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.