Wine and Cheese Pairing

 I was extremely excited to do this tasting! I did it on the solar eclipse at Chateau Morisette to get a good view of all the clouds... but really I thought a flight of wine I had not already tried would be great to try with some cheeses. 

 I chose this actually based on Trader Joe's recommendation! This cheese was listed to go with most wines, and it is the Unexpected Cheddar Cheese that had bits of parmesan mixed in. 

 This one was more of a leap for me. I had a couple of friends joining me to taste and they were lactose intolerant, so I found a cheese they could enjoy as well. This is Trader Joe's goat's milk gouda style cheese. Trader Joe's said this cheese paired well with red wine and figs. 

 My last choice was Trader Joe's Irish whiskey cheddar. Honestly, I bought this one because they were letting people sample it in store and it was delicious by itself, but I knew it would be interesting to see if it actually paired with any wine. 

 Onto the wines we paired with our cheese, we started with the Chateau Morisette 2020 Dry Dog. This was a red blend that had chambourcin, cabernet, and merlot blended together with NO residual sugar. 

 The second wine we tried with the cheese was the Chateau Morisette classic, The Black Dog. I chose this to see how the addition of sugar would change the flavors, as this is the same red blend as the Dry Dog, but they do not ferment all the sugar out of it. 

 

The third was the Chateau Morisette 2022 Petit Manseng. This was a new varietal they had at the winery. It was light and crisp and good for kite flying weather. It had accents of honeysuckle and orange. 

The last wine you will see in my flight is the Chateau Morisette Blackberry Wine. I chose this one as a fruit forward sweet wine because I thought that the blackberry would go well with the gouda. However, the Blackberry wine base is actually Chateau Morisette's apple wine, which they then let blackberry must sit in to infuse it's flavor and get its deeper color. 

This is the flight, and the wines are ordered in the order I wrote above. 

(1. Dry dog, 2. The black dog, 3. Petit Manseng, 4. Blackberry wine) 

This photo is kind of chaotic but shows how we picnic styled out day. We also had crackers and some fruit to go with the wine, but the focus was on the cheese. I cut it into small triangles and bagged it prior to getting to the winery, and after the peak of the eclipse we got to the pairing. 

First I will start with my notes on the Dry Dog. It was a full bodied, rich wine that had softer tannins being four years old now. It had good red berry flavor with hints of smoke and maybe vanilla? A flavor I cannot quite place. Pairing it with the Irish Whiskey cheddar, it was kind of a let down. I think both the wine and cheese had bold, strong flavors- that were completely different from each other. This led to them kind of cancelling each other out in my mouth and having a red berry start with a straight whiskey finishing taste that lingered in my mouth. This was definitely the worst out of the three for the Dry dog. The goat cheese gouda was better with the dry dog, but definitely not great. They felt clanky together. I would have thought the buttery aftertaste of the wine would have gone with the creaminess of the gouda, but it was like separate flavors following each other. It was creamy, and then buttery, but the textures and mouth feel did not compliment each other or exist at the same time. Lastly was the aged cheddar with parm. The cheddar was the lightest cheese taste wise out of the three, and accented the wine well. It emboldened the hints of smoke in the wine and paired well with the red berry flavor. I felt like Remy in Ratatouille trying grapes and cheese together for the first time. 

Secondly was the Black Dog. With Chateau Morisette leaving residual sugar in this version of their red blend, it definitely lightened up the wine. It changed from being a date night wine or nice dinner like I would classify the Dry Dog to a more casual, daily use. Our server said it is a great wine to use in cooking as well. However, the red berry flavor was definitely still pronounced, and it was great. Without the aging though, it had slightly more pucker and tannic components than its counterpart. So I paired this one first with the Irish Whiskey and it was just point blank not good. As you will notice in my notes about the rest of the wines, the Irish Whiskey cheddar does not pair well with anything sweet. The Whiskey flavor overpowered the wine, and it just tasted like I was consuming cottage cheese consistency whiskey. Thinking about it still makes me feel ill. Secondly was the goat cheese gouda. This did significantly better. The gouda flavor paired well with the red berry and the sugar in the wine paired well with the creaminess of the cheese instead of battling it. Lastly, the aged cheddar with parm enhanced the berry flavor and brought out some more subtleties in the wine. I like this one as well because the cheese cut some of the sugary from the wine, but it did not mess up the flavor. 

Next was the Petit Manseng. This was the only white wine I paired with the cheeses, and it was significantly sweeter and more delicate than the first two. The manseng was crisp, had a strong flavor of honeysuckle with accents of orange and other citrusy/ tropical fruits the more I drank. Shockingly, when paired with the Irish whiskey cheddar, it just disappeared. It felt as though I could have been drinking water and eating a slice of cheese. the Manseng did better taste wise with the goat cheese gouda. The gouda actually elevated the pineapple and orange zesty flavors in the wine. The only thing that I did not like was the finish after this pairing almost felt waxy on the tongue, it was just an odd sensation to be left with. The cheddar with parm was fine, but nothing of excellence to rave about. It did not really fight the wine, but did not add anything or enhance flavors either. I think they are both just mild flavors, and neither had the umph needed to enhance the other. 

The last wine was the Blackberry wine. This one was light, easy to drink, and completely different from the other. I had not had an apple wine before this, and was surprised how crisp and flavorful it actually was with just a little acidity to compete with the high sugar content. For the last time I will say this, the irish whiskey cheese was HORRENDOUS with the blackberry wine. It was like a battle of all taste buds in my mouth due to so many competing and opposing flavors. The goat cheese gouda was a nice reprieve from the irish whiskey fiasco, and it brought out the apple flavor hiding underneath the blackberry and gave more granny smith flavors instead of dark berry. The cheddar was great. Something I would want to put on any charcuterie board to have outside during the summer with this wine. They were both casual and easy to pair together, but together neither had a long finish. 

Overall, my favorite pairing by far was the Dry Dog and the cheddar with parmesan. I also acknowledge that the irish whiskey cheddar, while interesting in theory, was a terrible choice in practice. (I paid my dues for that having to continue to try it with each sweet wine). Overall though it was a great time and I learned more about the capacity for wine to elevate based on it partners. 

Winery Visit: Chateau Morisette

 Hey Guys! I recently went to Chateau Morisette Winery! This was not only my first time visiting the winery, but also my first time trying ANY wine from Chateau Morisette. It was a clear day when we entered the winery, and we were greeted by one of the Morisette's dogs, Barnabus. 

Barnabus on his midday patrol of the winery. 

This is the main building for production and tasting. They also have a restaurant across the parking lot, but it was closed when we went. 

Once inside the winery, we started with a tasting. Our tasting and tour were done with Amanda, who has been working at the Chateau for a little over a year. I told her about this class and she was happy to give me a run down on all the wines. I tried MANY of their 22 wines available, and got a variety of flavors. 

This was their current wine list. We could sample any of the wines they had in stock on the list. 

This is the 2020 Chardonnay varietal by Chateau Morisette. Amanda started me with this one because she wanted to build a foundation before our next Chardonnay. This was crisp and lightly flavored, but the flavor lasted a long time even after swallowing. 

Amanda followed the 2020 Chardonnay with the 2021 Chardonnay varietal. Both wines were made almost the exact same way. The only difference is that the 2021 went through primary fermentation in oak barrels instead of stainless steel. The wine was fermented in barrels for almost a year. Amanda wanted to show me the difference that fermenting in steel vs. barrels makes. This wine was heavier, with a little hint of vanilla and extremely buttery. 

The next wine I tasted was the 2022 Vidal Blanc varietal. This was selected simply because it was Amanda's favorite white wine for any occasion. This was the first vidal blanc I have ever tasted so I did not have much to compare it too. However, it was a perfect wine for a hot day. It was refreshing, light, and fruity with a hint of acidity to balance it out. 

Amanda moved us to the reds next, starting with the 2017 Cab Sauvignon varietal. The green tea was a beneficial and surprisingly vibrant flavor that came through in this wine. It was softer and did not have sharp tannins from its aging. It was velvety and a good start to what I expect when trying a cab sav. 

The next two we tried to compare. The first is the 2020 Dry Dog which is a red blend containing chambourcin, cabernet, and merlot. This is also the blend used the next wine, The Black Dog. These wines were created and made the exact same, except the Dry Dog was left to ferment until there was NO residual sugar left. The flavor difference between these two wines just from the difference in sugar astounded me. The Dry Dog was tannic and bold and flavorful and made me want to sit down with a nice roasted meat. The Black Dog was sweeter of course, but lighter and something Amanda suggested was amazing used as a cooking wine, or just a casual night out with friends. There was only a 1.2% difference in residual sugars between these two wines, and it surprised me how much that small change altered the flavor. 

After introducing some sugar through the Black Dog, we moved on to some sweeter wines. Amanda kicked this off with their OG- Our Dog Blue. This was a semi-sweet white blend that included riesling and traminette grapes. It was light, delicately sweet, and what I would want at a Fourth of July Party Cookout while I ran around with my family. 

We finished the tasting off with one of Chateau Morisette's sweetest wines, Sweet Mountain Laurel. This was a varietal blend consisting of exclusively Niagara grapes. It was nostalgic and aromatic. It reminded me of Welch's white sparkling grape juice that my parents used to give me for the New Years Party- just with some alcohol added. It really was like drinking fruit juice and was simply delicious, but definitely pushing the line of too sweet for me. 

After our tasting Amanda took us on a small tour of the production center. We were unable to tour the vineyards because most of their vineyards are actually off-site, but can be seen when driving on the parkway!

This is one of many photos I took when I first walked into the production center. An interesting fact that we learned from Amanda is that the Morisette family care deeply about the environment, as they were farmers first before becoming winery owners. With that being said, most of the wood used to build the production center and winery is refurbished and pulled out of rivers and other water logged areas. They had the wood dried, treated, and driven up the mountain. Amanda's favorite beam (as she put it) is one of the center beams in the tasting room (seen in the ceiling in the photo below- the vertical beam on the right going the length of the room). It came from Oregon and traveled all the way to Virginia in one piece, until they got to Floyd. The curve in Floyd were so tight they had to cut the 90 foot beam in 2 places, breaking it into three parts. They covered this up by putting the support columns in those breaks. 

This was one row of stainless steel vats used for primary fermentation. Currently, all of their wines are going through primary fermentation in these vats. Each vat holds 6,000 gallons, and they have 30 of them. This means at one time they can have 180,000 gallons fermenting. 

I put this in just to show comparison. They are slowly getting rid of the containers that are not ringed or ribbed like the one on the left. The rings on the rest of the containers are actually put of the refrigeration system and helps temperature control each wine to create the best conditions for fermentation. 

This is one of the funnels they had pulled inside (they had a large production section outside that was currently covered because Chateau Morisette if fighting a family of pigeons for the patio the equipment is on, and in order to keep it from getting messed up or nested in they keep it covered)

This was the infamous barrel room. Most of their barrel were in this cooler room that is temperature regulated. We learned that they use their barrels 5 times before they trade them out for a new one. 

This was a photo my Mother in Law (middle) said we HAD to have. However, It does show something interesting the winery does. On the barrels behind us, there are dogs stamped on the barrels. On the rack to the left of us, you can see the dog print stamp on the top row. These stamps are placed so that the production workers know if the barrel containers a red or white wine. 

Dog stamp= White

Paw Print stamp = Red

The last section we went to was what happens when the wine is bottled. This is part of the assembly wine where the bottles get corked. 

After the wine is corked, the labels are put on. Here they were actually playing with some old bottles of wine and labeling them differently to see which looked best. 

After this the bottles have foil put over the corks on top. The foil is ONLY put on by hand, even to this day. One of the Morisette's, I believe David, actually is a whiz at this and regularly helps the production team place foil wrappers on quickly. 

Here is what the wine looks like after it has been packaged! The Morisette's believe in high quality flavor and do not have a lot of storage space, so they have a 30 day box to store policy. Once a bottle goes in a box, it has to be out of the winery within the month and in the store on the shelf. 

Overall, this was an awesome trip. The atmosphere was 9/10, The employees were 10/10, My LEAST favorite wine was a 6/10, and the tour was an 8/10. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and will be going back soon. 

Tasting: Wine Gourmet

Hiiii,

I actually had this tasting on Valentines Day at Wine Gourmet, and just forgot to post about it. This tasting was completely free and a great time. I went with two friends, Sam and Desaray. Our guide through this tasting was named Devalle. (P.S. he told me to tell Boyer to give me an A since they are buddies :)) It was a great time and I started to branch out. We tried six different wines! Devalle picked out this tasting based around Valentines Day and what he thought of in wine when thinking of the day of love. Our tasting went from dry to sweet whites, leading to younger red vintages before older ones. 

These were the descriptions for the six wines we tried from Wine Gourmet. 

Our first wine was Gran Passione Prosecco DOC. This wine was a prosecco varietal. It was from the upper regions in Italy. This was a non vintage wine and the bottle cost $16.99. I always like a good prosecco. It was crisp, refreshing, with a strong green apple flavor. The flavor remained in your mouth and had a long finish. It was yummy and light. 

Tiamo Organic Pinot Grigio was our second tasting. I unfortunately did not get a photo of the bottle before we finished it and he put it away. This is a varietal blend from a vineyard called San Dona di Plave which is between Venice and Treviso, Italy. The vintage is 2022. A bottle cost $13.99. This was very dry (a little too dry for my taste) but the pear flavor was incredible. 

The next wine (shown in picture above very left) was the Los Dos Dry Rose. This was a varietal blend that was 88% Garnacha, 7% cabernet sauvignon, and 5% Merlot. This was from Northeastern spain. The vintage is 2022 and a bottle cost $11.99. I enjoyed this thoroughly. The smell of berries led way for a complete strawberry and raspberry flavor. This was the creamiest wine that we tasted, and had a little tang to it. 

The last three will go in order from left to right in the picture. Our next pour was Tiamo Organic Chianti. This was a varietal blend consisting of 90% Sangiovese and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The vintage is 2022 from Italy. The bottle costs $13.99. This was aromatic with more of a floral scent and flavor than the others tried so far. It still had the red berry taste as well, but just mixed in with flowers. It was softer than I anticipated it being, and went down smooth. 

The next drink was La Valentina Montepulciano d'Abbruzo. This was a varietal wine made with 100% Montepulciano grapes. This wine was from Abruzzo, Italy. The vintage is 2021 with a cost at $18.99. This was Devalle's exciting wine of the night and my first real step into red wines. It was definitely fuller bodied, but not as tannic as I was expecting. It has a slight pucker feel, and then ebbed into an almost sweet aftertaste. I enjoyed it. 

The last wine we tasted was St. Kilda Shiraz. This wine was a varietal from New South Wales Australia. The vintage is 2021 and cost $11.99 a bottle. This one surprised me the most by the flavors embedded in it. I read the description, and after sniffing the wine could note the hints of licorice. However, when I took my first sip I was not expecting the mocha and chocolate flavor to be so strong, and I loved it. It had a smokier taste than the rest of the wines and was just full of different flavors and spices when I rolled it around in my mouth. I do not know if I would go out of my way to order it on my own, but was definitely happy to have tried it. 

I enjoyed this experience and will definitely be coming back, if for no other reason than to be introduced to new types of wine with different flavors. 

Tasting: Wine Lab

 This week my friend Desaray and I decided to go to wine lab. We both did a flight. The flight that I chose was the slightly sweet flight. Desaray chose the Port/ Dessert Flight, and we both tried each others wines. 

This was the port/ Dessert flight. It had three wines to taste. The first (from left to right) was Barnard Griffin Syrah Port NV. This wine was a Syrah varietal, from WA, USA. This wine was a non-vintage, and was blended from multiple harvests. A bottle was $32. This was the first Syrah I have ever tasted, and I was not disappointed. I was round and fruity with a full bodied flavor. 

The second wine in this flight was the Santa Julia Late Harvest. This was a blended wine with Viognier and Torrontes grapes. This wine was from Argentina. The vintage is 2022. A bottle was $32. I was not a huge fan of this wine. It had good pear and apricot flavor but the after mouth taste and feel was not extremely pleasant for me. 

The last pour in this flight was the Six Grapes Reserve Ruby Port NV. This was a blend from Portugal. This wine was also a non-vintage. A bottle was also $32.  I enjoyed this wine. It was sweeter than anticipated, and definitely full bodied. I could smell red berries, but could not quite pick out which exactly I was smelling. 

This was the slightly sweet flight for $15 at wine lab. The first (from left to right) was a Rinaldi Moscato d'Asti NV. This was a non vintage wine. This wine was a Moscato varietal. This wine came from Italy. The bottle was $44. This wine was a classic for me, and actually the wine that I served at my wedding as "bride's choice". I love it. It is light, refreshing, with apple and peach fruity flavor that sits well on the stomach. 

The second pour was the Gloria Strawberry Moscato NV. This was my favorite out of the six wines we tried. It was extremely aromatic. It is how I imagine it would feel to walk through a strawberry field with a bowl of fresh whipped cream. It was light, sweet, and creamy. This wine was also a non vintage from Italy. The bottle (that I ended up buying) was $36. 

The last wine in this flight was the Rinaldi Redream Sweet Red NV. This was also a non vintage wine from Italy. The bottle was $44. I liked this one more than I thought I was going to. It had a definitely cherry flavor with hints of flowers like honeysuckle. I am not huge on cherries, but I liked this overall. 

This picture was to show the different glasses they brought us based on the flight we chose. Desaray's glass was skinnier and funneled the aroma of her red wine's straight to the nose. 

Me remembering that I forgot to take a picture with my wine. :) 

Overall, it was a good experience. I am starting with sweeter and lighter wines because I have not really ever been interested in bitter, dry, or puckering feelings. I have been to wine lab before and the atmosphere is great, and a place where I did not feel crazy while I practiced my wine swirling and sniffing. I enjoyed the reds in these flights more than I thought I would, and am excited to slowly start branching out as I learn more. 

A First Pour

 Hi guys! This is my first blog, and my first course on wine! I am a senior this year and wanted to get a little more wine savvy before leaving school. While I would not say that I am in any means educated in the ways of wine, I definitely have drank some and received basic education from people in my life. My stepdad, Jason, is a wine distributor for Breakthru Beverage in the Roanoke area. My best friends, Desaray and Maria, love wine. They will be my companions for most of the blogs to come. With that being said, they have introduced me to many different places I have come to enjoy. Desaray and I have become particularly fond of Wine Lab in Blacksburg, and it will be my first stop on my blogging journey. 

One of the aspects of wine I am interested in exploring more is the different styles. I have tried wine at a couple of wineries, stores, weddings, and parties. I typically have a pretty large sweet tooth and tend to stick to Moscato and a few other whites. I have not been particularly fond of any reds that I have tried. However, I am always interested in trying new things and in the past few months I have found my taste buds changing and been more satisfied with drier wines and slowly easing my way into reds. 

I am hoping to learn more about the different ways wine is created. I just overall want to be more educated into the world of wine so I can speak about it semi-confidently when out with friends and can actually know what I am reading when a wine menu is handed to me. I am extremely excited for the semester and especially excited to learn more about wine parings. 

Below is a photo of my best friend Desaray (left) and I. She does not attend Virginia Tech but is excited to have an excuse to go tasting.

Till Next time,

Bailey Hagerman