Tasting - Marimar Don Miguel - "Russian River"

Name: Marimar Don Miguel - "Russian River"
Variety: Chardonnay
Region: Russian River Valley
Country: USA
Year: 2010
Price: Regular: $50.00, Sale: $19.95
Winery Review: WE 93 Pts. - Editor's Choice - According to the Wine Enthusiast: It’s unbelievable that this Chardonnay is unoaked, it’s so incredibly rich and creamy. Just packed with layers of tropical fruits, peaches, Asian pears and oatmeal cookies. All that butter and cream must be from the malolactic fermentation and aging on the lees. One of the best unoaked Chardonnays ever.
Personal Review: This wine smelled like cat pee and citrus fruits. It tasted like cat pee, butter, and citrus fruits. It was very acidic and light bodied and slightly creamy. It was a very interesting combination of flavors, but I was not a huge fan. I did not have this wine with any food.

Tasting - Latour Chablis La Chanfleure

Name: Latour Chablis La Chanfleure
Variety: Chardonnay
Region: Burgundy (Chablis Region)
Country: France
Year: 2010
Price: Regular: $28.00, Sale $16.95
Winery Review: This wine has a beautiful smooth texture. Ripe peach is balanced with citrus fruit and excellent length. With slight minerality on the finish it is ideal with freshly shucked oysters.
Personal Review: This wine smelled like cat pee, peaches, the beach, marijuana, herbs, grass, and hay. It was crisp and light-bodied and slightly tart and acidic. It tasted herbal and how I would imagine cat pee tastes like (only a lot better!) I thought this wine was alright but the cat pee smell and taste was a little too overwhelming for me. I did not have this wine with any food.

Tasting - Sandeman Rainwater

Name: Sandeman Rainwater
Variety: Madeira
Region: Maderia
Country: Portugal
Year: 2013
Price: Regular: $20.00, Sale: $11.95
Winery Review: Medium light amber colour with pronounced golden highlights. Clean nutty aromas, light complexity and very agreeable. Brilliant wine - a good quality young Madeira in evolution. Medium flavour, nutty and slighty complex, with a good clean finish.
Personal Review: This wine smelled like a raspberry chocolate truffle, walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts. The wine tasted like hazelnuts and caramel. It was super hot and the alcohol punched me in the mouth mid-palate. It's aftertaste was like nail polish remover - super alcoholic. I hated this wine and did not have it with any food.

Tasting - Fetzer Valley Oaks

Name: Fetzer Valley Oaks
Variety: Red Zinfandel
Region: California
Country: USA
Year: 2010
Price: Regular: $25.00, Sale: $7.95
Winery Review: "This elegant and easy to drink Zinfandel is well balanced with a moderate toastiness, bright red fruit and soft supple tannins. It is deep garnet in color with aromas of bright cherry, raspberry, clove, roasted nuts and black pepper. In the mouth is a ripe, medium-bodied wine with dark berry flavors of red raspberry, strawberry, cranberry and a warm, woodsy spice."
Personal Review: This wine smelled of plums, dark cherries, and blackberries. The wine was very dry and did not have much fruit flavors other than plums. I expected the wine to be full-bodied, but it was actually pretty thin. It has a long finish. I personally did not care for this wine and I did not have it with any food.

Tasting - Achaval Ferrer

Name: Achaval Ferrer

Variety: Malbec/Cabernet Sauvignon

Region: Mendoza

Country: Argentina

Year: 2011

Price: Regular: $50, Sale: $24.95

Winery Review: 91 Points - Wine Spectator: " This racy, supple Cabernet boasts a pure core of raspberry, cassis and black cherry coulis notes fortified by bright acidity and a firm, minerally backbone. Long, offering fine tannins and an aftertaste of crushed berries and graphite. Drink now through 2016."

Personal Review: This blended wine smelled like plums, raspberries, blackberries, and grapes. It tasted a little nutty, was sour and very dry. I thought it would pair nicely with either a creamy or sharp cheese, such as blue cheese or goat cheese. It also tasted like cherries and black pepper. I liked this wine but it was a little too bold for me. I did not have this wine with any food. 

Dinner - Maple Ridge Apartments (Italy)

From left to right: Carl, me, Ian, with the three wines we
had with our meals.

For this wine and food pairing dinner, my friends Carl, Ian, and I all got together and shared an appetizer, main course, and a dessert together with a white wine, a red wine, and a dessert wine.

The Casesar salad we paired
with the Pinot Grigio as an
appetizer.

The first wine we tried, Redwood Creek Pinot Grigio.
Ian and I paired this wine with a Caesar Salad.

The first wine we tried was Redwood Creek Pinot Grigio from California, vintage 2013. It smelled very acidic and like melon rinds and citrus fruits. The taste was surprisingly pretty good. It was light, watery, semi-sweet but also tart, and semi-dry. Flavors of melons and citrus fruits shined through. We paired this wine with a Caesar salad kit. This Pinot Grigio paired well with the salad because it was such a light wine and did not overpower the flavors of the salad. However, the salad itself did not bring out any extra, initially undetected flavors in the wine.

Carl and Ian cutting the Meatlovers
Pizza, which we paired with the 2011
DaVinci Chianti. Their dog, Onxy,
is begging for food!

Meatlover's Pizza - Paired with
DaVinci Chianti from 2011.

Supreme Pizza, also paired with the
DaVinci Chianti.

DaVinci Chianti - 2011.

The Second wine we tried was DaVinci Chianti from 2011.

This wine is from Tuscany, Italy. On the nose, it smelled like

plums and dark, ripe fruits. It was very acidic-smelling. It 

tasted similar to how it smelled, like plums, blackberries

and cherries. It was a little hot and very tannic. We paired

this wine with two different kinds of pizzas - Meatlover's and Supreme (pictured above). With the Meatlover's pizza, some of the 

acidity went away and slightly more fruit flavors came through.

The Supreme Pizza had pretty much the same effect - it 

eliminated some acidity and enhanced the wine's plum flavors.

Overall, this wine seemed off-balanced to all of us and was

not very good, regardless of being a little better tasting with

the food.

Everyone enjoying pizza paired with DaVinci Chianti.

The third wine we had was Taylor Cream Sherry from New York, vintage 2013. It had an interesting color, which was orangey-brown. On the nose, it smelled creamy, like raspberries, and very alcoholic. It tasted sweet and creamy with flavors of hazelnut, toasted almonds, raspberries, figs, and a hint of toffee candy coming through. It's finish was very powerful and alcoholic. We paired this wine with chocolate cake for dessert, which together tasted like alcoholic raspberry truffles. There were also a bit more plum flavors in the sherry that cake through when it was paired with the cake. Overall, I did not like the sherry, but it was bearable with chocolate cake.

We paired Taylor Cream Sherry with our
chocolate cake. We all ended up hating
this particular cream sherry.

Indulging in chocolate cake with Taylor Cream
Sherry!

It was a lot of fun getting together to do the wine dinner! I think next time we would plan it a little bit better because it was sort of a last-minute thing and did not have enough time to make really awesome homemade dishes. We tried our best to pair the wine with foods we thought would be good, but obviously we have some more learning to do! Overall we had a lot of fun and I think it was a great learning experience.