Our First Official Tasting: A Tale of Two Cabs

Tonight's wines are two 2007 Cabernet Sauvignons.  One is by BV Coastal Estates and the other is from Texas' own Becker Vineyard, Iconoclast.  But for now, we will refer to them as Elephant and Heart- A  mystery as to who is who and named for the lovely wine glass charms they adorn.  This is a winedummy Official Taste Test.  The wine bottles are covered with elegantly taped newspapers so I cannot see the labels and I carefully removed the tops and corks without looking at the names.  I gave my husband two glasses (with the aforementioned wine glass charms) and told him to pour one into the elephant glass and write an "E" on the paper covering that bottle and the other into the heart glass and write an "H" on the paper covering that bottle.  Any mistakes in this process are his fault.

Elephant has sweet fruit notes in it's aroma with very delicate spices- lighter than a typical cab.  As for the palate is is unexpectedly heavy on the tannins.  There are some dark fruit notes but they are not very sweet.  It also has a medium light body.  (By the way, there were limited tasting notes on the respective websites but pretty good ones on the bottles.  Unfortunately these are covered right now so we're going blind.)

Heart had a stronger spice on the nose and a slight fruit note.  This is more similar to the typical cab smell.  The palate had much lighter tannins and a good bite with the spices.  If I let the wine sit a while in my mouth I could pick up some fruit hints.

So who was better?  Hold on- one more glass for the comparison.  Heart is definitely the winner.  I let Daisy try, but she was indifferent.  I told you she was not helpful in wine tastings.  but can you really expect one who used to eat poop be discerning between wines?  Anyways, Heart is smoother and I like it better.

And now, the wines revealed:

Elephant is Coastal Estates.  The bottle proclaims "...layers of ripe blackberries, cherries, and spices.  Smooth tannins envelope the dark fruit flavors while toasty vanilla oak nuances linger on the finish."  So go team, we noticed the dark fruits.  I disagree on the tannin level, and I'll have to try again for the vanilla.

And that leaves Becker Vineyard's Iconoclast as Heart, tonight's fave!  This bottle says nothing about tasting notes and neither does the website.  Sorry guys, you'll have to take my word on this one...

Good luck.

Happy drinking!

-winedummy

P.S. Becker Vineyard's wines are only offered in TX.  Sorry all y'all who aren't able to find it.  (Yes, all y'all is grammatically correct.)(Depending on who you ask.)

There was once a Malbec from Argentina...

Enter Bodega Septima's 2007 Malbec.  This is our first sweeter red wine.  More accurately, I guess it's our first not dry red wine.  As suggested by ctmarylin after my first post, today's wine is a Malbec from Argentina.  The label gives us some idea of what we're going to be smelling and tasting, which is good because the website only gives us contact information for the vineyard.

This wine is supposed to have "Intense aromas of sweet fruits such as plums, blackberries, and quince preserves with hints of herbs and green pasture."  I definitely noticed the lack of twinge typical of a Cabernet when inhaling over the Malbec.  This was sweeter, with an outdoorsy feel.  For anyone (besides me) who was curious, a hint of green pasture does not smell like freshly cut lawn.  But there is an earthy smell surrounding the sweetness.  Trust me on this, it may take a few inhales to get it.  That's the fun in wine tasting- know what you're supposed to smell/taste, then convince yourself you can notice it!

And enter the learning part.  For those of you who didn't know, a quince is a yellow fruit that's like a cross between an apple and pear.  I had to look it up because I've never heard of that word before.  Pronounced "kwins" (thanks Wikipedia), this fruit is pear shaped and is prominent in Asia.  I think I ate some at a bar in South Korea.  I've never had quince preserves, but I can only imagine they're sweet.  Smell noticed.

As for the taste, the bottle tells us there should be "soft tannins and toasts, oak and vanilla nuances."    This wine does not "stick" to your tongue as much as a cab does, a result of the soft tannins.  It has more of an earthy taste to it- to be attributed to the toasts and oak flavors.  Now I don't know if you've ever had the pleasure of being near someone cutting oak- it stinks.  (Not terribly, but it's not as nice as pine.)  The oak taste is not the same.  It's more of a woodsy finish, with a vanilla undertone.  It's nice.

So for the profile, this wine has a 3 out of 5 for sweetness.  It doesn't have the twang of a cab, but is definitely not a dessert wine.  Light on the tannins, and nil on the acidity- there is only a little bite, so we won't count it.  The wine has a much lighter body than I expected.  But it has a light mouth-feel.

I'd consider myself more of a dry red wine girl, but this was a good wine.  And I enjoyed it with tonight's burritos.  Go ahead and give it a try.

-winedummy

Menage a Trois...Oh la la

So, thanks to this weekend's lesson, I remembered to look up the wine's tasting facts before drinking today.  Tonight is white's debut on Adventures.  We will be drinking Folie A Deux's 2008 Menage a Trois White.  It is a combination of Chardonnay, Muscat, and Chenin Blanc.  The bottles tells me to look (smell) for "soft floral aromas" and "caressing fruit flavors."  The fact sheet tells me that "The Chardonnay is rich and firm.  the Muscat is wild and exotic.  The Chenin is soft and supportive."   It also mentions juicy fruit aromas.  Let's see what we can find tonight...

I've kept the wine in the fridge, but I let it sit until it warmed to about 50 degrees.  I've read you won't taste the flavors as well if the wine's not the right temperature.  50 - 60 degrees F should be good for a white.

The floral notes are definitely apparent when you smell the wine.  The smell doesn't fill your nasal cavities the same way a red does; it's lighter and sweeter.  Besides the twang of an acidic white wine, you can taste the sweetness of the fruits.  That is surrounded by a slight bite from the citrus flavors.  You can feel the acidity in the finish.  This wine is quite good, great for a hot summer evening.  Which is something we have a lot of here in the middle of Texas.  It would be nice on a hot day too- I just try to avoid drinking on weekdays...

Besides having a good excuse to drink wine on the weeknights, wine blogging has also led to an expansion of my vocabulary.  Tonight's word is quaff.  It is used to describe how one should drink this California white.  "It's meant to be quaffed, not analyzed."  Basically, drink up y'all!

Enjoy,

wine dummy :o)

- Wine fact sheet can be found here: http://www.folieadeux.com/pdf/factsheets/MAT_WHT_08_FS.pdf

Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon- Worth a try?

First, today's lesson- if you look the wine up online you may learn more about it before you drink it, making your blogging experience much easier and more interesting for your readers.  I will do my best to avoid this mistake in the future.  This post, however, will give us a chance to see what I tasted (with the help of last night's fellow tasters) compared to what Mr. Robert Mondavi thought we should taste.

First, the scenario.  The best wine, of course, is free wine.  My in-laws won this wine and kindly shared it with us.  (Thank you airlines for making it too expensive to check a bag AND illegal to carry bottles larger than 3oz on the plane!)  So last night's tasters were me, my husband, and my mother-in-law.  My father-in-law aided in our aroma analysis.  The more the merrier!

The wine was Robert Mondavi's Woodbridge 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.  The label told us we would a "spicy dark fruit character with a velvety smooth finish."

While smelling the wine- swirling properly and breathing deeply, of course- we noticed a slight sting in our nasal cavities and a wood undertone.  I can only imagine the sting came from the spice and the wood from the aging process.  Then we did our taste analysis.  I feel this was fuller than Chateau St. Jean's Cab from earlier this week.  We couldn't taste specifically the dark fruit character but definitely noticed the spice.  There was also a better finish (the taste you get after you finish swallowing) on this wine.  It had a slight bite, but was full.

Next we did our profile analysis.  Before we get to that, let me make a plug for one of my favorite Apps:

I use Wine Notes, developed by William Lindmeier, to keep track of the wines I drink.  This iPhone/iPod Touch App lets you store images of each wine with their name, producer, variety, vintage, alcohol level, etc.  Then you have the opportunity to add the flavors that are supposed to be there and fill out a profile with the sweetness, tannins, acidity, and body of each wine.  You can also select a color.  These are all stored and you can search them by variety, name, or recently added.  You can also make notes for each tasting.  It's great for when you're in the store deliberating whether that merlot was fantastic or left you with a hangover the next morning.

But anyways, we found this wine to have little sweetness, a few tannins, moderate acidity, and a medium-low body.  It leaves your mouth a little dry, but had a sort of full feeling.  Not that it was light, but it wasn't the fullest feeling wine ever.

Now- for the comparison with Mr. Mondavi's write-up:
The blackberry black cherry  notes would have been nice to know about earlier.  I think it would have made it easier to notice them.  Maybe.  Hints of dark chocolate, cedar, and black olive?  I wish, check, absolutely not.  Oh well.  Noticed the "smooth, velvety tannins" and smooth mouthfeel.  Spicy finish- got it.  Go team.

Overall- we enjoyed this wine and it went well with the Lindt Chile Chocolate we had.  This wine is often served in restaurants so next time you're out, go ahead- it's worth it.

-wine dummy

PS- You can check out Wine Notes at WineNotesApp.com

Once Upon a Time...

... in the beautiful state of Texas, a woman started her blog.

So this is the very beginning. My first entry to my first blog. I'm very excited! I feel like a kid with a new toy. You should feel privileged too- like watching the first episode of a new show. But without all of the hype because, until now, you haven't heard anything about me.

I guess this brings me to a good starting point. My name is Allison but I'll be posting as wine dummy because, as the purpose of this blog is to share my stories of wine education, I don't know a whole lot. I know I like mainly reds and a few sweet whites (I save those mostly for when my husband is out of town). Oh, and reds are served room temperatures while whites should be chilled. But when it comes to smelling aromas in wines and tasting the complexities of a good wine, my wine knowledge ends. My hopes are to develop an even deeper appreciation of wine and to eventually brew my own wine- and be able to taste how good/bad it really is.

I mentioned earlier I live in the great state of Texas. I haven't been here all my life, just for the last few months. My husband's job brought us here in February and will take us away later this year. So while I'm not a Texan by nature, I say things like y'all, talk with a slight southern twang, own a sweet pair of cowgirl boots, and love a good glass of sweet tea. (Four and a half years of living in Mississippi helped this too.) Really I'm from Connecticut and my family laughs at me when I say y'all and think my boots are a little over-the-top. I prefer not to be called a Yankee because I was born and raised a Red Sox fan and it just seems sacrilegious, but I am a New Englander at heart.

I don't have a job right now because I quit to get an M.B.A. and now have no idea what I'd like to do with said degree. So here I am, picking up new hobbies, trying to figure out what it is, exactly, I'd like to do with my life. My other hobbies include running and working out, baking, eating all the good things I bake, reading, and plucking away at my guitar on occasion.

I am celebrating tonight's opening post with a few glasses of Chateau St. Jean's 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon. Ever since I visited Napa Valley in CA I've had a soft spot for Cabs so I grabbed this one when I saw it on display at the front of the grocery store. The label said it should have ripe plumb and spice aromas, "lush black cherry and crushed raspberry flavors with soft, supple tannis." Personally, I like it when the label tells me what I should taste because then there's a little bit better chance that I will.

So to truly appreciate the smell of wine you should fill your glass 1/3 of the way full (which is a shame because my husband and I bought the largest wine glasses we could so we could put as much in them as possible- we prefer to call them wine bowls), swirl it around, and take a long breath that fills your entire nasal cavity*. After many attempts I could sense the sweet smell, which I imagine is the plumb, and I think the tingling in my nose as the scent fully makes its way back there is the spice.

As for the flavors, I'm still at a loss. Perhaps this will become clear some day. I can, however, feel that this is a dry wine and a bit acidic. It's an OK wine, but I don't think I'd rush to get another bottle.

Anyways, that's it for tonight. I hope you enjoyed tonight's rambling and you come back for more soon!

*As I learned from Andre Domine's book, Wine, 2008.