#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...!

#24- Xarel-lo

So I screwed up on this wine tasting but I swear it's not my fault. I gave my sister a list of wines that couldn't be found for purchase here in Alberta as she was doing her annual family trip to the States. On the list was the Xarel-lo grape, a spanish grape and the only grape starting with the letter X. 'Lo and behold she finds it, buys me a bottle and my brother and I proceed to try the wine almost immediately. The mistake I made was not leaving her any to try and that was the only bottle she brought back! Oops! My apologies to my sister and if anyone would like to help me make amends, ship me a bottle of Xarmant Txakoli.

Yup, that's the name of the wine and I'm not even really sure how you pronounce it. The vineyard is Txakoli de Alava in Spain. The whole website is also in Spanish so I'm not going to be able to add much here at all. The important thing to know is that Craig and I really liked this wine.

We had a lovely meal made of left overs from Craig's barbequed pot roast. It was his second meal of the roast, my first. I added a lovely side salad a la Greque.  It was a nice lovely weekend and I was prepared to enjoy a nice glass of chilled wine with my meal.

It was good! I wish Alberta would really import this wine! This grape is absolutely delicious. If you are familiar with Cava, then you have tried this grape. I did find the wine had a very fresh taste and smell to it, very refreshing to the senses for sure. It was quite aromatic, almost a grassy undertone to it. It didn't take us long to finish the bottle of wine (again, with apologies to Kristin).

Though an unusual grape, it packs a punch and it's really too bad that we can't get the grape variety here in Alberta. And just in case you're wondering how I do go about figuring this out, the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission has a website that they don't market at all but is a wonderful tool for anyone searching for wine, spirits or beer and want to know what liquor retailers carry it, if at all, and in proximity to their location. The website is the Alberta Liquor Guide. Bookmark it as it comes in very handy when you least expect it. I've let several friends of mine know about it and really- the AGLC should be doing a much better job promoting this great website, it's an excellent tool.

That's my rant for the evening (and yes, I've ranted about it before). Our next wine is another muscat, this time Muscat of Alexandria. And the perfect opportunity to drink this dessert wine- a birthday party! Can't wait!

#17- Gruner Veltliner

It finally happened. I have actually been to the country where the wine is from in Europe! While I have had the pleasure of visiting the Sonoma and Napa Valleys in California, the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia and the Niagara Region in Ontario, I have yet to visit another country where I've drank their wine. Until now. All hail the Austrian Gruner Veltliner. Some of the other countres that produce this grape variety are the Czech Republic, Hungary and the United States (and amazingly enough, I've been to all four of those countries but not once did I drink a Gruner Veltliner when I was there. At least not that I know of!)

Specifically a 2006 Kurt Angerer from Legenfeld, Austria, I purchased this wine at the Sherbrooke Liquor Store in Edmonton for about $21. This store is amazing. Confusing as first because they don't put up signs indicating what country the wine is from, it's either stupidity or genius to do that because I spent a lot of time in there looking for a specific wine (it was sold out) but discovered many other wines I'd like to try. And I stumbled across this Gruner Veltliner.

A barbeque was necessary this evening as it was beautiful outside. I had 6 salmon fillets to barbeque (note: I ate salmon for the next six meals, good thing I liked it). So for this meal, I barbequed the salmon with just some olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled some vegetables as the side.

This wine went very well with the salmon and a Gruner Veltliner is known as a food friendly wine. Very easy to drink. Crisp and dry, it left no aftertaste in the mouth. Pleasant on the tongue for sure. And you could taste just the slightest of pepper or spice in the wine, a very nice compliment with fish.

I had no problem drinking a couple of glasses of this wine. And neither did my brother. I dropped the wine off  a couple of days later at my brother's so he could stay caught up with me. I saw him last night and he said he really enjoyed the Gruner Veltliner. He must have as the bottle was empty and ready for me to take back home. I think he's liking this wine drinking thing...the next wine on tap is an Italian wine- a red (of course) with an un-Italian name, the Zweigelt.