#46- Savatiano

I'm pretty sure it's apple juice. Besides it looking identical to childhood's favourite juice (think urine yellow to be frank), to me, this wine tastes exactly like apple juice. According to the bottle I have the fruit wrong but when it tastes like juice, does it really matter?

The Savatiano grape is widely known in Greece and is often used in Retsina. It's not acidic at all and is considered a lightweight wine. It's easy enough to drink but it does leave a very distinct fruity taste in your mouth. While some wines are quite clean and once they're swallowed, that's it, this one tends to wallow in the back of your throat for a while. I can't say I'm a fan.

I guess if I wanted to drink apple juice, I'd drink apple juice. To be, the wine isn't distinct enough in its taste to really want me to drink more. I remember bragging just a few short blog posts ago how I hadn't met a Greek wine I didn't like. Well, I don't like this one. Apparently they only made 4,100 bottles in 2005. Probably a good thing. The winery is the Fragou Winery in Greece.

According to the back of the bottle, the fruity taste is from orange blossoms and peach. Odd as I don't taste orange at all (I do have to admit I had two Christmas oranges today so perhaps it's ruined my tongue for the orange) and I certainly don't taste peach! Dammit it's apple!

Being a Greek wine, I opted to eat a nice Greek salad with the wine. I think I liked it when I did eat it with salad, the dressing nicely offsetting the sweet taste of the Savatiano. Paired with vegetable, the wine went down easy enough so having a Greek salad with this wine is an excellent choice.

I doubt I'd get this wine again (okay maybe but just to see if I do or don't really like it, a comparison to this one) especially when I have enjoyed so many other Greek wines so much more!

UPDATE: Craig liked the wine (so it's a neutral pick). He liked the apple like taste and said it went well with turkey sandwiches.

#45- Nero D'Avola

I tried this wine at the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Festival a few weeks back and really enjoyed it. When Kristin invited me out to her place on Friday (okay so it started as a babysitting job for her but what are sisters for?), I dutifully brought out a bottle of wine and headed out to her place. The roads were absolutely terrible so I needed a glass or two by the time I got to her house!

The Nero D'Avola grape is from Italy and is known as the most important red grape in Sicily! Overall I enjoyed the wine so I guess I'll have to agree with those Sicilians! The wine is very dark, almost black in colour and right away you notice how tannic the wine is. As the wine breathed more, the better it became and less tannic on the tongue. Kristin and I were also drinking a primitivo wine as well which was a lot less powerful in taste and it really made us notice just how strong this particular wine was.

Paired with some tortellini and some homemade pasta sauce, we dived in to a Spadina Una Rosa (Signature) Nero D'Avola from 2004 (apparently 2004 has been a good year for me this year). The berry flavour in this wine is very strong but just so delicious. At one point Kris turned to me and asked just how much we had to save for Craig to try this wine. Big thumbs up from us!

 

The wine is very acidic- almost balsamic like. Luckily I'm a fan of balsamic vinegar so it's tanginess was a delight to my senses, not a hindrance. It's very earthy and sits so very nicely in the mouth. If you are a fan of red wines, you will like this. If you don't often drink red wines, make sure you eat something while you're drinking as it is a very powerful wine on its own. 

Overall, this was a great wine and very affordable (less than $20 at Sherbrooke Liquor Mart). Craig is playing catch up with the wine soon (he'll have about 6 to try soon so it could be a good night for him!). We're also going to do the 12 wines of Christmas (why not?) and I have found- get this- 60 more wines for us to try over the next year! I can't wait to go shopping. I'm hoping I get a good discount.

#44- Malvasia

The makers of the wine describe her initial impression on you as- bony dry, crystalline and clear. And boy, they couldn't be more right. This is a very dry wine that leaves a "dry" impression upon you that lasts for days and days. An American wine, the Malvasia grape is used in the Birichino Malvasia Bianca wine from the Birichino Amici winery in King City, California. It is a grape originally from Greece. It's also known as Malmsey. I'd link to the website listed on the page, but it doesn't seem to work. Nice.

I didn't like this wine. The dryness of the wine was just too overwhelming for me. It had almost tasted as if the wine was dehydrated and concentrated. The alcohol taste was just a tad much. I did drink a couple of glasses to be sure but I just didn't catch on to the wine at all. I had a lot of trouble pulling any scent or taste from this wine and reading the back of the label, I now see why.

The tastes are your typical tastes or really any that I've managed to describe over the last year. Maybe if I was actually more than an amateur wine connoisseur, I'd have been able to pull out the hints of jasmine, lime blossom and elderflower (honestly, I can tell you I know what Jasmine smells like and perhaps lime blossom- wild guess- is lime but elderflower? For real? Anyone?).

I paired this wine with a lovely homemade meal of Swiss Chalet! I went with the two white meats to go along with the white wine- chicken and pork. The sauce is nice and tangy but it seemed to compete with the intense flavours of the wine.

 

Overall, I wasn't impressed by this wine and if I had a choice, I'd take a pass on it if it were offered to me again. Actually let me revise that, I'll try another Malvasia but I'd certainly look for a different flavouring- let's say coffee and caramel. Now that's more my style...!

#43- Xynomavro

I've always wanted to go to Greece. It's definitely on my list of near future travels. And the Greek wine I just drank- well, I am now wanting to go more than ever!

Greece doesn't get a good reputation here for making good wine but I've had some pretty good experiences so far and this wine- the Grande Reserva Naoussa Boutari- is bloody fantastic!

But first let's back up a bit and learn about the grape shall we? The Xynomavro grape (besides being the best new word you've learned to play Scrabble with!) is founs in several areas in Greece and is often considered the "Bordeaux of Greece". I would agree. Man it's easy to digress....the name itself means acidic black / bitter. It's not an easy grape to grow so the quantities are limited.  This is a Grande Reserva so it is implied that is a of higher quality or has been aged. This wine is both (the bottle notes it's been aged 4 years). The winery is the Boutari Winery located in Naoussa.

Let me set the scene for you shall I? So I'm single, mid (ahem) thirties with no kids and living in a pretty nice condo. I haven't decorated for Christmas in a while (why, just for me? really?) but for some reason this year I decided I would put up the tree and a few decorations around the place. Perhaps I'm just in a better place, or perhaps I'm in complete denial that my life is a bit of a shambles right now (have I mentioned at all yet that I got laid off? Nor fired- laid off) yeah, happy Christmas to me!

In any case, the boxes came down from storage and I went to town! But what is decorating without a little rum and eggnog? Well, with no eggnog in the house, I decided to bring out a bottle of red. To go along with the bottle, I made myself a platter of (spicy havarti) cheese and crackers with some Mundare sausage and edamame beans in a red garlic spice. The bottle recommends spicy food.

I took my first sip. As it hit my tongue, I was underwhelmed. Ah well, you can't win them all. I swallowed. I took a step and then suddenly it hit me-- the taste was overwhelming in my mouth. It was like a lovely warmth had blown itself into my mouth. This wine was all about the lingering, the after effect, the pregnant pause after the swallow. Oh my God this is a fabulous wine. I'm not even one to really appreciate an oaky wine but this- this one is just perfect! The delectable taste of oak danced delightfully on my tongue as my lips eagerly made their way back to the wine glass for more. This wine will be gone in no time! I so can't do the description of this wine justice so you can read about it- I need to get another bottle before everyone else finds out about it.

The spicy cheese enhanced the flavour of the wine beautifully and before I knew it, the tree was decorated, the house was Christmassy, and I was full of red wine goodness. A good night wouldn't you say?

If Craig doesn't like this red wine, I will have no doubt left in my mind that he is part alien.

UPDATE: Craig has tried the wine-- and he likes it!! Damn rights. "Dry, but not too dry" he says. So now you know. This is damn good wine.

#42- Prosecco

I'd be talking about it since my gondola ride in Italy. I'd known I'd pick a bottle up and have it ready to go for Kristin's birthday. It is the Italian's answer to France's Champagne- Prosecco! Oh how I have had such an amazing relationship with thee.

For me, Champagne is hit and miss. I did learn on one of my wine tours to the Napa Valley (and specifically the Domaine Chandon Winery), all sparkling wine is not created equal. We've all had very cheap Champagne at New Year's and it really did turn me off to the bubbly. But once you've had really good sparking wine, Champagne, whatever, then you understand what all the fuss is about.

Bubbles people. It's all about the bubbles. The smaller the better. If anything, size matters and do yourself a favour before you gulp- check out the bubbles. "Tiny Bubbles..."- sing it with me!

So, I've had Prosecco a few times now and I have LOVED every single one. I'm starting to think you can't make a bad Prosecco. I did have Prosecco on the gondola ride and mentioned it in my Italy post last month. A Prosecco is also different from other sparkling wines in that it is a dry wine, and not very sweet. It's sometimes easy to confuse a fruity taste with sweet and in this instance, you definitely could think it's sweet. But it is in fact a dry white. For Kristin's birthday, I brought out the good stuff. Martini Prosecco to be exact. It was also one of the bottles I found where the Prosecco was strictly just the grape and not a blend.

The Prosecco grape is grown exclusively in the Veneto region of Italy. So it's kind of like Champagne (it's very region specific and like Champagne has a protected designation of origin- in other words, if the bottle says Prosecco, you are guaranteed it's from the Veneto region of Italy and not some knock off wine from elsewhere).

This particular wine has hints of vanilla, peaches and apples. The vineyards around this region are surrounded by fresh fruit and it appears in the wine. It is so delicious it's one of those wines you could drink on its own or with any type of food really. The night was a celebration for Kristin so we paired up the Prosecco with her birthday cake- homemade black forest cake! Home made also means "bought at Safeway" around these parts...

The bottle of wine was picked up at the Real Canadian Superstore's west end location and was a reasonable price (I'm guessing it was around $25.00). Their selection isn't the greatest there but you get fabulous deals if you're willing to buy in multiples...sometimes I'm known to do this. I suggest you check it out especially for a party, it's a great way to save money on wine!

A quick little fact for you- processo is the main ingredient in a Bellini cocktrail. True story.

Still no idea what Craig thinks of the wine as he's yet to tell me. That boy is falling behind but I'm pretty sure he'll give this wine a thumbs up!

If any of you are looking for a Christmas wine or even more likely a great New Year's bubbly- go and get yourself a Prosecco. You won't be disappointed.