Let freedom ring! Let the wine flow!

4th of July weekend was spent at Colonial Beach relaxing with family, friends and wine!

 

Cheers to the USA!

 

2012

Silver

Unoaked Chardonnay

 

 

 

 The Evil Red Genius has actually found a white wine that she enjoys and has bought quite a few times!! Not only is it a white but it's a Chardonnay!
Silver is just as delicious as it is beautiful in its ceramic cask.

With aromas of lemon and tangerine, Silver is a very light Chardonnay and, while it is not oaked, it doesn't have a mineral taste either which pleased me. As I suspected, it begged for shrimp or some sort of seafood but was delicious with Kerrygold Irish cheddar cheese.  For those of you wondering what the difference is in an unoaked Chardonnay and a 100% stainless steel Chardonnay? The answer is nothing; using the term "unoaked" is purely a marketing tactic.
(Yes, I had the same question and confirmed with Arthur!)

 

grapes and cheese - yum!



2013 Linden

Riesling/Vidal Blanc
 

A friend of mine from work shares an interest in Rieslings with my dad.  One of his favorite vineyards in Virginia is Linden and he so graciously gave my dad a bottle to try. He said to thank Dad for his service (in the Army) so what better time to taste it but on America's birthday!
 

With an aroma of grapefruit, apricot and citrus, this Riesling is sweeter than the typical German one that dad enjoys. He said it has a "zing on the palette with a sweet taste."  The Evil Red Genius and I were not fans, but not surprised by that realization; however, cheddar cheese definitely made the wine better for us.

 I love playing the game, "What do you smell?" Sometimes it's obvious and sometimes it's not. But it's always entertaining!  Dad said that it reminded him of "uncooked lima beans"
I knew there was a distinct aroma but wasn't quite sure what .. lilacs maybe?

 

Cheers to the two whites of the weekend!

2010
The Prisoner
Orin Swift Cellars, Napa Valley

You may recall that The Prisoner is an Orin Swift wine that was sold by David Phinney to The Prisoner Wine Company (see previous post). It wasn't until a few days before the 4th of July that the Evil Red Genius first tasted this wine. She liked it and I was so pleased because I had already planned to take it to the beach for us to splurge on with my dad and a steak dinner!

 

44% Zinfandel, 26% Cab, 18% Syrah, 9% Petit Syrah, 2% Charbono, 1% Grenache

The Prisoner is delicious. Period.
It smells jammy - plum and berries with a hint of sweet oak.
It tastes similarly with a black pepper spicy kick to it!

This is one wine that I think is better without food. It became a tad bitter with steak but was not as bitter with the cheesy herb potatoes. If the first time I had The Prisoner was with a meal, I probably would not have enjoyed it.

2010
D66
Orin Swift Cellars

Next was another Orin Swift wine which I had never tried.
A friend who lives in California bought me two bottles (b/c I am always grabbing Orin wines whether I have tried them or not and evidently have others trained now to do the same) and shipped them out to me.

 

D66 is primarily a Grenache blended with some Syrah and Carignan. This vintage is the second release from Orin's vineyard in Maury, France. Its dark, almost opaque, color has aromas of ripe cherries and rotten plums with a burning scent.  When I first smelled it, my first thought was of ketchup and I wanted to put it on a burger.

(Yeah, don't tell me you haven't realized I'm strange by now...)

It has a burnt aftertaste and reminded me of a brandy with crushed cherries.

When paired with chocolate chips, and then Hershey's chocolate pudding, it brought out a licorice taste and was much better but still not good.

 

This is NOT a typical Orin wine to me. In fact, had I been blindtasting I would never have imagined it was an Orin wine. Perhaps because it's not from Napa like his others (well, the others that I have tried to this point). I don't like disapproving of an Orin wine, and this is the very first, and hopefully only, time I do. This was not good. Just not good.

 

 

 

 



Cheers to the reds!

Well, at least one of them.

Yay, Prisoner! 

 

Let's take a break from wine for a moment and appreciate some of the simple pleasures of this weekend:



 Early morning sun on the front porch




Banana pudding cake
 



home grown tomatoes and fresh basil

 

my ladybug shining down on us



cornfields

 

my duck friends




One afternoon we decided to check out a local winery which was about 15 minutes away. 

Oak Crest Winery in King George, VA

It started off nice. We were hopeful.

 

 

 

The grounds were pretty and inviting.

Then we went inside and started tasting the wine.......

and everything went down hill.

 

Well, not everything, just the wine......but isn't that everything?

I don't even know where to start. Just thinking about it makes me cringe and want to rinse my mouth out with soap.... again.  It's a shame such a beautiful place has such bad wine.  We should have known from the start when the first wine we tried was a Cab. You do NOT ever start a wine tasting with the biggest wine you have; nor do you start with reds! It was a travesty to call this a Cab anyway. Their Merlot tasted nothing like a Merlot and their red blend tasted like syrupy sweet cherries.  YUCK!

Oak Crest grows their only white grapes which they call Symphony; a hybrid of Muscat and Ganache. Sickening sweet to be honest. Every single white wine they make is sweet and a borderline dessert wine. The "Summer Medley" is made from Symphony and Virginia strawberries which was tolerable but just biting into a fresh strawberry would make more sense to me.  Their sangria was a disgrace, smelled like my Great Aunt Lil's (God rest her soul) perfume and tasted like watered down powdered Kool-aid.

The only wine worth tasting, and that was just because of the concept, was the "Hot Jazz" which is made from the Symphony white grapes and the skins of jalapenos. Yes, I said jalapenos as in jalapeno peppers!  While the wine smells like jalapenos, no doubt, it does not taste like it, thankfully, and has an interesting tangy kick on the finish which continues to increase after you swallow.

 

My dad was nice because he's a nice guy in general.

The Evil Red Genius and I just did our best to keep our mouths shut which you all know is not easy for me to do when I have a strong opinion on something. I did make a few wretched faces at my mom after a few of the tastes though.

 

We said our pleasantries as we left, declined on making any purchases and proceeded out to the vineyard to take photos. Like I mentioned before, it really is pretty there. 

 

Once we got in the car, we all made terrible faces and couldn't wait to get home and drink a ton of water or even turpentine for that matter! Something had to get this horrible so-called wine out of our mouths! I've tasted some unpleasant wine before but these were just terrible.

For the first time ever, I think, the three of us even agreed not a single one was even fathomable!! Usually there's a least one we can accept but not this time; not at this place.

 

 

The grapes were gorgeous which is a shame. Perhaps they should just produce grapes and sell them to other wineries so that people who know what they are doing can make the wine?

Wouldn't that be better for everyone? For the good of ALL mankind?

 

I'm always the one who says "you like what you like" and try my best not to come down on someone because their wine tastes differ from mine. There is enough wine in this world for everyone to find something (or a few somethings even) that they like but we all don't have to agree.

However this winery made me change that statement just a tad:

 "You like what you like but we DON'T like."

Thankfully, that evening we were able to redeem ourselves with some fantastic red wine that we had brought from home.

It was my night to make dinner and after that wretched afternoon tastingm, I just had to have a good bottle of wine while I prepared the meal. Thankfully, the Evil Red Genius had brought one of our

all-time favorite California Cabs.

 

2011

Cabernet Sauvignon

Franciscan Estate, Napa Valley

 

 

86% Cab, 10% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot, 1% Syrah, 1% Cabernet Franc

 

I first came upon Franciscan about five years ago at Firebirds Restaurant in Fredericksburg.

It is a wine that is easily drinkable on its own but absolutely divine with a nice juicy steak on the grill. Yes, we had steak the night before but I am so glad we saved Franciscan for the next day because we really needed something to wash away the disgusting wine we had so mistakenly put in our mouths earlier in the day. What better than this beautiful gem?

 

With earthy, cedar, tobacco and cinnamon aromas, this deep garnet-colored beauty has tastes of plum and dark berries with a hint of vanilla and a nice peppery bite on the finish. We aerated our next glass to see if it could make this already fabulous wine even better and to our surprise it didn't! It did exactly what it should have done by smoothing out the tannins but in return it took the peppery bite away that we enjoyed. No more aerating for this handsome wine! It is perfect just the way it is.

The wine gods were definitely on our sides with this one after playing that nasty trick on us earlier!

 

As I'm cooking, the Evil Red Genius is pouring and soon enough all becomes right with our world once again.  Dad came in from visiting with friends and he enjoyed a glass with us!

 

 

 

Typically, I would not suggest you do what we did. We started off drinking a big red blend, primarily a Cab, and then went to a much lighter Pinot Noir. Boys and Girls, do NOT do this at home unless you: 1) are supervised by a wine snob, aka me, or 2) your taste buds were in the middle of a warzone earlier in the day, aka BAD winery. 

 

However, I was making lamb stuffed peppers and had specifically chosen this wine to pair with it for dinner.  Our palettes could handle it, I was sure.

 

 

2009

Pinot Noir

Iris Vineyards, Oregon

 

 

Very light in color and light in taste

Aromas of light cherry, azalea bush and dirt after a light rain

 

This wine is much too light for me to drink on its own but it is a perfect food wine.

My parents love stuffed peppers and I wanted to do a Greek twist on their typical version.

 

Below is my ground lamb stuffed pepper with whole grain orzo, feta cheese and seasoned tomato sauce. The peppers stay crisp and there are tons of "guts" surrounding the peppers in the baking dish as well. Everyone was pleased with this dish and I was pleased that the wine paired wonderfully well!

 

 

 

 "Good wine is a necessity of life for me."  

- Thomas Jefferson

 

Cheers to the reds that saved the day!

 

 

After dinner, while playing cards, we needed something to have with chocolate cheesecake, so I found a Merlot in Dad's wine cabinet to try.

 

 

2011

14 Hands Merlot

Columbia Valley, WA

With aromas of plum and dark cherries and a tad burnt smell, this wine definitely tastes better than it smells. Blackberries, plums and spice make your taste buds smile with this wine that embodies the spirit of the wild horses that once freely roamed the beautiful hills of eastern Washington.  These small horses, measuring "14 hands" high, would come down from the hills every day to drink from the Columbia River, graze the riverbank and go back to the hills at night.
These little horses became known for their tenacity and wild spirit.

Who knew this Merlot not only has a sweet story set in nature but would taste fantastic while listening to oldies music such as "Our Day Will Come" and "Sugar Sugar" paired with decadent chocolate cheesecake?!  

Let freedom ring!

Let the wine flow!

 

 

Cheers to my land of the free, home of the brave!