Adri's wine blog

 For my wine and food pairing of this month me and my friend Masan paired Champagne, Prosecco Rose, and Merlot with Brussel sprouts, spaghetti and lemon chicken. The merlot is by Bay Bridge Vineyards and was bought a Kroger for about $3 - crazy. The Prosecco rose is by LaMarca which is a brand I have had before and was the Piccolo sized bottle and I am unsure of the price. The champagne was the brand Andre which I think is a popular brand, especially by the college kids in this area. We also used white wine in the cooking of the chicken in the sauce.  On the Brussel sprouts, we used honey and balsamic vinegar to give a nice sweet taste and I found that the Merlot did not go well with that dish in particular. I also was not a fan of the wine in general. It was a very distinct smell and taste, very earthy and toasted and I think it was definitely put in an oak barrel. The sweetness of the sprouts did not match that earthy taste and the wine just overwhelmed the taste and th...

 The next wine up that I tried is a 2018 Rioja Crianza by Montecillo Winery. From Vivino,  Rioja is one Spain's most famous wine regions and is one of only two regions classified under the Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa) system. Its two most important red grapes are Tempranillo and Garnacha. The Crianza part of the name speaks to the aging process and this process is the wines being in their  3rd year, with at least 12 months spent in oak barrels. It was about $15 and uses Tempranillo,  Graciano, and Garnacha grapes. that 2018 was one of the best vintage years for Rioja! Montecillo is also a very well known winery in the area in Span. (pg 201). Something I found interesting from the texWhen I first smelled it, I got notes of dark fruit like cherries and maybe some raspberry? It was a very full bodied wine and tasted slightly sweet and acidic but became a little sweeter as it was drank. Some reviews also agreed with how the ...

 This wine I am reviewing is one of my favorites but now with all this terminology and knowledge, I can dive deeper into it! Barefoot Moscato is one of my go to's because of how sweet and crisp it is. It is a white wine from California with notes of peach to compliment the sweetness. It is also very cheap which is great for a college student on a budget, only $7.99! This wine is produced in  Modesto, California , and was originally created in the early 1960s by Davis Bynum in Alameda County, just east of San Francisco.   Moscatos are made from the  Muscat grape, which is  a table grape also used for raisins. I was able to make the connection from the lectures that the sweetness is due to a high sugar content in the wine. I could not find any information in the book about  this  type of wine but reviews online are great! People tend to love how easy it is to drink, which can also be dangerous, and the sweetness of it and how well it pairs with cheese an...

 The second wine I tried this week was definitely a different one! It is a Carnelian Roussanne from Hillsborough Vineyards. It is made from 100% single variety Roussanne and is a dry white wine. It was produced and bottled by Hillsborough Vineyards in Purceville, Virginia which is not far from where I live! It is fun to taste a wine that came from close to home. That being said, it was gifted to my parents and they gave it to me when I came back to school so I am not sure how much it was or where it was purchased. Online it says it goes for an average of $28 and that is one of the more expensive ones I have tasted. From the reviews, people compare it to a Chardonnay and some people like this over Chardonnays. It also has some fruity notes, like apple and some more tropical tastes but has a smooth finish, the bottle describes as almost creamy. The book highlights how Northern Virginia is one of the fastest growing wine regions in the country (go us) and I believe that because within...

For something new this week, one of the wines I tasted was Prosecco! The brand was Josh Cellars and that is the same brand as the Sauvignon Blanc I tried earlier in the semester. It was $14.99 at Kroger and is a product of Italy. From the book on page 210,  Prosecco can be produced throughout the country of Italy, but there is a clear region where Prosecco production is focused. Those regions are   the Veneto  and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions of northwest Italy. Before trying this specific brand of Prosecco, I was most familiar with the brand La Marca which the book describes as an easy to find Prosecco producer (pg 289). The grape variety used Glera, an Italian variety and in order to make the Prosecco, wine-makes use what is called the Chairman method which means a second fermentation takes place in a huge tank (pg 289). I tend to really like Prosecco because of the sparkling quality to it and the fruity taste that I get - it isn't as harsh to me and I think there is a...

 My other wine for this week was a Cabernet Sauvignon but by a different brand than before. One thing I wanted to experiment with is how much of a taste difference will there be when trying different brands of the same wine. This Cabernet Sauvignon is called Freakshow, A Michael David Joint. Honestly what drew me to this bottle is the design and labeling. It is so different and fun and unlike anything else I have seen on wine bottles. After looking at the website Michael David Winery, it seems as though he has this unique take on all of his wines which is so fun. This wine was bottled November 2021, was aged 10 months and was purchased at Kroger for $19.99. This wine  was introduced in 2012 as a way to showcase the bold Cabernet Sauvignon grape varietal grown in California. Again, Cabernet Sauvignon is from the North Coast region of California, focusing on Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake and it was interesting to read on  page 76 that Cabernet grapes have the largest nu...

 This past Friday, the wine I tasted was a Rosé from Whispering Angel. It is from  Côtes de Provence, Provence, France which is in Southeastern France  and  the region is known for its wine making and  specifically  making delicious Rosés. As  I  learned from this past lecture, Rosé can be made from any type of red grape but this specific one is made from  Grenache, Cinsault and Rolle (Vermentino)  grapes. It is from 2021 and was purchased at Wegmans for $24.99. When  I  think of Rosé,  I  think of fruity and floral notes, and that what was also  described  in  the  wine wheel  I   learned  about this  week. This specific wine however was a little more on the drier side I think, not as sweet as I expected but I still enjoyed it. A few reviews from this website,  https://drizly.com/wine/rose-wine/whispering-angel-rose/p19586 , also found that it was ...