Wrongo Dongo and Borekaas

Saturdays are usually a good wine tasting day, so I decided to check out Grapevine Market's wine tasting for the first time. I had never been to one before and was interested to see how it would compare to the Specs tastings. Apparently they have tastings every Friday and Saturday which is GREAT news! When I went there were 4 wines, 3 of which were really good but not great. I tried the Estancia Pinot Grigio, an Argentinian blend, and a Francis Copolla red wine that I liked, however didn't decide to get any of them.

Instead, I decided to open a bottle of wine I've had once before and really liked - the Wrongo Dongo. This is a monastrell wine from the Jumilla region of Spain. I bought this wine at Specs for $6 and I must say its the best wine for that price that I've tasted. It is a bit harsh and has an overwhelming smell upon first opening, but softens as it sits. On the nose i detected almost a root beer smell and lots of fruit. It tastes great - the first thing I notice is the cherries, with a spicy medium finish. This wine is easy to drink, yet has some complexity to it and is well worth the $6 I paid. I would keep this wine around for every day drinking.

To go along with the wine, I finished off the Borekaas from a few nights ago. I could really focus on the cheese this time, as it was the only one. When I first brought it out and cut it up, the cheese tasted a little blander than I remembered. However, after 15 - 20 minutes it really started to taste amazing - much better at room temperature! It became very creamy and a little bit pungent - almost like a white cheddar. The wine and cheese went pretty well together, although I think almost all wine and cheese go relatively well together :)

Specs Wine Tasting

Overall I wasn't AS impressed with this tasting as much as the Texas tasting last week. Specs went back to the regular format of 20 random wines and lots of food though, so that was good! There was only one bad wine there out of 20, which was the Villa Frattina Pinot Grigio. To me, pinot grigios are pretty hit or miss... they might smell like peppers or cat pee, and taste like a delicious fruity light wines or... cat pee. This one was the latter.

Fortunately there were some really great wines as well. One station had 2 tempranillos - one from 2002 and one from 2005 with a $8 difference between them. It was really cool to taste 2 side by side and see the difference and the older one turned out to be a lot better, although both were pretty good! I also really liked the Broadbent Vinho Verde, which was a little bit carbonated! Very light and bubbly, almost like a refreshing champagne but with fruit. Another table that stood out to me were Pulenta Malbec and Cabernet from Argentina! For the most part Im always impressed with Argentinean wines - they are fruity yet also have some substance and are more interesting that your average wine.

One of the best wines was the last one of the night - the Leaping Lizard Pinot Noir. We were told to watch out for the LL Chardonnay because it "smells like pondwater!" so were surprised that the wine it was paired with was so good! Pinot Noirs used to be some of my favorite wines, and I was surprised to be reminded how good they are. This one was very round and silky and tasted just like a RAISIN. It was like raisin juice in my cup - in a good way! Very complex and like nothing I had ever tasted before.

In the end, I didn't end up buying anything from the night because I actually was getting some wines from the Austin Wine Festival I attended this weekend. The Fall Creek Muscat Canelli and Messina Hof Late Harvest Riesling, which were the 2 sweetest wines there!

Austin Wine Festival - Day 2

Day 2 of the wine fest was FABULOUS! We were able to use our wristbands from the previous day to get in again since we were rained out. We all decided to share our tastings, and a lot of them tasted great, but there were some clear winners. My absolute favorite was the Fall Creek muscat canelli - a sweet white wine that I kept going back to taste throughout the evening! Another favorite was the Messina Hof late harvest riesling - another super sweet fruity white. The Pedernales wines were also great, there was a viognier and tempranillo that were amazing. Surprisingly, there were a lot of tempranillos there, which is great since thats one of my favorite wines of the moment.

Halfway through, we were hungry and saw a couple people with cheese plates so of course had to seek that out. We got an $8 cheese plate with a blueberry cheddar, horseradish swiss, pecan blue, another blue, and a gouda. It also had some grapes and chocolate chips! It was so AMAZING and just what we needed with our glasses of wine - whoever had the idea to serve cheese plates there is a genius. 

About this time people started to leave, and surprisingly left their wine glasses strewn about! Not wanting to let them go to waste, I collected these abandoned glasses and added them to my collection :).

Another fun area was the Woodrose winery booth. The people apparently recognized us from when we went to visit their winery in Fredericksburg and gave us the VIP treatment letting us try "complimentary" half glasses of all their wines :). This was especially nice because their wine is simply delicious and also a little expensive so it was a nice treat. It was a great way to end the evening!

Overall I had a GREAT time at the 2009 Austin Wine Festival. I will definitely come back next year, and also plan on volunteering! I found out you can volunteer for just 4 hours taking tickets, pouring wine (!!!), etc and get a free day pass so I will definitely be involved in that! 

Austin Wine Festival - Day 1

What a day! I went to day 1 of the Austin Wine Festival with high hopes - 30+ wineries from all over Texas bringing their best wines all to one spot - I was so excited! For $25 you get a wine glass and 10 tasting tickets, with each additional one for $1. Immediately I was overwhelmed, I found out each booth could bring 4 wines, so around 120 total, and how could I choose only 10-20? Dominique and I walked around for a bit and finally started tasting. The first thing I tried was a Haak white port which was delicious! Also of interest were the fruit wines. The blackberry was good, raspberry was super weird and got worse the more sips I took. There were lots of red wines, many of which tasted sour but there were also some winners!

Not 45 minutes after I got there it started POURING. We both figured it should pass in a few minutes, but it kept getting worse. The entire group huddled under the wine booth overhangs, and waited as the lightning crackled close by. It was miserable. Nobody knew what to do for about 15 minutes, as we couldnt get to our cars, and were basically stuck where we were. We were stuck at the Messina Hof booth, which was great because the wine there was really good - we tried the pinot noir, pinot grigio, riesling, and gewurztraminer. Then the mood started to lighten as the shock wore off, and everyone started ordering wine by the glass to pass the time. Finally around 6 it started to lighten up and we began to move again and finish out our 10 tastings. Just as we finished, vendors started telling us to "Go home! More rain is coming!". RIDICULOUS - we waited all that time just to have to go home anyway. 

I really wish they offered a rain check, as the first day was delicious, yet not worth the $25 I paid. Hopefully day 2 will be better!

Spec's Tasting and La Noble Merlot

Spec's Texas Tasting

I was super excited for this unexpected wine tasting at Specs. It was 20 wines all from Texas as well as Texas food to go with it. This is probably the 6th time I've gone to a Specs tasting and have never been disappointed - I would recommend everyone should go. 

The wine list this time was simply amazing, there was only one wine I didn't like (Grape Creek Viognier... ewwww). The wines that really stood out were the ones from Texas Hills Vineyard. They have a Kick Butt Cab which is AMAZING - very complex and delicious, as well as an Orange Moscato which is sweet and light. There were a lot of cabernets there that night and this one was by far the best. I love almost all bold red wines, and I had to get this one. I have visited there once before and was impressed with everything I tried. 

Another winner was the Mcpherson wines. Their Sangiovese and Tre Colore were both amazing, all of us thought so. The Tre Colore was especially interesting, as it was soft and had almost no tannins - very odd! Its almost embarrassing because many of the specs people recognize us when we go there, and know us as regulars. The cheese guy especially is hilarious because he loves to show us his new shipment and can go on and on and talk about cheeses for 10 minutes! I ended up getting a goat cheese spread that he recommended - will be trying soon!

La Noble Merlot-

When I got home from the tasting I was still in the mood for wine so decided to try a bottle I had gotten on sale from Whole Foods. I was vastly disappointed. I give it a meh. It is not too complex and kind of flat. However, I guess its hard to rate a so-so wine after just tasting 20 amazing wines at Specs. The next day I tried it again and was happier with it - maybe it opened up some, or my taste buds were just a little more accommodating. Either way, I think its worth the $5 I paid, but not the $9 it was supposed to be!

First Blog!

This is my very first blog EVER! Wine and cheese are my two favorite things in the world, and if I were ever to have a blog, it should be about that. My ultimate goal is to have a job somewhere in the wine and cheese sector and be around it all the time. I would love to have a record of all my wine tastings, wine circle parties, festivals, and at home bottles and hope that my thoughts on various wines may help other people choose their own. I also eat a LOT of cheese and have a lot to say about it and wanted to keep track of it.

Of course my life is not ALL about wine and cheese - I also run a lot and love to run races around Austin. Other various topics may include books I read, general musings on life, or rants on the many things that annoy me. Thanks for reading!