Showing posts with label Wine 101. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wine 101. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

VA Wine Expo 2017



I can't believe that I'm writing this already but - the VA Wine Expo has already happened. Everything that I was looking forward to for so long all came true this past Saturday.




For a wine lover, there really isn't a more amazing place to be than this event. I mean, there are over 650 different wines available to taste during this expo - that is insane! Obviously, it's impossible to taste all 650 wines but you sure can try to get close.

For me, this year was especially exciting because the International guest region for the expo was Spain and Portugal. Some of my most absolute favorite varietals come from Spain and I literally COULD NOT WAIT to try to some new ones.



Of course, the main event is all of the amazing Virginia wineries that come to the event and showcase their delicious wines. One of my favorite things about the expo is that there are often some Virginia wineries that we haven't gotten a chance to try either in person or at another festival. It's also a great opportunity to purchase some bottles from some of those wineries that don't distribute and are a little bit of a drive from home.

There were a few Virginia wineries on my list for this year that I had never tried such as Notaviva, 90+ Cellars, Whitebarrel, Gabriele Rausse, Castle Glen and Cunningham Creek. Don't worry - I'll be featuring some of these wineries in future posts so you can learn all about them. I have to admit that I did not make it to all of these tables - it was a long day y'all. And, it became glaringly obvious that I am not as young as I used to be. Day drinking is ROUGH.



Before you feel too bad for me that I didn't make it to all the wineries I wanted to, let me explain. First of all - we got the VIP tickets which got us in at 10am. You guys...we were drinking at 10am. That is craziness. Also, as I mentioned, I was SUPER excited for all the Spanish wines that were going to be at the expo this year. To me, these tables really were the shining star of our day.

We could not stop visiting all of the tables with the wonderful Spanish flags hanging behind them. We just kept tasting amazing wine after amazing wine. There was such a great variety and SO MANY BUBBLES. We had some delicious sparkling Rose's and Cavas. There was Garnacha, Tempranillo and Monastrell. It was just glorious.



If you get the chance to come to Virginia and attend the VA Wine Expo - do it. It's a day you (probably) won't forget.




Monday, March 6, 2017

The Wine Expo Is Coming!



One of my favorite days of the year is almost here and I’m so excited. The Virginia Wine Expo is happening THIS WEEKEND!




Last year was the first time I had been and let’s just say – I was hooked. You’ve never seen so many wineries all in one place. It’s fabulous. It’s mostly Virginia wineries but each year they have a special “featured region” that they celebrate. When I saw what the region would be for this year’s expo, I could barely contain myself.

They are featuring Spain!

Spain is my absolute most favorite wine region around and they produce some of the tastiest varietals. Needless to say I am really looking forward to tasting some delicious new Spanish wines.

In preparation of our visit to the expo this year, I went onto their website to peruse the list of Virginia wineries that would be in attendance. While the tasting is an all-day event, there’s still always too many wineries to hit all of them. So, it’s important to prioritize.



I tend to gravitate towards wineries that I have never heard of, been to or seen at other festivals around Virginia. This year, there are 7 wineries that have made the top of my list as “must tastes” this year.


Castle Glen
Cunningham Creek
Gabriele Rausse
Notaviva
Stanburn
Whitebarrel

90+ Cellars


Of course we will make it to more than these 7 booths but these are at the top of my priority list!

Another fun thing that I’m debating for the expo this year is something that I saw some people with at the event last year. Pretzel necklaces! I thought this was the coolest idea. When you are wine tasting ALL DAY, sustenance is so important if you are actually going to still be standing when the day is over. This might be just the ticket to keep us going in between food vendors!



I can’t wait to share all of my adventures at the expo with all of you so stay tuned!




Thursday, February 2, 2017

Wine 101 - France



One of the most well-known wine producing countries in the world is France. Their history with wine dates well back into history and besides Italy, may be the country most associated with the delicious beverage.



The French are incredibly protective of their wines and go to great lengths to ensure their quality is preserved. They even have an entire system dedicated to ensuring high quality standards and regulations are met. This system is called the Appellation d’origine contrôlée. 

If there's something the French know just as well as wine, it's food. French wines are specifically designed to pair well with food. It can be as simple as a baguette or as complex as the intricacies of fine French dining. Their wines are meant to be enjoyed with food and they are meant to be aged.

Another concept that you may have heard of before that originated in France is "terroir". Terroir is meant to describe the unique natural characteristics of a particular vineyard (such as slope of terrain, altitude, soil makeup and sun orientation). The French believe that when the same varietal of grape is planted in different regions, the wines will have their own unique taste.

One more unique thing about French wines - have you ever looked closely at the labels? You'll notice that French wines are not labeled according to their grape varietal as we are used to seeing in American or Australian wines. Rather, they are labeled according to the region of soil from which the wine was produced.

Here are some more fun facts about the French wine region!


 


Sunday, January 15, 2017

Wine 101 - Champagne vs Prosecco




If any of you are like me, then you enjoyed a plethora of bubbly wines over the holiday season – especially for New Years. I had some Champagne in the fridge all ready to enjoy for New Years Eve. Then, we went and did our December wine club tasting at Cooper’s Hawk and came home with a bottle of Prosecco. At the time, I didn’t think about it a whole lot. All I knew was that it was wine and they both had BUBBLES. Who doesn’t love bubbles!?

I ended up using the Prosecco that night instead and made this delicious little cocktail. A shot or so of Chambord topped off with the Prosecco and a couple of raspberries to make it look pretty. Also – can we talk about how adorable these glasses are? The drink was so good and the perfect way to celebrate the evening away. Even if it was just me and the hubs.



It wasn’t until a few days ago when I opened the fridge and saw the bottle of Champagne and got me thinking. What the heck is the difference between Champagne and Prosecco? I sure didn’t know so it was time to research! Here's a fun little graphic to break it all down.



The biggest difference between these two bubblies is the region where they are made. Champagne is made in the Champagne region of France which is about 80 miles Northeast of Paris. Prosecco is made in the Veneto region of Italy which is about 15 miles North of Venice. One note – these brands are both VERY attached to their names so if it isn’t produced in one of these two places – IT’S NOT LEGIT. Check your labels folks.

If you start shopping around for Champagne and Prosecco, you’ll see a noticeable difference in the cost. A decent bottle of Champagne will run you about $40 where you can get a Prosecco for around $14. The reason? The method of production. Champagne is produced using a costly method called “The Traditional Method” which involves 2 fermentation periods along with aging before it is sold. The method to produce Prosecco called “The Tank Method” is a bit less expensive. It still goes through 2 fermentations but rather than being aged, it is cooled in an autoclave tank then bottled.

OK – I know that’s a lot of technical info and all you want to know is do they taste different? Champagne and Prosecco while similar, do have different flavor profiles. Champagne tends to have notes of almond, citrus, peach and white cherry and is usually on the dry side. Prosecco has notes of green apple, honeysuckle, pear and cream and tends to be a bit sweeter. You really can’t go wrong because, the good news? They both have bubbles of course! Cheers!



Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Wine Words to Make You Sound Smart




We all have that ONE friend who is a self-appointed sommelier and wants to make sure that everyone knows that they really know their wine. I’m not ashamed to admit that I am often that person within my circle of friends. I try not to be obnoxious about it but I’m sure it never happens.

But – we all also want to fit in, right? Just think how impressed your friends would be at your next gathering if you were to professionally swirl your glass of wine, sniff it and then rattle off a sentence full of really smart sounding wine words. You’ll be the hit of the party!



AROMA 
The smell of the grapes that are in a wine. You get the aroma when you sniff the wine in your glass. This is also called the “nose”. You just got a two-for-one here. You’re welcome.

FINISH 
A word used to describe the lingering flavor of a wine after you taste it. This is considered the most important way to determine the quality of a wine. Some people also say “aftertaste” but let’s be honest, that’s kind of a gross word and “finish” sounds way more high class.

AERATION 
This is the process of allowing a wine to breathe and is mostly required for younger wines. It allows the flavors of the wine to open up (aka – it will taste better). If you want to get really fancy, get yourself a decanter and teach your partygoers a lesson about aeration.

TANNINS 
This is the substance found in wine that causes you to pucker and are derived from all different parts of the grape vine and the fruit itself. Most of the time a wine that is high in tannins will be dry.


LEGS
These are the drops of wine that form on the inside of your wine glass after you swirl it around. Some wines will “stick” to the glass and form lines (or legs). Wines that are higher in alcohol content and/or sugar will have more legs than wines that are less sweet or lower in alcohol content. Swirl that wine and say “check out the legs on this beauty”. You’ll sound SO smart. Just make sure they know you are referring to the wine in your glass and not your friend’s wife.


Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Girl Scout Cookie Wine Pairings




I don’t know what it’s been like around your neck of the woods lately but here, it’s GIRL SCOUT COOKIE SEASON. Now, with this whole healthy eating thing that we’ve been doing, Girl Scout Cookies aren’t exactly part of our “approved diet”. Thank goodness for cheat days.

If you remember my post about pairing Halloween candy with wine, then you know I have awesome friends willing to do pretty much anything if it includes wine. Well, thanks to the internet, a friend found this post about pairing wine with Girl Scout Cookies. Needless to say, this event was planned immediately.



The big night finally arrived and my friends even put up with me staging all of the cookies and wine together for blog photos before diving in. We had 8 different cookies and 10 different wines – waiting was no easy feat. But, everything looked so amazing when it was all put together. It made the whole thing seem very official!




We also learned some things about cookies since we couldn't find all of the flavors on this list. Apparently there are different bakers and so not every cookies is available everywhere! Who knew? So, our cookies and pairings were a bit different than the list above but creativity is good!

Here’s our pairings and what everyone thought about each one:


Rah-Rah Raisins with Cotes Du Rhone Reserve



Last year was the first time I had these cookies and they are AWESOME. According to other suggestions online, this one should be paired with a Bordeaux. This wine is technically a rouge but close enough. It was smooth, bright and the subtle fruits but deep flavor were a perfect match to the cookie. 



Savannah Smiles with Old Green Tractor White Blend/Framboise Raspberry Lambic






This was another new cookie for us and again - AWESOME. We paired this one with two different drinks - a local white blend and a raspberry lambic. The light, crisp and citrusy flavor of the wine was absolutely perfect with the cookie. And let me tell you, the raspberry lambic with the lemon also simply delicious. This cookie and the two drinks were the favorite pairing of the night!


Thin Mints with Beritage Lodi Red



The suggested pairing online for Thin Mints was Pinot Noir but we went a bit off the reservation with this interesting choice. It was one I had on hand from a fund raiser and wanted to try it. It was an easy sipping wine but still full of flavor. Mint is very difficult to pair with wine and while this one was good, everyone seemed to enjoy the cookies and wine separate.


Toffee-tastics with Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling



Most of us had never tried this cookie before either but it kind of fell short of expectations. There was really no flavor to the cookie at all. I think the Riesling was the right wine to pair with this cookie but since the cookie wasn't very good, we moved on pretty quickly.


Samoas with Agua de Piedra Malbec



This next pairing was another favorite of the evening. I mean, who doesn't love Samoas first of all? Then we paired it with this light, fruity Malbec. The light flavor of the wine held up well against the richness of the cookie.


Tagalongs with Magistrate Cabernet Sauvignon



Tagalongs are my favorite Girl Scout Cookie so I was excited to see them paired up with wine. Peanut Butter can be hard to pair so I wasn't sure how this one would go. I'm also not usually a huge fan of Cab Sauv. I was surprised though at how good this pairing was. The heavy wine was exactly what this rich, creamy cookie needed.


Trefoils with Barboursville Chardonnay



It was nice that we had a good balance of white wines and reds paired up with all the cookies. The Trefoils with the Chardonnay was a super light, easy pairing that worked really well. It would be really easy to down a ton of these cookies and a bottle of this wine so be careful!


Do-si-dos with James River Cellars Merlot



Our last pairing of the night was Do-Si-Dos with a local Merlot from James River Cellars. This Merlot is a bit lighter than most but the flavors were still deep enough to match up with the peanut butter. This one was good but again another one where they were better enjoyed separately.


So there you have it - our Girl Scout Cookie Wine Night! It was a huge success and we will probably make this a yearly tradition. 

What's your favorite Girl Scout Cookie and what wine will YOU pair with it?


Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Virginia Wine Expo - AKA "Heaven"








This past weekend, I got to cross something off my bucket list - attending the Virginia Wine Expo. Even though I have lived in Richmond for like 11 years now, I had never attended this event. INSANITY.

Let me start off by saying that my husband got us tickets for the expo as my Christmas gift this year - best gift ever! But he also gave me the tickets in a really adorable way. He sent me on a little scavenger hunt through the house to find them and the final gift was hidden in the tree, complete with a wine bottle ornament!






So, I've known since December that we were going and I've had a countdown on my phone. I was SO excited. I had heard a lot of stories from people who had been in previous years and they said it was so crowded, hard to taste all the wines, too much waiting, etc. I tried not to let any of that get in my head and I stayed pumped for this.

Did I mention that we got VIP tickets? No? Well - we did! Basically, the VIP tickets let you in 2 hours before the "normal" crowd. So, we got to start our wine tasting adventure at 10am rather than noon. I know what you're thinking, 10am and drinking wine!? As long as you eat a balanced breakfast, it's totally fine.



We took our first Uber ride ever and got to the convention center right at 10am. Let me tell you - the early admission ticket was TOTALLY worth it. There was hardly anyone there for the first 2 hours so we got to taste wine at a nice, leisurely pace. My husband's cousin, wife and a friend of theirs met up with us about 2 wineries in and we were off!



Every year they feature a different country at the Expo and this year it was Italy. I was pretty excited about getting to taste Italian wines because I don't typically drink many from there. I was not disappointed. They even had this cool card that you could scan a QR code and it would tell you where to find the yummy Italian wines you tasted. These were some of my favorites:





Not only did they have over 70 Virginia wineries featured at the expo, they had food, cideries and craft vendors too. We ended up bringing home some awesome gourmet ketchups from Chups which were amazing. The spicy pineapple was to die for and I ended up putting it on top of the hot dog I consumed that afternoon. Go check them out - you can make all sorts of yummy sauces and appetizers with their products. We brought home the sampler pack and a full size of the spicy pineapple.


The winery that, in our opinion, won best in show that day was The Homeplace Vineyard. Upon approaching their table, we could tell that this was a small, family operation and didn't know what to expect. Well, they blew the competition out of the water. We brought home 3 bottles of their wines, but easily could have bought more. Their Old Tractor Red and White are phenomenal every day drinking wines. We also bought their Vidal Blanc which was seriously smooth and delicious. I'm not usually a fan of whites so when I find one I like, I get excited. They also had a Chardonnay made with hops that was amazingly delicious!



All in all, it was one of the best days ever and it really never got crowded to the point that I was annoyed. We never had to wait long for a tasting and with that many wineries to choose from, if one was busy you could just move on. My favorite thing they did was will call. You could buy wines at each vineyard and fill out a will call ticket and pick everything up before you left. It was so nice that we didn't have to haul our purchases around with us. The only "bad' part was that it was hard to keep track of what we bought. So when we ended up at will call at the end of the day, we had 10 bottles waiting for us. Oops.



It was an amazing day and I can't wait to go back next year. Hopefully all these bottles will be gone by then!

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Wine and Candy - Halloween Adult Style





Admittedly, Halloween is not my favorite holiday of the year. I've never really gotten into the whole costume thing (it take A LOT of effort, y'all) and unfortunately, lately more and more of the trick or treaters are rude and don't even dress up. I do enjoy walking the neighborhood with friends who have little ones. We usually have a wagon full of adult libations and we can totally sneak candy all night long. It's a good time.

Recently, I saw this article online about pairing Halloween candy favorites with wine. Say what!? I can't believe I had never seen this before. I immediately thought that this was an amazing idea and I absolutely needed to try this. 

Luckily, I also have really awesome friends who say “that sounds fun” rather than “you’re crazy” when I ask them to help me out with this crazy idea. It was a blast munching on the yummy candy and testing all the different wines alongside them. And of course, we finished ALL the candy and ALL the wine.

Here’s the pairings I put together for this Halloween festivity. While all of the pairings were good, the hands down favorite from the group were the Skittles with the Moscato. It was amazing!




Let me know what wines you pair with your Halloween candy this year!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – Taylor Tawny Port $11.99



This is by far my favorite candy for just about any holiday. The crazy thing is though, I’ve never tried to pair a wine with them before. I’ll admit it – this pairing was difficult to figure out. I pretty much scratched reds off right away. They are too heavy to hold up to the rich flavors of a peanut butter cup. I tried Riesling which wasn’t terrible but not amazing either. Then it hit me – dessert wines. This Taylor Tawny Port was JUST what the peanut butter cup called for. It’s a medium-bodied port wine with a nutty aroma and rich flavors of caramel. It is potent though so sip carefully!

Smarties – White Hall Vineyards Viognier - $19.99



I took a hint from the article mentioned above and knew exactly where I wanted to go with this pairing. Virginia is well known for their Viognier so there are a ton of good ones to choose from. The Viognier from White Hall Vineyards is one of my favorites and a perfect pairing with Smarties. It has notes of peach and cantaloupe with an interesting hint of blood orange on the nose. It’s a medium-bodied wine with a delicious orange finish that I love.


Candy Corn – Smoking Loon Steelbird Unoaked Chardonnay - $9.99



OK, let’s be honest here – candy corn is delicious (in a weird, artificial sugary sort of way) but it tastes horrible when you eat it alongside anything else. I was munching on some of this the other night and happened to have a glass of Petit Syrah in my hand as well. This is a TERRIBLE idea – please don’t try this at home. It almost ruined this perfectly lovely wine for me forever. So, what in the world WOULD taste good with candy corn? Turns out that the Viognier mentioned above is a pretty good choice but I wanted to change it up. Since the Viognier worked well, I decided to go for a Chardonnay. I knew I wanted an unoaked Chardonnay because I didn’t think the oakiness would pair well with the odd candy corn flavors. This Chardonnay from Smoking Loon was perfect. It’s a clean, crisp wine with hints of pineapple and melon and is just sweet enough to compliment the sweetness of the candy corn.

Raisinets – El Cortijillo Tempranillo - $6.98



I also knew exactly where I wanted to start my pairing with this candy. Again, taking a hint from the article I wanted something rich and smoky to pair with this chocolate treat. I knew my favorite wine region – Spain – would have just what I was looking for. This Tempranillo is one of my favorite finds and it did not disappoint when paired with the Raisinets. This Tempranillo is a fresh, complex wine with hints of blackberry and cherry. It’s rich and a bit sweet to start and drier on the finish, but not enough to drown out the flavor of the candy. I recommend this wine even if you aren’t eating candy!


Skittles – Middle Sister Sweet and Sassy Moscato - $9.99



With Skittles, I knew I needed to head back into the realm of sweet, fruity white wines. After some research, I decided to go with a Moscato. I don’t drink much Moscato wines so I decided to go with a relatively inexpensive brand that hasn’t disappointed me thus far – Middle Sister wines. Middle Sister has a special place in my heart since I am a middle sister! They have a Moscato that really hit the spot with this sweet candy. This one is smooth and sweet, but not too sweet as some Moscato’s tend to be. It has floral aromas and fruit flavors like pear and peach.