#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!

Wine #3- Riesling

"It takes like juice." That's how my brother described the Riesling. And then he followed it up with "best one so far". My mom, quickly stealing a taste from his wine glass, quickly agreed. This one was heck of a wine. And I'd have to agree.

The Riesling is a fabulous white wine. It's typically sweeter wine and this one, on the scale of 1-5 for sweetness (with 5 being the sweetest), this bottle of wine was a 4 (so yes, it was almost like drinking juice).


I did try this wine last week though I'm late writing about it. I will play catch up. Last weekend was a little wild and crazy as I was busy babysitting my nephew Owen. He hasn't stayed over in a while so our weekend was full of lots of activity and pizza! So pizza and wine it was...not what I planned to drink with the Riesling but it worked I have to say.

For those of you who are not looking for a wine that leaves an aftertaste, this is a good wine. It's a great wine to serve to people who aren't wine drinkers or even anti-wine. It's a very easy wine to drink and pairs well with seafood, chicken and...well, it's great by itself as well. I found it to be very crisp and full of flavour.


I'll be honest. I wasn't sure which Riesling to try but while I was a the liquor store (Liquor on McLeod in Spruce Grove), I overheard a man say you couldn't go wrong with a Deinhard. So that narrowed my pick. I eventually picked out the Deinhard Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling (2007).

A riesling wine is pretty acidic in nature, floral or fruity and taste and is considered a flyweight wine (hence why it's so easy to drink and recommended as a great beginner wine). And boy did this wine have legs on it (a good sign and usually and indication that i's a good quality wine!)


So, go out and get yourself a good riesling and enjoy. Next week, I try out a Gamay (and it's Canadian too...)

Wine #2- Grenache

I was so looking forward to this week as the grenache grape is one of my favourites. And this wine did not let me down!

This week I tried Las Rocas from the San Alejandro vineyard in Spain. The vintage year is 2007 and was purchased for $19.95 from Vines Riverbend Wine Merchants. This wine was given 91 points by Robert Parker.

The grenache grape produces a wine that is very low in acidity and is considered a super heavyweight. In my opinion, the wine is just plain super.

I opened the bottle of wine and let it breathe while I cooked my meal. Tonight's meal was Montreal peppered steak with broccoli florets and jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce. I had a long week and wasn't really into cooking a big dinner. So simple surf n' turf it was.

Let's put it this way. I had two glasses of wine with the meal and had a third even when dinner was log gone. I can't say enough how much I loved this wine. Often wines can leave an aftertaste in your mouth (such as the Chardonnay) but this one leaves nothing behind making it a very easy wine to drink. It is a dry wine. Its flavours are soft and subtle and this bottle had just enough hints of fruits, such as strawberry to make it a very pleasant drink.

As my brother put it (I kept a glass for him and brought it to him on Saturday), the wine is subtle and creates "the right type of spit" (I have no idea what that means but he assures me it's a good thing!). Not a red wine drinker, he had no problems sipping this wine before heading out to the hot tub.

The red wine paired nicely with the steak and even though seafood is typically a white wine food, I didn't mind at all drinking the wine while chomping down on my shrimp.

The grenache wine is a very enjoyable wine and I would recommend it to anyone who isn't a fan of red wines to try it and see why red wines can be so pleasant to the palette.

I also have another recommendation for a grenache wine. I do put a warning on this wine-- I drank a bottle of it in less than 40 minutes it's that good! Try the Fire Block Dry Grenache Rose (2006). Just make sure you don't have to drive anywhere after!

Next week I'm going to tackle the Riesling.

Wine #1- Chardonnay

Well, I didn't hate it. But Chardonnay is still not a favourite of wine nor will I run out anytime soon to buy a bottle. I am still confused as to how Chardonnay is one of the most popular grapes and wines in the world. If you happen to like Chardonnay, please enlighten me as to why when there are so many other good wines to choose from.

The wine we chose to try was a 2008 Chardonnay from the Catena Winery in Argentina. Robert Parker reviewed this wine and gave it 91 points. I purchased this bottle of wine at Vines Riverbend Wine Merchants for $21.95.

My brother came over for dinner and I tried my best to match the food to the wine. I tried a new recipe-- Sicilian Pasta with cauliflower florets. The hope was to serve this dish with seasoned chicken but I managed to screw up the timing on the chicken so we actually ate dinner in two parts.

It didn't really matter. Both Craig and I had similar opinions on the wine. We tolerated it and finished the bottle, but overall, disappointed with the wine. Craig initially found the Chardonnay to have a bold taste and he could really pick out the spices used in the vintage. I didn't so much pick out the spices but the fruitiness of the wine. The oak taste was there but certainly not overpowering like some Chardonnays are.

When we first opened the bottle and began to drink, we both noticed the lingering taste in our mouths, a quite unpleasant feeling. To me, it almost left a burning sensation in my throat.

As the wine warmed up however, the lingering lessened so perhaps I had the wine chilled a little too much. It certainly became easier to drink as the night wore on. The wine complimented both dishes well I thought and Craig, ever the picky eater, finished his meal and actually gave me props for a good meal.


By the way, I am choosing recipes from Lucy Waverman's newest cookbook- A Year in Lucy's Kitchen. Throughout the book, Lucy's husband Bruce offers wine pairing recommendations which has helped me plan my first few weeks tremendously.

Overall, my opinion of Chardonnay hasn't changed much and am still not a fan. I have had worse though and if I absolutely had to drink a Chardonnay again, I'd definitely consider purchasing this bottle again. I appreciated that the wine didn't overpower me with oakiness and I found I could taste just enough of the fruits within the wine to make me want to continue to drink it. Craig changed his opinion on the wine being bold as the temperature of the wine changed and it became a lot more mellow in taste.

I am happy to have this wine tasting out of the way. I'm looking forward to next week already as I get to drink one of my favourite grapes of all time, the grenache grape.