Wine Tasting: Yellow Tail Pinot Noir

 Pinot Noir 

Hello from a Wine Wednesday Tasting!  This week I got together with a fellow classmate and some friends to do a couple of wine tastings together.  The wine of focus in this tasting is Yellow Tail's Pinot Noir. This wine was crafted by Yellow Tail winery from the New South Wales region of Australia. The vintage of this wine is 2023 and it was  purchased at $7.99.  

Marketview Liquor describes this pinot noir as having a light body and dry.  They say the wine smells of "coffee, chocolate, and ripe raspberries."  The review also states the wine has "finely textured tannins" that create a "soft and supple" feeling in the mouth.

When noting the aromas of this wine, I was only able to detect cherry and cranberry which may be the raspberry that I could not pinpoint! My friend, Dan, was able to pick up on the chocolate aroma of the wine.  (This was another tasting done the week that my nose and taste were bogged down by a cold.  

When tasting this wine, I tasted cranberry (which I now realize was raspberry), vanilla, cherry, and a leathery earthiness.  The pinot noir had a light to medium acidity and was lightly dry due to the soft tannins (page 150 Wine Folly).  The group also paired some cheese with this wine. Dan's girlfriend brought some Manchego and Gruyere cheeses which are both cheeses that page 60 of Wine Folly deems as "great pairings" with medium-body red wines. Tasting the wine after these cheeses brought out the fresh cherry taste of the wine, almost giving it a juicier mouth feel.

I liked this pinot noir as a wallet-friendly wine to bring to a social gathering to share. However, for a more special occasion or personal dinner, I would look for a pinot noir with greater depth in flavor.

That's it for this tasting. Thanks for reading! 

Wine Tasting: Flora & Stone Merlot

 

Hello wine community! 

This wine tasting features the Flora & Stone merlot wine from Mendocino County, California.  This bottle was bought at Aldi in Christiansburg, Virginia, for $6.99.  There is no vintage listed on this wine which was the same case for the last bottle of wine I bought from Aldi.  

Jon Thorsen, a publisher of the Reverse Wine Snob, describes this wine as "a bit sweet" but "decent enough."  The aromas noted by Thorsen include black cherry, licorice, and oaky spice.  He also says the merlot "ends dry, medium-long, and a bit grippy."

Before I get into my own review, it is important to note that I had a cold when doing this tasting so my taste and smell both felt dulled.  Continuing on, per my own swirl and sniff the primary aroma (p. 28, Wine Folly) in this wine is ripe cherry, and a tertiary aroma is subtle oak.  I had a hard time picking up on more aromas in this wine.  

I used a stemmed wine glass, $2.00 from Walmart, to taste this wine. The shape of the glass resembles the medium red wine glass shape on page 39 of Wine Folly. I like a stemmed glass because it makes the drink experience feel more special than a stemless glass which feels more like an everyday glass.  The Flora & Stone merlot tasted like plum, dark cherry, vanilla, and a slight bitter aftertaste which could have been the clove described on the back label of the bottle.  I would say this wine has a medium dryness, a little acidity, and medium body.  

As a $7.00 bottle of red wine, I would definitely get this bottle of wine again to go with a pasta dish in the future. I think that I also will be re-tasting this bottle when I do not have a sickness that affects my smell and taste.

Cheers!

Wine Tasting: Rolling Mist Cabernet Sauvignon

This tasting is of Rolling Mist Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is from California, and has no vintage listed.  Cheap Wine Finder suggests that there is no vintage as a "cost cutter" for wine. This would make sense because this wine was priced at $7.99 at Aldi in Christiansburg, VA.  

Cheap Wine Finder describes this wine as "plum red" with "ripe and fruity aromas of blackberry jam, brown sugar, black pepper" and also "vanilla."  This review also considers the wine "medium bodied" and tastes like "ripe blackberry" and "black pepper."  

Based on page 25 of Wine Folly, I say the cabernet sauvignon appears a ruby red and has a weak aroma. When I first opened the bottle, I smelled a large amount of oaky, woody aroma. As the wine breathed, the aroma grew fainter and smelled more of ripe blackberry.  

When tasting this red, there is an initial strong, fruity sweetness.  The red leaves a slight dry feel to the mouth, and is medium-bodied. For this tasting, I tasted the wine alone first. I then paired the wine with parmesan cheese and a medium-rare steak. Page 61 of Wine Folly recommends to pair a medium to full bodied wine with red meat, so I felt this medium bodied cabernet sauvignon would be a good pair. Also, per page 55, the cheese and steak pair well with the fruity red because it is a contrast pairing of salty and sweet.  However, page 56 recommends to pair equal intensity wine and foods, but I feel the parmesan cheese is more intense than this wine with its tangy hit of flavor.  I took the harmonious matches of fat, salt and acid from this page into account when creating this pairing.

To try the food and wine pairings, I tasted the food first then the wine and vice versa.  The pairing of Rolling Mist's cabernet sauvignon with steak brings out the blackberry taste and creates a richer, fuller-bodied feel in the mouth.  The strong taste of blackberry and oak brings out the saltiness and meatiness of the steak.  The tang of the parmesan cheese was brought out by the lingering bitterness in the wine, and this was such a great contrast of fruit, woodiness and tanginess that it felt like a full charcuterie board experience.  I will definitely be having this wine and parmesan pairing again. I think for the price of the Rolling Mist cabernet sauvignon, this wine has a developed flavor and depth that will make it a go-to red for me on a at-home steak night!

Wine Tasting: Novinophobia Cabernet Sauvignon

Hi wine enthusiasts! 

This week I was able to host a couple friend for a wine tasting on Wednesday evening.  The wine of focus this night is a cabernet sauvignon from Novinophobia for $14.29 (caught on sale for $10.29 at Food Lion!). This winemaker is based in the United States in Parlier, California, and the vintage of this wine is 2021.

The community on Vivino rate this wine 3.5 out of 5 stars. Some reviewers note the cherry, oak, and fruity flavors of this wine, and others comment that the wine is "leathery" and lacks depth.  Overall, there are a good mix of positive and negative reviews for this wine, so if you would like to scroll through these follow the hyperlink above.

For my personal experience, I am referencing Wine Folly: Magnum Edition: The Master Guide. This is my second ever wine tasting with intent to analyze and review and wine, so I like to have a guide for what I am looking for and how to verbally communicate my experience.  Anyways, let's get to tasting!

Before I actually taste the wine, I take a few whiffs of it to introduce my senses.  Reviewing the scents on page 28 through 30 of Wine Folly, this cabernet sauvignon smells like fresh black cherry, black currants and a hint of vanilla. The hint of vanilla clues me in that this wine may have been aged in European oak barrels.  This was my first experience trying to smell individual components of a wine, so I feel I will only continue to get better.  

Novinophobia's cabernet sauvignon has a between a ruby and purple hue with a blue tint like described on page 25 of Wine Folly. A blue tint shows a lower acidity in the wine, and after tasting I felt this wine has medium acidity because it gives a slight tongue tingle. There is an initial sweetness to this wine, but a fruity sweetness rather than a sugary sweetness. It is not very drying, so I feel the tannins are low to medium. The drying sensation is felt in the middle of the mouth, so, per page 32 of Wine Folly, this means that the tannins are oak tannins and supports that this wine was aged in oak barrels. The final taste of this wine is tart, almost sour.

Page 88 in Wine Folly recommends to pair a cabernet sauvignon with grilled meats and dishes with high flavor, but we pair this wine with gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. The tart, fruity taste of the wine provides a nice, stark contrast to the sweet cookie and rich chocolate which provides a nice balance when snacking on the two together.

Overall, I rate this wine a 6/10. I like the fresh, fruity taste without being overly sweet. I liked the mild acidity and dryness, but I think I would prefer an even dryer wine.  I do agree with some of the Vivino reviews that this wine is lacking in depth. I felt it was a little watery, but that may mean it is not as full-bodied as other wines! I am still learning but am excited to try more varieties of cabernet sauvignon to compare to this tasting. Thanks for reading! 

My wine experience as of January 2025 and what I want to learn in Geography of Wine

 Hi readers! I am Audrey Skinner, a senior in chemical engineering from Smithfield, VA.  My first experience with wine was honestly terrible. I tried boxed Franzia wine and decided it was not for me. However, in December 2022, I was taken to a wine bar as a "thank you" for dog-sitting. My friend knew I did not like wine and had almost no experience, so we began with a nice bottle of Riesling. The first sip was crisp and refreshing with a hint of sweetness, and I really enjoyed it. This told me that I liked wine but just nicer wine, lol.

I continued to drink only Riesling for the next year until I went out with a friend's family for dinner at an Italian restaurant.  I had ordered a glass of Riesling for dinner but the wine never came out, so my friend's mom gave me her glass of Pinot Noir to have while I waited.  I did not think I enjoyed red wine, but the Pinot Noir was smooth with a hint of sweetness.  This then opened up the door for me to try other red wines and venture into more white wine as well.  Not even a few weeks later, I went to the Wine Lab in Blacksburg for a flight of wine and chose the Region of Focus. The region was Spain at the time and I do not remember the exact wines, but I do remember enjoying them. I still always get the Region of Focus flight when I go to Wine Lab because it changes so often.

For the summer of 2024, I studied abroad in Germany.  This allowed me to travel to Italy, France, and Barcelona to try different wines, including at winery tour and tasting at Constello di Roncade.  Tasting so many different wines over the summer led me to my current wine preferences. My favorite wines to drink are dry reds, specifically Bordeaux wines right now.  I also love a Spanish red or white because the ones I have had have been fruity and not too sweet.

From the Geography of Wine course, I really want to develop a deeper understanding of what the descriptions of wine mean.  For example, I want to know what to expect when drinking a "full-bodied" or "spicy" wine. I am also excited to see the trends among wines made in the same geographical areas, like how French wine differs from Argentinian wine. Overall, I am truly open to trying all sorts of wine and soaking up all the information that I can about wine tasting and wine making. Let's start sipping!