Emiliana Adobe Rosé and Goat’s Milk Brie
Neil and I were really craving some rosé so we headed to the grocery store to see what we could find. There were a few different rosés in the wine aisle but we spotted this Chilean rosé by Emiliana Winery, something new for us, and picked up a bottle. We’ve been enjoying the local cheese brand Quesos QM lately so we figured we could find something by them to pair with our rosé. It feels like it’s been forever since we just sat down and paired wine and cheese. Join us today as we taste Emiliana Adobe Rosé (Reserva) and Goat’s Milk Brie!
The rosé that we’ve found here in the past is usually on the sweeter side but the lighter color of this one made us think it might be more what we were looking for. The bottle didn’t indicate what type of grapes were used to make the wine but we had a good feeling about it. The wine was both organic and vegan, another thing that was new to us. We have definitely found organic wines before but the question of vegan/vegetarian is something we’ve only read about, never tried. We have friends that are vegetarian and when we discussed the topic with them we told them that egg whites can be used to clarify some red wines, read more here: https://www.thekitchn.com/did-you-know-the-tradition-and-use-of-eggs-in-winemaking-176695 This bottle of wine had all kinds of stamps of approval on the back label, including vegan, organic and non-GMO. Let’s give it a try!
As we swirled the wine to identify our aromas, we both picked up an unmistakable smokiness like liquid smoke or smoked gouda. We took a second sniff and it was still there, could someone be grilling outside? Even after a few minutes we tried again and we still picked it up so our first aroma was smoke. There was a fruity element too that Neil thought was close to cherry. The texture was softer with a light fizz that made me think of Cherry 7up or something along those lines. It was a little closer to strawberry than cherry though. I noticed a hint of spice and a light acid too. Neil found some floral flavors as well as something that reminded him of Twizzlers. We both agreed that it was good and better than our last sweet rosé that we had.
We already told you we’d be purchasing a cheese from Quesos QM, a Costa Rican brand. This one was a triangle wedge made from goat’s milk and said “tipo Brie”. Yum, we’ll happily try a brie! It smelled salty, milky, and funky like a barnyard. The funk was pretty intense and it tingled my nose. I was loving it! I must have just sat there smelling it for like 5 minutes. After all those aromas, it was time to taste. At first, it didn’t have much flavor but it did build up as I ate more. It tasted milky, dry and maybe the density of a chèvre log. Neil picked up the “delectable funkiness of goat cheese!” He also made note of the difference between the more aged part and the ripe part. He said the exterior was more like the texture of brie, really creamy and good!
During the wine and cheese pairing, I could still smell the smokiness in the wine so it was definitely in there. The wine seemed sweeter now with a little bit of smokiness in the flavor too. The cheese smelled milky but not as rich as before and tasted thicker with more of a milky flavor. Neil didn’t find it to be a great pairing. He said the cheese had more brine and the wine became crisp with alcohol. Although both the wine and cheese changed for me, I think we agree that they were better separate. And they were both good so I’ll take that for one of our first wine and cheese pairings back! Can’t wait to start regularly pairing wine and cheese again.