GUEST REVIEW!!! Finagra Alandra Red, Italy

We here at Red, White and Rose love wine. But sometimes, you need a vacation. Yes, even from reviewing wine. To supplement our summer posts we will be featuring guest reviews! Our first guest reviewer is S, a fellow PhD student. If there had been a prize for smartest sounding reviewer at our blog launch, S would have won. She knows her wines cork to funny-dimple-at-the-bottom-of-the-bottle. So without any further ado, I hand it over to S!

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Ever wandered the LCBO aisles aimlessly searching for a red wine to accompany dinner?  Specifically a cheap red because the wine rack at home is actually full and you recently blew $250 on books and shoes?

No?  Me neither.

If you were, hypothetically of course, in that situation, the Finagra Alandra red may be the wine for you!  A dear friend introduced me to the Alandra last year and I still remember her somewhat embarrassed whisper, “it’s less than 8 bucks.”  

Going cheap does not mean giving up class. This winery operates out of a 13th century fort, represented on the bottle's cork.  

I’m generally rather suspicious of wines that transcend inexpensive and venture into the realms of cheap.  No one wants to buy a bottle of wine that turns out to be vinegar.  Luckily for me, it seems to be a rule of thumb that inexpensive reds are almost always better – or at least a safer buy – than inexpensive whites.  Alandra, by the Portuguese vineyard Finagra based at the Herdade do Esporão, is firmly in the “better” category and available at LCBOs for a whopping $7.95.  The 2011 bottle consumed for this review was actually on sale for $6.95.  If you’re in Europe it’s less than €2.50.

Alandra is a blended red using moreto, castelão, and trincadeira grapes (to be honest this has no meaning or significance to me) and comes traditionally corked in a dark bottle with a relatively nondescript label featuring 15 red balls organized to look like a cluster of grapes. 

The wine is a lovely dark ruby red colour and has strong dark cherry and cedar notes.  It actually reminds me of my mother’s cedar linen chest.  My husband – the white wine drinker – thinks the scent is too overwhelming.  Alandra is a medium-bodied, simple, and dry wine that I could probably use as an evening sipper.  It’s is a young red that has only a slight tannin-y finish; I think it has just enough tannin to balance out its fruitiness. This is not a wine I’d really recommend decanting – if at all – for very long.  It’s already a simple, noncomplex wine that’s fairly light on the tongue with minimal lingering finish.  Decanting, I feel, just makes it flat and boring. 

For those inexperienced with, or don’t prefer, very dry reds, I’d recommend pairing it with food.  Tonight it paired beautifully with lamb chops in a rosemary-shallot-balsamic reduction accompanied with roasted veggies and a dark, flourless chocolate cake for dessert.  Alandra also goes well with BBQ, pizza, roasted chicken, ribs, stews, spicy curries of the Indian or Thai variety…pretty much any strongly flavoured foods that can stand up to it.  At less than 8 bucks, the Alandra is a win.  It even makes a great boeuf bourguignon (Europe is small; Burgundy is close enough to Portugal) and even red wine vinegar if you add vinegar mother (purchased from your local winemaking place) and wait for a couple months.

So if a cheap red table wine is in your future, head down to your local store, grab a bottle of Alandra, pour a glass, and, as the Portuguese say, Saúde!

Night 3 of 3 of the challenge! Nicolas Laloux, Chardonnay (no year!)

The third night of our challenge is brought to you by Nicolas Laloux's Chardonnay. This whimsical bottle featured a bicyclist and a lovely peachy colour. Declared to be the wine for "the Travelling Gentleman," this wine was chosen by bottle alone. It cost $8.95 a bottle and was the middle-priced wine of the three. Overall, I would say this challenge was what we expected in some ways, in terms of an experiment in random wine picking. One wine was good, one was ok, and one was awful, which I think is perhaps only a bit worse than most people's experiences. I don't think anyone has ever had a 100% success rate from random wine buying. It certainly got us to try wines we may not otherwise have bought. It also taught us that price isn't everything, as our most expensive was easily the worst.

A -  The wine smelled promising, kind of lemony and buttery. Alas, smell did not meet taste in this case. I thought it tasted like bananas to start with but I got a dusty, flowery aftertaste, similar to rose petals or potpourri. I would not buy this wine and usually have better success at this price point.

K - It tasted like water to start with and alcohol to finish. It smelled light but good, but I'm not in love with the taste of it, which was like citrus and beer. I would not turn it down but would not buy it either, especially not at this price point.

L - I thought that it smelled delicate. It had a fresh taste at the start but I was left with a funny, lingering taste in my mouth.

M - To cap off a review of a wine none of us were mad for I think that this wine has a strong lemon taste to start and a metallic, coppery penny taste to finish. I would not buy it, and definitely would not do so at this price.

Night 2 of the 3 for under 25 challenge (Piemonte Denominazione Di Origine Conrollata Dolcetto 2011)

This wine was a Piemonte Denominazione Di Origine Conrollata Dolcetto 2011, shortened on the bottle as "D'Oh" (thank goodness!). It alledgedly "crowns the pursuits, the work and the efforts to stay foolish that unite three hundred and fifty vitner families in Clavesana." Well... all I can say is that I hope those vitners skip this review. At the price of $12.50, it was the most expensive challenge wine, and that was a hefty price for this wine that didn't get much praise.

A - The only word that came to mind for me was 'Icky'. It smelled like normal wine, but instead of tasting like anything it just tasted like alcohol to me. Oh, except for the aftertaste of dirt and mould that I got. I would not drink this again, like seriously WOULD NOT. This sounds really mean, so to soften it I would say I could see it making a good sangria with oranges, grapes, cranberries, and more heavy coloured fruits. I later tried it with candied ginger, and found that through the sweet tangy-ness of the ginger the alcohol taste was diminished and I could kind of taste some cherry-ish fruits. But not everyone would eat candied ginger and drink wine I suppose.

M-It has a really good smell at first, quite promising in fact. It had a rich start but a poor finish. The website says it should end on a spicy not, I say no note at all! Unless that note is a thoroughly alcoholic one. It was a little bit spicy off the start and went alright with my nighttime snack of salsa and tortilla chips. It also had a nice deep purply colour. A- Aside: Purple was once reserved for emporers and senators in Rome, who probably would have given this wine two firm thumbs down (provided they still had them both)! My ultimate verdict: really appetizing until you take a sip. Definitely not a repurchase, especially not at this price point.

L- This wine was not a very complex one. It might taste better with food, specifically tomato foods or spicy foods or with some good sausage. Ya. That's right. A good Sausage. (editorial liberties may be taken :P) It was a lot to take on its own though. I didn't like it, frankly.

K- First off, this wine did not remind me at all of Homer Simpson as promised. I would second the "smell it, but don't drink it" suggestion. If it were cheaper I would perhaps turn it into beef stew, but at this price I would be hesitant to cook with it.

Night 1 of the 3 for under 25 Challenge

Part of being a responsible wine blogger is trying new things. And in light of that, we challenged our friends K and L to find three wines at the LCBO for under 25$. A challenge indeed! The end total came to 27$, but we here at Red, White and Rosé are nothing if not forgiving, so we let it slide! This experiment was meant to reflect how some people buy their wines, conscious of only price. And it was truly an experiment indeed.

Our conclusion overall was unsurprising. Some were ok, some were awful, but most were generally drinkable. It was not an unpleasant experience and taught us a lot about buying cheap wine. Namely, that even if you don't know a wine, try and be familiar with its grape, because some grapes you won't like at any price. If you don't like an expensive version of a grape, you probably will hate its cheap version even more! For example, I have come to realise Pinot Grigio is often not my grape of choice, so I would steer clear of a cheap one. But Rieslings and gewurtzs and I are bros, so I probably would be safe buying a cheap one. Knowing what grapes you like will also be more  helpful when asking LCBO staff for foreign advice, as they can tell you which ones are similar in other countries (the good staff anyways, but that is another story...).

Tonight's wine was Citra Vini's Trebbiano D'Abruzzo. It was a ridiculous steal at $7.25. It alleges to be a typical white wine from the Artona (or Ortona, sources seem divided) region, according to the back of the bottle. The word "typical" brought to mind the manic-depressant robot from Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, hence the selection. It's allegedly good to drink on its own or as an aperitif, which is how we're trying it tonight. Notice we present these as claims, not facts!

K: I take no responsibility for this wine. It's alcohol-y. I would not drink it again, no matter how cheap. I would drink this at a free event, but if served at a wedding I'd rethink that expensive present. At least I'd take the beautiful, bow back. It probably cost more.

L: Seems like wine. (M: A glowing endorsement!) It doesn't have any legs at all, lots of mineral which you get with paler wines. Honey on the aftertaste when you breath out. This would be good with ice, the Italian liqueur Aperol, and a bit of soda.

Memories....I first tried this cocktail at the Belvedere in Vienna. Yep. Definitely made with prosecco then, so this isn't exactly the same. It was summer, hot as hell, and as I sipped my refreshing drink I painted watercolours of the elderly couple at the table next to me. (M: Can you get more picturesque than that?!)

A: I assume Citrva vini means little body and little colour. It is very mineral-y, often when you get a tingly sensation on your tongue (when it's not a sparkling wine) then it's mineral-y. It tastes very alcohol-y. Eating it with a sweet, a butter tart in this case, brings out the citrus in it and lessen the alcohol taste. If I was at a party and it was offered to me, I would not say no, but really it's worth the extra $2 to get a better wine. If you're having a family party and buying lots of alcohols to provide it would be fine, but it didn't have much going for me.

M: It's Easter wine! Aka the wine your Grandma serves at a family event, it's not necessary carefully chosen but there's a lot of tradition, or something in it. It's not something I would buy to sip but I wouldn't insult an elder over it.

On L's advice, we did make a cocktail with Apersol, and while the modifications improved it, perhaps "improved" is a generous word.

K: Mixing it doesn't quite cover the bitterness, but gives the wine more flavour. In the summer this would be nice.

A: It looks like red! It tastes like peanuts. It has that dry finish of peanuts with their skin still on.

M: Smells like red. It starts out sweetish, not quite fruity, not quite cream soda but really good. A slow finish with rhubarb at the end. It is for the fancy, not for the everyday and certainly not for an evening of indulgence.

So there it is, our first foray into the 3 for under 25 challenge. Stay tuned as we explore a slight more expensive (but not necessarily better) wine!

2010 Inniskillin Winemaker's Series Select Vineyards Shiraz-Cabernet, VQA

Tonight my mother said "Okay" to red wines. Her only condition was that I choose a "playful" red. This was more of a challenge than you might think because my dad is the big red wine drinker, and thus the big red wine buyer, and so his collection is mostly made up of merlots, Cabernet Sauvignons, and other big bodied reds that I knew would make my mom say "yuck"! I chose this bottle, strangely the only Shira, because back when it was new, she used to love Yellow Tail's Shiraz (and as an LCBO clerk this became my go to recommendation for people buying red wine for people they didn't know very well). After reading the bottle that told me about how these were the best grapes Inniskillin had grown that year and set aside especially for this blend, I joked with my mom that we had probably accidentally chosen my dad's most expensive wine. Oops, turns out we were close! This wine rings in at $24.95, but my dad got it on clearance for closer to twenty. Is this a $25 dollar wine? Not for big red drinkers! If you are looking for one of those wines that you mull over for their depth and complexity, like a Merlot, this isn't that wine. My Dad liked it a lot though, so if you are going to buy wine at this price, it's good to at least like it! BUT if you are looking to please a multi-drinker crowd that includes both red and non-red drinkers, this blend was a good choice. My mom went back for a second glass, which is saying something about a red wine. I certainly appreciated the difference in taste from blending these two grapes. But now I think now with a few more wine-drinking years under my own cap I should revisit that Yellow Tail, because it is much cheaper and may by an equally versatile red at a much cheaper price ($11.95 for the normal, $15.95 for the reserve). This wine may have been more complex, but $10 more? We'll see!

A - This wine is very dark in colour and it was very jammy and smokey smelling. It was surprisingly not as fruity as it smells. It is quite a spicy wine, like pepper or steak rub. It is more of a raisiny dry fruit flavour and it has quite a dry and fruity aftertaste that really lingers, and I quite liked this linger-y-ness. Sometimes wines are just in and gone, but this one stays around. It went really nicely with our kicky mustard dressing and strawberries.

M - There is not much body to this wine in the glass but it has a very strong smell. I thought from the smell that it would be an overwhlemingly smokey tasting wine, but it's not. I don't like the dryness of it at first, but that's because I don't like dry red wines and this wine dries your tongue right out. It tastes like wood to me, I think it is probably aged. I didn't mind its aftertaste though. I went in for a second glass of this wine, which is a teller that this is a good red for people who think that they don't like red wines as much.

D - It has a slight bit of smoke in the flavour and you can taste how the Shiraz smooths out the cabernet sauvignon, which tends to be a fatter, heavier drinking red. I could drink a whole bottle of this wine. It is an easy drinker that could even probably be chilled.

2010 Palatine Hills Quattro, VQA

While some people may mistake "smokey" for RWR teams favourite 's' word, like any good graduate students, our favourite one is "Sale!". My parents and I stocked up on this white blend when we found it on sale for $11.95 at the LCBO. It is now off sale, and rings in at $14.95, but is still worth a review! Since it is so stupidly humid, it makes sense we would review another white. This one is a blend from Niagara-on-the-Lake, made up of Riesling, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, and Sauvignon Blanc, and two of those are my favourite grapes so I gave it a try on a hot hot hot Friday night. What do we think about this wine?

A -  This is a very citrusy wine. It is quite tart. It is a little bit rosey tasting, like flowery. It is an easy drinking wine, with the tartness I like for a summer wine. I might also eat samosas with this. The junk foody but spicy feel of samosas would complement the tart sipping of this wine. Something snaky though, not a dinner. This wine has more sauvignon blanc to it than any other grape, which is weird in a blend, but I like it!

D - It  has a distinct taste that I can't put my finger on. It is a little tart and not dry. Perhaps it is a bit of a floral taste. There isn't really any aftertaste but it has a clean finish. I would call it a sipping wine, because while it is very tasty I do not think it would pair very well with foods. I would drink it again even if it weren't on sale when I went to buy it next, and I consider $15 to be a good price for this wine.

M -  This wine has very good body to it (this means it is a bigger bolder wine that lingers). It is a good sipper for a night of watching TV. It tastes slightly like grapefruit juice but it is not too acidic. It has no puckering aftertaste to it. It is quite smooth and gets more pleasant and smooth as you drink more of it. I would also drink this one against!

A -

2010 Top Bench White, Penninsula Ridge Estates Winery, VQA

It is wedding season and so I am spending some time with my parents at their house, as that's been where all the action is happening. And let me say, it has been an A+ season all around so far! C and R's wedding was one of the best parties I have been to in a while, and whether it was the love, the awesome wedding, or the bouquet to the face, I will only have fond memories of it (and a wine review of wedding wine to follow)! My parents and I have also taken some time to drink some wine while we cook and relax. Today's special was a white blend from Peninsula Ridge, a tried and true, and big enough to buy at the LCBO, Ontario winery. This wine is available through the LCBO at $13.75 a bottle. It is a blend of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and Gewurztraminer. Blends are tricky, because most often the bottle will not tell you how much of each grape goes in, and if you like one but not the other, you may be up the creek without a paddle. Luckily, this blend is the perfect summer sipper after a nice long hot walk and a heavy hot day. Here are our opinions as follows!

A- This wine is best drank very cold. Ours had chilled for two days and it made it a different wine than when we first tasted it just a little chilled at the winery. The extra chilling made it very sweet and crisp but also heavy. It was a juicy wine, like the mouth feel of a grape or heavy peach or pear juice, but had a sharp finish.  It had a light tropical or juicy fruit flavour, like peach or mango, but also a bit of a crisper finish. It is crisp but without a bite. It doesn’t linger on the tongue for very long though and is also not a very alcohol forward wine, which I really appreciated. It is a good, well-rounded off-dry blend, great for sipping, but I think it would be overwhelmed by food. I really liked this wine and would definitely recommend it as the perfect summer sipper for a hot day.

D - This wine was nice and crisp and clean and easy drinking. A good wine after a hard days work for drinking on its own. I could drink the whole bottle! I prefer crisper wines, so I was happy to drink it on its own, whereas M likes sweeter wines and doesn't like to drink crisp wines on their own.

M - It was pleasant enough. It was nice and clear and citrusy but I would have preferred it with some food. I find that that is how I generally feel about citrusy wine, that I prefer it with food or dessert rather than on its own.