#104- Longyan

On the 12th day of Wine-mas my true self gave to me, a bottle of wine from China.

China.

Uh huh. China.

I kind of find it surprisingly fitting that my final wine of the year and for the 12 days of Wine-mas is a Chinese wine. I have no idea why but it's just fitting.

It's also my first Chinese wine. And I liked it!

Next year is Year of the Dragon and I happen to be born in the year of the Dragon. 2012 is gonna be my year so be forewarned that 2012 is Erin's year. Not yours; Erin's.

All because of a bottle of wine. Yup.  The wine is called (funnily enough) Chinese Happy Wine. It is made from the Longyan grape variety. They describe it as a sweet full bodied wine; a delicate blend of white wine and Osmanthus flowers making it a floral and floral aroma. It also comes in French but is surprisingly absent of any Mandarin or Cantonese, please excuse my ignorance of where Chinese wine is grown in China.

But I really do like this wine. The colour is hard to describe so I've taken a picture in case I can't do it justice. It's pink, it's copper, it's orange- it's interesting. I was very unsure about this wine but I'm three glasses in and this is considered a dessert wine so imagine my surprise that I continue to drink it!

I did not drink it with dinner I'll be honest though I like to think it would have gone well. I made myself a turkey salad and with this wine being practically a rose, I'm sure it'd be a winner. In any case, the wine was my dessert. I am officially done with turkey for this season as this was the last of the leftover turkey my mom sent me home with. I had a turkey sandwich at lunch. I can now look forward to Ramen noodles for lunch again....

It is my first Chinese wine as I mentioned. And again, I liked it.

I have read that China is an emerging wine nation among other things. Up until yesterday when I picked up the wine, I had yet to see one from China. I was pleasantly surprised to find this one at Liquor Depot for a whole $12.99 in the dessert section. I didn't care how bad it was, I wanted to say I'd had a Chinese wine.

I did think it would be awful.

And I stand corrected.

The Longyan grape comes from the Zhuolu County in China. 104 tastings- I have always found a write up on Wikipedia about the grape. This is the first time that there is no write up- though in the description of Zhuolu County, they do mention the grape. But that's about it. So I'll check back in a few years and see if they have more to say about it. Right now, know that it's a grape grown in China. And it's yummy.

And with that, I have completed not only the 12 days of Wine-mas, but I have completed week 52 for 2011 and week 104 for the Weekly-grape-- in week 104!

I'd like to think I'll continue this pace into 2012. But I do know that I'll be moving on to blends as trying to find single varietal wines in Albert has tested my patience and my abilities these last few months. There are many more grapes to try but I will now try them in blended variety. And I can't guarantee that it will be every week either. But knowing me, the perfectionist, I will do my best. I must get a hold of that wine where 110 varieties of grapes are used in one bottle- then I'm good until 2014...

until then, thanks for being loyal readers, all five of you! May 2012 bring you nothing but love and happiness. And may the next glass of wine that touches your lips bring nothing but joy and good flavour.

All the best to you my friends.

Erin

A Heart Full of Wine- London

So my devoted readers, all twelve of you- as you know I just recently got back from Europe where I was able to indulge in the sport of wine drinking. Needless to say, I think I placed top three for sure. There is just such an abundance of wine everywhere that I forgot to take notes and pictures half the time! I'm such a sorry blogger.

But luckily I did capture a lot of the highlights and I'm going to share them with you. At first I was going to do all of them in one blog but I've started to write about London and realize that each country deserves a blog entry all its own. So I start with the first stop (and the starting city of our tour) London, England.

 A friend of mine recommended I visit Gordon's Wine Bar on Villier's Street. It is the oldest wine bar in London, having been established in 1890. Man this place was cool. Karyn and I had left this to our last day on the trip and it was a great way to celebrate our amazing week in London. The place is beyond description. When you walk into the place, you immediately head down into the basement (and question yourself the whole way down this narrow staircase). But upon arriving at the bottom, the most amazing surprise awaits you! It is a full service restaurant set in the old cellars of a very old city. It's breathtaking.

The tables are mismatched, wine bottles act as candle holders, drops of water fall on your head from the cellar ceiling, light is kept so low you can barely see in front of you, it's crowded and it's perfect. A buffet is offered to those who wish to match food with their wine. We chose to simply drink the wine. Karyn loves rose so I chose (and went on the establishment recommendation) of the Clos Clementine. Delicious.

 Maybe it's the setting (and if you are a true romantic at heart, this is your place) but the cool crisp taste of this wine was just perfect on our lips.

 The highlight of my trip was seeing Les Miserables on the London stage but I can honestly say that this came in very very close. You can't get much better than second! I can't wait to go back and spend an evening at Gordon's Wine Bar once again. A truly remarkable and memorable experience.

#32- Pinot Noir

Also known as Spatburgunder. A nice German wine, I picked this up on my latest trip to Europe. Yes- I'm back! I got back from my three week trip around Europe just over a week ago and it's been go go since. I plan to do a special post (this week sometime) on the various wines I got to try while I was there. To be surrounded by vineyards and dozens of wines I'd never heard of, I was in wine heaven!

But back to the wine at hand. As I mentioned, it is a wine that I picked in Germany. We stayed in a beautiful little town called St. Goar and had the most interesting wine tasting at the Familienwappen (weingut Carl Fricke) Weingut Schloss Rheinfels Winery. I ended up purchasing three wines and one of the wines I picked up was their Spatburgunder wine. It is made from the Pinot Noir grape. Usually considered a red wine wine, this wine was actually a rose wine! But I have learned that most Spatburgunder wines are in fact rose wines, and are very expensive to purchase (I must say I got myself a deal then...) This bottle of wine was about $22.00 CDN (I can't remember exactly how many Euros it was, so this is purely a guess).

I brought the wine over to my parents house for Thanksgiving dinner. Five of us wanted to taste the wine so after the first pour, there was very little left. As per tradition, mom made a turkey feast and I felt that the Spatburgunder was an excellent match to the meat. More and more people recommend going with sweeter wines for turkey and many are doing sparkling wines. While not a sparkling wine, the Pinot Noir grape is often very sweet. And sweet this wine was!

The wine is very lightweight and therefore easy to drink. Both my mom, Sharon (new sister in law) and I had no problems polishing off the wine. However, both brothers had issues finishing the wine, finding it very sweet and not to their tastes. Luckily for them I have no issue finishing their wine for them. The wine is very fruity and reminded me of a Zinfandel (well the rose anyway).

I really enjoyed the wine and wished I had brought more home with me but alas, I will have to settle for the memory of an amazing wine taste and knowing that I shared it with the most important people in the world to me. Yup, they're worth that much!

Next up is the Kerner grape and guess what? I bought myself a Canadian wine. It's good to be back home.