#100- Carignan

On the 8th day of Wine-mas my true self gave to me, a bottle of Carignan from la Belle pays de France!

And this isn't just the 8th day, oh no- this blog represents a goal I have been working towards for two years. And tonight, I accomplish it. Tonight is my 100th wine varietal I have tasted!

100!

My goal started New Year's 2010 but I had been planning to write a wine blog months before that when I got my DeLong's Wine Grape Varietal Table in the mail after visiting their home page. I was inspired to become a member of the Wine Century Club and I totally loved their approach to introducing people to new wines.

I hadn't even been a huge wine drinker back then but I did enjoy wine and really wanted to expand my knowledge and my palate. So I took up the challenge- to try all 184 grape varieties on their table. It soon turned into the round number of 200 as I was finding single varietal wines here in Edmonton that weren't listed.

I still plan to try all 184 and then some, it just might not be in single varietal form. I have tried my very best to do single varietals (or those that are basically 95% +) but it does get more and more difficult to find them. We don't have the best access to some wines. In many ways we're very limited compared to other places in the world and having made it to 100 is a feat I wasn't sure was possible.

But I'm glad I'm did it!

I've tried some pretty amazing wines. But I've also tasted some awful ones as well. And I appreciate that. It's the only way to learn what you like and what you don't. I've had some ridiculously unusual wine pairings- some worked, some not so much and I've had some predictable and traditional ones as well.

I've drank many of them with my brother and my mother and my sister and my friends. For two years, I've had the pleasure of analyzing a glass of nectar of the Gods. Not too shabby a research project I must say.

Who knows if I'll reach 200 and when I'll reach it but I will still try to do a wine a week. The good part about blends though is I can knock a few varietals off at a time.

And after tonight, I plan to apply for membership to the Wine Century Club. I was so hoping they would just see the blog and grant me admission but I guess I have to be like any other wino and apply. And so I will.

And now it's time to get on with review #100- Carignan!

I don't mind the wine. It isn't my favourite and compared to the Prieto Picudo I drank last night, this one fell a bit flat. Surprising as I am a huge fan of French wines.

Maybe it's all a dream. Maybe I'm just trying to be cheesy- the wine I'm drinking is called Reve. Borie de Mavrel produces the wine in the Minervois region.

The Carignan grape is not often a single varietal wine and often used in blends and is very popular in the Languedoc region.

The wine itself is very high in alcohol content- 14%. But there is no sweetness on the tongue at all. Actually I've just retasted the wine and now that it's had time to site for a but, it's not so tannic and tight in the mouth. It's much more relaxed and I'd describe the tannins as smooth.

The red fruits are evident- strawberries and raspberries with a slight hint of leather. It is a 2005 so it makes sense. Very meaty like. It is a bold wine. I ate it with a steak and cheese sandwich dripping in sweet onion sauce and packed with vegetables. It was so good. The melted mozzarella cheese and steak were great choices for this full bodied wine.

I'm going to let the rest of the bottle sit overnight and will grab it again tomorrow when I write my review of wines 81-100. Amazing.

#100- you didn't let me down. Now cheers and raise your glass to the next 100!

#90- Periquita

I'm writing this blog to actually take a break from my wine studies (that and my butt was going number from sitting on the floor for so long). I am in the home stretches of my Wine Fundamentals I class from the International Sommelier Guild. Our final exam is on Wednesday and I have been busy making flash cards of my notes so I can study hard for the next few days. I've even booked my sister for tomorrow night so that she can test me. Maybe we'll make a drinking game out of it (for every question I get right, I get to sip!). Now there's some liquid encouragement for you!

The Periquita grape is also known as the Castelao grape in other parts of the world but in Portual, and where this wine is from, it's known by it's more popular name, the Periquita grape. Now, this isn't a single varietal wine I'm drinking as it's especially hard to find but it is 95% Periquita so for the purposes of what I'm trying to accomplish, it is.

The grape is found in southern coastal regions and is sometimes used in the production of port. If you can speak portugese, you know the word periquita means parrot. It is a very tannic wine in its youth but does soften as it ages. The year I'm drinking is a 2006.

The wine is Jose Maria Da Fonseca Periquita. Aside from the crazy annoying music that greets you on their website, the site is great looking and fun to browse through.

What's interesting is in the description of the wine- right off the bat I'm at odds with them. They describe their wine as full bodied and intensly coloured while I would not say either. And not in a bad way either. The wine is not as intense as I thought it would be. To me, it's similar to a Pinot Noir or Gamay. And I certainly don't find it at all to be a full bodied grape. It's complex but at most medium bodied.

Off the nose I get some strawberries but the smell of alcohol seems to take over. Sipping the wine, I get a balanced and fruity wine, but the tannins to me are still quite intense with a medium acidity to it. It takes some getting used to. I drink it alone tonight but last night I paired it with a grilled steak done to medium rare along with a Mediterrannean salad and I felt they were a perfect complement to each other.

What was interesting to me is the lack of quality in the cork. After all, Portugal is the main producer of cork for the wine world. Apparently they give all the good cork to France. The cork barely held together as I popped it out of the bottle.

I would drink this wine again, but I would make sure to drink it with food for sure. It is not a sipping wine at all (though they do suggest that you can with this wine on the website). Oh those Portugese.

I can't believe I'm only 10 wines away from accomplishing a goal I'd set out to do nearly two years ago. And 14 wines and I've met my goal of sipping one wine a week for two years. I'm not sure if I'll continue this blog or not or maybe shift its vision a bit, we'll see how the next few weeks goes!

#80- Dolcetto

It was the only red wine of the whole camping weekend. And it didn't disappoint! After a full day of hiking and hitting up Old Fort Point (next post), we were ready to enjoy a quiet evening at the campsite. It was a beautiful evening in Jasper with daytime temperatures in the mid twenties so the evening temperature was just perfect.

We'd hoped that we had burned enough of Owen's energy off during the day and doing the climb but no such luck. While Craig got the fire going (so I could make us dinner), I had to entertain the kid.

I threw a ball in the air. I played bocce ball. I wrestled with him. I played I spy. I played jump over the wood logs. I played hide and seek....you get the idea. I'm not sure how people do this "parenting"  thing full time. It was time to drink.

The menu that evening included fresh potatoes (from my sister's garden), some side salad and good old AAA Alberta beef steak. They'd thawed during the day so they were spiced up a bit and once the potatoes were done, the steaks were put on and grilled to perfection.

The wine is a Dolcetto, very obviously an Italian wine. The wine is a midweight wine and not very acidic. It is often drunk very young. This was an absolutely delicious wine and both Craig and I gave this wine a two thumbs up. I thought it was a great compliment to the juicy and flavourful steak- didn't take away any of the smoky flavours of the food that had infused itself into our grilled dinner.

The dolcetto grape is grown in the Piedmont region of Italy and is known as "little sweet one" which it was. Coming off a month of drinking ports, sherries and dessert wines, it's all relative so I wouldn't call this necessarily a very sweet wine. It is actually a dry wine- this world is sometimes full of mystery and confusion.

In this wine I could definitely taste licorice and cherries and would classify this as a very balanced wine.

The winery is the Poderi di Luigi Einaudi and based on the beautiful pictures on its website, I would very much like to go there. It's exactly how I picture a vineyard to be- beautiful and romantic and mysterious. Oh, who wants to buy me a ticket? If you can read Italian, you can read more about the wine.

I still have some of the wine left so the debate tomorrow while I do some of my classroom work (yes,I'm taking a wine class- maybe one day I'll actually be able to write something intelligent about wine) and drink the bottle or leave some for Kristin and mom to taste on Sunday. Choices....

#72- Dornfelder

Good ol' Dr. Zen Zen. Sometimes the familiar is the best. I picked up a bottle of Dr. Zen Zen the other day from the local Liquor Depot. The bottle wasn't quite $20. The winery itself makes quite a few different wines and you can usually count on them to make a fairly decent product. The wine is German but the Dr. Zen Zen label is often imported under a USA label so if you're looking to pick a bottle up, you may want to check both spots.

Worth it? You betcha! This bottle did not disappoint. I had paired the wine with a lovely dinner that I was pretty proud of- barbequed steak with side salad and fresh corn on the cob. My house has been excrutiatingly hot lately so any excuse not to have to cook indoors suits me fine. The steak was absolutely melt in your mouth and the corn on the cob is especially good this year (maybe it's all the rain we've had...)

In any case, the Dornfelder wine is pretty darn good and my brother Craig has had it before and agrees with me. It was very juicy and aromatic and was sweet enough to go really well with the juicy, bloody steak. It's not very tannic so it's an easy wine to drink and I think most red wine drinkers would find this a pleasant wine.

The Dornfelder grape is of German origin and is a pretty popular grape to grow. It's not the easiest grape to get in these parts but I often find that Canada is lacking in its selection of wines, especially here in Alberta. I wish we'd see more variety- my God how many bottles of Chardonnay and Shiraz can one girl drink? The variety is there- just within the limited grapes we bring in. I find it rather sad. There are so many grape varieties out there, we need to be doing more to encourage importers to broaden our wine palettes a lot more.

Enough of the rant. The wine was great and it would be a great wine to pick up if you're in the mood for an easy drinking red but aren't feeling like your usual Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon.

#69- Fer

My apologies to my brother first and foremost because my mother and I didn't bother to save him any of this wine. In case you're wondering if we liked this wine or not, the answer is a resounding yes!

I brought three wines with me on a 4 day camping trip with my parents before we parted ways and they left to continue their vacation down into the States and more specifically, Yellowstone National Park. They are on nearly home as I just got the call from mom-  and my poor mother has missed so much of my online life (Facebook updates, all the photos- hundreds of them that I've uploaded from my recent trip) and of course a few wine posts!

The wine was a surprise- I didn't think I'd like it. The wine is similar in acidity and weight to the Concord grape which I hated and very similar to the Cabernet Franc (which I liked but not in its sparkling form). It could have been the great outdoors and the fresh air but all I know is my mother and I didn't leave a drop of this wine for Craig. Good thing he works at a liquor store and can order his own wine now...

In any case, the wine I tried is from Domaine de Brau in France. The grape of course is the Fer grape and hence why the wine is called Fer (Servadou) Pure. They have another wine that is made of a grape I've never heard of- Egiodola that I'd like try and I'll see if I can track down.

The bottle hints the wine tastes to you on its very simple label- floral, smooth and complex. And it was indeed. I could have drank this wine all night. It was a sweet red but not enough to categorize it in the dessert wines but those of you who don't like a dry red and prefer a much more fruitier and lighter taste such as the Cabernet Franc, this wine is for you.

It is crisp and light on the tongue yet has a disctinct earth taste to it (very appropriate for camping). Perhaps a little green pepper as well? But the berry taste was quite strong and I felt it was a great compliment to the open fire steaks we'd made with side salad (the dressing of the salad was homemade and mostly consisted of oil and vinegar) and believe it or not, balanced the wine out quite nicely.

As I said before, I do apologize to Craig we didn't leave him any of it to try but knowing his wine palette, he'd give this one a two thumbs up!

#54- Macabeo (Viura)

The first white wine of 2011 and we have- a split decision, bordering on thumbs down.  I was neutral to the wine (and had a couple of glasses as it was neither good nor bad in my opinion) but Craig didn't like the wine at all.

The Viura or Macabeo grape is a Spanish grape grown in the northern region of Rioja and southern regions such as Barcelona. It is pale yellow in colour and has some fruity aromas. This bottle was from the Castillo de Manseran Winery in Spain. You could taste the pear and some mineral to it which made it slightly less sweet that a wine typical of fruit like flavours. The pear was not at all overpowering, just light hints of it.  I found it sweet enough and pleasant enough to drink quite easily.

The wine was fairly cheap, $11.99 picked up at Aligra Wine and Spirits at West Edmonton Mall. They have a great range of wines there and Craig and I were quickly able to find the selection of wines we were looking for.

I drank this wine while I was on my week of salad dinners- I had different salads each night of the week and that night, I paired the wine with a cold steak and spinach salad (with onion and feta and black olives- a cross between a spinach salad and greek salad). As a side note, did you know that a Greek salad can be considered a fruit salad? All the "vegetables" found in a Greek salad are in fact fruit (they all have seeds) so the next time you bring a fruit salad to a party, bring a Greek. Okay, I digress. but the salad I had was absolutely delicious!

Overall, I woulndn't run out and get this wine again as I've had better Spanish wines but I can't quite give it the the thumbs down Craig gives it. He didn't like it and found it bitter. My mom found it to have a terrible aftertaste. I don't remember that part so maybe that occurs after the bottle's been open for a couple of days.

If you're looking to try a new white and like it, take a pass on this one.

#30- Pinotage

There is nothing more rewarding than having an accomplished day and coming home to a great bottle of wine. Whether it's a great day at work, a wonderful afternoon with your kids or a surprise evening with friends, a great bottle of wine can just be the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae (I have my metaphor mixed up here but you get it...)

Craig and I had an amazing day of climbing, no make that a weekend of climbing and we were ready to just relax for the rest of the night. Craig wasn't feeling the greatest (why would he when he has bronchitis and I'm making him climb steep climbs with me?) so we were eager to get some food into us. Always the chef, Craig kicked the fire back up and immediately started to prep the steak (Montreal steak spice anyone?) and I started prepping the potatoes. I sliced the potatoes and stuffed in some onion slices and some butter, wrapped them in tin foil and set them on the fire to cook.

The food was delicious and was nicely paired with our last wine for the weekend- the Pinotage. It is also known as South Africa's red grape. And this was one an excellent bottle of wine. Not too acidic but with a nice kick to it, it was a nice balance to the red meat on the plate. It had a smoky taste to it, a similar taste to a Malbec. This almost had a smoky taste to it (or was it the campfire?). This South African wine was definitely a great wine to have with dinner and I and indulge in a couple of glasses before hanging out at the fire for the rest of the evening before turning in.

The bottle of wine was bought a while ago but if I remember correctly it was around the $24.00 mark. The winery is Graham Beck and this year alone they have won quite a few awards for their wines. They have a ton of information about the history of their wineries and the wine making process on their website so definitely check it out.

By the end of the evening Craig and I were exhausted and when I say end of the night, I mean 9 pm (which in reality was really 8 pm as we forgot to set our clocks back the hour for the time difference). But it was probably a good thing we check out early as it started to rain just as we had tucked ourselves into bed.

The next morning we packed up and headed back to Alberta and home. Craig complained we hadn't seen any wildlife all weekend other than rodents. That was until we were just about to leave Jasper National Park when this guy decided to step out in front of us! The next wine: tempranillo.

#12- Carmenere

So it's been a little while since I've blogged and I have an awful lot of wines to catch up on! I knew I'd be a little behind with my trip to Europe in April. What I didn't anticipate was the extra week's vacation I was handed from a little volcano in Iceland! An extra six days in Budapest at the end of my three weeks away and well, my life was thrown off.

Not trying to make excuses, in fact- I've had lots of reason to celebrate in the last month. My sister Kristin had her second child, a girl she and her husband Mark named Quinlan May. Just a week later, my brother Jim welcomed his son Liam James, his first into the world.

And I've also had some amazing company staying with me the last few weeks as well. She's one heck of a wine drinker too. So excuses aside, I'm way behind. I've got two blogs to write in the next two days and then it's double up time! That's right- for me to get back on track, I basically have to drink 2 wines a week for the next 13 weeks or so. The challenge is on. Now back to the wine...

The Carmenere is a red wine (carmenere means crimson in french) originally from France. Now rarely found there, Chile is one of the largest producers of the carmenere grape. The wine we tasted is indeed from Chile. Vina Chocolan in the Maipo valley. This carmenere is part of their regular selection wine. It is also the first screw top wine I've selected (will have to find a cork to use with the label... more about that later).

We paired the wine with a barbequed steak dinner which Craig prepared. Quite the cook, he barbequed our steaks to perfection with side potato, avocado and greek salad. As you can see, the meal looked delicious and tasted just as good. The wine was a good pairing with the red meat and it didn't take us long to finish the bottle.
Now, did anything in particular stick out about this wine? Not really. It definitely had an earthy taste to it and it certainly didn't leave any lingering taste in my mouth. Perhaps their name threw me off a bit-- I was waiting for a chocolate taste to appear but alas, none did. There was definitely a berry taste so a slight sweetness to the wine as well. It was certainly one easy enough for us to drink but not one that stood out enough to put on a "recommend list". I have drank other carmeneres before and I do find them intriguing so it will certainly be a wine that I'll visit again.

Our next wine is a sweet wine- muscat!