Wine Tasting Week of 3.18

Name: Serres

Variety: Rioja Tempranillo

Region: Rioja (Northern Spain)

Country: Spain

Year: 2010

Price: $10

Wine Critic/Review: Clean, fresh and full of bright cherry and strawberry aromas. Offers the right size and balance, with red plum and red berry flavors touched up by light oak. Mildly toasty and textured on the finish (Wine Enthusiast).

Personal Review: I've been having dreams about this wine's strawberry scents after the tasting. I could take a big wiff of this wine all day- very impressionable. Violet tones and velvety finish. A fairly smooth wine but not outrageously easy. I think I got the most enjoyment out of smelling the strawberries in this wine!

Name:Vina Borgia

Variety: Garnacha

Region: Bodegas

 Country: Spain

 Year: 2011

Price:$6.95

Wine Critic/Review: Spain's garnacha, known in France as grenache, is a red wine varietal that combines full body with soft, lush, easy-to-drink fruit flavors. This one is typical of a good version in that its charm and "fun factor" outweigh its complexity — which is great for the type of occasions in which a box is appropriate. This wine offers lush blackberry and wild berry fruit with hints of herbs, earth and chocolate. Its price is the equivalent of less than $7 each of four bottles. (The Baltimore Sun)

Personal Review: Dark, red with maroon hues. Pleasant spice and cherry aromas. Dark, almost charred fruit skin and light berries. Medium bodied wine. Great wine paired with food. Paired with crackers and other yummy snacks.

Name: Huarpe Tayamente

Variety: Malbec

Region:Mendoza

Country:Argentina

Year: 2010

Price: $14

Wine Critic/Review:  This is no flash-in-the-pan Malbec. the Tayamente is a slow burn- lingering and contemplative- priced to grab on your way home from work but crafted with such care to make it worthy of your most elaborate evening at home. Smoky, with concentrated black cherry, licorice, and notes of grilled herbs, it is unbelieveably tasty with beef and turkey burgers, BLTs, BBQ, and cow's milk cheeses. Let the Tayamente remind you of why you fell in love with Malbec in the first place! (Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg, VA)

Personal Review: Toasted (or roasted) cherry notes with a pleasant smell of licorice. Rosepetal and other floral notes. Very nicely structured wine with long tannins and a long finish. Would be nicely paired with steak or a hearty meal with a big, dark protein. A bit of a thicker wine- but a fairly good Malbec for the price point. Deep violet red in color is also very pleasing!

Name:Sean Minor Napa Red

Variety: 30% Merlot, 23% Petit Verdot, 17% Zinfandel, 16% Petite Sirah, 10% Syrah, 4% Malbec

Region:California

Country:USA!

Year: 2009

Price: $20

Wine Critic/Review:  Our 2009 Napa Valley Red Wine is deep ruby in color and displays aromas of ripe blueberry, dark cherry, cassis, and vanilla. On the palate, flavors of blueberries and dark cherry combined with hints of oak spices that coat the palate. The soft tannins and sweet oak balance lead to a long and lingering finish.(Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg, VA)

Personal Review:A little bit too complicated for my palate but a wine I might revisit in the future. I'm not sure if I was just mentally overwelmed by vast blending of this wine... because its pretty big. The finish on this wine was a grassy lemon or even the taste of flower buds. Medium tannins (anything stronger would have ruined it for me). Medium dryness and medium body. I didn't experience anything special with this wine. No food.

Name: Saint-Emilion

Variety:Bordeaux

Region:Bordeaux

 Country:France

 Year: 2011

Price:Unkown

Wine Critic/Review:  The wines of St Emilion in 2011 displayed all the usual diversity of style and quality, although in this more robust vintage a number of estates seem to have majored on fudgy and over-ripe fruit, sometimes with an overt desiccated or raisined character, often with a brawny backbone of tannins. (Wine Doctor)
Personal Review: Bright ruby red color. Smell of cassis and grapefruit. Maybe some hints of cherry. Medium tannins and fairly high acidity. Spicy aftertaste. This wine is supposed to wait 20 years or so until aged to perfection. Ate this food with curried lentils and a side salad. This wine IS SO SMOOTH and probably gets smoother with age. Enjoyed a cassis wine as an aperitif.