Savor the Flavor 2018
We came up with the idea for the Savor the Flavor entry at the end of 2017, https://wineandcheesefriday.com/savor-the-flavor/, to showcase some noteworthy wines from the year. We’ve decided to continue the tradition for 2018. One of the ways we were able to really Savor the Flavor this year was by using our Vacu Vin. Have you ever tried these? They are wine vacuums/pumps that suck the air out of the bottle in order to preserve them longer. We were able to keep one of the bottles for two weeks! Can’t say I was ever able to do that in the past.
One of the other bottles, we took a different approach to recording our wine tasting notes. We knew it was a higher caliber wine than what we usually drink. We figured the flavors would continue to evolve throughout the night, so we wrote down our notes every 30-45 minutes. It was amazing how much it really did change!
We hope this might influence some of you to extend the life of your bottle for a few days too so you can fully experience the flavor evolution too!
Josh Cellars Zinfandel 2015 California-Lodi
Day 1 Paired with burger - guacamole kicks up spice in wine
aromas: fruity, vanilla flavors: fruit, soft, dry finish, spice in finish N Wow that's jammy! Nice and big. It’s been a while since we found a wine like this.
Day 4 After Vacu Vin aromas: grape, black and red berries, soft, vanilla flavor: some dryness, Lots of flavor! dark berry, soft, maybe chocolate too, hint of spice. N more jammy than the first night. That wines good! We both really liked it!
Day 6 aromas: soft fruit, red licorice flavors: spice, prunes, still pretty good but think the flavors on Day 4 were peak. N sweeter and spicier, still good
Amazed that it lasted that long due to Vacu Vin! First time trying out Vacu Vin
Artesa Pinot Noir 2014 California-Carneros
Day 1 aromas: hint of sweet berry, cherry, maybe earth flavors: spice, fruit, cherry cola, feels a little light Neil said it was better than the Kenwood Pinot Noir from a few weeks back but it’s a different price range of Pinot. This one really good.
A few days later: Smells great! aromas: berries and flowers flavors: juicy and earthy
Kept it for like 2 weeks and was still ok by the end. Pretty awesome it lasted that long and it was a very good Pinot!
Anton Bauer Rosé Zweigelt Syrah Merlot blend 2017 Austria-Wagram
Day 1 paired it with Chile Rellenos for dinner
aromas: light fruit, maybe some oak, seemed to have more flavor than aroma. flavors: hint of effervescent, flavor fills my mouth, strawberry vanilla, soft N good rosé, liked the pairing with hot sauce on chile rellenos
Day 2 aromas: minerals flavors: cherry and juicy
Another day aromas: floral and fruit flavors: very flavorful, candy finish N spicier than he remembered
This is not a light crisp rose, it's a little heavier.
Castello di Verduno Barbaresco 2014 Italy-Piedmont
Paired with Pasta and Portobello mushrooms
Before Dinner puckery cherry chocolate, light cherry, yum chocolate & dark berry aromas, acid, tart, graphite flavors, tingles tongue getting jammy, spicy finish
With Dinner spice temp goes away with dinner acid seems to increase with dinner
After Dinner licorice, pine tree? pine sap, dry flavor
Later on that night the wine that was sitting in glass tastes dry when poured from bottle, it’s not as dry but juicy too.
We tracked the progress of the wine throughout the night. It was quite the evolution of flavors, all in one day!
Scratch Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 California-Santa Cruz Mountains
Day 1 aromas: dark fruit, smoke and meat flavors: feels light, nice berries, dry, prunes, kind of juicy too, soft too N Smells so good! Needs to open up more but still good. Kristy thought it was more like a blend, agreed it's not like a traditional cab. Sam was sad he couldn't have more but we had plenty left for the next day.
Later on that night N big fruit, so crazy M agreed it seems like a blend and even identified spice too
Day 2 aromas: chipotle bbq sauce, smoky and sweet flavors: brown sugar baked beans
We drank this wine with Sam and Kristy on Cabernet Sauvignon Day. They couldn’t believe how many flavors can be found in wine and how strange it was that it changed so much over one night!