The Grape Count


In Vino Veritas- "In Wine there is Truth"
Grapes to try to date: 200

Grapes tried: 104
Grapes to go:
96

Showing posts with label Chenin Blanc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chenin Blanc. Show all posts

Monday, September 13, 2010

#26- Chenin Blanc

And so began the weekend of five! I was very much looking forward to this weekend, not only because we get to drink a crap load of wine (all for research purposes of course) but that I was again going on some amazing hikes in the Rocky Mountains. We are so lucky that we have such a wonder like the Rockies in our backyard, just an few hours drive away from the chaos and into some peaceful awe and wonder. And with glasses of wine to boot!

Now, Craig wasn't feeling well at all for this trip but total trooper that he is, he joined me on the camping weekend anyway (turns out he has bronchitis and should not have been doing what he was doing all weekend)- but turns out all of us Stevenson's have a stubborn streak (pneumonia ring a bell for anyone? oh what? right-- that was me...)

So Friday night we kicked off our weekend with a more common wine available here in Canada- the grape being a Chenin Blanc. The winery is from South Africa called the Winery of Good Hope and the wine itself has some interesting information on it. The wine was purchases at the Cellar (amazing store by the way) in Calgary Alberta for $21.95.

Craig was really sick that evening and wasn't able to try it that evening but took a nice swig of it after our crazy weekend. Instead, my mother joined me in drinking this wine and let's just put it this way-- before I knew it, my mother was refilling our wine glasses! A fan of white wine, it would be safe to say that it's mom approved! I too really enjoyed this wine and it actually didn't go too badly with our steak and pan fries. This would be a great wine to pair with a tastier dish such as Thai food or anything Asian or Mexican or Spanish.
With a slice of tomato from the back garden (before the blight arrives!), I was ready to enjoy a nice glass of white to put me to sleep. I had two glasses and could have had more but we did have to keep some for Craig to try a little later.

This wine was so light and crisp, easily a wine to drink on its own. You could definitely taste the citrus flavours and when told, the cinnamon could be tasted on the back of your taste buds. It left no aftertaste whatsoever. This wine would also be a good starter wine for someone looking to try wine further. It's quite acidic and on the sweet side (but not too sweet, again a great wine to drink all on its own).


The label itself is awesome- too bad I can't keep it. It's right on the bottle itself so the bottle may now become a funky new vase of sorts.

Craig and I packed two reds and two whites for the two full days of camping we had ahead of us. What a weekend to look forward to. (I also don't have pictures of Craig and I drinking the Chenin Blanc so I'll have to come back and replace the filler pics).

Friday, September 3, 2010

#25- Muscat of Alexandria

This wine, as inappropriate as it is to dedicate to a four year old, is for Owen! It was his birthday party after all and we ate Spiderman cake! And while he ran around with his buddies, wearing a the helmet yours truly gave him to go with the yellow quad his parents gave him, the adults drank wine! And the special adults (yup, I'm special) had the most amazing dessert wine to go with the red and blue cake.

The wine we tried this week was part of the group of wines my sister Kristin brought home from the States as I can't find it anywhere in Alberta. The grape is the Muscat of Alexandria grape and the wine we tried is the Coppo Moncalvina Moscato D'Asti from Italy. With only a 5% alcohol content, you're not going to get drunk anytime soon on this wine. We had small portions to go with the cake as a dessert wine is more of a sipping wine than anything because it's so sweet. And this wine did not disappoint at all! It was delicious and the most disappointing part of it all was the bottle was only 375ml (half of the usual 750ml) so our wine did not go very far between five of us.



You could definitely taste the pear in this wine, a fruit I really like. I would definitely recommend this wine (if you can find it) to anyone looking for a nice dessert wine. The next time you're in the States, pick up a bottle or two for sure!

Craig and I have a busy long weekend ahead of us as we're heading out to the Rocky Mountains to do some more hiking in preparation for my trip to Nepal. I have brought five wines with me for us to try over three days so we'll see how we do!

The next wine on our list is the Chenin Blanc.