Tapas and Tastings - Another Great Wine Tasting Evening

Last night, we were invited to our friends' house for an evening of wine tasting and tapas - and it was a great time!

Each couple was responsible for bringing a bottle of wine. We were given the tapas dish in advance and were asked to bring something that would go with the food.

When we arrived, we secretly put our bottle in a paper bag and labelled the bag with the number that corresponded to the tapas course.

For each wine, there was a score sheet ( à la WSET 2) and a page that gave descriptors for the different characteristics of wine. Our host, Keith, popped open the wine, shared it around, and then we spied, sniffed, swirled, sipped and slurped the wine. After a few minutes, our other host, Lynn, brought on the tapas that went with the wine which we proceeded to nibble on while sipping the wine yet again.

Finally, after all of this drinking and eating, we would make our guesses and then Keith would reveal the bottle.

I absolutely loved it!

There were five wines and five tapas. Here's what we had.

The first wine received an interesting reaction from the table. One of the guests said, right off, that she didn't like it. Another said that he couldn't smell anything. I was able to smell citrus fruits like grapefruit as well as some green apple. This continued on the palate where I also tasted what I thought was a little yeast and high acidity. It was also quite mineral-y - and had almost a stone taste to it.

It was paired with Deviled Eggs with Shrimp. The pairing was great - it really meshed very well with the wine. Both the egg and shrimp came alive with the minerality of the wine.

I decided that because it was a great food pairing that this was an Old World wine. The minerality and lack of real fruitiness on the nose led me to Chardonnay. I guessed that is was either a Chablis or a Burgundy Chardonnay.

 

It was, in fact, a French Premier Cru Chardonnay from Burgundy - a 2014 Mont-Palais Rully Premier Cru ($50 - not sure where to buy in BC). I haven't drunk a lot of Premier Cru wines so far so it is a special honour to be able to drink one. On its own, it was a good wine, but with the food, it was amazing!

Next was a red wine. I recused myself from this one because my friend had phoned me a few days before and asked for a recommendation - so I knew what it was! Even so, I think that I would have been able to get this one. It had a lighter ruby colour with just a hint of garnet around the edge. The taste was definitely black fruits and there was medium structure and acidity. This was unmistakable as a Pinot Noir.

The tapa for this wine was a mushroom crostini with roasted red pepper and gruyere cheese. The wine paired very nicely with the food.

I had given my friend two possibilities - an Old World Pinot from France and a New World from the Okanagan. Since the wine tasted so darned good on its own, I, naturally, assumed it was the New World Pinot.

Wrong! It was a French Jean-Claude Boisset Les Ursulines 2016 Burgundy (Bourgogne) Pinot Noir ($26). I found it to be a very nice Pinot and would pair with a very nice range of dishes - the perfect wine when everyone orders something different!

The third wine was tricky. It was a fairly pale lemon white wine with a somewhat fruity nose and smelled of apple, honey, and stone fruit. The tapa that we had with it was an amazing Mu She chicken wrapped in lettuce. The fruitiness of the  wine paired well with the spices in the chicken.

My wife and I have had a couple of bottles of Gewürztraminer lately and I didn't think the nose was floral enough. That still left others like Pinot Gris or Viognier - so that's what I guessed - Pinot Gris.

Nope! It was a 2016 Gray Monk Gewürztraminer ($16) from the Okanagan. I was fooled by the less floral nose! Fooled or not, it was a good wine to have with the food.

Fourth was the wine that we had brought. It was well received as it was a bit bold, had some nice red and black fruit, had soft tannins and medium acid, and paired well with the tapa which was potato skins with chorizo and queso (cheese). The food was unbelievably delicious (well, it all was, actually) and I was tempted to find a yogurt container so I could steal all the left overs. The wine really stood up well to the chorizo but didn't overpower the subtler flavours in the skins or the cheese. A great pairing!

One of my friends got it (or came close enough, in my mind). He guessed Tempranillo - and it was, in fact,  a  2013 Beronia Rioja Reserva (aged at least 3 years) from Spain. For $26 I think this was an excellent wine and will definitely buy it again. Kudos to 'my guy' at the Pitt Meadows Specialty BC Liquor Store who helped me with this selection. This wine actually has Tempranillo and two Spanish grapes that I don't know a lot about, Mazuelo and Graciano.

Finally, we had a fortified wine to finish off. It was definitely a Port but it's pretty hard for me to tell the difference between Ports - other than they taste wonderful! This Port was quite sweet, had notes of nuts, caramel and honey, and was paired with an incredible chocolate mousse. The Port was sweet enough to stand up nicely to the dessert. I decided that it wasn't a vintage Port (as it was poured straight from the bottle - vintage Ports need to be decanted), tasted sweeter than I thought a Tawny Port would taste and tasted smoother than a ruby Port so I thought it was a Late Bottle Vintage (LBV) Port.

Close, but no cigar - it was a Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny Port from Portugal ($40). Still, not a bad guess....

A great end to a fantastic tasting evening. Viva tapas!

Old World vs New World wines - again- and some Christmas wine suggestions

This is one of those things that I have realized - or maybe, it's better to say - had an epiphany about. I know I've blogged about it before but it is such an important thing that I have realized that I am going to go on about it once again.

I have slowly grown to notice this, and thanks to taking my WSET course as well as tasting wine thoughtfully - one might even say, mindfully.

What is it? There is a big difference between Old World and New World wines and one way to look at it is this:

In the Old World - and here, I'm talking largely of France and Italy, although this may apply to other European countries - wine has grown up as an accompaniment to food. When you look at a fine French wine - say, a Chablis - the next thing that you do is figure out what you are going to pair it with - say, a whitefish or some shellfish with a cream sauce. These wines are really meant to be imbibed with the food of the area that they are close to. A bottle of Chianti? Try it with some Spaghetti Bolognese. A bottle of Bordeaux? Try a grilled steak or some lamb. Nebbiolo? How about a Piedmont fondue with truffles?

These are wines that cry out for a food pairing.

Just last month I had a Bordeaux from Paulliac that tasted ok at first sip but needed something. It turned out that it needed a big, juicy sirloin steak to make it sing.

New world wines, on the other hand, are, for the most part, just fine to drink on their own. It's easy to just sip away before dinner until the darn thing is gone and dinner isn't even on the table! This happens far too often at our house and with friends. On occasion, I bring a bottle of wine to a party, after asking what is being served, because it will go well with the food. Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10, it will be gone or mostly gone by the time the first course hits the table.

Now, just because many New World wines are good on their own, it doesn't mean that they aren't good with food. Many of them make fantastic pairings. On occasion, though, the wines just don't sing like one from the Old World.

Here are some wine suggestions as Christmas approaches (but good anytime):

First is one that I've had before - but probably a couple of months before I started this blog. It was a (New World) 2014 Terrunyo Block 17 Carmenere from Chile - and I bought it for my (now) son-in-law because it was written up as the best Carmenere in Chile. At the time, I shuddered to pay $38 for a bottle of wine - now I don't shudder so much if I know it is going to be a special wine. When we bought this particular wine I actually purchased three bottles, one to give, one to drink, and one to hold on. Last night, we had the one to hold on.

It was a wonderful wine - even better than the first bottle. It was a super dark rich, purple wine with wonderful black and red fruit flavours and some tannins. It had some nice oak and was a wine that really seemed to stand up with a strong intensity of flavours. We had prepared pork chops baked in the oven over a potato and tomato gratin but, unfortunately, by the time dinner was on the table, guess what?

Next up is a tasty Tuesday night wine. Yes, it is good to drink fancy wines such as the Carmenere but the reality is that most of us can't afford to drink a $40 bottle every night.  This one I chose because somebody gave it 89 points (although there's a large contingent of experts who are not particularly please with the point system - for an excellent view on this issue, check out this article by Jancis Robinson) and it was an Old World Cotes du Rhone. It is a Pere Anselme La Fiole from the Cotes de Rhone - the producer is actually from Chateauneuf de Pape. Although my Vivino app thinks it' is an actual CNP blend, it is actually a $17 bottle that tastes pretty good - specially for a Tuesday night. Nothing too intense or complex and definitely goes better with some food.

The third wine was recommended to me by a pretty reliable source at one of my favourite liquor stores. It was a New World Argentinian Fuego Blanco Cabernet Franc Malbec that I was pretty excited about. I love Cab Franc and was intrigued about the addition of the Malbec. Unfortunately, I found this wine to be rather dull or thin - not awful but not worth the $35 I paid for it. I was defintely disappointed and would not consider purchasing it again - wth or without food. I was surprised that it was rated pretty highly in the  Vivino app (and that someone on the bottle had given it 93 points) but my advice is - stay away from this one.

Finally, a fantastic (Old World) port! For the 325th anniversary of the company, Taylor Fladgate has come out with a tawny port that is a mix of 10, 20, 30 and 40 year old tawny ports. It is incredible! It has complex tastes and is not overly sweet so you can really enjoy sitting back and sipping. It also comes in a commemorative bottle which reflects the design of the original port bottle when the company started (my wife loves the bottle and won't let me throw it out). At $48 a bottle, it's a bit of a splurge but is actually a great price for tawny port. I swear I can taste elements from each decade as I savour this wonder. If you have a port drinker on your Christmas list, I recommend that you check your local liquor store stock and buy what you can. There's a reason why there's four bottles in the photo!