Wine Tasting - Chateau Morrisette: Sweet Mountain Laurel

 

Name: Chateau Morrisette: Sweet Mountain Laurel

Variety: Niagara (Concord)

Region: Floyd County, Virginia

Country:  USA

Vintage: 2020

Price: 12$

Winery Review: “A unique and refreshingly sweet dessert style wine made from native American grape varieties. Firm acidity balances the sweetness, producing a crisp finish with aromas of freshly picked grapes. Pour over fresh berries and sponge cake or blend with vanilla ice cream and fruit for a creamy dessert smoothie” – Virginia Wine

 

Wine Folly: Concord – “An American grape of the vitis Labrusca species from Concord, Massachusetts; it is the most planted grape in New York, but used more for juice and flavoring than winemaking.” Primary Flavors include grape, plum sauce, musk, potting soil, and cumin.

              I could definitely taste the grape and honestly potentially the “musk”.

 

My Review: Luckily, this wine tastes better than it smell, because my initial reaction after smelling this wine was not promising. To be honest it smelled strongly of gasoline, or a musty gas station bathroom filling with old cigarettes. There where hints of grapes in there as well, but the they were primary drown out. The taste was better than the smell, but my expectations were already set so low that I don’t think I enjoyed this wine. The main flavors were of stale grape juice. It had a very boring and mild one note taste, and reminded me of something that probably would have been better within carbonation.

Tasted on its own, without food. 

Wine Tasting - Washington Hills: 2020 Dry Riesling

 

Name: Washington Hills: 2020 Dry Riesling

Variety: Riesling

Region: Washington

Country: USA

Vintage: 2020

Price: 8$

 

Winery Review: “There's no mistaking the variety, with its notes of lime, lemon, herb and green flower. It drinks just a slightest hair off-dry, with a fuller feel, with plentiful acidity tying it all together. It's hard to ask for more” – Sean S. – Wine Enthusiast Magazine - 90

 

Wine Folly: “An aromatic white variety that can produce white wines ranging in style from bone-dry to very sweet. Germany is the world’s most important producer of Riesling”. Flavors include lime, green apple, beeswax, jasmine, and petroleum.

              I could definitely get a strong green apple taste from this wine.

 

My Review: Initially, the smell was strongly dominated by granny smith apples; however, it did have a hint of just regular grape juice. Overall, the taste of this wine was great. I found it to go down really smoothly, and leave you puckering a bit at the end with a bit of a sour taste (which I actually really enjoyed). The overall flavor was mainly green apple, with hints of apricot and almost a mowed lawn grass kind of taste.

Tasted on its own, without food. 

Wine Tasting – No. 3 The Charmer Shiraz

 

Name: No. 3 The Charmer Shiraz

Variety: Shiraz

Region: Southeastern Australia

Country:  Australia

Vintage: 2020

Price: 8$

Winery Review: For the price, this wine does not disappoint. It has all the components that I would expect from an Australian Shiraz. The fruit is dark-plum, blackberries and blueberries with a splash of red cherry and raspberry. It is also spicy-hints of green pepper, black pepper, cinnamon and black licorice. The tannins are not overpowering and they balance out the alcohol (13.5% abv). This wine is fruity without being sweet and the fruit is nicely balanced with the spicy components – S.H. (8/28/2021)

 

Wine Folly:

Shirah (Shiraz in Australia) - A rich, powerful, and sometimes meaty red wine that originated in the Rhône Valley of France. Syrah is the most planted grape of Australia, where they call it Shiraz. Primary flavors are blueberry, black plum, milk chocolate, tobacco, and green peppercorn.

I could taste the peppercorn on my tongue (it was almost spicy), but I tasted blackberry instead of blueberry or black plum.

 

My Review: A rich and fruity smell with hints of blackberry. I can’t deny it definitely had a bit of spice to it, and I felt a bit of burn on my tongue. I found the flavor to be rich and bold. I could definitely taste blackberry. Mildly sour and dry, but not particularly sweet.

 

Tasted without food but with friends.

 

 

 

The First Wine Tasting - Apothic Cab Cabernet Sauvignon

Name: Apothic Cab Cabernet Sauvignon

Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon

Region: California

Country:  USA

Vintage: 2019

Price: 8$

 

Winery Review: This soft, rich and somewhat sweet wine tastes like an after-dinner coffee drink. Not bad at all, but not what one expects from Cabernet Sauvignon – Jim Gordon (5/1/2021) – 84 – Wine Enthusiast

 

Wine Folly: Cabernet Sauvignon - The world’s most popular red wine grape is a natural cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux, France. Cabernet Sauvignon is loved for its high concentration and age worthiness. Primary flavors are black cherry, black currant, cedar, baking spices, and graphite.

The only flavor I could taste was black cherry, but it tasted more like a cough medicine type of black cherry flavoring.

 

My Review: A mild and fruity smell with slight hints of cherry. This wine was smooth and went down very easily, and almost felt light and airy in the mouth. Had a tame fruity and cherry flavor, and the after taste reminded me somewhat of a cherry cough syrup. Unlike the review on the bottle, I didn’t get any vanilla flavor.

 

Tastes on its own with no food, but with friends.

 

Let’s get things straight, I’m not much of a wine drinker. To be honest, I’m not much of an alcohol drinker in general, and when I do drink, wine is not my first option. My name is Aidan McCarthy, and I am currently a senior at Virginia Tech Majoring in wildlife conservation. So, I don’t drink a lot of wine and my major has absolutely nothing to do with wine, so why have I decided to take a class and blog about wine in the first place? I’m not completely sure myself, but something about learning about the process of tasting wine and how it varies from region to region really intrigues me. Regarding my major, wildlife conservation, one of my favorite activities is to see how the same species varies from region to region either my looks or by behavior. Tasting and comparing different types of wines reminds me of this, and I think that this exploration of wines differences across regions is what drew me into this course in the first places.

              Believe it or not, wine was my first experience with alcohol, and it happened during a massive thunderstorm in Costa Rica of all places. While on a trip with my grandparents to Costa Rica, we decided to stop at a random Italian restaurant at the end of all alleyway during a massive storm. We had been visiting Costa Rica during the “down-season” where there is minimum tourism in the country, so the own was very excited for us to be visiting and offered us all a free glass of wine with our dinner. Did I enjoy the wine, to be completely honest not really, but that experience has stayed with me years after. Since then, I have tried wine now and again, but I have literally no idea what kind of wine I’ve tasted nor what my tastes in wine currently are. That is one thing that I hope to learn in this class. I want to be able to go into a restaurant and know both what kind of wine is which but also which types of wine I actually enjoy. Have I found a type of wine that I really enjoy so far? Nope. But I hope this class will help change that this semester.

              What I look forward to this semester is taking a night to sit down with my friends who are in this class and experience new types of wine together. Most of my roommates are currently in this course and none of us have any experience with drinking wine. I look forward to learning about wine together and I’m sure this class will result in some great memories.  Almost all of my experiences with drinking wine in the past have been with family at events, so I associate drinking wine with family and friends. I believe this class may expand upon this; however, by the end I may have learned something about what I’m drinking.

              To semester of wining and dining. Cheers!

-          Aidan