Tastes from Nov 11th - 17th

This was a relatively slow week for us.  We did do some new tastes, but with the coming end of the school year and the rush and bustle that comes with it, we have been too busy to do much.  We'll start with some tastes from our regular Vintage Cellar Saturday tasting.

952. 2008 - Guy Saget - Pouilly-Fumé - Le Domaine Saget
953. 2009 - Bouchard Finlayson - Blanc de Mer
954. 2009 - Quinta do Quetzal - Alentejo Guadalupe
955. 2007 - Bodegas y Viñedos Escudero - Rioja - Noega
956. 2003 - Castello di Lucignano - Il Solissimo
957. 2006 - Fortediga Estates - Cabernet - Syrah - Maremma - Toscana IGT

We also tried 3 new beers over the week.

958. Brewery Ommegang - Adoration - This is one spicy beer with some unusual spices you don't often find in beers like grains of paradise and mace.  It's initially a bit overpowering, but as you drink it (and it warms up some to maybe 55F), it becomes smoother and more drinkable.  
959. Epic Brewing - Fest Devious Märzen - This is a nice fall beer - quite a nice märzen.
960. Rogue Ales - Santas Private Reserve - Our second Christmas beer and this is one very hoppy ale. 

That's all for this week.  We should have a lot more tastes this coming week.  

Tastes from Nov 4th - 10th

We had a good week and went to Virginia Beach for a meeting for Brett - the Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers.  We had some new food tastes, starting with a trip to the Melting Pot for dinner (including a new wine).

935. Bourbon Bacon Cheddar Cheese Fondue - This had some mustard powder in it which was a bit overpowering since neither of us really enjoy mustard.  It wasn't overwhelming and certainly didn't stop us from eating every single piece of bread, vegetable, and granny smith apple that came with it!
936. White Chocolate Crème Brûlée Fondue - This was their special dessert fondue at the time.  This was a bit too sweet for Brett.  Both of us did like it, but since most of the items to dip were sweet we would have preferred something with a bit of bitterness for contrast to the fondue.
     
937. 2010 - Vinaceous - Shiraz - Snake Charmer - This was really good with dinner and made a nice complement to the fondue.
     
     
     

Megan also had a new sandwich on our return home at Panera.

938. Big Kid Grilled Cheese - Three kinds of cheese and bacon were delicious, especially with Panera's cream of tomato soup.

There was a special tasting of wines from Bourdeaux at Vintage Cellar on Thursday this week.

939. 2012 - Vieux Château Gaubert Benjamin de Vieux - Château Gaubert - Blanc
940. 2011 - Château Barrabaque - Cuvée Antoine
941. 2012 - Chateau Clou du Pin - red Bourdeaux blend
942. 2009 - Château Plaisance (Bordeaux Supérieur)
943. 2009 - Château Bellegrave du Poujeau
944. 2010 - Château Dasvin-Bel-Air
945. 2010 - Château Hourtin-Ducasse
946. NV - Domaine des Nugues Beaujolais-Villages - Made by G - Have someone who says they don't like wine?  Give them some of this to change their mind - it's light, effervescent, refreshing, and clearly grape, but very drinkable and would go very well with Thanksgiving dinner.
947. 1998 - Charles Melton - Cabernet Sauvignon - Wes, the distributor, likes to bring one wine from his cellar to play "guess the wine" with.  This is a pretty old wine and has really changed from a typical Cab Sauv flavor profile.  It was almost like a tawny, but still with what Megan feels is a typical eucalyptus aroma from Australian wines.  It's amazing what 15 years can do to change a wine's flavor and this was fun to taste.

Last but not least, we have a few new beers we tried.

948. Bison Brewing - Organic Gingerbread Ale - The first Christmas beer tried for the season.  This was interesting and is supposed to be a porter with gingerbread flavors added in.  It was okay, but nothing we would go out of the way to have again.  
949. Saucony Creek - Captain Pumpkin’s Maple Mistress - This was a maple "pumpkin" beer, but actually was made with butternut squash.  The maple that was added is hard to notice in either the aroma or on the palate.
950. J.K.’s Northern Neighbour - Farmhouse Cider - Saskatoon Cuvee - This is an absolutely excellent cider.  This is Fall in a bottle.  Superb and everyone should seek this out for an example of an excellent cider.  
951. Unibroue - La Fin du Monde - Very delicious Belgian-style triple that was fermented on lees.  Yeast and citrus aromas and a delicious taste.  

Tastes from Oct 28th - Nov 3rd

As we approach 1000 tastes, we seem to be enjoying the tasting process more and more.  Now that we're so close, we are really trying to make sure the last 100 are excellent.

We'll start off with some foods:

908. Bruno' Gastro Truck - Gooey Brownie - This is their triple chocolate brownie covered in a homemade caramel sauce.  This is deliciously chewy, chocolatey, and the caramel sauce provides a nice complement.  Plan on sharing it unless you're feeling gluttonous or super hungry.
     
     
     
     
     
909. Stella Fontina - This was a cheese Megan didn't like much, but Brett liked quite a bit.  Fontina makes a better sauce than eating raw.  
910. French toast crockpot breakfast - Supposed to be similar to a stuffed french toast.  It was made with apples and walnuts, but it didn't turn out very well and we won't be making it again, so no recipe.
911. Kettle Chips - Sweet and Salty chips - These are, like the bag says, sweet and salty.  They are not amazing, but not bad.

On to the beers we tried:

912. Anchor Brewing - Small Beer - This is a traditional-style;  the beer is made by using the second sparging of grain used to make a barley wine with the first sparge.  It's the first time that Brett has had this style before and it tastes like a watered-down barley wine.  
913. Fuller's - London Brewing - This is Brett's favorite porter of all time.  Perfect.
914. Founders Brewing - Porter - This isn't Fuller's, but it is darn good and a very good alternative if you can't find a Fuller's.
915. Southern Tier - Pumking - This is renowned as a great pumpkin ale for the season, but at least the one we had was way too much clove.  The clove becomes more subtle as it sits, but it takes awhile.  The ale is clearly pumpkin and the sweetness of the pumpkin is apparent in every single sip. 
916. Hofbräu München - Oktoberfestbier - This is probably one of the worst märzens we've had all season.  It's not bad, but it's also not very good.

Finally, we went to two, count 'em, two different wine tastings over the weekend.  A new wine shop has opened in Fairlawn called Barrel Cave Wines and Saturday was their grand opening.  

917. NV - Marsuret Prosecco - Treviso - Extra Dry
918. 2011 - Quinta das Arcas - Conde Villar - Alvarinho
919. 2012 - Neudorf - Sauvignon Blanc
920. 2012 - West Cape Howe - Chardonnay - Unwooded
921. 2007 - Bodega O. Fournier - Ribera del Duero - Spiga
922. 2010 - Klein Constantia - Cabernet Sauvignon

After that we headed over to the regular Saturday tasting at Vintage Cellar.  We were lucky and got to taste a number of really, really excellent wines.  

923. 2012 - Cantina di Gambellara - Soave - i Basalti
924. 2013 - Viña Siegel - Sauvignon Blanc - Crucero
925. 2011 - Winzer von Erbach - Erbacher Honigberg - Riesling
926. 2011 - Charles Thomas - Côtes du Rhône
927. 2012 - Chakana - Malbec - Maipe Reserve
928. 2010 - Klinker Brick - Zinfandel
     
929. NV - Rinaldi - Red Dream
930. 2008 - Fratelli Alessandria - Barolo - Monvigliero - The first of our super tastes.  This was amazing and we gave this a 92.
931. 2007 - Saint-Cosme - Châteauneuf-du-Pape - The second super taste. We gave this a 97.  It was delicious, complex, and amazing.  
932. 2009 - M. Chapoutier - Shiraz - Domaine Tournon - Lady's Lane - This was very good, but paled compared to the rest, obviously so since we gave it only an 87.
933. 2012 - Chakana Estate Selection - This is a red blend with 60% Malbec, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Shiraz.  We gave this a 96 and left with two bottles.  This will get better with a few more years aging, but it's very very good now.
     
934. 2010 - Bodegas Alto Moncayo - Campo de Borja - This was our final taste and we gave it a 90.