A Girls Night in France

My favorite kind of tasting are the ones I do in homes. This 'girls night' tasting was no different. A group of 7 women that just wanted to chill out and taste some wines of France. Since most people have tasted official French Champagne, I started this tasting out with a Blanquette de Limoux. A very light crisp sparkling wine from the South of France, made using the traditional method from the mauzac grape. A bit different in taste from Champagne, a lot of people noted a hint of salty-ness in the sparkler. I suggested they try a little bit of camembert cheese then try the wine again. Got a couple of fans, but I think this was a moscato d'asti crowd so anything else would be a hard sell. The only other white I served was a Vouvray, with its hints of peach and honey...the crowd was pleased. We took a cheese break (fleur verte, camembert, epoisses) and then started the reds.

A 2006 Bordeaux from Rothschild was rich with plum, blackberry, and black cherry fruit. Heavy tannins made this one a delight for the red wine lover. For those that like a bit lighter of a wine, I made note of Bordeaux regions that make a great white and also discussed Sauternes (wine made from botrysized Semillon).

One of my favorite grapes is grenache, and where better to get that in France than in the Rhone Valley. But instead of the ever popular, and oft expensive Chateauneuf du Pape, we tasted a Gigondas. I had a map of the area along with a profile of Rhone Valley wine aromas and tastes. Out of the entire group, half of the people loved the ripe red fruit and smooth flavors, the other half thought it was way too dry. This thing was split down the middle. Next up was a Banyuls, a vin doux naturale made from the grenache grape but fortified for a sweeter flavor. That same group that didn't care for the Gigondas, filled their glasses with the Banyuls. Then I served pieces of chocolate and the hostess had brownies....the official tasting went on hold for about 20 mins while everyone raved about the Banyuls. They were writing down every word on the label, taking pictures, I loved it. But before everyone got too crazy and stopped listening entirely, I served a La Coume du Roy from Maury - made from grenache and from the south of France.

What I found funny was that the people that loved the Gigondas couldn't take the sweetness of the Maury, did a little better with the chocolate and Banyuls...and those that loved the Banyuls and Maury didn't care for the Gigondas. After explaining how the same grape can taste completely different...I had a new batch of wine lovers! That was my favorite part of the tasting. And that there was more Gigondas & Bordeaux left for me ;-)

Drink Outside the Box - Tasting Club Edition, Pt 2

At the first meeting of the GrapeVine Tasting Club, one guest mentioned that she didn't know there was a zinfandel grape and that it was red. This got me to thinking about how many different wines we really try. With more than 1000 different wine grape varieties, most of us only drink or even know about 12-20 of them. We are really missing out! So I came up with the idea to have a meeting where we taste grapes that are a little outside the box.

We started with Mont Marcal Brut Reserve Cava that was served as the guests arrived. Cava is essentially sparkling wine from Spain made using the traditional champagne method. Only sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France can be called champagne. Estate bottled and made from the native xarel-lo, macabeo, and parellada grapes this is a soft, sweet wine with dried apricot and apple on the nose. Flavors of yeast and grapefruit appear on the palate to offer a solid complexity from start to finish.

Nieto Senetiner Torrontes, one of my favorite whites, was next. With flavors similar to sauvignon blanc, torrontes is perfect for the summer to serve with lighter fare and white fish. But I do enjoy its fragrant floral aroma and the tastes of apple, peach and lime anytime. The torrontes went perfect with the goat cheese and fruit we served.

Keeping with aromatic whites, 2005 Domaine du Viking Vouvray was our final white. Vouvray is made from the chenin blanc grape in the Loire Valley of France. An extremely aromatic white with a classic slate minerality on the finish.


On to the reds. 2006 Windmill Old Vine Zinfandel had sweet aromas of black cherries and a hint of licorice. Interesting though that the flavors were of chocolate and coffee, much different from the fruitiness in the aroma.

2006 Nicolis Seccal "Ripasso" Valpolicella is an Italian blend of the corvina, rondinella, and molinara grapes. Valpolicella Ripasso is made by re-fermenting the above juice with the skins of the grapes used for Amarone wines. The process lends to a bright ruby red color and a rich fruit and spice scents.

A sweet ending, 2008 Fracchia Voulet de Casorso. One guest mentioned that this is her favorite red of all time and she drives about 40 mins one way to the wine shop that carries this brand. She was so excited when I told her that I got all the wines in DC! Made frizzante, which is fizzy in Italian but not a sparkling wine, the voulet was very sweet. It tasted almost like liquid raspberry jam in my mouth. A great wine to serve last and went perfect with the chocolate brownies.


Unfortunately I didn't cross-reference the football schedule with the tasting club schedule and committed a serious faux pas. Drink Outside the Box was scheduled for the same date and basically same time as the Redskins vs Cowboys game. My bad! No worries though, my faithful and adventurous wine lovers showed up...and there was more wine for everyone :-)

Cheryl & Her Girls

It's so much fun to host wine tastings, and even more fun when you host one for friends. I hosted a wine tasting for one of my girlfriends, with the help of another wine professional in her circle of friends. We came up with the idea of doing a blind tasting in order for everyone to be more open-minded about what wines they were drinking. When the guests arrived we poured Marquis de Monistrol Cava (a pleasant and affordable alternative to Champagne) for casually sipping as we mingled and got to know the other guests.

For the blind tasting, we had 3 whites and 3 reds wrapped up like Christmas presents with red and gold tissue paper and bows around the necks. Figure that is a little nicer than a wino paper bag, LOL! Everyone was provided with a note sheet and an aroma/flavor sheet, so once we started tasting the wine, they would have a frame of reference for aromas and somewhere to write down their notes and guesses of the wines. Out of the 6 wines, one person got 2 correct and another got 1 correct. They both received prizes as a token of our appreciation for their participation. Funny thing was that several of the girls mentioned that Chenin Blanc was their favorite wine, but they couldn't pick that one out of the lineup! Can't fault them though, it was a South African Chenin Blanc (Kanu) which has different flavors then the French Vouvray I'm sure they're used to. And the white wine drinkers were very impressed with the California Zinfandel (Gnarled Vines). I always love blind tastings because people will taste the wine and assess it based on the flavors of the wine, not what they may or may not already know or think they know about it.

After we revealed the wines to everyone, the other half of our wine team spoke about wine & cheese pairings. She was great! She had a chart to match the wines and cheeses and also gave us some great tips on selecting cheese to pair with wine. But she had me anyway when she brought my fav, epoisses, for the cheese plate. We also got full glasses of wine and tasted them with the cheeses that were available to note the differences in the flavors when paired with different wines. Trial and error is always so much easier when at a wine tasting rather than at home when you've invested in several bottles and several cheeses that aren't good matches.

At the end, we took questions and invited everyone to enjoy full glasses of the wines they loved. Everyone seemed to truly enjoy the event and most even said they learned something new. I guess we did our job!