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Hi all;
Last night I visited a sponsored tasting in Edmonton, Alberta. On offer were "representative commercial wines" of the 2005 Winexpert Limited Editions.
As the Limited Editions are still undergoing final tweaking, the Technical Services Manager (Tim Vandergrift), had done his homework to find wines that he felt would be similar enough to the finished kit to allow informed judgement of the wines we can produce from these kits.
In addition, there were some tasting pairs with specific foods for each of the wines to enhance the experience.
The January red wine kit is "Chilean Maipo Valley Carmeniere/Cab Sauv. This was paired up with a well done beef steak. The representative wine here was: Carmen Reserve.
While this wine was very full of fruit and berry, the tannins in it were still very much undeveloped. I felt that even though it was a 2002 vintage, it was still 2 to 3 years from reaching maturity. Winexpert traditionally presents a kit with the tannins more developed in the beginning, and I suspect that this kit will be a great wine after 12 to 18 months. Definitely one on my list.
January also offers a white wine. In this case, Winexpert is plending 3 white juices to produce a private blend. California Lake County "Trio Blanca" is the name they are applying to this one.
Into this one are going the Pinot Blanc, Chenin Blanc, and Sauvignon Blanc. Unfortunately, as there is no comercial blend of these three, they had to go with "second best". On offer was a BC wine: Summerhill Star Galaxy. This was paired up with green olives which rounded out the experience.
I found this to be a nice light white, suitable for drinking on its' own of a summers eve, or with nice white fish or chicken. Winexpert wuggests that this wine will develop in interesting ways as it ages. early on, one should experience a crisp zesty wine from the Sauvignon blanc. At about a year, the Chenin Bloanc will tend to cone to the fore with honey and melon. As time passes, the Pinot Blanc will present with a floral bouquet and a long lasting structure to the wine with a great finish. Tick one for us.
February will offer a California Amador County Petit Sirah/ Zinfandel. Petit Sirah is a little known grape, but it enhances the Zinfandel it is being blended with here.
Again, this is a difficult blend to find, so we were offered a Painter Bridge Zinfandel. I am sure that the Petit Sirah will only enhance and tame the fruitiness of the Zinfandel, supplying a spiciness that will compliment the Zinfandel "jam". This wine was paired up with Hersheys' Kisses, and my wife described the experience as "Chocolate Cherries". On the list for sure.
March brings a white that is little known. Along the lines of the Symphony of past years in that aspect, I suspect this will be a quiet sleeper. The Agrigento Sicilian Grillo may be the best white of the year. This is the grape that is used to make Marsala, the Sicilian dessert wine.
The colour is a brilliant golden, The bouquet is bright and lively with citrus and gentle wildflowers. The flavour is crisp and zesty with citrus and a finish of almonds. This wine was paired with grilled haddock.
The wine presented was Fuedo Arancio. Another "must do" for us.
April presents another big red. This one is Italian Piedmont Nebbiolo d'Alba.
Offered for tasting was Malgra Nebbiolo d'Alba. We had a bit of a bad experience with this one, as the sample we were offered came from a corked bottle. Initial tasting of the corked wine was a real turn off, and we came back to this about 15 minutes later. A good bottle had been opened, and the corked wine had been removed.
We found this wine to be extremely big in its presentation. The body was almost chewy. The nose was heavy with tar and licorice. The flavours experienced were heavy with spice and tannin. Cherry and licorice were very obvious and the finish was very long. This wine was paired with a hard Italian cheese, the name of which escapes me at the moment.
This is the only kit that may not find its' way onto my list. I find that it has all the subtlety of a bull in rampage. Perhaps the wine offered was a little young, and still had some way to go to develop completely.
Pat
Last night I visited a sponsored tasting in Edmonton, Alberta. On offer were "representative commercial wines" of the 2005 Winexpert Limited Editions.
As the Limited Editions are still undergoing final tweaking, the Technical Services Manager (Tim Vandergrift), had done his homework to find wines that he felt would be similar enough to the finished kit to allow informed judgement of the wines we can produce from these kits.
In addition, there were some tasting pairs with specific foods for each of the wines to enhance the experience.
The January red wine kit is "Chilean Maipo Valley Carmeniere/Cab Sauv. This was paired up with a well done beef steak. The representative wine here was: Carmen Reserve.
While this wine was very full of fruit and berry, the tannins in it were still very much undeveloped. I felt that even though it was a 2002 vintage, it was still 2 to 3 years from reaching maturity. Winexpert traditionally presents a kit with the tannins more developed in the beginning, and I suspect that this kit will be a great wine after 12 to 18 months. Definitely one on my list.
January also offers a white wine. In this case, Winexpert is plending 3 white juices to produce a private blend. California Lake County "Trio Blanca" is the name they are applying to this one.
Into this one are going the Pinot Blanc, Chenin Blanc, and Sauvignon Blanc. Unfortunately, as there is no comercial blend of these three, they had to go with "second best". On offer was a BC wine: Summerhill Star Galaxy. This was paired up with green olives which rounded out the experience.
I found this to be a nice light white, suitable for drinking on its' own of a summers eve, or with nice white fish or chicken. Winexpert wuggests that this wine will develop in interesting ways as it ages. early on, one should experience a crisp zesty wine from the Sauvignon blanc. At about a year, the Chenin Bloanc will tend to cone to the fore with honey and melon. As time passes, the Pinot Blanc will present with a floral bouquet and a long lasting structure to the wine with a great finish. Tick one for us.
February will offer a California Amador County Petit Sirah/ Zinfandel. Petit Sirah is a little known grape, but it enhances the Zinfandel it is being blended with here.
Again, this is a difficult blend to find, so we were offered a Painter Bridge Zinfandel. I am sure that the Petit Sirah will only enhance and tame the fruitiness of the Zinfandel, supplying a spiciness that will compliment the Zinfandel "jam". This wine was paired up with Hersheys' Kisses, and my wife described the experience as "Chocolate Cherries". On the list for sure.
March brings a white that is little known. Along the lines of the Symphony of past years in that aspect, I suspect this will be a quiet sleeper. The Agrigento Sicilian Grillo may be the best white of the year. This is the grape that is used to make Marsala, the Sicilian dessert wine.
The colour is a brilliant golden, The bouquet is bright and lively with citrus and gentle wildflowers. The flavour is crisp and zesty with citrus and a finish of almonds. This wine was paired with grilled haddock.
The wine presented was Fuedo Arancio. Another "must do" for us.
April presents another big red. This one is Italian Piedmont Nebbiolo d'Alba.
Offered for tasting was Malgra Nebbiolo d'Alba. We had a bit of a bad experience with this one, as the sample we were offered came from a corked bottle. Initial tasting of the corked wine was a real turn off, and we came back to this about 15 minutes later. A good bottle had been opened, and the corked wine had been removed.
We found this wine to be extremely big in its presentation. The body was almost chewy. The nose was heavy with tar and licorice. The flavours experienced were heavy with spice and tannin. Cherry and licorice were very obvious and the finish was very long. This wine was paired with a hard Italian cheese, the name of which escapes me at the moment.
This is the only kit that may not find its' way onto my list. I find that it has all the subtlety of a bull in rampage. Perhaps the wine offered was a little young, and still had some way to go to develop completely.
Pat
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