#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?

#50- Alicante Bouschet

The reds are getting thumbs up a lot these days (including from Craig) and this wine is no different! The Alicante grape is from Portugal and is also known as Alicante Bouschet. It's also named after the city of Alicant in Portugal. The grape is also fairly unique as it has flesh to it (most grapes used for wine don't)

The wine was bought again at Sherbrooke Liquor store the day I went in and found 8 grapes I hadn't yet tried. The bottle was a reasonable $21.99. The winery is the Grand D'Arte Winery.

The first thing I noticed about this wine is how spicy it is! It left a deep tingling sensation on my lips and the spices came out quite nicely with the wine. Drunk on Christmas Eve, this wine paired nicely with the tortiere my mother made for us (okay, store bought but usually it is homemade and hers is better anyway. As you can see by the colour of the tortiere below, it was definitely lacking something!).

Also noted for taste in this wine is plum and vanilla which you can actually taste. The blend is wonderful and just dances on your lips. It's also very dry and has very high alcohol content (14%) but very very good nonetheless.

The wine is also extremely dark, almost black in appearance. Drop something in your wine and you won't be finding it any time soon (until you drink your way to it I suppose). 

This is one wine Craig hasn't tried yet but I'm sure he'll get around to it- just a few more to go and he's all caught up!

#47- Chambourcin

The last month or so has been one of the most stressful months of my life and thankfully, that month is nearing the end. And lucky me, with that month end comes a brand new year. I say bring on 2011. But we're still a few days away so I'm busting out the blog and going blog crazy- I do have seven blogs to write in 4 days so hang on tight!

The next wine was brought out after a great evening of hot yoga (hence why I don't have a stitch of make up on in this picture). I had thawed a beef and lemon parsley stew that I had made earlier in the summer and it was ready to be reheated by the time I got home.

The wine I chose is the 2005 Yarraman Estate Winery- Black Cypress Chambourcin in Australia and more specifically the Hunter Valley. The Chambourcin wine had great vintages in 2004, 2002, 2001 and 1999. But of course I had the 2005 wine. I really wanted to like this wine. I did.

But I can't say that I do. I drank it and could muster the courage to drink it but I won't be going out of my way to get it again (unless the bottle has the right vintage year, maybe I'll give it another shot but that's a long one to be sure).

This wine is very dark in colour, almost black in depth. I couldn't really pull out many flavours from the wine itself because I found it to be a little too acidic. On the website it notes the wine isn't very acidic but again, they're talking about a vintage year. The bottle describes cherry and plum flavours and you definitely taste the fruit but really, this wine leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps I need to try it with chocolate or something. Noted for New Year's when I'm attempting to polish off the bottle...

The Chambourcin grape is not listed on De Long's Wine Grape Varietal Table but it is definitely a grape used in wine making and in several countries and originated in France, making its debut in 1963. The more I read, the more I realize I must pair this with chocolate. I tried the wine twice- once with the stew that I had made and then all on its own again tonight. But both times I didn't really enjoy it. Normally I don't give a wine a third taste but perhaps in this instant I will.

I'm not sure what else I can write other than try it yourself to see what you think, with chocolate of course! Craig is doing a monster catch up on the wine soon so we'll update the page on his opinion.

UPDATE: Craig didn't like the wine either.