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%