Chocolate Amore

A dessert wine is an excellent way to entice your sweetie on Valentines Day, and so is chocolate. The beauty of the Trentadue Chocolate Amore dessert wine is that it has both. It is a Merlot based, Port style dessert wine infused with chocolate. This romantic and succulent treat is a little more than you may normally invest, but is still very reasonable (around $25). It's what you might say is more of a "special occasion" wine, like for Valentines Day, perhaps. I discovered it at a tasting a few years ago, and it opened up my palate to dessert wines. Absolutely delicious! I'm planning on pairing mine with dark chocolate truffles...

OR

If you're looking for something pink and sparkling for V-Day, don't forget the Cristalino Brut Rose Cava (see my previous entry, Thanksgiving Wines 11-28-08, for details). At around $8, it's the best! I may indulge in this one before the Chocolate Amore...

Carmenere

I am a huge fan of Chilean wines! They are amazing and usually a fraction of the price of comparable wines. I've been drinking Chilean Cabs for awhile now, but recently discovered the Carmenere grape at a wine tasting at the Wine Warehouse in Port Orange, FL. Chile is the only significant source of this unique grape. After the tasting, I was on a mission to find more Carmenere, and surprisingly found the MontGras "Reserva" Carmenere, Colchagua Valley, Chile (2007) at Costco for under $10. It is rated at 90 points by Wine Enthusiast--that is a HUGE rating for an under $10 wine! Upon further research, I discovered that it earned a "Best Buy" designation and is#50 in "The Best Buys of 2008" from Wine Enthusiast. But more importantly, you ask, how does it taste?! This wine is phenomenal, and what really stood out to me was the smokiness that was deliciously balanced with the rich and juicy dark fruit. It is soft on the palate and finish with mocha and subtle hints of vanilla. I paired this wine with barbecued ribs, and it was an excellent match!

Wedding Wine 10: SIMI

The LAST wedding wine is the SIMI Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (2005). This wine defines everything I love in a California Cab. Bold and fruit-forward, but also elegant.

The details from the wine maker:

Blend: 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot, 2% Malbec, 2% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot

Appearance: Dark red with a ruby cast

Aroma: Blackberry, cassis, and plum laced with cedar, spice and rose petals

Flavor: Lush black cherry and black berry are highlighted with vanilla and a dusting of cocoa and herbs

Wedding Wines 9: Marietta

Marietta Old Vine Red Lot #47, oh how I do savor this wine. This may be my favorite of all the Wedding Wines. This old vine red is primarily Zinfandel, blended with Carignane, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Cabernet. Luscious dark fruit and plenty of peppery spice to balance it, both on the nose and palate. The color is a dark ruby purple, and the body can only be described as BIG (and complex). I tried this wine for the first time at The Elusive Grape in downtown Deland, FL, and have been drinking it ever since. This is not a wine that you only drink once; you will crave it again and again. You can find it at wine warehouses for the shocking price of $11.99!

Wedding Wines 8: Murphy-Goode Liar's Dice

Finally, on to one of my favorite subjects, Zinfandels! The next wedding wine is the Murphy-Goode Liar's Dice Zinfandel. Surprisingly, I discovered this wine in my home town in KS at a liquor store when we were back in town visiting. My husband and I read the back of the bottle, it sounded good, and the price sounded good, too. Then, after we left the store, I suspiciously checked the receipt, it sounded like more than we had thought. And so, we discovered that this wine was $22 instead of $12 (although we have since found that you can buy it at wine warehouses for under $20). This turned out to be a lucky turn of events because we probably never would have tried it after looking at the real price tag. We uncorked the wine while watching a Chiefs game, and it knocked our socks off! For me, this is what a perfect Zin should be--plums, raspberries, dark cherries, an explosion of fruit on the palate without forgetting the spice. I'm pretty sure I have measured every Zin in comparison to this one ever since.

Wedding Wines 6 and 7: The Sparklers

For the occasion of New Years Eve, I am skipping ahead to the sparkling wines of the wedding. I absolutely love the Paringa Sparkling Shiraz (2004) from Australia. It is dark purple and bubbly, featuring the rich dark fruit of blackberry and blueberry. This wine is made for dark chocolate and winter festivities! Plus, it is fun and different if you want to impress friends who have never seen a sparkling Shiraz before. I tried this wine for the first time at my friend's graduation party at the Elusive Grape in downtown Deland, FL. This is a wine that is always around at this ever-changing wine store (and sells for around $14.99)--a definite keeper!

The other sparkling wine sampled was the Francois Montand Blanc de Blanc. This delicious and very affordable white-blend sparkling wine retails for around $10. It has an unusual blend of Airen and Ugni Blanc grapes. It's complex and toasty with flavors of crisp apple and lemon. Enjoy!

Christmas Wine

Have you ever, on a special occasion, wanted to perfectly pair a favorite food with a favorite wine, and then realized that neither one of them really matched, so you said, "oh well, screw it," and had your yummy food with a favorite wine which really didn't go together? That's what we did this Christmas (and we had most of the wine consumed before the food). We have a new "tradition" (going on 2 consecutive years when we don't fly out of state to visit relatives) of having a Mexican feast on Christmas. We don't have a particularly favorite wine (yet) that goes well with this type of food (although dark Mexican beer seems to work quite well), and we have been wanting to find a special time to drink a very special wine, La Colombaia Valpolicella Ripasso (2003). We discovered this wine at a tasting about 3 years ago, and although it was less than $20, we realized that this is a very delicious Italian wine meant to be cherished. This red is well-balanced with dark fruit and nuances of vanilla and spice. Muy bien or molto bene!