#75- Mencia

I had to go and purchase another bottle of the Peique Beirzo Tinto Mencia bottle of wine so Craig can try it (I'll bring it on our camping trip next weekend) so we may have a slight revision to this post. I purchased the wine at Aristocrat Liquor in Edmonton. it looks like a total dive but I'm rather impressed by the selection of wines they have there. I was able to pick up 5 wines there that I hadn't tried before. Never judge a book by its cover I guess.

The wine is from the Peique Bierzo in Spain.

We drank the bottle of Mencia at our wine club last weekend and with us having just drank 6 ports, sherries and Australian stickies, it was really hard to determine if I liked this wine or not. Anyone drinking it there loved it simply because it wasn't sweet. I know our host Miranda and her husband ended up finishing the bottle so I can imagine it was half decent.

From what I can remember, I liked this red wine. It's not a grape that shows up on the Wine Grape Varietal table but it is a grape unto it's own and the bottle is very specific saying it is 100% Mencia grapes. It is a Spanish wine and it is similar to a Cabernet Franc. it is a bit on the sweet side and I'm guessing that's why there was very indistinguishable characteristics to it at the wine club. Here's hoping the second time around I can pull some more aromas and flavours from it. This type of wine (Mencia) is gaining popularity in Spain so look for it more and more.

We paired the wine with a Calabrese salad (Italian but similar in regions) as a Calabrese salad goes well with sweeter wines. I would say it was a great match and highly recommend the pairing. Besides being a very pretty salad, it's super easy to make and really good for you!

I am really looking forward to trying this wine again and seeing what I come up with this time. 

#74- Roditis

It can also be spelt Rhoditis. Where do I even begin with this Greek wine?

I had this bottle of wine visiting my parents. We had chinese food and I know probably not the best food to eat with a Greek wine but after drinking this wine, I'm not any food would have done. And besides, I hadn't had chinese food in a while and I didn't care. It's not about perfect wine/food pairings anyway this little experiment of mine.

So what about the wine? I'm pretty sure that even if you didn't have a good wine palette, you'd be able to figure this one out. In fact, Craig pegged the smell and taste right away while my mom and I took a few sips (very strangled sips) to determine exactly what it was.

The taste is pine. Yes pine! Imagine sipping on Pine Sol cleaner and it's pretty much what you get with this wine. It was so bizarre. For the first while it was quite undrinkable, the stringent pine taste and smell was too overpowering. It just didn't seem right to be drinking a wine with such a pine taste.

I let the wine sit for a while and it did become a bit easier to drink but I'm not entirely sure if it's because you become instantly drunk (or high?) off the first few sips and then don't give a damn.

The Roditis grape is a lightweight and very similar to a Silvaner, Greco and Inzolia wines. Except I liked the others. I wouldn't buy this wine again unless I was attempting to show people an unusual wine of aromatic proportions (it's not often you get to pull a pine smell and taste from a bottle of wine- a long ways from the usual berry or tropical taste we're used to in a white wine).

So do I suggest you pass on this wine? Certainly not. It's one of the wines you have to try it to believe it. But don't say I didn't warn you...

#73- Melon de Bourgogne

Is that not the best name ever for a grape? Seriously. The wine I drank is the melon de Bourgogne grape but it's also known as Muscadet and that's what it said on the bottle but I'm going with the official grape name on this one for sure!

The winery is Chateau du Coing de St. Fiacre. The winery is located in France. It's a great website but note to the websmaster- not all of us are fond of listening to music and it'd be great if I could turn it off on the website rather than having to mute my computer.The wine is also known as Tradition Millenaire and there's a great description of it on the website.

The grape is considered a light lightweight and very acidic. It is very similar to a Riesling so if you like the lighter, sweeter white wines (but not a dessert wine), then you will likely like this wine. I did enjoy it very much. It was a beautiful evening outside and hung out back on my patio, just sitting and chilling, drinking the white wine and paired it with fresh shrimp and a nice shrimp dipping sauce. I wasn't sure about the pairing but the freshness of the wine went really well with the cool shrimp.

The Melon de Bourgogne grape is French (melon of Burgandy is what it translates to literally) but is found in other parts of the world as well. Outside of France, it's known as Melon as France is the only area in the world that can call their wines Muscadet.

It was very easy to drink and it took a lot of resistance not to drink the whole bottle and leave Craig any. As you can see by the picture, the wine was very yellow and that surprised me as usually that is an indication to me that I'm not going to like the wine very much. But I did- with a hint of spice and with the fruitiness of peach coming through, I found it an easy wine to drink.

It's definitely a great alternative to a Riesling if you're looking for a nice summer white and don't want to fall back on the regular wines.

#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.

#71- Silvaner

Also known as Sylvaner D'Alsace which is what I picked up for the third and final wine of the camping trip. The winery is Dopff & Irion in France.

I found the Silanver very similar to the Inzolia wine though I found the Inzolia easier to drink. My mom however liked this wine a bit better. It was a great pairing with the barbequed chicken and salad that had been made on the open fire. Mom did a great job with them. The wine was chilled and ready to go and again, a nice way to end our day of hiking. We did a shorter hike but it was much more beautiful and in an area of Jasper that none of us had explored before. It was a great day, the day before I set off and they took off for their camping trip down to Yellowstone.

The silvaner grape is a grape that's often blended to make more "famous" wines- such as the Liebfraumilch. On its own, it's a bit bland and that's how I'd describe this wine. It didn't really stand out to me at all. It had a herbal taste to it and was quite earthy in taste but with  refreshing twist. I know, weird combo huh?

I think this is a wine I'd like to try again and compare it to some of the other whites that I like. Because it's been so similar to many of the wines I've tried in the last while, I'm not sure if I'm actually properly analyzing the wine or simply comparing it to the most recent wine I've just drunk.

This past weekend I gave Craig half a dozen wines that he has to try and give his opinion on. Hopefully he does this sooner than later...