#8- Mourvedre

Move Over Dear. That's how one website artfully has you remember the name of the Mourvedre grape. The grape is considered an emerging grape so you'll likely hear about it more and more. It also goes by a couple of other names (think Syrah and Shiraz as an example) so it's also known as a Monastrell, Matero and Balzac grape.

The wine I was looking for was sold out at Liquor Select in Edmonton that carried this hard to find wine. Apparently it's on wine lovers' radar screens and I was out of luck to pick up a bottle from California. But as luck would have it, the store manager was pretty knowledgeable about wines and directed me towards a Spanish Monastrell wine she had in stock and quickly explained to me it was the same grape. Perfect! I was on my way.

The wine is from the Altos De La Hoya, Bodegas Olivares in Santa Ana, Spain. The vintage is 2006 and the bottle cost me $18.99. I bought it and headed over to my parents house who were having a little birthday celebration for my brother (happy 27th Craig!) and it was the closing of the Olympic closing ceremonies. A nice red would end our two weeks of showcasing our country to the world and a strong show of patriotism just nicely.

Chili was the order of the day for this meal. With the wine chilled to the right temperature for a red (yes, chill a red for about half an hour in the fridge) and the 42 inch television calling our name, I cracked open the bottle and poured ourselves a glass. The first thing I noticed (and only the second time I've had this), the wine had a black cork. I'm still not sure what to think about that. No matter, it doesn't affect the wine. At first, both Craig and I noticed a biting acidic taste to the wine and no wonder. On the grape varietal table, this grape is a superheavyweight and has very high acidity. We let the wine settle a bit and the bite wasn't as severe as dinner went on.

I really liked this wine. it was full of flavour and I found it very satisfying. What I mean by that is that I enjoyed how this wine played on my tongue. It was like all of my taste buds were busy figuring out this wine. There was a bit of an oak taste to it (from being aged in barrels), but it was not an overpowering taste. Craig, not being a red wine lover, especially enjoyed this wine and turned to me and said "I think I'm becoming a red wine lover, what's happening to?" You know it's a good red when...

I highly recommend this wine and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on that California Mourvedre that was out of stock. So the next time you're looking for a new red to try and don't mind a little acidity and bite to your wine, go grab a mourvedre.

On another note for any of you who live in Alberta, do you know that there is a website that helps you track down your favourite bottle of wine (and other sprits)? The website is the Alberta Liquor Guide and I use this site regularly to find those hard to fine wines. And you're welcome. The next grape on the list is one of my favourites- the Gewurztraminer.

#7- Arinto

I first tasted this wine when I ducked in to pick up a couple of bottles of wine. A little wine tasting was happening in the store- Liquor on McLeod in Spruce Grove. So I tasted. And I loved! I bought the bottle without even realizing that the bottle I purchased was a separate grape. My how things work out sometimes.

The Arinto grape is from Portugal and not much is out there to describe this wine. The wine is from Prova Regia in the Bucelas region. This bottle is a 2007 vintage and cost me a whole $14.43. I chilled the wine before dinner. And this time dinner was bought. As you can see, I tried the wine with a nice assortment of sushi. I knew the Arinto grape would go well with the fish and rice.The bottle chilled, I took it out for dinner and managed to break the cork in half! Ticked I am! So I had to push half the cork into the bottle so now the wine has a huge floater in it. No matter, I was drinking this wine anyway! At first, I found the wine very acidic and decided to let the wine warm up a bit before drinking it. And it certainly changed the taste of it, the acidic bite gone from the wine. This wine was delicious and it took all my might not to drink the whole thing that night. I had to save some for Craig. I found it quite pleasing on the palette and crisp to taste. Refreshing indeed.

Craig immediately noted the citrus taste and reading the back of the bottle, it did have hints of lemon to it. Apparently my palette isn't very good because I didn't notice the lemon taste at all. But no matter, Craig was easy enough to please and had no issues drinking the wine. He did mention he could taste a woodiness to it, but that could be from the cork floating in the bottle overnight.

I would definitely recommend the wine and certainly the grape to others who are looking for a refreshing white. Next up is the red grape- Mourvedre. It should be a good one.

#6- Furmint

In Alberta, a Furmint wine is hard to find. You're extremely limited as to who imports it into the province and who stocks it so I was pleasantly surprised to find a Furmint wine at Glenora Liquor. Now, for a wine that is so hard to find, I wasn't sure what to expect but let's just say this- the price tag for this wine surprised the heck out of me.

I was mentally preparing myself to pay a pretty penny for this wine. Boy was I wrong. Not only was this wine affordable, it's been the cheapest bottle of wine I've bought so far for this project. It cost me a whole $10.99! I immediately thought, this wine isn't going to be that good if it's that cheap. My thinking changed from "this must be one hell of a wine that no one can afford to import it" to "maybe there's a reason no one imports this wine and it costs less than $12 with tax." Happy to have found it and overly optimistic, I was ready to try this new wine.

The bottle I purchased is Tokaji Furmint, a Hungarian white table wine. This is where I wish I could read Hungarian because I have no clue what winery this wine is actually from. Tokaji is the region in Hungary the Furmint grapes are grown. I'm sure it's somewhere on the bottle but everything I plug into Google doesn't give me the winery or winery name. Perhaps I'm supposed to know this from the crown at the top of the label? Anyway, you have the picture of it so that's the best I can do here until someone who reads Hungarian can tell me more.

We drank this wine for my my dad's birthday (he's kind enough to share Valentine's with us) which was also the crazy weekend that included the Olympics and Family Day so a busy wine drinking weekend full of red and white and family.

The meal was a good one to go with our white, a nice homemade lasagna! Okay, so it wasn't homemade at all but still, the point is there was a lot of food to go with our Furmint. What I remember most about this meal is how big my piece of lasagna was. I had every intention of only eating half of it only to have licked the plate clean. Thank goodness I exercise regularly or this weekend could have been the end of me.So back to the wine. In a word- tasteless. It didn't taste like anything at all to me. It's not memorable, there's no discernible taste that jumps out at you. It's just-- wine. I was so disappointed. All the work I'd put in to finding this darn wine and I didn't like it. Craig on the other hand, didn't mind it at all. This is supposed to be a very rich wine with a fiery taste and similar to a Chardonnay but I just didn't find anything that stood out.

I'm just not sure what more I can say other than this wine is not worth it, even for $10.99. Don't bother to drink this wine unless you're a) a lover of the Chardonnay or b) you too are trying what Craig and I are attempting. I'm really hoping our next wine is much better and more satisfying. Next week, we're trying an Arinto!

#5- Merlot

Happy Valentine's Day and happy birthday to my father as well. Pretty soon I will be heading out to celebrate the day and try yet another new wine, but first, time to write about the Merlot I tried a couple of a week ago (and a bonus for this blog as well--a second Merlot for comparison).

So it wasn't my intent to compare two Merlot wines but the timing of the Olympics made it possible. The Merlot wine I chose was a California wine from the Barefoot Winery. This winery won several awards in 2007 including Wine Brand of the Year. The Merlot grape is the most prominent grape in France and is one of the most accessible types of wine here in Canada. Practically every country in the wine making world produces a Merlot.

I had one of my closest friends Michelle over for dinner to watch our guilty pleasure, the Bachelor. We cracked open the Merlot which accompanied our pasta dinner (I'm sensing a pattern here with me and red wine...)In any case, we settled in to our evening and as you can see, Michelle was enjoying a quiet evening at my house (the couch was her best friend this evening). I have had many evenings (including last night where we had the most amazing fondue) at her house enjoying bottle after bottle of wine. Michelle and her husband Jeff appreciate and enjoy a great bottle of wine so they're great partners when experimenting with new wines.

The Merlot is a wine that I couldn't stand when I first started drinking wine. It took me many many attempts before I finally started to appreciate Merlot but now, I am usually a fan of the grape.

Drinking the wine, the first thing I noticed was house velvety smooth it was. I wanted to leave it my mouth and just enjoy the texture as the wine swirled around my mouth. Sips later, I really noticed the taste of the boysenberries. Michelle too captured the taste though we were both left guessing if anyone could actually taste the supposed chocolate flavour. But we did manage to pair this wine with an excellent brownie (and it's so true, red wine and chocolate go very well together).

When I managed to get Craig to finally try the Merlot, he sat there for a few minutes without saying much. And then out of nowhere, his blurt "berries. I can taste berries. It's good." Succinct and well said. Craig did an excellent job finishing up the bottle. We quickly gave my mother a taste but not being a fan of the merlot, she had a sip and that was it.

Being die hard Olympic couch athletes, our evening wasn't complete without trying the Jackson & Triggs official wine of the 2010 Olympics. There are two types but tonight we took on the Merlot to compare it to our Barefoot one.

The Olympic wine however, only gets the silver medal while Barefoot gets the gold. The Olympic wine tasted young and more acidic than I would have preferred. I actually found it hard to swallow at first and had to let it breathe for several more minutes before finding it acceptable to drink. Craig on the other hand had no problems drinking it right away and liked it as much as the Barefoot. But it is my blog and so I say the Barefoot wins.

And for a white wine drinker, Craig is sure doing a heck of a job putting those glasses of red wine away. Our next wine to try is a harder to find grape- the Furmint.

#4- Gamay

So I'm a little behind on my blogging about the wines but rest assured, I haven't fallen behind on drinking the wine! Part of the delay is getting the wine to my brother for him to try and make his opinion heard. I hadn't seen him in a couple of weeks so I had a whack of wine for him to try last night during our family event which happened to be watching the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC. We are proud Canadians and wouldn't miss the ceremonies for the world. But I digress.

We also drank a lot of wine, the unofficial Stevenson Olympic sport. So not only did we have to try a new wine, but Craig had to catch up on two previous wines. First up was the Gamay.

The Gamay is a less popular grape though I have no idea why. It is freaking delicious. The wine is from a Canadian winery in Penticton, British Columbia. The winery is Hillside Estate and the wine itself is a 2007 Old Vines Gamay Noir. The wine cost me about $20 to purchase at Liquor on McLeod in Spruce Grove.

Eating alone, I paired the wine with some pasta and meat sauce with a strong cheese to bring out the flavours of the wine. And boy did it. The Gamay itself is a very smooth and creamy wine. Absolutely no aftertaste. It took all of my power to leave Craig any wine at all in this bottle. I could take the fruit in the wine especially the cherries. The bottle mentions that the wine is aged in french oak barrels (which I'm not usually a fan of) but I guess the oak was subtle enough that I enjoyed the wine.

It took Craig a few minutes to decide if he liked this wine. In all likelihood because we'd had several different kinds by the time I insisted he try the Gamay. He too appreciated that there was no aftertaste to the wine. Not usually a huge fan of the red wine, he gave it an overall thumbs up.

I too give the wine a thumbs up and in all likelihood will try some more Gamay from other regions such as the Beaujolais region in France.

The next wine up to taste: Merlot!