Tasting - I went to the wine lab again

 Okay... I went to the wine lab with my girlfriend and didn't take notes at all because we were chatting and playing chess.

gimme some credit for dropping $80 at your gastrobar @boyer

Did the wine & cheese flight. Liked the first pairing a lot - the gouda was awesome, much saltier than expected, which worked well with the sugar in the prosecco.

The 2nd and 3rd wines, reds, were pretty meh after that first set. Same for the cheeses. Maybe I'm just a hater but manchego has no defining characteristics. It was just mid as hell. Not extreme in any way - not super salty, creamy, stinky, stiff, nutty, nothing outstanding at all. The cheddar wasn't bad but certainly not stellar compared to the yummy gouda.

After that had a glass of the Boplaas Muscat again because I love that syrupy caramely quincy brown wine.

Also a charcuterie board because chess was continuing into a third game and I couldn't drink more.

Tasting - Kung Fu Girl Reisling

 Wine: Kung Fu Girl Riesling

$11.20 at food lion

Year: 2021

Location: Washington State

Color: pale yellow, silvery glints

Smell: pineapple, lemon

Taste: juicy, slightly bitter like underripe fruit. Not dry, medium sweet, lemon/lime rind aftertaste, maybe some grapefruit as well.

General notes: This had the most significant difference in taste and smell that I have had while taking detailed tasting notes - expected sweeter, more tropical flavors, and instead got this kind of unpleasantly bitter flavor. Interesting that the two senses could be so different. Probably wouldn't buy again; it was cheap and some interesting stuff going on but there are far better Rieslings out there in my price range.

Wine Folly lists lime, apple, beeswax, jasmine, and petroleum as common notes. Personally only picked up the fruits, and wasn't looking hard enough to pull jasmine or beeswax out of my ass. 

Tasting - Liberty Creek Chardonnay

 Did a back-to-back tasting of two bottom shelf chardonnays because the wallet is getting thin at this point in the semester. This is Blog 2 of 2 on cheap chardonnay.

Wine: Liberty Creek Chardonnay

Year: not listed

Location: California

Cost: $5.99 (3-glass box)

Color: very pale yellow. almost colorless

Smell: lighter odor than the Sutter Home, much like the color. Green apple was the only specific odor I could pull out

Taste: apricot faintly, overall even lighter flavor than Sutter Home. It's a more polite wine, insofar that it probably knows it doesn't have much to show off, and opts to be light and refreshing instead.

General Notes: If Sutter Home was the Coors Light of Chardonnay, this is certainly the Miller Light - more refreshing, lighter, less boldly sub-par.

Wine folly says the typical primary flavors are apple, star fruit (who the heck knows what star fruit tastes like), pineapple, vanilla, and butter. 

Tasting - Sutter Home Chardonnay

Did a back-to-back tasting of two bottom shelf chardonnays because the wallet is getting thin at this point in the semester. This is Blog 1 of 2 on cheap chardonnay.

Wine: Sutter Home Chardonnay

Year: not listed

Location: California

Cost: $5.99 (3-glass box)

Color: goldenrod, slight brown tint. just the faintest orange too

Smell: smells sweet, cheap, sour, apple-ey. Homeydew melon, gasoline?

Taste: buttery, not as sweet as expected, very gentle sugars honestly. not very distinctive mouthfeel. smoother than water, but not in a slimy viscous way.

General Notes: definitely a cheap wine. could probably pound this all day at a concert but not something I would pull out for a date or serve to my parents. I served this straight out of the fridge, will let it warm up while I type this then taste again.

Wine folly says the typical primary flavors are apple, star fruit (who the heck knows what star fruit tastes like), pineapple, vanilla, and butter. I didn't get any of those middle three, but the buttery texture and apple were present. I taste apple in every white wine though so who knows what's actually going on.

Tasting - I WENT TO THE WINE LAB

 3/22/2023 - Didn't see Professor Boyer at the Lab, but my buddy Hayden was waitering that night so that makes up for it.

Had the port flight ($10 for three 50mL pours). Have never drank (drunk?) port wine before, my only expectation was that it would be sweeter than normal (which it was). Full Tasting notes below:

Boplaas Hanepoot Muscat di Alexandria (Cape Town, SA) 2021, $32/bottle

Color is golden, amber, dehydrated-urinesque. Like apple juice - very brown and crisp looking, but upon moving the glass the thicker viscosity was noticeable. I smelled quince, cloves, honey, and apricot. Tasting produced a very sweet honey and fig flavor. I could feel the alcohol; certainly the 17% abv was noticeable, but not in a harsh way. It was definitely sweeter and more viscous than the other two ports. I tasted this first, and then the Barnard; part of me worries that my unimpressive tasting of Barnard was due to this being so heavy and sweet. I liked this wine, quince is a fruit I grew up eating fresh, in preserves, in cobbler, and in chutney, so it was very nice to be gifted passage back to those memories through this wine.

Barnard Griffin Syrah Port (Columbia Valley, WA) [no vintage given], $28/bottle

Color is red/black/brown for sure - more purpleish along the edges and a dark black at the center. Odor of plums, black pepper, could smell the booze in it. Less sweet, less viscous than the Boplaas. I noticed sediment in the bottom of the glass after tasting this one - unsure what that's about. Not off-putting to me (I had a beer this weekend that I brewed myself - enough yeast sediment in the bottom of the bottle to make several loaves of break). I picked up a mushroome-y flavor on the last sip when it had warmed up more. Not a huge fan, probably wouldn't ever spend the $28 for a bottle of this.

Graham's Six Grapes Port NV (Porto DOC, Portugal) [no vintage given], $32/bottle

Less opaque than the Barnard, but still a dark red with no light transmittance through the Smelled kalamata olives immediately, which was nice! Probably one of the only wines I can say made me feel "spicy", which was kinda fun and I might start chasing that more. Walnutty character, more tannin than the Barnard. Gave off the vibes of an oversweet tart cherry juice like Cheribundi with honey added. This is a distant second to the Boplaas.

Reading up on Port on Wine Folly, I am unsure if the Boplaas is a tawny port or a white port - it had both the caramel flavor of tawny and the apricot flavor associated with whit ports. Over all, I'm not a big fan of sweet drinks (soda is not in my diet most of the time), but I really enjoyed this flight!

The wines are lined up in the order they are written on the menu and on this blog!

Tasting - Spring Break 6-wine tasting

 This isn't the typical format for a wine tasting for Dr. Boyer - just trying to get credit for doing a tasting. And tbh I feel like the current tasting vs chees/wine pair vs wine dinner options are a little rigid for all the ways you can taste wine.

I went to The Georgia Tasting Room in Savannah, GA. Bartender was really chill, talked about his photography side hustle and growing up in Atlanta while he was pouring the tasting.

Tried 6 wines, took brief notes on each and ended up purchasing the Riesling as a birthday present for my sister.

I am realizing now that the photo I took of the menu did not in fact list what winery and what year each wine was from haha. I took some notes on my phone which helped me piece together some of the missing bits.

The wines I tried (in order):

Pinot Grigio (Asheville NC): 

Riesling (Asheville NC): 

Biltmore 2020 Pinot Noir (Asheville NC): more tannic than the Forsyth

Forsyth Pinot Noir (Savannah GA): Lighter color than the Biltmoresulfury on the nose, which has been a persistent problem over spring break with the water. Tap water out on Tybee island was so sulfury that I couldn't drink it. Wonder if that same character tranferred to the wine from the local water? Definitely dry mouthfeel, strawberry and raspberry flavors. 

Chateau Elan 2022 Velvet Reserve (Braselton GA): Very sweet and VERY tannic. Feel like it is rare to get those two extremes in one wine. I picked up on the oak! first time I think I can say that I noticed the oak flavor.

Chateau Elan Sparkling Moscato (Braselton GA):

Notes:

Forsyth sulfury, definitely dry

Other Pinot very much more tannin

Velvet sweet and VERY tannic

Image of the menu, blue circles are the ones I tasted

Chateau Elan Velvet Reserve (left), Chateau Elan Sparkling Moscato (right)

Biltmore Pinot Noir (left), Forsyth Pinot Noir (right)

Tasting - Crafters Union Rose (CAN)

 Wine: Crafters Union Rose

Year: no year visible on the can, assuming 2022 or 2021

Location: California (no more details)

Price: ~$6 at food lion

Color: very light pink/orange color, like the skin of grapefruit flesh

Scent: floral aroma, also a celery leaf sort of smell. Lemongrass, some sulphur notes as well.

Flavor: sweeter than the pinot grigio, almost a little salty. An oceanlike saltiness, not like soy sauce. Reminds me of when you get water in your mouth swimming at the beach (but in a good way). Peaches! Like peach rings.

General: I liked it. Not typically a sweet wine kinda guy but this was very tolerable and enjoyable.

Wine folly talks about a bunch of flavors I don't taste, but can see the melon and rhubarb potentially.

Drank this with a Crafters Union Pinot Grigio and a meal of fish/shrimp tacos (image of food below, CU Rose review in the previous blog post).

Tasting - Crafters Union Pinot Grigio (CAN)

 Wine: Crafters Union Pinot Grigio

Year: no year visible on the can, assuming 2022 or 2021

Location: California (no more details)

Price: ~$6 at food lion

Color: very clear and light colored, almost water

Scent: green apple, lemon

Flavor: chlorophyll, very light bodied (not particularly strong flavors overall)

General: easy to suck down, cheap considering the $/drinks ratio. don't think I would buy again purely for the wine aspect, but the can is very convenient for festivals or tailgates or things like that.

Drank this with a Crafters Union Rose and a meal of fish/shrimp tacos (image of food below, CU Rose review in the next blog post).

Wine folly corroborates my lemon smell and idea of light body. I need to get better at tasting "mineral" flavors; I never pick them up the way the online reviews say they are.

Tasting - Black Box Pinot Noir

 Wine: Black Box Pinot Noir

Year: 2021

Location: California (couldn't find more detail online lol)

Price: $7.50

Color: Obviously dark dark red, maroon/brown around the edges

Scent: floral? kinda a sweet flower flavor

Flavor: Strawberry, peach. More tannic than the previous (Josh pinot noir).

Wine Folly: I got the floral and red fruit character, less of the spices than in the previous pinot.

Tasting - Josh Pinot Noir

 Wine: Josh Pinot Noir

Year: 2020

Location: Santa Barbara, Sonoma, Monterey Counties (california [gross])

Cost: $8.99 (half bottle)

Color: DARK red, nice crimson color when thinner, a little brownish

Smell: Garlic? Black pepper too

Taste: Black Cherry, medium tannins, more black pepper flavors.

Wine folly lists some mushroom/clove/hibiscus flavors I didn't pick up on, but I got the red fruits and spices.

Tasting - Early Mountain Rose

 Another Charlottesville wine...

I smoked a cigar about 3 hours before this tasting so my senses were definitely uncalibrated. (A Connecticut Kreme if that matters).

Wine: Early Mountain Rose

Location: Several growing blocks close to Charlottesville, VA

Year: 2021

Cost: $26.00

Color: pale pink/peach color, almost orange?

Smell: no alcohol odor, smelled kind of strawberryish and peachy

After tasting, could pick up more citrus scents

Taste: Citrus flavors - orange, tangerine? Don't know the last time I ate a tangerine. Strawberry and Raspberry detectable on a second sip.

General Notes: I liked the label! Cool textured topographical style. Rose probably isn't my thing, kinda too sweet. Maybe would be good with vegetables or something crisp/salty to break up that sweetness.

For the first time, I think my tasting actually matched the online flavor profile provided by the winemaker! Their website says "Strawberries, white peaches, and grapefruit..." which is pretty close to my citrus, peach, and strawberry notes. I don't know what this means for my post cigar palate.

Wine Folly has a lot of info about Rose (its listed general flavors are consistent with what we've already covered), but this is a blend, and rose seems to be pretty variable so not the most useful resource for this tasting.

I need to learn to take landscape photos of the wine, these portrait orientation flicks just don't format on this archaic dotcom era website

Tasting - Tilia Merlot 2021

Bought this bad boy to pair with a feijoada recipe I whipped up on Wednesday (2/15). Was busy entertaining guests then so I didn't get a full tasting, redid it on 2/17. For the uncultured, feijoada is a brazilian stew with black beans and several kinds of smoked/salted meat. 

Wine: Tilia Merlot 2021 | Wine.com

Location: Mendoza, Argentina

Year: 2021

Cost: ~$11.00 at Vintage Cellar

Color: So dark & red it is opaque in the glass

Legs: lots of em and flowing quick - low viscosity

Smell: spices? little to no "alcohol" smell. concord grapes (like Welch's), faintly on the top of my sinuses. Whiff of cigarette! Tobacco?

After tasting, could pick up bay leaf scent! Probably some other kind of spice too that I am not smart enough to identify.

Taste: Salty on the tip of the tongue, more of that tobacco character too. Tobacco flavor almost tastes like the inside of Hokie House or Champs in downtown Blacksburg (a mixture of cigarettes, spilled drinks, and BO, but not in a bad way...). I like that a lot. Second sip, picked up more tartness, very little fruit, mineraley. Not very tannic, but some in there. Third sip - continued tasting Welch's grape juice (not a lot, and not in a bad way).

General Notes: Probably important to note that I opened this wine and used about 1/3 of it on 2/15, and this tasting was done on 2/17, so there was ~45 hours of more oxygen contact than would be in a new unopened bottle.

I really really enjoyed this wine, and will probably buy it again. Fun to pick up that cigs-inside smell haha.

Wine Folly says this should taste like cherry, plum, chocolate, bay leaves, and vanilla. I could realistically see the cherry coming from that tartness I tasted, and definitely got the bay leaves. Didn't get the other flavors, but I'm gonna buy this again and see what's up with more tasting.

Tasting - A Taste of Two Rieslings (Hazy Mountain Winery)

"IT was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..." (Charles Dickens)

Went to Charlottesville to connect with some old friends, and ended up with a reservation at Hazy Mountain Winery. Focus was on friends and catching up, but I took some notes on the wine I had so I figured I'd throw it up here for some credit and to keep my thoughts in one place.

No photos of the bottles, but here is one of the wines:

I had a 2018 Dry Riesling (left) and a 2019 Dry Riesling (right). Initially tasted them without any interference, but we had a charcuterie board so I started mixing stuff up partway through.

Location: Shenandoah Valley AVA

Year: 2018 / 2019

Cost: $32 / $34

Color: 2018 darker in color, much more golden character than the 2019, which was very clear and pale yellow.

Smell: I had a cold and couldn't really pick up many differences between the two from a purely swirl and snort method.

Taste: 2018 had less body, and was smooth. I would describe it as "tame", and would disagree with the website's listing of "exceptional texture and weight". 2018 was the sweeter wine (less alcohol content listed online as well). 2019 was my favorite of the two; definitely felt more acidic, had notes of green apple, and was dryer.

General Notes: If I had to buy one I would go for the 2019, I think it was more fun to drink and overall had more going on to unpack in your mouth. However, I wouldn't pay $34 for that, ever. Better stuff out there for half the price.

Wine Folly lists Riesling as having lime, apricot, beeswax, petrol, and jasmine tastes. I didn't pick up much of that, but in retrospect, I could realistically see petrol being a flavor that could have been in there.

Tasting - Juggernaut Pinot Noir

 Part 2 of tasting with Adam on the final day of the first month of the 4th year of the 3rd decade of the 21st century, AD. Important to note this tasting was directly after Yellow Tail's Merlot

Wine: Juggernaut's Pinot Noir

Location: Russian River Valley, California

Year: 2020

Cost: $15.99 at Kroger

Color: darker than the merlot, with less red highlights. far purpler, almost brown/ruddy on the edges

Legs: looked thicker or the same as the merlot. suggests more viscosity, which should mean less alcohol, more sugar, right?

Smell: picked up a citrus zest flavor deep in my sinuses with a big whiff. Very faintly like when grapefruit peel is squeezed. No alcohol odor, didn't smell bitey or acidic like the merlot.

Taste: LOTS more tannin than the merlot, despite online reviews suggesting it was light in tannin. Certainly more substantial body. Not very sweet. Cherry flavors, and again feeling like there is grapefruit character, mayber from a general bitterness? Because I frequently say "bruised black/raspberries" for red wines, I specifically tried to find that, but couldn't detect it.

General Notes: I want to come back to this on a different day when my palate hasn't had wine on it yet. We were very surprised by alcohol percentage on this! With more viscosity, and less odor of alcohol, we expected 12.5-13%, but it is actually 14.5%!

Wine Folly lists Pinot Noir as having cherry, raspberry, clove, hibiscus, and mushroom characteristics. Definitely got the cherry, but I specifically found no raspberry flavor, and no mushroom. I regretfully don't know enough about cloves or hibiscus to recall the smells from memory.

I like the hardcore marketing on this bottle - cool bird of prey design, and this inscription on the back: 

"Juggernaut grapes are grown in challenging conditions, where true grit and determination yield spectacular results. Steadfast Pinot Noir vines endure, unwavering, amidst inhospitable conditions, battered by wind and fog, struggling to utilize every precious hour of warmth and sunlight over a long growing season. The reward is a balance of intensity and grace, with unrelenting flavors of red cherry, berry, and spicy, floral notes. Overcoming hardship builds character"

What compelled someone to write this on a wine label? 

Tasting - Merlot

 Cracked open a bottle of merlot with my buddy Adam tonight (along with a Pinot Noir, but that's the next review).

Wine: Yellow Tail Merlot

Location: South Eastern Australia

Year: 2021

Price: $7 ish

Color: dark red, purple almost. Rich, clear red color along the edges, like garnet?

Legs: relatively thin, assumed that meant lower sugar, higher alcohol 

Smell: "spice-ey" as in some spice character (mayber black pepper? maybe bell pepper?) but not like hot spicy. Tart cherries. After tasting, the alcohol smell was more pronounced. Wondering if that was something other than ethanol, as that is supposed to be odorless (was there methanol or something else in there in trace amounts?). 

Taste: lower tannins than expected from color & odor. Still tart cherry flavor (like a cheribundi sort of flavor). At one point I was thinking earthy/mineraly. Popped back to smell to find the mineraly character, ended up thinking about gravely soil, just made me think of cold and close to the ground.

General Notes: from the thin legs, clear alcohol odor, and feel of heat in my throat, assumed alcohol content was around 14%, but it was actually lower at 13.5%. We kept trying to figure out what the "spice" flavor was but were ultimately unsuccessful. Adam settled on "spice mix".

Wine Folly suggests we should have been tasting cherry, plum, chocolate, bay leaf, and vanilla. I got the cherry, and could maybe trick myself into tasting plums, but the chocolate, bay leaf, and vanilla were nowhere to be found. I have bay leaves, so we smelled those and agreed that was not in the wine.

Tasting - Sangue Di Giuda

 First tasting with fellows in the class - thank you to Jackson and Emily for sharing the wine!

Had to walk 5 minutes from my house through the arctic tundra to taste this thing, which may have affected my olfactory capabilities.

Terra's 2018 Sangue Di Giuda dell’Oltrepo Pavese, from Lombardy, Italy. Cost appx $13.00. 6% ABV

Blend wasn't listed on the bottle, but Sangue Di Giuda dell’Oltrepo Pavese is shown online as having roughly 45% Croatina, 45% Barbera, 5% Ughetta, and 5% Uva Rara.

Tasting profile & price listing: Terra Sangue di Giuda - Ed's Fine Wines (edsfinewines.com)

No specific page in Wine Folly for this, but it is mentioned on the Sparkling Red Wine page similar to Lambrusco and Brachetto d’Acqui. Both those wines get credited for tasting like blueberry/raspberry/strawberry/blackberry in differing amounts.

Smell: couldn't smell much, maybe it is just low in odor or my nose was affected by the cold walk? Does lower alcohol affect smell? Does sparkling increase smell?

Taste: Sweet, not tannic. Only about the front 10% of my tongue felt the tannin character. Slightly carbonated, felt like much smaller bubbles than most beer or sodas, and even smaller than other sparkling wines I have had. Consistent with an the online reviews, I could identify blueberry/jam hints, maybe currants too.

Look: dark red, small columns of carbonation visible after pouring.

After main tasting, had a small piece of Ghiradelli 86% chocolate with it. Chocolate had little flavor to me, but felt very buttery and smooth. The already low sour character of the wine was further decreased by the chocolate.

Tasting - Anthony Road Cabernet Franc

 On the evening of January 23rd, 2023, a man attempted to cook dinner and drink wine. This is his story.

Little date night action with me and the missus - pan roasted lamb chops in ghee, fresh garlic, thyme, rosemary, celery, baby bella mushrooms and carrots. Served with oven roasted yellow potatoes and broccoli, tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, rosemary and thyme.

First time cooking lamb, wasn't aware of the ability of the fat to render out so completely. Should have allowed it to cook on the fat side for longer, but we were impatient. Also, undersalted the potatoes and the lamb veggies, but some post-cooking salt and all that garlic made up for it.

About the wine: Anthony Road Winery's 2020 Cabernet Franc. Grapes grown in the Finger Lakes of NY in America, on the West side of the Seneca Lake (vineyard slopes facing east). We had tried this in a wine tasting back in December at the winery, and it was her favorite, so I brought a bottle back to Blacksburg. Wish we had taken notes at the tasting, but all that is lost to the ether now. 10/10 experience though, recommend the past/present/future white wine flight.

Online it is listed at ~$27 for a bottle, but I believe we paid a lower price at the in-person shop. Don't have a receipt but I remember it being closer to $21.

Couldn't find much online about tasting notes, but was rushed trying to get dinner put together.

The Comprehensive Guide to Cabernet Franc | Wine Folly We consulted this site while waiting for things to cook, and sipping on our first glasses of the wine. Concerned about how to avoid placebo when reading about what you are supposed to be tasting versus actually tasting those things.

My disagreements with Wine Folly: no strawberry, no bell pepper (she tasted some but this is my review), no "crushed gravel". I know what crushed gravel smells like intimately - my driveway at home is gravel and I know what it smells like in any weather or time of year. I did agree with the raspberry, and a little bit with the chile/spiciness, but only faintly.

Color: DARK red. Almost purple in thin layers when held up to the light.

Smell: before dinner, smelled of red fruits (raspberry, blackberry, dark plums). after dinner: maple syrup very clearly on the nose! Reading the winery's page, this wine was oaked, so maybe it is the oak characteristic I picked up as "maple". I don't know what oak wood smells like. Wondering if the change in smell for me was affected more by the food or by the wine sitting out?

Taste: more dark red fruits, cherries, bruised flavor!! Like if you've had a smushed raspberry or blackberry at the bottom of a carton, it tastes different than a pristine, unblemished berry.

Mouthfeel: less tannin than I would expect from something this dark colored. Didn't coat my whole tongue in that texture, mostly the front 1/3 of my mouth. More enjoyable to take a big swig when it had sat a little while.

Note of changes over time: wine was probably not changing in temperature, but certainly getting more oxygen. I don't have a decanter bc I am a poor college kid and it looks pretentious, but it was cool to have the wine get more airflow and change flavor. Definitely felt sweeter all over my tongue when it had sat out longer. Didn't finish the bottle so might compare tomorrow or something too.

My First Post: Background

 Hi! My name is Graydon "Cooper" Whiteleather, and this is the start of my blog for Professor Boyer's Geography of Wine course at Virginia Tech.

I grew up in Upstate New York, in the Finger Lakes Region, which is known for its beautiful lakes, heavy snowfall, and hundreds of vineyards. For scale of how integrated wine is with my home area, my cross country coach's family runs a vineyard, and at least two other kids on the team had parents who worked at or owned vineyards in the area.

My senior year of high school, our chemistry teacher offered a year long class that was two quarters of organic chemistry, and two quarters of viti/viniculture - we didn't taste wines in class because we were all 17/18 years old, but learned about the culture and science behind growing grapes, making wine, and tasting that wine.

Not wine, but I have additional experience with alcohol production, as I took Dr. Sean O'Keefe's Brewing Science and Technology class here at VT back in Fall 2019, and I worked for Molson Coors Beverage Company's Shenandoah Brewery this past summer, as a Brewing Operations intern.

My tasting experience is limited - I've drank mostly wine from upstate NY; some rieslings and dry reds.

To be honest, my sense of smell is probably less sensitive than the average person's but I believe I have pretty good hang of putting mouthfeel and taste into words.

I'm hoping to improve my sense of smell, if possible, and be more able to predict what a wine will taste like just from its name and knowing where it is from.

Excited for this class, first wine blog coming soon!