franc produces, that combination of dark fruit, berries and vegetal notes. But what I didn’t know is that Merlot the parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Carmenère. Pretty impressive offspring, I’d say.
I think of wine grapes in much the same way I do of an artist’s set of paints. Both can be used to create a potential masterpiece. An artist’s set of paints can create anything from a modern abstract to something more evocative of the Old Masters. Will it become a Jackson Pollock or a Johannes Vermeer?
This is the second post reviewing a group of South African wines we received as tasting samples from Cape Classics, an importer of South African (and French) wines in to the US, with distribution in 49 states. We dedicated the prior post to the white wines in the selection.
This is the second of two posts on a group of wines we received for review from Zonin USA. The selection of wine we received shows the range of wine production by Casa Vinicola Zonin S.P.A. Current generations of the Zonin family manage wine estates in seven well-known Italian wine regions (Veneto, Friuli, Piedmont, Lombardy, Tuscany, Sicily and Puglia) and the US state of Virginia at Barboursville.
At a recent Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton, Pete presented the wines for the tasting. Gail asked him for suggestions as to topics for the tasting and they eventually settled on wines that are not the “usual suspects”. It gave us a chance to learn about some smaller wine regions and taste the wines. It was a fun evening that took us on a tour of European wines.
The Holidays are upon us. From now until January, there will be a series of social events to attend, not to mention family gatherings. What to serve, what to take along? Here are two suggestions. We recently received samples from Zonin USA for tasting. Here is our impression and how you might enjoy them.
Napa and Sonoma red wines for under $20? You won’t find very many, however, the other day by chance we ran into a vintner who sells red wine from those areas and for less than $20 per bottle.
We have found much to like about the 2010 Bordeaux vintage. Lots of fruit flavors, a variable amount of complexity, plenty of tannins and modest wood influence, to name just a few of our favorite qualities. We continued our tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton with Bordeaux from Saint-Julien.
We enjoy wine, food and travel. Pull That Cork is a chronicle of our wine adventures, the food and wine pairings we create and our travels which are increasingly organized around wine.