DTN Lesson #1

 1. The Campo Viejo Rioja Tempranillo 2020 was the wine I selected to complete the DTN lesson #1. Immediately after opening I smelled vanilla and oaky notes from the bottle. I tasted very bold and tannic flavors of cherry and oaky-ness. The wine smelled great, on the nose I thought it would be much more sweet than it was after tasting it. After tasting it, it was much more bold and acidic than I thought it was. It left a puckering and hotness in my mouth, one that a soft sweet dessert wine would not. 

2. After leaving the wine open for around two hours, I noticed a much more pronounced vanilla and sweetness to the wine. It certainly still has a cherry undertone; however, the wine opened up much more towards a sweeter and softer wine. The wine could've been more appealing due to the fact that I had already had my first impression of it and knew what to expect. 

3. I paired the wine with a parmesan reggiano. The parmesan did not go well with the tempranillo in my opinion. I felt that the deep cherry and vanilla nature of the wine didn't pair well with the savory nature of the cheese. The slightly basic nature of the parmesan did allow for the fruity nature to come through; however, it was overwhelmed by the savory after taste. 

4. I then tried the tempranillo with pepperoni as the food. The salty nature of the cured meat again did not go well with the bold, tannic, and deep fruity notes of the tempranillo. Looking back on it I would have paired the wine with dried dates or possibly a brie to allow for the fruity notes to combine with each other and enhance each other. The wine and food did not create a new flavor, both butted heads with each other and clashed. 

5. After leaving the wine uncorked and uncovered overnight and trying it the next night, the flavors were further muted. The tempranillo lost all of its soft vanilla undertones and had a muted note of cherry that had really lost all of its gusto. The wine had the majority of its first few flavors; however, they were just much more muted 

Name of wine: Campo Viejo Rioja Tempranillo 

Year: 2020

Region: Rioja Spain

Color: Deep cherry red

Comments

Just opened

Smell: Vanilla, cherry, acidic notes

Taste: Very fruit forward with cherry notes right on the tongue 

Body: Much more bold and tannic than I originally thought it would be

Two Hours Later

Smell: Vanilla notes slightly faded with the cherry notes taking first place

Taste: Overwhelmingly cherry 

Body: Still tannic and bold with a hot sensation in your mouth

Cheese

Smell: Cherry notes

Taste: Bashed heads with the cheese and the fruit notes clashed hard with the parmesan 

Body: Much more acidic with the cherry notes completely taking over

With meat

Taste: Heighted cherry notes

Body: Acidity of the wine completely clashed with the savory nature of the pepperoni 

A day later

Smell: muted cherry notes with the vanilla undertones completely disappearing

Taste: muted acidity with the flavors really taking a back seat

Body: still tannic but has lost much of its gusto 

Dinner blog #2

My roommates and I had our second wine dinner by cooking in and pairing our dishes with comparable wines. We consulted Wine Folly, and other online resources, to best pair our starter, entrée, and dessert with wines that would express beneficial flavors. We paired a 2020 Calandrelle Vin Blanc blend, 2020 Verdejo Ylirum blend, and a 2021 Belfiore Merlot with a caprese salad, rigatoni alla vodka, and a chocolate cake. 

Above is a picture of the dinner and wines that pair with it. We paired the caprese salad with the Calandrelle Vin Blanc blend. The lightness of the caprese brought out the zesty and lemon based aroma of the wine. The fruity wine allowed us to taste the flavors of the mozzarella and basil. Moreover, the sharp notes of the Verdejo Ylirum blend brough a more buttery taste that allowed creamy taste of the pasta come through. To enhance the taste more, adding more balsamic glaze would have allowed more acidity to come through which would have paired well with the wine. There were strong buttery flavors from the Verdejo. 

Above is a picture of myself with the two wines and the dinner. Overall, the wines paired well. The acidity of the Vin Blanc was slightly overwhelming for transitioning straight into the pasta. A less acidic and less fruit forward wine would have allowed for a better transition between dishes. The buttery Verdejo was an excellent pairing for the creamy pasta. 

The above is the Merlot we paired with our dessert, the chocolate cake. The richness of the merlot paired well with the heaviness of the chocolate cake. Looking back on it, a darker red such as a Cab would have paired very well with the cake. The deep hues of plum and raspberry really brought out the richness of the cake. The merlot also had deep blackberry tones. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the pairings we selected to go with our dishes. The weak link between the three was the Vin Blanc with the caprese. The acidity and fruit forward notes were slightly overwhelming once we transitioned into the much more mellow combinations for the pasta and cake. I enjoyed how the dishes had immense flavor and richness brought out by the wines. 

Wine and Cheese blog #1

My friends and I paired three wines with three kinds of cheese to complete a wine and cheese pairing blog. From left to right, we paired a Cala De Poeti Sangiovese with Vermont goat cheese, a Roche Mazet Cabernet Sauvignon with aged english cheddar, and a Roche Mazet Sauvignon Blanc with Parmigiano Reggiano. We used town house pita crackers and sour cream and onion ritz toasted chips as the crackers with the cheeses. Furthermore, we used a grater, wine cutter, and butterfly wine opener as tools for our wine and cheese tastings. 

The first pairing was the Cala De Poeti Sangiovese with Vermont goat cheese. The Sangiovese was very bold for a table wine. There were hints of fruity notes such as cherry and raspberry. With subtle hints of oak and vanilla that I assume came from the aging process. The wine was not as tannic as I expected it to be, being slightly more on the softer side. There was a jammy nature to it that also brought hints of grapy jelly and plum. We paired this wine with a soft goat cheese from Vermont. The cheese did a great job of pairing with the soft nature of the Sangiovese. There was no outright acidity for the cheese to cut through. The goat cheese had a smooth finish that helped blend the wine into having a smooth finish as well and really brought out the depth of the Sangiovese. 

The second pairing was a Roche Mazet Cabernet Sauvignon with aged English cheddar. The Cab was very dry and had immediate hints of oaky vanilla off the first smell and taste. It has a smooth long finish that allowed me to take in its aftertaste of deep current jammy blackberry. I would say the Cab was much more acidic than it was soft. It was smooth and had noticeable tannins. Moreoever, the aged cheddar brought out the depth and body of the tannins within the wine. This melted through the initial acidity of the Cab and allowed me to take full advantage of the smooth finish of the wine. 

The third pairing was a Roche Mazet Sauvignon Blanc with Parmigiano Reggiano. The Blanc had immediate notes of acidity. We made a slight mistake in that we had the blanc last out of the three, this when the white should have been the first of the three due to saving our palate. The blanc was very dry to begin with. The parm immediately took away the acidity when it was paired. Fighting through the acidity allowed for the notes of apple and pear to bleed through. There was also citrus and lemon that was immediately on the nose. 

 

Drink this now lesson #2

Step 1: We chilled our paperback chardonnay. Opened the cork on our Tercius Vinho Tinto Tejo. Lined up a shot glass, a whiskey glass, and a stemless wine glass. 

        

Step 2: Poured out the white wine into the glasses.

Step 3: Sniffing the white chardonnay.  

Shot glass white sniff: no flavor just smelled metallic and very short body. Slight floral notes on the nose but there was just no depth in what I was smelling. 

Whiskey glass white sniff: more flavor available but still very shallow and wasn't focused. I could smell more of the fruity/floral notes but again it was just shallow. I felt like I wasn't able to get everything from the sniff. It felt like a shotgun approach that wasn't focused. 

Wine glass white sniff: very focused at my nose and I could smell detailed fruity notes. Could smell all the acidity and fruity notes. Didn't feel like I was leaving any notes in the glass. 

Step 4: Tasting the white wine

shot glass white taste: very quick taste that was straight onto the nose. Not deep at all and barely had any notes of anything. Felt like I was just drinking water and alcohol.

whiskey glass white taste: much smoother and could taste actual hints of fruitiness. There was a much more pronounced smell from the whiskey glass and taste than the shot. More of a shotgunned approach again. 

wine glass white taste: much smoother taste than the following whiskey glass, floral notes with hints of butter. Much more pronounced flavor through sniffing since the wine glass is fluted. 

Step 5: setting up the red wine

 Shot glass red sniff: pretty shallow notes slightly fruity but nothing on the nose

Whiskey glass red sniff: there were hints of tannins and body in the sniff that were lacking from the whiskey glass

Wine glass red sniff: much smoother and much more body, the wine was more focused through the olfactory 

shot glass red taste: the shot had a smoother aftertaste than I was expecting, it has a very slow draw down the throat 

whiskey glass red taste: shorter body taste that doesn't have much taste 

wine glass red taste: a deep body that had legs after swirling. very tannic taste that has acidic notes on the nose 

Step 6: After heating up one glass through our hands and sniffing the red wine. The non-heated version was very shallow and did not have the depth of the notes that the heated-up red wine did. The heated-upT version had a much jammier front than the non-heated version. There were hints of oak and vanilla that were much harder to pick up on the non-expressed version of the red. 

Wine Dinner blog #1

My friends and I started our wine dinner at the Wine Lab by looking over the flight list to see what would pair well with the dinner we had already chosen. We spoke with our server Julia to get any recommendations she had based on our food and how much we roughly wanted to spend. We finally chose the "Region of Focus - Bordeaux" flight. This was $16, and included the following wines: Les Hayts de Lagarde Blanc '20, Chevalier du Grand Robert '18, and Ch. Graves de Rabion '18. The wines were from Entre Deux Mers, Haut Medoc, and Saint Emilion respectively

Below is a picture of the wine flights placed out in order, from right to left, by our server Julia. 

The first wine I had was the Les Hauts de Lagarde Blanc 2020. We started with white wine, as white is always consumed before red to not ruin your flavor profile. The white wine was paired with baked brie. The brie had hints of honey and sweetness that melted away the acidity of the white wine. The wine was bold in flavor and more on the dry side, with more acidity on the nose. However, because we paired the white with a brie it allowed the cheese to really melt away any initial acidity and brought the fruity notes forward. The wine had notes of apple juice immediately, followed by notes of citrus and minerality in the aftertaste. There was a small taste of hay and straw. My friends said they had buttery hints; however, I did not pick up on these. 

After we finished our appetizer of baked brie, our main dishes came out and I moved on to my second wine. the second wine. The second wine was a Chevalier du Grand Robert 2018. This wine was paired with the turkey melt sandwich I had with a side of sour cream and onion potato chips. This pairing was excellent as the body of the red wine was brought out by the depth of the smoked turkey. The red was very bold in flavor and had a noticeable body. I swirled this red and cupped my hand on the glass to warm it up. After swirling the legs of the red were visible, hinting further to the body of this red. Furthermore, this red was very dry. I was not expecting this but it allowed for the flavor of the sandwich to further show through. 

Overall the appetizer, main, and side dish paired well with the wines in the flight. In hindsight, I do wish I had chosen a more meaty dish such as a Ruben that would have brought out the depth and body of the two reds further. The baked brie and the white paired exceptionally well. The last dish I had was a warmed cookie and I paired it with the Ch. Graves de Rabion 2018. 

This last wine had a very strong rich tannic structure that was mouth-drying. This red was much drier than the previous one. The rabion had hints of black cherry and fruity flavors such as cherry. There was an aftertaste of chocolate and allspice. This darker and sweeter aftertaste paired excellently with the chocolate chip cookie. The cookie allowed me to fight through the initial bite to the wine and really enjoy the sweet aftertaste. 

Overall the dinner was a success. Looking back on it, I do wish I would have chosen a meatier main dish so that I could have brought more flavors out for the Chevalier du Grand Robert. Other than that the appetizer and white, and the dessert and red paired excellently. All told, I had an appetizer, main dish, side dish, and dessert: baked brie, Chipotle turkey sandwich, sour cream and onion chips, and a baked cookie. I had three wines as part of a flight: Les Hayts de Lagarde Blanc '20, Chevalier du Grand Robert '18, and Ch. Graves de Rabion '18. 

Maule Valley Tripantu 2020 Chardonnay from Chile (Wine Tasting Blog Report)

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3. The name of the wine is a Maule Valley Tripantu 2020 Chardonnay from Chile. It cost us around $3.50 due to a deal my friends and I got on a case of wine from an online distributor. 

4. "I received this as part is a mail wine collection. I usually like California Chardonnay and this reminds me a lot of that. The color is a little lighter than I would expect for a reserve but all the flavor notes are there. There are caramel, apple, leather, tropical fruit and citrus. It works well with some spicy food but also tasty on its own." - Ryan Lisee on Vivino

5. This wine was very acidic and had little tannins, making it very light bodied (pg 18). The wine had lots of fruit notes such as pear, apple, and some hints of buttery/oak (pg 14). This was my first time having a Chardonnay and I was shocked by the acidity of it.  

6. Overall, I did not like this wine at all. It tasted like hay and had a horrible after taste. We did not have this wine with a meal. I would not recommend this wine to anyone. I want to try a California Chardonnay, or some place that is known for their Chardonnays. Most likely got a bottle that didn't match my palate. 

Vespertine - 2019 California Zinfandel (Wine Tasting Blog Report)

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3. The name of the wine is Vespertine and it is a 2019 Zinfandel from California. It cost us around $3.50. My friend and I got a deal from an online wine shop that was running a sale. We then split the cost of the case in two, which is how we arrived to the price above. 

4.  "Opaque aged purple/red in color. Super yummy. Black currant, black cherry, allspice and maybe a little tobacco. Great with chili and would be a hit at a dinner party! Loving this wine." - Alex Setmajer on Vivino

5. I enjoyed this wine, quite possibly the best one I have had yet. The wine was very sweet and thus had a fuller body than I was expecting (pg 18 wine folly). I got hints of oak barrel in the wine, which could have been used as an aging process to increase the body of the wine (pg 19). The main hint that I got from the wine was chocolate (pg 14). This could have been because we were eating brownies around the same time; however, the wine paired well with them. 

6. We had brownies with this wine and served it room temperature. I really enjoyed this wine and quite frankly think its the best i've had yet. It was much sweeter than I expected, and paired very well with our dessert. I would certainly recommend this wine over all the others I have had thus far.