Chianti Classico Cries out for Pasta!

Since things have settled down in my life (i.e., my daughter has had her wedding), it's time to get back to looking at wine!

Today, I discovered a store that has been on my radar for the last little while - Everything Wine.

In the past, when I've seen their ads, it has seemed that most of the product is pretty inexpensive and, I assumed, a lot of cheap-o jug wine. Granted, there were a few wines that were a little more expensive but I had, in my mind, decided that this was a No Frills version of a liquor store.

Then I cam across an ad yesterday in the newspaper where Everything Wine advertised their latest Bordeaux wines. I was intrigued.

After my wife and I stopped off at Bosa Foods for some pasta and a new, fancy decanter, we made our way to Everything Wine in North Vancouver. I entered the door and was very impressed! They have a large assortment of wines ranging from the cheap jug wines all the way to fancy vintage wines.  I did manage to pick up a couple of bottles of Bordeaux wines but will blog about those later.

Previously, while at Bosa, we bought some fresh pasta and needed something to go with it. I found, in the rather large Italian section of Everything Wine, a Cafaggio 2013 Single Estate Chianti Classico for a mere $26. Single estate means that the wine was made with grapes from only the winery and  bottled on the estate. Chianti wines, by the way, are made in the Chianti region with Sangiovese grapes. Chianti Classico wines are from a smaller region within Chianti where the wines are usually better quality then regular Chianti wines.

Back at home, I poured the wine into the decanter. We had bought the decanter at Bosa and it was a Trudeau Ova Carafe - very nice design and a good price - $29. After about 5 minutes, I decided that we needed to at least have a taste so I poured a couple of small glasses.

The colour was ruby and clear. There was red fruit on the nose including cherry and raspberry. When I tasted it, there were some tannins as well as black currant, cassis and definitely some cherries. Unfortunately, it tasted a bit thin - almost a bit watery - which was initially a disappointment.

Then, I remembered - in places like France and Italy, you are meant to drink the wine with food. Maybe some food would help this wine? I had a couple of olives (our fancy appetizer) and took a sip. What a difference! The wine complimented the olives perfectly.

After another half hour, we tried the pasta (mushroom ravioli with a tomato, basil and pancetta sauce) and, again, the wine was a glorious pairing with the food! The thinness or wateriness was now a refreshing accompaniment to the pasta and the light tannins paired well with the tomatoes in the sauce.

The decanter made a difference, too. It tasted even better after a half hour!

After trying the pasta with food, I would rate it like this:
Balance - it was actually beautifully balanced when served with food
Length - it was a tasty wine but the taste did not linger very long
Intensity - not that intense
Complexity - there were some great flavours and, the way it meshed with the food, was definitely complex.
Expressive - I think this is how Chianti Classico is meant to be drunk - with a tasty bowl of pasta!

Overall, a good to very good wine - Cin Cin!

Oh, oh, oh! Sweet Wine O' Mine!

Last weekend, on Sunday, the whole family was home for dinner - and that doesn't happen all too often with one kid in Vancouver and one in Kelowna. It was a great excuse to pick up some nice rib eye steaks, lots of mushrooms, a few cobs of fresh corn while the season is waning, and some wine to make the meal just a little bit special.

After pouring over the collection of wine that I had in the 'ready to drink now' rack, I decided to try the Barolo I had purchased at Costco in the US a month ago.

Barolo is an Italian wine with a bit of a reputation. It is a grape that I have heard referred to as the Cabernet Sauvignon of Italy - rich, structured and up to a thick, rare steak. It is also famous for tasting of 'tar and roses' (not Guns and Roses) and I was intrigued by the idea of trying this wine. I had only tried a Nebbiolo grape once, and that was during my first class of my WSET course.

The wine I had bought was a 2011 Fontana Fredda Serralunga D'Alba Barolo which cost around $30 US at Costco but is listed in Vivino at $50. I did find a 2012 on the BC Liquor web site for $45. The wine is from Alba in the Piedmont area of Italy and is made from Nebbiolo grapes.

I didn't know what to expect - although, maybe I did. I think I expected this wine to be a lot like a Cabernet Sauvignon. But it was not!

My first hint that this was not what I had thought was right away when I decanted the wine. The colour was not dark and deep but, instead, was more ruby and light - very much like a Pinot Noir or a Grenache. This continued to be noticeable after I had poured the wine into glasses and examined the colour in the wine glass.

On the nose, there was cherry, black currant, and, yes, roses! It was quite odd to smell roses in a wine! The aroma had a medium intensity.

Finally, on the palate, I tasted the same red and black fruits with the addition of raspberries and black plums  as well as some leather. And then, there it was, tar! That tar combined with the darker fruit gave this wine quite a bit of a punch - something that I didn't taste at first but by the third sip, I was impressed with the impact of the wine.

The Barolo looks like it's kind of thin and has a rose scent to it so I really was fooled into thinking that it was going to be a disappointment. After tasting it, I started to  adjust my opinion. When I had a chuck of steak with the Barolo, I realized that this was a great pairing. The tannins weren't all that strong but the flavours in the wine really complemented the flavours in the steak.

Overall, I would say that it was balanced, had a medium finish, was OK in intensity, had a complex taste and was expressive for a Barolo - as I said, the Nebbiolo grape, which Barolo is made from, is famous for its 'tar and roses' taste and I clearly tasted it. This wine would be rated as Very Good.

Finally, would I buy it again?

I would definitely drink it again, especially if given a bottle, but dropping $50 at the liquor store would be a little more difficult. Maybe next time I'm in Costco in the US, I'll pick one up - or maybe I need to travel to Piedmont area in Northwest Italy and go to Alba and then buy some!

Pass the Appassimento - Pentage Makes Me Lucky!

Sometimes, I'm just lucky.

Earlier this summer, I bought John Schreiner's excellent book, Okanagan Wine Tour Guide (here's a link to his blog). Each page features a different winery in the Okanagan and gives a bit of the low down of the winery, what kinds of wine they produce, and his picks for wines to buy. It's the 5th edition published in 2014 so it's a little out of date (it was in the bargain section of my favourite Kelowna book store) but it gives a lot of great information on the different wineries. I throw it in the car whenever we go up to the Okanagan and refer to it when we talk about visiting different wineries.

One of the wineries that I have visited in the past is the Pentage Winery in Penticton.  A relative of mine helps out with the books at that winery so, when we visit her, we sometimes are fortunate enough to  try one of Pentage's tasty wines. While I was visiting with said relative, I read in John's book that Pentage made a 2011 Cabernet Franc Appassimento wine.

Don't worry, I'm still getting to why I'm lucky.

The appassimento style wine that most people have heard of is Amarome wine from the Veneto region (around Venice) of Italy. Basically, they pick the (mostly Corvina) grapes and leave them on straw mats to dry - usually around 120 days - and then they shrivel up (which is what appassimento translates to). Then the raisin-y grapes are pressed and left to ferment for up to 50 days. It's a bit tricky but if successful, there should be a wonderful wine that is a little sweet and has about 15% or more of alcohol with low acid that has had some aging in barriques.

After reading about Pentage appassimento style wine, I mentioned to my relative that I was curious if they still made that particular wine. I wondered - next time she was at the winery, maybe she could investigate that for me?

Well, she did - and the owner gave her a bottle of appassimento wine. And here comes the lucky part - she gave it to me!

After a lovely family dinner last night, we had mini cheesecake tarts from Hansel and Gretel bakery - just a short walk from where we live. I thought, what would go better with this then that appassimento I had just acquired?

This wine comes in a half bottle and is a 2013 Pentage Cabernet Reserve Appassimento ($35). The back of the bottle had some information but the best was on their website. This is what they had to say about the wine:

The purpose of partially drying the grapes is to concentrate sugars, and thus increase the alcohol and/or residual sugar – as well as to develop more complex aromas and flavors.
Ripe plum, raisin and vanilla dominate this intense nose with subtle herbal notes linger in the background.  The palate is rich and viscous, flavors of sweet dried plum and raisins mingle on the palate with a long fruit finish.  Would pair perfectly with dark chocolate dessert or well aged cheese.

By the way, according to John's book, Pentage dries their grapes for 58 days - at least that's what they did for the 2011 vintage.

It happened to go pretty well with cheesecake, as well!

The colour was a deep ruby and was clear. No little bits in this wine. I definitely smelled the plum and raisin - and a bit of vanilla. There also seemed to be a bit of cherry pie on the nose as well.

On the palate, there was lovely sweetness - not overly so but definitely there. The cherry pie still was evident for me as well as plum jam, raisins, fig and a touch of black currant. There was a richness that was amazing with this wine. There was low acidity, low tannins, and a medium to long finish. I am a big lover of Cabernet Franc wines and this was a great expression of that grape.

Thinking back to my WSET course, the wine was balanced, had a medium plus finish, had intense flavours, was complex and, I believe, was expressive for an appassimento style of wine. Overall, I would rate it as Outstanding - something that doesn't happen all that often!

See how lucky I was?

I haven't had a lot of appassimento styled wines such as Amarone because they are rather pricey. However, after having this tasty wine, I am going to have to investigate drinking appassimento wines a bit more regularly.

Oh, what a lucky man, I am!