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!