#100- Carignan

On the 8th day of Wine-mas my true self gave to me, a bottle of Carignan from la Belle pays de France!

And this isn't just the 8th day, oh no- this blog represents a goal I have been working towards for two years. And tonight, I accomplish it. Tonight is my 100th wine varietal I have tasted!

100!

My goal started New Year's 2010 but I had been planning to write a wine blog months before that when I got my DeLong's Wine Grape Varietal Table in the mail after visiting their home page. I was inspired to become a member of the Wine Century Club and I totally loved their approach to introducing people to new wines.

I hadn't even been a huge wine drinker back then but I did enjoy wine and really wanted to expand my knowledge and my palate. So I took up the challenge- to try all 184 grape varieties on their table. It soon turned into the round number of 200 as I was finding single varietal wines here in Edmonton that weren't listed.

I still plan to try all 184 and then some, it just might not be in single varietal form. I have tried my very best to do single varietals (or those that are basically 95% +) but it does get more and more difficult to find them. We don't have the best access to some wines. In many ways we're very limited compared to other places in the world and having made it to 100 is a feat I wasn't sure was possible.

But I'm glad I'm did it!

I've tried some pretty amazing wines. But I've also tasted some awful ones as well. And I appreciate that. It's the only way to learn what you like and what you don't. I've had some ridiculously unusual wine pairings- some worked, some not so much and I've had some predictable and traditional ones as well.

I've drank many of them with my brother and my mother and my sister and my friends. For two years, I've had the pleasure of analyzing a glass of nectar of the Gods. Not too shabby a research project I must say.

Who knows if I'll reach 200 and when I'll reach it but I will still try to do a wine a week. The good part about blends though is I can knock a few varietals off at a time.

And after tonight, I plan to apply for membership to the Wine Century Club. I was so hoping they would just see the blog and grant me admission but I guess I have to be like any other wino and apply. And so I will.

And now it's time to get on with review #100- Carignan!

I don't mind the wine. It isn't my favourite and compared to the Prieto Picudo I drank last night, this one fell a bit flat. Surprising as I am a huge fan of French wines.

Maybe it's all a dream. Maybe I'm just trying to be cheesy- the wine I'm drinking is called Reve. Borie de Mavrel produces the wine in the Minervois region.

The Carignan grape is not often a single varietal wine and often used in blends and is very popular in the Languedoc region.

The wine itself is very high in alcohol content- 14%. But there is no sweetness on the tongue at all. Actually I've just retasted the wine and now that it's had time to site for a but, it's not so tannic and tight in the mouth. It's much more relaxed and I'd describe the tannins as smooth.

The red fruits are evident- strawberries and raspberries with a slight hint of leather. It is a 2005 so it makes sense. Very meaty like. It is a bold wine. I ate it with a steak and cheese sandwich dripping in sweet onion sauce and packed with vegetables. It was so good. The melted mozzarella cheese and steak were great choices for this full bodied wine.

I'm going to let the rest of the bottle sit overnight and will grab it again tomorrow when I write my review of wines 81-100. Amazing.

#100- you didn't let me down. Now cheers and raise your glass to the next 100!

And so begins my education...

I haven't always been a fan of wine. In fact, I hated the stuff and would only touch a rose if I absolutely needed to. It wasn't until a friend of mine invited me to the Niagara Wine Festival in 2001 that I really began to appreciate wine.

A couple of years ago I began to do more research on wine. I stumbled across a website that caught my attention and I immediately began to explore the world of wine. The website Wine Century Club opened my eyes to just how large the world of wine is. Wine knows no country boundaries, nor does it limit itself to just the upper class of society. No, wine is much more complicated than that. And I wanted to know more.

I ordered the giant poster that lists 184 different grape varieties from all over the world. The point of the poster (and the Wine Century Club) is to encourage wine lovers to expand their pallette. To try grape varietals they wouldn't normally try. To obtain membership into the Club, one must prove that they have tried different types of wine made from 100 grape varietals.

So that's my goal and then I'm going to go beyond that. My first goal is to gain membership into the Wine Century Club. My second goal is to try all 184 grape varietals listed on the poster.

So, the plan is to try one new wine each week until I've tried all 184. I've already run into some wines whose grape does not appear on the Wine Century Club poster so I'm guessing by the time I've finished, I will be close to trying nearly 200 different grapes. That basically means that I'm going to be drinking wine on a weekly basis for at least the next four years.

I've had harder tasks.

But by no means is this going to be easy. It's not as easy as one would think- just go into a store and purchase some wine. But here in Alberta, not every type of wine and grape varietal is available, or at the very least, easy to obtain. I've already looked into getting a wine made from the pignolo grape and I've come up empty. So, I may have to carefully plan my travels or rely on friends who travel to far away places to bring some wine back for me that I just can't get here in Alberta.

In any case, I've planned the next 13 weeks out so I'm good at least until April 2010. Only 3.75 years to go after that!

I'm also hoping to expand my cooking abilities while I'm at it so I'm planning a weekly meal that works well with each wine I try. I figure I may actually learn how to pair wine and food together! I'm relying on two new cookbooks I purchased to keep me on track. If anything, it gives me an excuse to throw a dinner party each week and hope that someone shows up and keeps me company. And I'll even let them throw in their opinion on the wine!

So tomorrow the wine quest begins. I've invited my brother Craig over for wine, dinner and to play some Wii. Luckily for me, my brother appreciates wine as much as I do and he too hopes to gain membership into the Wine Century Club so this is a great start for both of us.

The wine we are going to try is my least favourite wine to date and that is the Chardonnay. I'm hoping that the pick I've chosen will change my mind about chardonnays. We'll see how it goes.

I'm open to comments and suggestions as well and I hope to have a lot of fun on this wine journey of mine and I'm glad you're here to read about it with me. And if you're near me, here in Edmonton, feel free to join me for a glass of wine. I guarantee you the answer is yes!