Tasting - Lost Vineyards: Spumante Dolce

Name: Lost Vineyards

Variety: Spumante Dolce
Region:

Country: Italy

Year: No Date given

Price: $4.95 - TOTALLY WORTH IT

Wine Makers Notes: Pale silvery straw color. Floral aromas of apples, peaches, and potpourri follow through on a round, frothy entry to a fruity medium bodied sweet wine with good depth and tangy peach fruit and a breezy, harmonious green apple kissed finish.

Smells Like: fruity - peach and apple. the scent was hard to detect but once it was it was delightful.

Tastes Like: fruity - peach. crisp, sweet, bubbly, light, and full bodied. The ending flavor was a punch of green apple. 

** Once again a sparkling wine and I am completely in love with it! 

Tasting - Charles Thomas: Cotes-du-Rhone

Name: Charles Thomas 

Variety: Cotes-du-Rhone
Region: Rhone

Country: France

Year: No Date

Price: $8.95

Wine Makers Notes: Wine Advocate - 87 pts. From a 140+- acre estate near the well-known Cotes du Rhone village of Pont Saint Esprit emerges this juicy Cotes du Rhone, a blend of 50% Syrah, 40% Grenache and 1-% Mourvedre. Well-made, with loads of berry fruit and a heady, meaty, peppery nose with a hint of Provencal herbs, the wine is fresh, lively, and best drunk over the next 2 years.

Smells Like: berries: strawberry was the fruit I most detected. The smell of this wine was much lighter that the Coreto TInto.

Tastes Like: peppery with some small amount of fruit. This wine was still tart but not nearly as strong or bold as the Coreto Tinto. There weren't many tastes to detect in this wine. It would probably be better had with some food.

Tasting - Coreto: Tinto

Name: Coreto 

Variety: Tinto
Region: Lisboa

Country: Portufal

Year: 2008

Price: $6.95

Wine Makers Notes: This red from the Coreto range has loads of dark berry fruit with a hint of new oak creating a soft velvet structure that makes it very easy to drink. Red currant and juicy acidity.

Smells Like: black cherries sitting in a forest. This was the only scent I could detect.

Tastes Like: TART - made me pucker a little bit. The only flavors I could taste were a dark red fruit - not sure what kind, and a strong woody flavor. This wine did have a very long after taste that dried my mouth out quite a bit.

Tasting - Morro Bay White Oak Estates: Chardonnay

Name: Morro Bay White Oak Estates  

Variety: Chardonnay
Region: Lodi, California

Country: USA

Year: 2009

Price: $5.95

Wine Makers Notes: Vanilla cream soda nose with a slice of fresh cut pineapple. Full body, tropical fruit, spice and pleasing vanilla oak note linger in the finish. Sweet flavor on the palate is from sur-lie aging the wine on the primary yeast lees for 7 months. A versatile style of wine that can be served chilled with fine cuisine or a glass with friends. Certified Green by Lodi Rules Sustainable Winegrowers.

Smells Like: woody - oak, strange fruity smell - probably a tropical fruit. The strangeness could be the fruit mixing with the woody scent.

Tastes Like: earthy and nutty. There was a nice smooth sweet-ish finish.

Tasting - Cantina VIllafranca: Frascati

This tasting was a new experience for me. Went to the Vintage Cellar after class to taste some wines! It if very difficult for a novice taster like myself to fully put the smells and tastes to words. So here is my best attempt.

Name: Cantina Villafranca 

Variety: Frascati
Region: Frascati

Country: Italy

Year: no year

Price: $7.95

Wine Makers Notes: Produced from a selection of the best grapes located in the Frascati Doc production area. Made from 45% Malvasia di Candia, 15% Trebbiano Toscano, 25% Malvasia del Lazio, 15% Grechetto (Greco). Intense yellow color with greenish reflections. Characteristic persistent fresh fruity aromas. Excellent as an aperitif and paired with fish, seafood or white meat.

Smells Like: apples, melons - honeydew, floral, and a hint of rubber.

Tastes Like: tart, not at all like the smell. there was no fruit flavor in this wine at all. there was a mind to long dry after taste, but the mid pallet seemed smooth. 

Tasting - Mionetto: Sparkling Moscoto

Name: Mionetto

Variety: Moscoto
Region: Veneto

Country: Italy

Year: no year found. but noted to drink no later than 3 months after purchase

Price: $10.99

Wine Makers Notes: This gentle-sparkling wine is fresh and crisp with a floral bouquet and fruit finish. The gentle efferves- cence of this distinctive white wine makes it a favorite at celebrations and social gatherings. Perfect for summer patio parties!

My First Impression: Super cool looking bottle. Kinda nervous to open a sparkling wine that has a pop top lid. Luckily we didn't spill any!!

Smells Like: Super fruity. This wine was very fruity and no smell of alcohol (it was only 7%, probably why I enjoyed it). There was a smell of crisp apples and some peach.

Tastes Like: fizzy, fruity, smooth, sweet, short aftertaste, sweet pear and melon. This wine had almost a nectar taste. There was also a distinct crisp sweet apple flavor. I loved the taste of the first moscoto I had and this one is even better, because i love the bubbles!!!

This is definitely my favorite wine that I have had since this class started. But I think I am biased because I love fizzy drinks!

Tasting - Toad Hollow: Unoaked Chardonnay

Name: Toad Hollow "Francine's Selection"

Variety: Unoaked Chardonnay

Region: Mendocino County, Healdsburg

Country: California, USA

Year: 2010

Price: $13.99

Toad Hollow's Review:

Tasting Notes: Fruity, crisp, clean, steely, peaches, grapefruit,citrus.

Vineyards: Mendocino County, Stainless Steel Fermented

Winemaking: Chardonnay, 100% Malolactic Fermentation

My First Impression: There is a toad on the front of this bottle, wearing a yellow vest, holding a wine glass and he has his pinky out... this better be good. (do you see an animal trend yet?)

Smells Like: melon, citrus-y, and maybe a little apple. The smell of this wine smelled a little bit like alcohol but once you get through that smell you can start to detect the melon and then the citrus stands out a lot. 

Tastes Like: Not very sweet at all. There is a little hint of pear, but its tart and citrus-y. There may be a hint of honey dew hiding under the citrus flavor. There is a medium length after taste that holds a lot of heat.

Tasting - Flying Fish: Merlot

Name: Flying Fish
Variety: Merlot
Region: 100% Columbia Valley
Country: Washington, USA
Year: 2009
Price: $11.99

Flying Fish's Review: 
   Pure expression of ripe red and black cherry
fruit, distinct chocolate and caramel notes with a
hint of pomegranate. A rich, balanced style with
a smooth tannic structure.
   This versatile wine can be paired with everything
from a cured meat and cheese picnic, to grilled
sausage or beef tenderloin. Pairs equally well
with roast pork or medium-spiced Asian dishes.

My First Impression: Never had a Merlot before and the smell from the bottle is pretty nice.

Smells like: vanilla, black cherries. After continuing to smell this wine for a while it has a sweet and spicy vibe. After letting this wine sit for a little while and open up there seems to be a very strong spice smell that is similar to liquorice.

Tastes Like: Definitely not as strong as the Woop Woop. The spices are bold and a little hot for my liking. This wine is blended well and rather smooth. There is a short mid-pallet and a pretty short after taste. The only lasting affect is the heat.

Tasting - Woop Woop: Shiraz

Name: Woop Woop
Variety: Shiraz
Regions: Wrattonbully, Langhorne,
Country: Australia
Year: 2010
Price: $13.99

Winemaker, Ben Riggs's Review: A full-bodied and flavoursome wine, deep-hued with richly scented aromatics and a long, soft and juicy palate. Of lush mouthfeel, bursting with blackberry, blueberry jam and liquorice, this wine guarantees a true Australian Shiraz experience for consumption over the next 5 years.

My First Impression: Thats a really pretty sunset/rise and I wanna be there. Not to mention the name just screams: FUN!

Smells like: blackberry, woody, and a hint of black cherry. This wine was hard for me to pick out some scents. I could smell the berry initially but it wasn't a very sweet berry. Then the woody smell came through. I wasn't sure if it was a woody smell or more of a dirt smell or a combination of the two.

Tastes like: WHOA! That was potent! My first taste was hot, tart and dry. It definitely made my face pucker. Once I got past the potent level of alcohol flavor, it was difficult to detect tastes. I let it sit for a little while and went back to it to try to get a flavor and I could taste some blackberry. I feel like this wine would taste better with some food.

Tasting - Petals: Gewurztraminer

Name: Petals
Variety: Gewurztraminer
Region:Pfalz
Country: Germany
Year: 2009
Price: $7.99

Petals Review:

Off-Dry, Citrus, Spice, Light-bodied

Pfalz, Germany- If you could put spring in a bottle, what would it taste like? Petals! The vibrant floral package reveals a wine bursting with flavors of citrus, litchi fruit and spice along with a hint of sweetness that captures the spirit of spring.

My First Impression: I didn't like the first Gewurztraminer I tried. This one also has a prettier label. Lets see how it goes. My fiances father brought it home so I have to try it.


Smells Like: flowers with some hint of pineapple. This was a very un-expecting scent from a Gewurztraminer (i will be great at spelling this variety by the end of the semester). This wine was not my all time favorite, but it wasn't awful.

Tastes Like: tart pears with a taste of pineapple. At first this wine was very bitter like fruit that is not yet ripe. I am guessing the taste that I didn't enjoy is the rose petal flavor. Once this wine opened up a little bit it was a little more enjoyable with the pears and pineapples coming through a little more.