Did you ever purchase a wine, only to find out it tastes or smells much different than it’s label states. Or think, this is cheap and it can’t be good. Or maybe you think Cabernet Sauvignon is always dry and it’s not really for you? These wines were all Sensory Surprises for us. It was pretty funny too, how almost all the senses were affected. We hope you enjoy reading through these wines that we tasted throughout the year.
This is our 100th Wine and Cheese Pairing for WineAndCheeseFriday!* In order to celebrate, we invited our neighbors, Val and Amanda over to compare WA Riesling to German Riesling, Cantal cheese to Roquefort cheese, and enjoy some sweet and spicy snacks alongside it all. Do you have a suggestion for a wine and cheese pairing we should try? Email us at maria@WineAndCheeseFriday.com
We found this wine at Vino Simpatico Wine Shop in Pasadena, FL. (http://www.vino-simpatico.com) They just happened to have a bottle open to taste from their event the night before. Neil couldn’t believe what a big wine it was, considering that it had already been open for a day. Since he was enjoying it, his mom found a bottle of the Petite Sirah on the shelf and purchased it for him. We had been saving the wine for a day when we could really relax and enjoy it. During our grocery shopping at Aldi, we found this Super Berry Chocolate Bar and thought it would complement the rich, dark wine nicely. Let’s see if we were correct?
Raise your hand if you want drinkable dinner wines that don’t break the bank ?, I know we do! We’ve been in Florida for about 6 months now and finding those tasty, inexpensive, uncommon wines is always our task at hand. This being said, we have found quite a few around the area at Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Walgreens and a small specialty shop called West Palm Wines. Join us as we taste through about a dozen examples.
This Christmas season, we planned to make some mulled wine for Christmas Eve. Many of my readers know how much I like Trader Joe’s and they just happened to carry a juice called Winter Wassail. This seemed like a familiar word I’d heard in a Christmas carol but what does it mean? According to Wikipedia, the house-visiting wassail is the practice of people going door-to-door, singing and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts. Well that sounds fun! And it was so easy, we just had to add some red wine and warm it up!
Have you ever tried wine in a can? We were at Trader Joe’s and came across this one by Underwood, http://unionwinecompany.com. We first saw it a couple months back and wondered how it might be? After passing it during our weekly grocery trips, we finally decided to pick up a can to try it. Only one can you ask? Well, it was $6 per can so we figured we could split one and have enough for a tasting. Our cheese, Wensleydale, is a holiday favorite of ours so we decided it was time to get some. We guessed that the cranberries in the cheese would pair nicely with the light berry flavor of a pinot noir. So without further ado, Pinot Noir and Wensleydale Cheese.