This post will have tastes of a few beers, a vertical tasting of 3 vintages of a wine from Attimo Winery, a lot of different tomato tastings from the Blacksburg Farmer's Market tomato festival, and our regular wine tasting at Vintage Cellar.
Starting off with the beers!
- Atlanta Brewing - Laughing Skull Amber Ale - this was the last of the 4 beers from our craft beer membership Megan won. This was.... um, not very good. Maybe it would be better with food, but on its own it left a lot to be desired.
- Mother Earth - Endless River Kölsch - we purchased this in NC after we intended to stop by the brewery on the way to the beach, but didn't make it; this was pretty good and would go well with spicy asian food
- Natty Greene's - Freedom American IPA - again purchased in NC, we purposefully didn't get this at the brewpub in Greensboro; this beer has a phenomenal head that is fluffy and thick and it doesn't dissipate - you will have some head all the way to the bottom of the glass. Brett found this very very good and while it's not quite in that session-style alcohol content, might try to make it a session beer. Very good on it's own and just as good with food. Highly recommended!
- Founders - Imperial Stout - It's been unseasonably cool here, only having high temperatures in the upper 60s, and rainy too. Brett popped open one of these from the cellar to match the beer to the weather. This is one excellent beer! Distinctly ready for a cold winter's day with its 10.5% alcohol warming you as you slowly sip and enjoy every silky drop gliding past your tongue. There's a reason this has a 100 overall score and a 98 for style on ratebeer.com! That was the only bottle in the cellar so we'll need to stock up for winter!
Last Monday, our local winery, Attimo Winery, had a special vertical tasting of 3 vintages of one of their wines. How local is local? They are about 10 minutes by car or a comfortably easy 45 minute bike ride from the house. The vertical tasting was for their A.D. 325. This is a wine made from Chambourcin grapes. Wines from these grapes are rapidly becoming some of our favorites from local wineries (Brett is a sucker for Cabernet Franc too). The vertical flight consisted of their 2010, 2011, and 2012 vintages. It was a really fun experience and we had a little appetizer consisting of bread, cheese, and olives to go along with it.
- 2012 - Attimo Winery - Chambourcin - A. D. 325
- 2011 - Attimo Winery - Chambourcin - A. D. 325
- 2010 - Attimo Winery - Chambourcin - A. D. 325
Our favorite here was the 2011. The 2012 was obviously very young and hot and should really probably not be opened until at least 2014. The 2010 was very good and complex, but the 2011 was just slightly better in our opinion. They are planning to make this a regular event so we hope to do more of these as it's really fun to see how different years' growing conditions change the flavor of the wine. We also had another local wine for dinner with lasagna last week.
- 2007 - Villa Appalaccia Winery - Toscanello - This winery is just up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Over the years we have really enjoyed visiting the winery as it's very close to our favorite camping area on the Parkway. We also really used to enjoy their wine. However, we have found that either our tastes are changing or their wines are changing and while the wines are still pretty good, we just don't enjoy them the way we used to. Welcome to changes as we expose our palates to a much greater number of tastes and flavors.
- Amish Paste
- Black Velvet
- Brandywine
- Win-all
- Mountain Magic
- Green Zebra
- Ramapo
- Taxi
- San Marzano
- Black Cherry
- Sungold Cherry
- Moskvitch
- Eva Purple Ball
- Black Prince
- Peach
- Orange-banana
- Green sausage
- Celebrity
- Ukranian Purple
- New Girl (hybrid)
- Mr. Stripey
- Yellow pear
- Cherokee purple
- Beefsteak
Okay, so some of these we (well, Brett) have tried before but Megan's not a huge fan of tomatoes and tried them all anyway so we're counting them! :-) We got to the market a bit late so we decided to have lunch at the market. There are always vendors around, but right next door in a shop is the quirkily-named Excellent Table -Ethiopian Cuisine. They have a very limited breakfast/lunch menu on market days, so we ordered the sweet and spicy pork kebab with rice and vegetables.
- Excellent Table - Ethiopian Cuisine - sweet and spicy pork kebab with rice and vegetables: in a word, delicious! Spicy, but not so hot you couldn't take it and incredibly flavorful and rich. It was a bit sweet, we think from coconut milk, and served with grilled squash, onions and we think a grape leaf.
- Excellent Table - Ethiopian Cuisine - sweet tropical iced tea: obviously sweet, but hints of red fruit and quite spicy - cardamom predominantly, but also cinnamon; really nice with the kebab.
Last but not least, our regular wine tasting from Vintage Cellar. Just one distributor this week so a short list.
- 2011 - Château Les Tuileries - Blanc
- 2012 - Bodegas Huarpe - Torrontés - Taymente
- 2009 - Pietra Santa - Chardonnay - Twin Terraces
- 2011 - Pietra Santa - Pinot Noir
- 2009 - Château Les Tuileries - Bourdeaux
- 2011 - Tikal - Patriota
Our favorite here was far and away the Tikal Patriota - it's a malbec blend (60% malbec, 40% bonarda) and was just amazingly rich and complex. It's about $24 a bottle so if you like malbecs, you should try to find one to try!
And that gets us caught up finally. Thanks for reading!
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