#96- Egiodola

On the 4th day of Wine-mas my true self gave to me- a bottle of Egiodola. From France you know.

I'm kind of embarrassed right now!

Have you ever tried to eat all the leftovers in your house before cracking open your new groceries? Well I'm trying to do just that- and well- it's not quite working as planned. My pairing this evening with the Egiodola wine from the Domaine de Brau in France is a little embarrassing.

Okay a lot. I'm sure you've heard of meat on a stick. Well I"m eating meat on a fork.

I'm trying to finish the Bavarian sausages I have left from last week. I thought there were three left so I cut up three sausages and smothered them in cheddar cheese. Way too much for me to eat but I'd be done with the sausages at least. Until I found another one in the bag that I'd missed. There was no way I'd be able to eat four so I now have an orphaned sausage in my fridge waiting. Damn.

Anyway, the sausage is great and the melted cheese is wonderful but hardly a balanced diet. I'll munch on some salad later but for now it's a sausage fest in here with my bottle of red.

I've just finished watching the Swedish version  of the "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson on Video on Demand and I've cued up "Girl who Played with Fire" but I have to write the fourth day of Wine-mas first. If you haven't read the books, I highly suggest you do. The English version of the trilogy is coming out soon if not already in some places and it's going to be a blockbuster.

The Swedish version is excellent so far.

And so I pause from the English subtitled movie to take in some protein and a glass of Egiodola.

I've had it sitting in the glass for about an hour already to let it breathe. It's a bright ruby red colour. The name Egiodola means pure blood. It's red enough to be blood.

The aromas however are not pleasant at all. Very barn yard like. Other blogs say you get fruit on the nose and the bottle says it is plum scented and well structured. I don't get fruit at all so I'm wondering if this is a faulted wine- or slightly corked. I'm not getting a fault smelling the cork (though it looks like it started to mold perhaps) so it's quite possible that this is what the wine is supposed to be like.

It's quite tannic, almost sucking any moisture right out of my mouth. You do get the fruit on the tongue when you drink it however. It's very plum like, almost raisiny. You get a bit of candied cherries as well. It's got a bit of sweetness to it as well.

Without knowing for sure if this wine is corked or not, I'm pretty neutral on the wine. I'll have to get another bottle and compare to be sure. But it's a neat sounding grape don't ya think?

#91- Saperavi

In Georgia, the grape is known as Kindzmarauli but we know it as the Saperavi grape. It literally means "paint or dye" and it's a very dark, almost black wine. To me, it had a very purplish tinge to it. It's also known as the Kakheti grape. it's a great wine to age.

In Georgia, farmers still store their wine in cone shaped clay jars and bury them underground with wooden lids. Modern winemaking has since taken over though and the wines are reminiscent of Southern Hemisphere wines that are fruit driven, warm climate wines.

I was limited that night to just a few red wines and this was the only one I had that would go with my hearty dinner of....wait for it...Bavarian sausage! I never eat sausage but maybe I was feeling sentimental from my time in Eastern Europe and especially Austria and Germany, so I picked up a packages of the sausages. It might be a cheap meal, but I see nothing wrong with matching it to a nice wine.

And in my opinion, the match worked! I really enjoyed this wine and actually drank it over a couple of nights and I liked it more and more as the wine oxidized. The wine is full of flavour- beautiful black berry flavours and a beautiful hints of cherry.

The winery is Tbilvino in Georgia. And this wine has won a ton of awards. I'm pretty sure that this was one of very few bottles even available here in Edmonton. I found it at Sherbrooke Liquor on their specialty wine rack and I paid close to $27 for it. But it was definitely worth it.

I would recommend this wine and definitely buy it again if I see it. This would probably be a great wine to cellar and open it in a few years to see how different it tastes.

Now would someone build me a cellar already?