December 29, 2011

Quick Wine Review: *****

Tonight we went all out and filled the entire wine fridge.  All slots are happily filled with a mix of South American, Italian, Californian, French, South African and Spanish wines.  I am very excited to try some of these tasty beverages out tonight when we invite Chris and Elena over for a dinner party.  We decided to make a pot roast along with baby bok choy to create a simple but delicious meal.  The pot roast generally takes a while to cook up so in the mean while we had a few wines.

Overall, I think tonight was a great night for wine drinking and of course I have the Venturi to thank for a lot of the great tastes.  We started off with a light Italian wine - a Montelpulciano.  I am a huge fan of Italian wines because they are very easy drinkers with a smooth but delicious taste.  This one of course was no exception.  The initial taste without aeration was a bit on the rocky side, but after being sent through the Venturi it turned out a nice clean crisp taste which I throughly enjoyed.

For our next wine we ventured over to South America and tasted a nice Malbec from the Mendoza region. I was more surprised by the taste of this wine as it reminded me more of a Pinot Noir than a Malbec.  It definitely tasted much fruitier than most Malbec's I have tried in the past.  Regardless, it was a delicious wine and paired quite well with our meal.

The final wine that we sampled was an Italian Chianti. Once again, the Italian wines are very smooth so I enjoyed this one a lot.  It didn't have a lot of tannins so it finished well and gave an overall nice taste to the wine.  This wine also pairs well with desserts - mainly chocolate chip cookies, so I would definitely recommend it as a great table wine.

Altogether I think all wines sampled tonight were delicious and brought their own unique taste and comfort to the table.  I would recommend all to any wine drinker - the taste will definitely be enhanced by the use of a Venturi or decanter!

Name: Citra Montepulciano D' Abruzzo
Vintage: 2010
Cork Type: Conventional
Grape: Montepulciano (predominantly Sangiovese)
Origin: Montepulciano, Italy
Alcohol Content: 13%

Name: Septima

Vintage: 2010

Cork Type: Conventional

Grape: Malbec

Origin: Mendoza, Argentina

Alcohol Content: 14%

Name: Gabbiano Il Cavaliere

Vintage: 2010

Cork Type: Conventional

Grape: Chianti

Origin: Tuscany, Italy

Alcohol Content: 13%

December 28, 2011

Quick Wine Review: *****

Today was a productive yet lazy day.  It started off as every other day, breakfast followed by a bit of TV to stimulate the brain.  We then put together the new ottoman that accompany's the couch - a perfect piece of furniture to enhance nap time.  I really wanted to give the new ottoman a test drive, but unfortunately I just wasn't tired enough.  Instead we went to run a few errands including the evil Wal-Mart and to Ranch 99 Market.  The market was pretty amazing with a stellar selection of different meats several of which I didn't know existed.  Everything looked extremely fresh and the prices were great too.  We decided to pick up some chicken wings and pork belly (YUM!) Our friend Chris has cooked us pork belly several times so we decided to finally give it a try on our own.

We got back to the house and I finally got to try out that ottoman.  Perfect for nap time! Best part is that I now get to be the cheese in the cheese sandwich as all the dogs sandwich me in pretty well.  After my nap, it was time to get down to serious business and start dinner.  We decided to cook the pork belly a la Chris with a side of cabbage.  As sous chef I am responsible for all the chopping which was quite enjoyable with all of our new cooking tools!  We opened up a bottle of Spanish wine named Codice.  I sampled the wine first without the Venturi and it tasted pretty intense.  The alcohol seemed to overwhelm the taste of the wine, so I am anticipating a much smoother experience once it is allowed to aerate for a bit.  The wine through the Venturi tasted much better.  The taste mellowed out quite a bit and was much easier to drink.  I would definitely recommend the Venturi device to anyone, especially those who buy wines that are on the less expensive side.

Name: Codice
Vintage: 2009
Cork Type: Synthetic
Grape: Blend
Origin: Spain
Alcohol Content: 13.5%

December 27, 2011

Quick Wine Review: *****

I had a wonderful Christmas holiday with my family in Beaumont. We had lots of delicious food, dessert and of course wine.  We drank several repeat wines and a couple new wines.  Unfortunately I did not keep good notes so I'll pass on the Christmastime reviews.

I did get several great gifts to enhance my wine experience.  My brother got me this great Venturi device that quickly aerates the wine.  This will come in handy with several of the cheap wines that need a lot of breathing to smooth out the intense bite.  I also got a decanter, so I am excited about all the wine reviews to come in the future.  Most importantly we just stocked up on wine! The wine fridge is back to its home and nice and happy and filled.  We bought $150 worth of wine that should keep us busy for a while.  Several Californian wines, French, Italian and Spanish.  It should give me great material for the next month or so.

Tonight was our first night back from Beaumont.  We were busy trying to get all of the gifts out of the boxes and into their new homes.  After a struggle to get the wine fridge back to it's original location, we decided it was time for some wine.  We drank one of our new pick ups from Spec's - a California Pinot Noir.  I was pretty excited about this wine because it got a gold medal at the 2010 Ultimate Wine Challenge, and it was less than $7!  The first sip proved to have a bit of a bite behind it, but I was still optimistic as running the wine through the new Venturi would soften the taste a bit.  The Venturi run was a success and it did taste a lot better than the initial tasting.  I still wasn't completely overwhelmed by the taste considering it was a gold medal winner.  I have definitely had better Pinot Noir's around a similar price point.  Altogether it was a fairly drinkable wine, but only when allowed to breathe either through decanting for some time or a quick run through a Venturi device.

Name: Barefoot Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2010
Cork Type: Synthetic
Grape: Pinot Noir
Origin: Modesto, California
Alcohol Content: 12.5%