#80- Dolcetto

It was the only red wine of the whole camping weekend. And it didn't disappoint! After a full day of hiking and hitting up Old Fort Point (next post), we were ready to enjoy a quiet evening at the campsite. It was a beautiful evening in Jasper with daytime temperatures in the mid twenties so the evening temperature was just perfect.

We'd hoped that we had burned enough of Owen's energy off during the day and doing the climb but no such luck. While Craig got the fire going (so I could make us dinner), I had to entertain the kid.

I threw a ball in the air. I played bocce ball. I wrestled with him. I played I spy. I played jump over the wood logs. I played hide and seek....you get the idea. I'm not sure how people do this "parenting"  thing full time. It was time to drink.

The menu that evening included fresh potatoes (from my sister's garden), some side salad and good old AAA Alberta beef steak. They'd thawed during the day so they were spiced up a bit and once the potatoes were done, the steaks were put on and grilled to perfection.

The wine is a Dolcetto, very obviously an Italian wine. The wine is a midweight wine and not very acidic. It is often drunk very young. This was an absolutely delicious wine and both Craig and I gave this wine a two thumbs up. I thought it was a great compliment to the juicy and flavourful steak- didn't take away any of the smoky flavours of the food that had infused itself into our grilled dinner.

The dolcetto grape is grown in the Piedmont region of Italy and is known as "little sweet one" which it was. Coming off a month of drinking ports, sherries and dessert wines, it's all relative so I wouldn't call this necessarily a very sweet wine. It is actually a dry wine- this world is sometimes full of mystery and confusion.

In this wine I could definitely taste licorice and cherries and would classify this as a very balanced wine.

The winery is the Poderi di Luigi Einaudi and based on the beautiful pictures on its website, I would very much like to go there. It's exactly how I picture a vineyard to be- beautiful and romantic and mysterious. Oh, who wants to buy me a ticket? If you can read Italian, you can read more about the wine.

I still have some of the wine left so the debate tomorrow while I do some of my classroom work (yes,I'm taking a wine class- maybe one day I'll actually be able to write something intelligent about wine) and drink the bottle or leave some for Kristin and mom to taste on Sunday. Choices....

#79- Falanghina

The next five wines are all from a long weekend camping trip taken last week (the order might be slightly skewed so don't judge if the pics appear out of order).

My brother and I both had 4 days off so we decided to take our five year old nephew Owen camping. It happened to be his 5th birthday on the day we left so the whole trip was a sort of birthday weekend for him. We decided to take him to Jasper and do some hiking.

We couldn't have picked a better weekend. Other than the slightly cold and damp weather to start, the weekend was beautiful and hot from start to finish. Craig was responsible for the food, I was responsible for the wine. I brought six bottles with me (one was the Mencia wine that Craig had yet to try and I went out of my way to and buy another bottle only for us to never crack it the entire weekend. Le sigh.).

Craig did a decent job of getting food though typical of the male species-- white bread, white buns and lots of meat. No mill, no eggs and no fruits or vegetables! Ha! Thank goodness I emptied the fridge of my fruits and vegetables before I left!

We set up camp in the Whistlers campground just after 2pm. It didn't take long for us to set up camp and Owen helped as much as he could. We decided to crack open the bottle of wine while we set up and had a snack. I don't recommend this pairing often but when you're camping, you have to sometimes have a "laissez faire" attitude.

Because it was Owen's birthday, he got to choose the snacks and the dinner. For dinner, we had salad and hot dogs (I upgraded and went with a sausage on a bun). I'm not a fan of hot dogs or sausage but hey- it's not my birthday and I'm a team player.

For the snack, it was Joe Louis all the way! I hadn't had one of these in years so I was happy to indulge. It was just the perfect pick me up for us to put up kitchen tents, unload food and build fire.

Owen has been taking it upon himself lately to pour the wine at any and all gatherings he is it. He even knows to twist the bottle to not waste a drop. He still insists on pouring the wine right to the rim so you get to do the good old bring your lips to the stationary wine glass trick before much else. But he does a good job and he is quick to refill when he sees your wine glass is getting low.

So to the wine. The verdict is unanimous- both Craig and I really liked this wine. Like, really really liked it. So much so there wasn't a drop left to be shared with anyone back home. He and I polished the bottle off pretty quick.

The wine is from Villa Matilde in Italy (the second time I've reviewed one of their wines and the first time I've had a repeat winery). The first thing Craig noted about this wine was the very strong smell of peaches and he was right- it is very strong but extremely pleasant to drink. I couldn't taste much else but the description of the wine sounds wonderful (hints of almonds, grapefruits, sage)- yummy. Trust me, this is a great wine to drink.

It is a middleweight wine, very yellow in colour and more acidic than not. If you like a Pinot Blanc, you should like the Falanghina. I can't wait to try another one that's for sure. The Falanghina wine also goes very well with seafood (it's grown in the Campania region of Italy, around Naples).

And as far as I can remember, it went just perfectly with hot dogs!

#70- Inzolia

Another day of camping, another day of drinking wine.

After a great day of hiking 8 km roundtrip in bear country, we were ready for some wine.

But I do have to mention that I had a great time hiking with my parents. I know that they sometimes think they're too slow and hold me up on hikes but one thing I learned from the Everest trek is that the hike is about the journey, not the finish line. I had a great time with them, with or without the bears. In fact, we didn't see any wildlife at all on the hike.

So back at the campsite, we started up our fire and started to prep the food for dinner. Now remember, we're cooking over open flame so the simpler the better. This evening's food du jour- hamburgers! And the hamburgers were delicious! We piled on the vegetables between the nicely toasted buns and dug in. Now I suppose I should have had a red wine with this meal but I had two whites so white wine it was.

The wine we had is the Contempo Inzolia from Sicily, Italy. The Contempo name means "at the same time" and is supposed to represent the winery's past to future- or something like that. The winery is the Abbazia Santa Anastasia Winery (note to the winery- your site takes way too long to upload). I'd like to talk a little more about the winery but it's all in Italian and their English site is not up yet. But I do like the violin music (er...)

The Inzolia wine is a very fragrant grape and was a very easy wine to drink. At first, I didn't like this wine at all but it did grow on me as the night grew on and the wine settled a bit. Even in the silver tumblers, the bright yellow colour of the wine was unmistakable. I'd have to say though I was pretty neutral on it as it was very reminiscent of the other white wine I had just tried- the tocai fruilano. It's not a wine I'd go out of my way to go and buy but if I was offered another glass of it, I wouldn't pass it up.

The Inzolia grape is also known as the Ansonica grape (sounds dangerous).There's not much else to tell you except that I'd recommend you go and try the Inzolia grape yourself. Craig is going a big wine catch up this weekend so I'll actually  be able to give you his opinions. By the way, mom liked it...