No post doesn't mean no wine!

Whoops, so I haven't been keeping up with things here on the blog but I have definitely still been drinking wine and eating cheese! Here is a recap of the last few weeks:

My Birthday!!!

On July 15th I turned 25 and of course did the obligatory "where did all the time go?? whoa!!!" nonsense. In reality it has been a great year and I feel like 25 is a good round number and will be even better than 24. For my birthday, I went out to Eddie V's which I LOVE. The only thing I really wanted was this amazing, amazing salad and a glass of wine. Seriously this salad is the best I've ever had. Its just arugula, sauteed mushrooms and onions, warm goat cheese and a vinaigrette dressing. Oh. My. God. So good! I usually don't like to get wine in restaurants because it is SO much more expensive that getting it at a store. The price of a glass is about the price you'd pay for a bottle. But since it was my birthday and I was in a nice place I indulged. The cool thing about getting wine at restaurants though is you can ask for a recommendation and usually try a few until you find one you like. So thats what I did, I ended up choosing the Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc/Viognier blend. Since its been a few weeks I don't remember too much about it except that it was DELICIOUS, and I promptly went to Specs and bought a whole bottle a few days later. A glass at Eddie V's was $10.50... guess how much the bottle was... $11. Yep. I will be trying my bottle again soon.

Third Wino Divino meeting-

As always this was a fantastic meeting. I so love getting together with friends and trying many different wines all at once. I really get a chance to compare and broaden my horizons and try things I usually wouldn't. The theme this month was to bring a wine from a place you have never been, yet would like to go. So we had a large variety of wines from Spain, France, Italy, Argentina, and of course California. ALL the wines were just fantastic. I brought a tempranillo from Spain that I was very impressed with, and I wish I had my notes from the night to describe some of the other ones. One of the shockers of the nights was a California Chardonnay that we were all like "whoa! this is great!" and it was only $4... thats what I like to see! In addition, there were tons of cheese and crackers, fruit, and hilarious games. A good time was had by all, and I can't wait until the next meeting!

Cresta Azul "needle wine"-

Also I tried the needle wine I bought from a Specs tasting. I believe its actually a white blend but the bottle was vague about what it really is. Its called a needle wine because it feels slightly carbonated (although Im not sure it is) and the bubbles feel like slight needles on your tongue. I loved it at the Specs tasting because it was so different, and when I tried it again at home I was equally impressed. It tastes like a straight up cream soda... exactly. Its a tad sour, but the carbonation and vanilla and cream hints make you feel like you have a cream soda wine. It was delicious and refreshing, something I would like to drink on the patio on a hot day. However, it definitely has to be ice cold. As it warms up its like... a warm soda... kind of gross.

Messina Hof Muscat Canelli

When I went to Specs to get the truffle cheese I got this wine mostly on a whim. I have been pretty impressed by the Messina Hof wines I have tasted lately. Also my favorite wine from the Austin wine festival was a muscat canelli, so I thought I should give this one a try.

Aside from the Fall Creek Muscat Canelli, I have also tried the Becker Muscat Canelli Amabile - both of which were deliciously sweet. So thats what I expected from this wine but much to my dismay I was a bit disappointed. This wine was really not sweet at all, and was more citrusy than anything. It tasted exactly like a grapefruit with a hint of lemon - which reminded me of a previous wine I had about a week ago - the Messina Hof Pinot Grigio! Seriously they tasted almost like the same wine! One interesting thing about this wine was the smell. It smelled like a white port - sweet and very alcoholic and almost exactly like a white port I have had.

Overall this wine was ok, I gave it a 6.5 out of 10. It was nothing special but it wasnt terrible either.

Gouda with Truffles

Whenever I express my opinions on dogs as anything less than "OMG HOW CUUUUUUUTE DOGS ARE THE BEST", I get looked at like I just chewed up some adorable puppies. I have my reasons. Like take a few days ago for instance. I had tried this super amazing cheese at Specs that just blew me away, but decided not to get it right away. After thinking about it for a few weeks, I went back and got the $35/lb gouda with truffles. This cheese is the BEST. I brought it over for an after dinner treat so that everyone could try it and bask in its amazingness. A few minutes after putting it on the counter, it mysteriously had disappeared! Nobody knew where it was! Seriously cheeses don't just up and walk off do they? Or DO they... finally we found the missing cheese in the MOUTH OF A DOG!!! Apparently, the cheese (maybe) had (somehow) fallen to the floor, and stealthily the dog scooped it up and silently went away to eat it. UGH! Luckily only a corner was nibbled off and it was still wrapped in plastic so most of it was salvageable, but I'd say it took away from the charm.

Anyway, the cheese was awesome as always. It is soooo creamy and had a pretty mild flavor. There is just a small amount of truffles in there, but they add an earthiness and make the cheese a little more robust. In the future, I think this cheese would pair really well with a pinot noir. I think everyone liked it and I will definitely get it again, although I don't know when since there are so many delicious cheeses out there.

Santa Cristina Sangiovese

I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about chilled red wines, which is something I've never given much thought before. In my mind, whites are cold and reds are room temperature. Apparently, reds can be refreshing when chilled as well! The article recommended a few of the best chilled reds the authors found, and I was thrilled when I was surprised with 2 of them!

The one I decided to try first was the Santa Cristina Sangiovese from Italy. In the article this wine was described as having a black cherry flavor, which I definitely found for myself as well. It was a bit bold, much more so than I expected it to be. I definitely had some prejudices going into this wine, as most reds are warm, and if they are chilled its because they are sweet. I thought this wine was good but not great, as it had a nice balance of fruit yet had a definite tannic finish. It also smelled very much like alcohol.

I was intrigued by the fact that it was chilled, yet I didn't feel like this aspect added anything to the wine. Maybe chilled reds are just still new to me, or I just don't like them, but I feel like this wine would be better at room temperature. I will have to see what I think after trying the other wine we have, which was a little more expensive and supposedly goes great with food.

Messina Hof Pinot Grigio

In celebration of a great few days, I decided to open a wine that I've been wanting to try for a few months now. Its like a million degrees outside, so we were looking for a light fruity summer wine and I knew just the one! I decided on a Messina Hof Pinot Grigio, which was one of my favorite wines at the Specs Texas Tasting, and was only about 8 - 9 bucks too!

This wine is light and fruity - the perfect balance of sweet and bitter. It tastes like a grapefruit, with a medium citrusy finish. However, it is just fruity enough to strike a nice balance and make it very delicious. The flavor seems to change as the temperature does, and really opens as the wine warms up. I also sense hints of lemon, and would definitely get this wine again. I don't know that it pairs particularly well with anything, but it is quite delicious on its own!

Specs Wine Tasting

I remember it seemed like May was just full of wine events, with 2 specs tastings, a wine festival, and wine circle meeting. June, however, has been soooo busy with summer school and a lot of other stuff going on, and it was finally time for a Specs wednesday wine tasting! WOW what a tasting! As usual, I didn't recognize any of the wines on the list except 2 from Geyser Peak (which turned out not to be very good).

Overall this month's wines were just amazing! Most of them were at least ok or good, but there were 5 stand out wines this time. One of the ones I ended up buying was the Prelada Cresta Azul which was said to be a "needle wine". Its a very slightly carbonated white wine and when you drink it, it feels like tiny needles are pricking your tongue!

I also ended up getting a very interesting chardonnay. I usually despise chardonnays, as I think they are very bland and bitter and are just too oaky and vanilla flavored. The Printhie chardonnay was GREAT though. It was uncharacteristically fruity, and has some odd flavors. One of the cool things about it is that its 95% chardonnay and 5% viognier, so that might explain why it was so good. Almost equally delicious was the Printhie Shiraz which also had a splash of viognier in it - a very yummy combination!

One of the best wines of the night was the King Estate Pinot Noir - it was $22 and soooo smooth. So many flavors, and it just melted on your tongue! I couldn't decide about getting this one because of the price, but kind of wish I had now. There was also a sparkling pink wine called Villa Rogole Fiorosa Brachetto which was sweet, bubbly, and refreshing. It was so good I was going to get this one until I found out it was only 7% alcohol! Thats like not even a wine! Anyway, I will still keep it in mind if I'm ever in the mood for something super light and refreshing. Finally, there was an amazing white blend of 3 grapes I had never heard of. Le Lune & Le Prune Orvieto Classico was also a maybe to buy, but with so many delicious wines I couldn't get them all!

The cheese selections tonight were kind of meh except for one cheese - the Memoire Gouda with truffles. It was just... I cant even explain. It was super creamy and the truffles gave it this earthy robust undertone that was seriously one of the best cheeses I've tried in a long time. If it wasn't $35/lb and I didn't already have 4 cheeses in my fridge it would be in my possession. As soon as I finish some up, it will be the next cheese I buy. In fact, that truffle gouda paired with the pinor noir would just be heaven in my mouth.

La Vieille Ferme

First of all, today I had an AMAZING day at Schlitterbahn! After getting home really late I was about to go to bed but wanted to have a celebratory small drink and I was excited to try a new wine I had bought recently. It was La Vieille Ferme, which is a dry rose wine. About 6 months ago I had a dry rose in a restaurant and loved it. Up until then, I had really only had pink wine as in white zinfandel, which is super fruity, super sweet, and not too interesting. So to me the dry rose was almost a paradox - a fruity pink wine that is not sweet? It was so delicious that I have been looking for another one to try at home, and hoped that this one would be it.

WRONG! This wine is really bad, and I feel bad for saying that, but I really did not like it. I got it at random and the back of the bottle promised me "intensely fruity" and from "one of the best vineyards in the Rhone Valley". Its actually a mix of cinsault (I dont know what that is), grenache, and syrah (both of which I like). Anyway, it smelled good at least. It smelled fruity - mostly like strawberries and raspberries which is pretty typical. But oh the taste! It tasted like watered down red jello - raspberry, cherry, who knows. It really almost tasted like nothing at all, until the finish. The finish was harsh! With no fruit, spice, or tannins, a harsh finish is the last thing you want. Basically it tasted like alcoholic water with a splash of fruit. Needless to say I was disappointed but don't worry - Im already formulating a way to salvage this into a sangria!

UPDATE: I tried this wine again the next day and it was a bit better. It was a little fruitier and the finish was not as harsh, but I still did not like it!