Discovering Wine
This past weekend my husband and I ventured out to The Kensington Wine Market to check out their yearly sale. We are just beginning our journey or pleasure of discovering wine. Although over the years we certainly have indulged in numerous bottles. We decided that we wanted to take a little more time, try some wines we may not normally and just to slow down and appreciate. We do know we love California Cab's & Zins, I love French Rose and we are still working on our whites.Lisa, who is the Manager at Kensington and for some strange reason we keep crossing paths over the past 23 years was a great help. Ken and i were thinking of trying out an Italian Brunello since we plan on visiting Tuscany in the future (near we hope). There were 3 varieties at the shop and Lisa suggested this one. We do know that Brunello's for the most part and please forgive me if I am wrong, are lighter than a Cab. or Zin.
Ken was making a wonderful lamb stew for dinner so we thought this would be a great pairing. I uncorked the bottle at noon as we were told it needs to aerate quite a few hours. (That was new information for us)
Then at 1:00 pm we decanted into our glass holder (for lack of a better explanation). We also tried our first taste, be it a very small one. The color is a pale red, the nose is very light (difficult to tell with a slight cold) but the finish is l.o.n.g......
At 4:00 we decided to indulge in another taste. This time the nose had changed for me, apples? The feeling in my mouth was very light and smooth with a wonderful long finish.
6p.m. was dinner and we were eager to eat and enjoy our wine. The stew did not overwhelm the wine or vice versa nice pairing. The wine was delicious and very smooth no tannins.
We purchased a few more to cellar, should be interesting the next time we uncork. I am glad we broke out of the box and tried something new.
It's all personal preference of what you do or do not like and that is the fun of "discovery".
Thanks to Lisa........Until next time.
Yay you're back! I've missed your photographs & was excited to see your comment this morning. We love experimenting with wines, right now we're in an Argentinian Malbec phase..pairs so nice with steak. We love Catena, which is unbelievably inexpensive. Who knew you had to de-cant it for that long, we feel proud when we remember to open it 5 minutes before we eat.
ReplyDeleteI agree...Yay! You're back! I was so excited when you popped up on my Google reader! And what a great post! We love wine, not just drinking it but learning about it and visiting/touring wineries etc. We have tickets to Winefest in February. I am not much of a red wine drinker, but the one you tried sounds intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI love wine too! I've sometimes taken in the Tasty Thursdays event at Willow Park Wines (great fun). I love cheap wines too, so I bought Uncorked last month (http://www.amazon.ca/Uncorked-Shelley-Boettcher/dp/1770500316). We have been having a great time pairing and enjoying wines from that book! I am really surprised at the 6 hour decanting time.
ReplyDeleteKathryn, I THINK the long decanting is specific to certain wines. I don't think decanting whites are necessary but I am sure willing to try more wine and learn!
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