After coming up with the idea for our “Savor the Flavor” entry in 2017, it’s become an annual tradition for WineAndCheeseFriday! Neil and I love to see the evolution of aromas and flavors over the life of a bottle of wine and this is our way to showcase them to all of you. Throughout the year, we actually earmarked a handful of wines that we thought would be perfect for this entry so without further ado, here you go.
We’re always curious to try out some wines we’re not very familiar with. During our visit to the Wine Feed, we came across bottles of Picpoul from two different countries. How fun, we could learn about a new grape and see how it differs around the world! We’ve only tried this type of wine once before, https://wineandcheesefriday.com/tablas-creek-vineyard-paso-robles-ca/, and it was something I remembered wanting to try again. How often do you deviate from the noble grape varieties? Maybe this is a type of white wine you’d like to try?
During a set of recent Instagram posts, I found out that Neil and I have tried quite a few Languedoc wines. This came as a bit to a surprise to me. We know that we always enjoy trying new wines but who knew that we’d been gravitating to a specific French wine region? I’d say part of the reason we were unaware of these wines all carrying a similar trait is because Old World wines are labeled pretty differently than New World wines.
I enjoy taking part in twitter chats especially those involving wine. If you’re looking for me after dinner, most nights of the week, that’s where you’ll find me (@winecheesefri). One day, I heard about a chat with the topic of wine travel. This definitely piqued my interest. As luck would have it, this chat was having a contest for a wine prize pack, and I won! The prize included a wine aerator, a wine vacuum, a backpack and a 3-month subscription to VineBox. Have you heard of VineBox? Its a wine club that sends out three wine samples per month to expose you to their wines before purchasing them. What a cool gift! As you may have guessed, this week's WineAndCheeseFriday entry will be about our first VineBox shipment.
We picked up this wine at Wine 101 Hamden and the co-owner Chris told us, you guys have to try this one, “It's pretty strange!" Always on the hunt for the next wine to challenge us, we gladly accepted! Not really having a cheese in mind to pair it with, we brought it along for another wine picnic and paired it with sushi. Well, pairing it isn’t quite exact, we brought it along as our tasty beverage that we would deeply analyze, and then eat sushi. ?
Our next stop in California was San Francisco. We spent about 4 or 5 days with our friends Geoff and Becky, who love food, wine and creating a grand feast! We felt it was only appropriate to share a wine and cheese pairing with them. Little did we know, we’d have all the freshest ingredients available to us in Berkeley, CA. We spent an entire day gathering all our supplies in a number of specialty shops.