#57- Semillon

Mendoza, Argentina wine- you are a sweet one. And we like you (though not everyone tasting you had an easy time drinking you- you are that sweet).

Let me introduce you to a wine that could easily be disguised as an expensive ice wine or dessert wine for an affordable price. The grape is Semillon and the winery is Lancatay Huarpe Wines. They make a huge variety of wines and I encourage you to check out their website.

I enjoyed this wine and I didn't even pair it with dessert (though we did have it with birthday cake on Sunday- happy birthday dad!) and it was almost too sweet. I ended up having it with a simple dinner I had thrown together one evening- chicken and broccoli. I appreciated that I wasn't overwhelmed by sweetness and the broccoli really paired well with it in my humble opinion.

The Semillon grape is made for sweet wines, the wine a beautiful golden honey brown. It is fruity in taste (this one in particular had hints of apples) and other aromas such as fruits and florals (this one had a rose aroma).  it is a heavy and dry wine and one describes it perfectly when the wine is described as having an oily texture. It's not light on the tongue and it has a "fullness" to the wine. That is if you can get over how sweet this wine is. Kristin had a hard time drinking it. I did not. Craig seemed to enjoy the wine as well. But I should note that Kris, Craig and my mom drank this wine after trying two other reds so their pallettes were not perfect (always hard to follow a red with a white).

I would definitely recommend this wine for a nice summer sipping wine (and yes, it should be sipped, the bottle itself was not a 750ml bottle- maybe half that).

#41- Torrontes

Oh my life has been a circus as of late so it seems wholly appropriate to be drinking a wine called Circus! Without feeling sorry for myself, I'll give you the two second scoop on what I've been dealing with- I've been laid off. It's the first time I've ever been laid off (and let's be clear here, it has all to do with budgets woes and nothing to do with my performance) so I'm experiencing something new- facing the prospect of having no job in a few weeks.

But I'm not worried. My life is/stressful with the job I'm in currently and it's likely a very good thing to be switching it up! Change is good. I'm ready for it (though I just wish it could happen without a fight which I fear is in my near future...) So drinking a circus wine seems tres appropose.

It was Kristin's birthday (happy birthday sis!) and we headed out to her house for a party that her husband organized. I helped- I picked up the cake (and drank wine #42 with it...). In any case, the Circus wine drinking began at dinner. Dinner was barbaqued steak with all the fixings. Now, if you see below, you're wondering perhaps what my definition of steak is. Well, Kristin and I actually began this wine drinking the night before- a birthday weekend so to speak. Pizza was ordered (our usual- pepperoni, mushroom and green pepper and mediterranean)- a perfect dish to go with the Torrontes wine!

So I finally get to it- the wine itself. The wine is from Argentina, specifically Bordegas Escoriheula winery.
The Torrontes grape is a white grape and is extremely aromatic. They are a young wine (not bottled very long). It's hard to describe this wine other than to say it was very fresh tasting, almost refreshing to swirl it into the mouth. I tried to figure out what flavours are in this wine but as you can see, the back of the bottle tells a story (rather good) but nothing about the wine itself. Can you spot the spelling mistake? I even tried to find more information on the website but it doesn't list this wine on the site (though the Circus wines are listed and three other grape varietals are there).

The Torrontes grape is often used for high class (read that as expensive) wines that come out of Argentina. I can't remember what I paid for this wine at Sherbrooke Liquor but I'm pretty sure it was less than $20. While it was a decent wine to drink, I wasn't overly impressed. Wine Diva though however gave this wine 89 points so apparently this is a very good wine. It was an okay wine, that's all I can really give it. We'll see what Craig says. He hasn't let me know his verdict yet but as soon as he does, I'll let you know!

#28- Bonarda

What is it with great wineries not having a website? In 2010, that's just not acceptable. How else am I supposed to learn more about your product, your winery, your grape? Okay, enough ranting. On to the grape! And to continue the story on our weekend in British Columbia.

After a great afternoon of hiking, Craig and I returned to the campsite to relax a bit and enjoy a nice relaxing evening. It wasn't raining so we were able to hang out by the fire and chat. It's nice for siblings to hang out and catch up on what's what.

After a long day of driving and then hiking 14km, we weren't exactly in the mood for cooking and luckily our loving mother had prepared Hunter Stew for us so all we had to do was reheat the dinner. While it may not be the most appetizing dinner to look at, it sure is delicious over an open fire! Craig and I had heaping servings and cracked open our first bottle of red to go with it.

The wine chosen was El Escondido  Don Domenico, an Argentinian Red Wine. The grape is the Bonarda grape.

Hmmm...how do I describe this wine. Three words: damn good wine! Wow! I was pleasantly surprised about this wine. I was so not expecting to enjoy the wine as much as I did. It is known as "Sweet Black" and the wine is very very dark, almost black in colour. It is not acidic at all and is sweet tasting. You could definitely taste the fruit, whether it was strawberry or raspberry I'm not sure. It did have an okay taste to it but it was ever so slight as I don't like anything too oaky. This was a wine that craved to be drunk in massive quantities. Too bad we couldn't. Both Craig and I knew we had to keep some for the family to try.

As a side note, Kristin and Sharon (my other brother's girlfriend who just recently moved back to Alberta...okay too many details but just in case you're wondering who she is, now you know) and the both enjoyed it. Kristin raved about it and will definitely be buying a bottle or two. Luckily for her the wine purchase was made at Crown Liquor in Spruce Grove. It wasn't a cheap bottle, at $25.99 this was one of the more expensive purchases I'd made for my wine, but so worth it.

I'm not sure if it's the wine or the fresh air or the exercise, but I couldn't imagine a more perfect way to spend my evening! I think I'll do it again tomorrow. The next wine up is the Albarino grape.