These Girls Bleed Red, White, & Blush Launch, Part Deux...

because everything's classier in French!

Our blog launch party was so much fun that we couldn't fit it all into one post. Today we bring you some thoughts on the varied whites that gathered that fateful night. As you'll see, the tastes ranged from car exhaust fumes to decent to liquid dessert.

Well let's start with the worst of it...
Strewn Chardonnay Barrel-Aged 2007 VQA ($12.95)
PP (our above-average taster): You can really taste the barrel and tones of urine. This white is really smokey and lingers in your mouth, which is probably not what you want it to do.

B&C: It smells and tastes smokey. I don't get any citrus or vanilla, definitely not my kind of white.

M: It smells like old cheese, or when you stand too close to the back of a running car. Either way, not too appetizing. I can honestly say I would never drink it again, which is saying a lot! It's like the Strewn's ugly step-sister, and considering the Strewn Gewürz/Riesling is cheaper, why would you bother?

White House Riesling Pinot Grigio VQA ($12.95)
PP: This is a non-descript, classic white. It's not complex but goes down easily enough. I'm not sure that I would want a whole bottle of it because of the acidic aftertaste but the marketing of the bottle works well.

J (a not so average grad student): It works well with smoked gouda. Kind of tastes like an oaked chardonnay, but that leaves it tasting like nothing. Not bad, not spectacular.

M: Yes, kind of average. Would work well as a party wine because it's generally unoffensive.

Niersteiner Late Harvest ($10.95)
K: Tastes like liquid dessert! This white is lovely, better than ice wine because it is just sweet enough. Really good with the smoked gouda but really, you don't need to eat it with anything.

PP: It tastes similar to ice wine and it is only really good when it's chilled [we failed to chill].  You can taste a lot of fruits...which ones? All the fruits!

A: When paired with jalapeno you can really taste apple in it. It's soooo good. Maybe the best win ever! [One should note A was pretty 'happy' at this point about life in general, she may have been overly generous]

Next we're on to the last set of reds from our little get together.
MORE wines in a single night you ask?
To which we respond, quit judging us, we're sacrificing our livers for you!

These Girls Bleed Red, White, & Blush Launch!

Hello friends! The time had finally come for us to have an official launch party, like the big girl blog we are, so we decided to celebrate with our favourite things: wine, cheese, and friends! We asked our dearests to bring either a wine or a cheese to try and the results were fabulous. Honestly, best party idea ever. Of course we couldn't be in the presence of so many kinds of wine without writing down a thought or two.  For the sake of clarity and brevity we're going to group a few of the reviews together and serve them to you course by course. Our guests varied from the non-wine drinking to the near-expert so the reviews offer a bit of something for everyone. Here is the first part of our somewhat drunken thoughts:

Sangre de Toro Red Wine 2011 ($12.25)
*advice from the purchaser: this wine is best when left to breath or decanted first

A: smells delicious, like dark plums and juicy grapes in the summer. A little mineraly on its own, when you eat it with tiny tacos it loses some of the stoney taste and is more fruity.

S (aka the bringer of wine): I usually call this my peasant wine, it's under $15 and works at a party but best when served with meat. Lots of it. You can finish a bottle in a night alone too...

M: The bottle says it's inspired by Bacchus (our favourite  Greco-Roman god!) and with chocolate I'd say its the food of the gods!

Strewn Gewürztraminer/Riesling VQA ($10.95)
B&C (aka our favourite married couple): This white is sweet and light, almost like a cider. It's definitely a sip and enjoy, rather than chug kind of wine. We'd even say it's effervescent.

L: I like the nose, it smells fresh and crisp like green apples and pears. A little bitter on the finish, but in a sparkly way.

S: Every summer I look forward to eating at the Strewn winery restaurant. The chef is so sweet, he comes out to speak with the guests, and they serve a prix fixe menu with different wines for each course.

A: I get green apples and tropical fruits. It has a bit of syrupy end but in a good way, definitely would drink this again.

Kacaba, 2011 Rebecca Rose, VQA

Without M here, I must drink alone, or with K as the case may be! After a hard day’s work, in the words of Christina from Grey’s Anatomy, “I need a drink, a man, or a massage, or a drunken massage from a man!” As only one of those was forthcoming, we opened a bottle of wine. So with A in her blanket and K in her onesie, we settled in for a night of reviewing. Tonight’s choice was a 2011 Rebecca Rose from Kacaba on the Niagara Escarpment. The 2010 is available at the LCBO for $11.95, but sometimes they aren’t so hot at updating their vintage years, so it is likely that they carry the 2011 now. 

Frankly though, I’d go for some Wild Vines again with this review. This is not what I hoped for from a rose. Some roses are made by blending whites and reds, this one is made by leaving red grapes for only a short time with their skins, which reduces the red colour but produces a different flavour. They are usually drier and more complex. And in wine world, that means fewer people are guaranteed to like them. We would not buy this again at $11.95. A would drink it again, but K says otherwise.

K- It smells alcoholy (it is 12.8%). On tasting, I can confirm it is a STRONG ASS wine. Honestly, it tastes like fruity flavoured nail polish remover. I get lots of fruits, like red berries and watermelon, maybe even strawberries, but it is overwhelmingly alcoholy. Chocolate doesn’t improve it. I do not like that. I like the flavour underneath the alcohol but I don’t like how strong it was. I did not get the orange or passionate fruit tastes. The smaller the sip, the better it tastes to me. Maybe eating tacos for dinner threw it off for me? I don’t know. I really do dig the fruit flavours, but it feels like there are two sections of wine flavours. There is alcohol/ nail polish remover and then fruit but NOT together. Mixing it with juice did not help. That shit should taste lot better for $12. This wine does have a very lovely textured bottle though. A lot of companies think about looks, but this one has texture too.

A- To me, it smells like cotton candy. It is dry and minerally, but I get a lot of strawberries but a strong alcohol finish as well. It definitely takes after the red wine side of rose, rather than the white side of rose. If you like light fruity roses, this is not your wine. It is a more complex less friendly rose, taking after its Cab Franc. It is all finish, no body. However, that finish, once it lingers, is kind of like fermented cotton candy. I don’t entirely hate it, in fact I kind of dig it. But you might not.
Some advice: don’t drink it with buffalo wing chips. It loses all the flavour and just tastes like booze. It promises a “refreshing acidity” and perhaps that is what alcohol tastes like? Eating very sweet gummies didn’t fully cut out the alcohol for me, but it did help a little. If I were to drink this again, I would try it with a summer salad, maybe a Greek salad. Something with some acidity to cut the wine would probably help. If I was having a party, I would make this into a sangria, but I’m not, so will drink it alone with K.
Girls night lesson? Not all roses are made the same. Think before you drink!

Dinner at the A Family Part 3 - Ridge Road Estates Winery, 2010 Barrel Fermented Chardonnary

As noted in one of our previous reviews, Ridge Road Estates Winery made out favourite wine, their Baco Noir. They were a fortunate discovery my parents made at the Hamilton Food and Drink show one year, and has continued to be a favourite of myself, M, my roommates, my colleagues, my parents, pretty much everyone. Their vibrant orange label and awesome sense of humour doesn't hurt, but it is their good wine that really helps. Chardonnay is one of the most popular wines in Ontario, it is kind of like the bread and butter of wines. Tonight's was once again barrel fermented, this time in French and American Oak. A, you may say, why do I care where the trees are from? Well, the answer is different wood, and even trees from different countries, make wines taste differently because their grain and pores are different. For example, French oak has smaller pores than its American friends ( I forget why, it has something to do with both climate and age of tree, but that's all I've got!). So if the pores are smaller, it takes longer for the wine to soak in and get that oakyness, so the oaking is more subtle, so in order to get the right flavour, you choose the right wood and maybe use two different ones for two different periods of time. I can't find the price on the 2010, but the 2009 was $16.95 and again has to be bought from the winery. I liked tonight's chardonnay better than last night. It was more typical, in that it takes on some of the characteristics you hear people talk about when they talk about oaked wine. I would say it is a safer bet for your chard-loving public. But what did my family think?

Sister - Smells stronger than the wine last night, like you really get a whiff of it. It is kind of sweet at first but has a strong alcohol taste. It also tasted like a really sweet fruit, but I can't think of which one.

Mom - This wine is one of my favourites. I think we bought nearly 6 bottles of it. It is a very traditional barrel-aged chardonnay. It tastes a bit like oak and a light melon. It has a very nice spiciness to it. It smells sweet fruity and oaky. It was definitely strong enough for our dinner tonight, which was roasted tomato risotto with chicken coated in yogurt, cilantro and cashews.

Dad - This wine had really good legs, it was full bodied and a very strong wine. This wine is probably not for sipping or for someone who doesn't like wine. It was slightly spicy, like cinnamon and nutmeg. I really liked it.

A - This wine has a very bright yellow colour. It smells like tropical fruits, like mango and pineapple. It is also very sweet smelling. The first sip seemed quite alcoholy. I will confess I made a bit of a face. But the second sip was very pleasant. It tastes like vanilla, rum, oak, and a touch of smokeyness. It was really spicy and warm, and tasted kind of like sunscreen smells (like coconut and sunshine). Overall, a very positive wine drinking experience! I would not reccomend this for people like my sister who claim to not like wine, or people who don't drink it sometimes.

Baco to Baco !

Tonight we bring you a new challenge. We're trying two new Back Noirs (generally mine & A's favourite grape) at different price points. The first is from Henry of Pelham Family Estate and at $24.95 it's the more expensive of the two and the most expensive of the VQA's available at the LCBO. Our other wine is at the other end of the spectrum and at $9.95 it is the cheapest Baco Noir VQA available.

On to the reviews!

More expensive:
Henry of Pelham Family Estate - Baco Noir 2010 Reserve VQA Ontario
A- it's very woody smelling, this is not what i think of when I think of Baco, more like a Merlot. Aged for 18 months in oak barrels, it's a really dark wine. If you like oak-y then it's probably for you. I think if you let it breath you get more fruit, maybe it just needs to sit for a bit before you enjoy it to get all the flavours. It tastes like dried fruit-cranberries, or cherry maybe.

L-more mineraly, still a bit of the smokey finish, maybe like a Cab Franc. I would sip it on it's own. I get more black cherry, especially good with fried zucchini and chili grilled chicken with chipolté mayo.

M-Whoa, rather strong, initially more vinegar-y than I would have thought for a $25 bottle. It has a really dry finish. Honestly I find it overpowering and not for me. I tried it again after eating a bit and trying the cheaper wine, and I find it tastes like walnuts and oak. In the end I think it's drinkable but not something I would go out of my way to find, it just sort of rubs me the wrong way but that might be my deep rooted cheapness shining through.

Less expensive: 20 Bees 2009 Baco Noir
L-that's the Baco fruit with a little bit of honey I'd expect. Overall it's too sweet for me.

A-smells really plumy with black cherry and honey suckle. I find it naturally sweet but not too sweet. While the ladies prefer a good wood, I prefer something a little sweeter.

M-oh yeah, that's more my kind of Baco. It's a deep mouthful, but not too much. I paired it with brie and crackers and it was really nice. It has the taste of spice and cherry, a mouthful but not overwhelming like the other Baco.

Final verdict: A prefers the cheap one, L prefers the expensive, and I prefer the cheap but we all agree that a mid-range is a better call all around.

The lesson here is sometimes class doesn't equal taste. I think you need to know your grapes and know your winery. We weren't worried about the 20 Bees wine because we know it to be a solid winery but we also know we like Baco so the Henry of Pelham was only a gamble because it was so much more expensive than our usual choices. We also think it's important to know whether you like lots of wood or just a little bit of wood.

Easter with the A Family Part 2 - Between the Lines, 2011 Pinot Noir

After sampling a pre-supper sipper that turned out not to suit the mood, the A family moved to dinner. Like our dinner wine, and truthfully like most of my parent's wine, this wine was a VQA selection from Niagara on the Lake. A Pinot Noir, it is from the small-ish and new-ish Between the Lines Winery, located nearer Niagara than many of the NOTL wineries. It is $14.95, and at this price I may pass. I find Pinots are sometimes hard-pressed to impress me, as they are a little lighter in taste for a red. I concluded that maybe I just don't like Pinots, or at least need to drink cheaper ones. But we had it with our awesome easter dinner of ham, pineapple, asparagus, and scalloped potatoes. We were even joined by a guest reviewer, my non-wine drinking sister.

Sister - This wine is very thin looking and has no legs. It smells very strongly of wine, like very grapey. The taste was much too strong and funny for me.

Dad - This wine is lightly floral smelling, and it truly does have no legs. It is light in colour and was truthfully a very mild wine. It was a very light drinking red, there is not a lot of body or aftertaste to it, which means it is very light for a red wine as they tend to linger. It was truthfully not my favourite pinot.

Mom - (full disclosure: my mom hates red wine and made a face when she drank this) This wine is very dry. It has a bit of a dark berry taste that is both smokey and dry. If I had to say that anything tasted like tobacco (as a non-smoker) I would say that this wine would be it.

A - This wine has a smokey woody smell, and was also kind of damp-ish smelling. It has a bit of a raspberry flavour to it, and is very very dry. It leaves a smokey linger in your mouth that is not unpleasant to me. It is a good red wine for sipping in the winter, but was a bit overwhelmed by the flavours of our dinner. Perhaps the role of Pinot in my life should be as my winter sipper. I would use it again as a sipping wine in the winter, but a full dinner is overpowering to this light dry wine. Maybe I should start exploring Pinots at a lower price point, to see if they end up too dry, or a nicer balance.