Best and Worst Tastes - 2013

We thought it would be fun to have a few lists of our top tastes.  We will break them up in the same big three categories that we did for the statistics.

Top Beer

These are the top 10 beers from 2013.  While some of their scores don't match their rating here, it's been very hard to be consistent with rating over months and months.  

1. Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus - Westvleteren 12 (XII) - This was an amazing beer and a gift from Brett's brother Brian.  This is the number one beer on Ratebeer.com and well deserving of its ranking.  It is incredibly complex and delicious.  
2. Hill Farmstead Brewery - Susan - We had this on our summer trip.  This is an IPA with floral and citrus notes from the hops on the nose.  The taste is complex and not just all hop like many IPAs and is full of citrus and caramel with a long mellow finish.  
3. Dogfish Head Brewery - 60 Minute IPA - We tasted this at the brewery in Delaware. This is the classic East Coast IPA and has an excellent reputation that has been honestly earned. 
4. New Belgium Brewing Company - Lips of Faith - Transatlantique Kriek - This is from New Belgium's Lips of Faith series and is a traditional kriek.  It starts life in Belgium, then is shipped to Fort Collins, CO and blended with a golden lager.  It's deliciously sour and fruity.
5. Hill Farmstead Brewery - Edward - Another great beer from Hill Farmstead, we had this on our trip as well.  This is an American Pale Ale and not as hoppy as Susan, but just as delicious. 
6. Hill Farmstead Brewery - Everett - You might be sensing a trend.  In this case, Hill Farmstead has created an excellent porter.  Full of dark chocolate, coffee, and nutmeg - this is even better than Brett's perennial favorite, Fuller's London Porter.
7. Maine Beer Company - Lunch - We bought a bottle of this while in Maine and brought it home. Sticking with the trend of breweries to make lots of different IPAs, this is a nice example. It is bottle-conditioned which is pretty different in this day and age and it's one of the best-balanced IPAs. It's very smooth and easy to drink.
8. Dogfish Head Brewery - Palo Santo Marron - This is a brown ale aged on a very dense, hard to get, South American wood.  The brewery managed to get their hands on 20 blocks which was used to age the beer.  This is a very unusual beer with licorice flavors as well as chocolate and dark malt.  
9. Brouwerij Van Steenberge - Gulden Draak - We had this in Denver at the Cheeky Monk.  This is an incredibly drinkable Belgian strong ale with notes of caramel and toffee.  
10. New Belgium Brewing Company - La Folie - This a great sour red ale which is thankfully widely available.  We both love this beer - great tastes and aromas of sour cherry, cranberry, and caramel.  

We have some clear preferences here - 3 from Hill Farmstead and 2 each from New Belgium and Dogfish.  

Worst Beer

Here's a list of our 2 worst beers.  We've eliminated any that were clearly faulty in the bottle.  These two are actually terrible and even if you were dying of dehydration, you should probably skip them. We had other beers that weren't great, but these are actively bad.  If you see these, just run the other way or pour them down the drain.

1. Carton Brewing - Intermezzo - Not only was this disgusting, it was probably one of our most expensive pints of the year.  We think we finished maybe a third of it.  If you can imagine liking a beer that is reminiscent of a urine-soaked sweat sock that has been left in the back of a gym locker all year and then barfed on, this is the beer for you!
2. Anheuser-Busch InBev - Wild Blue - After gifting us the Westvleteren XII, Brian then dug out this terrible excuse for a beer.  AB has clearly tried to copy Flying Dog's art and font, but didn't bother trying to copy the quality.  This was terrible.  If you imagine a blueberry soda, dump all the syrup into a glass, and dilute it with some additional artificial sweetener and a bit of carbonated water, then add some vodka for the alcohol content, that's what you have.  Smells like convenience store pre-packaged blueberry muffins and tastes worse.
   
    

Best wines

Here's our top 10 wine tastes for the year.  

1. 1997 - Salon - Champagne - Brut - Blanc de Blancs - This was from our champagne tasting in December.  At the cost per bottle, this should be darn near the top and it is!  A classic French champagne, with aromas and taste of pear, apple, and bread.  
2. 2008 - Abelis Carthago - Toro Fighting Bulls - A classic Spanish wine made from a classic grape, tempranillo.  A very big wine with lots of complexity and flavor.  
3. 2007 - Saint-Cosme - Châteauneuf-du-Pape - This is a red Rhone-blend, very round and a bit spicy on the palate.  
4. 2009 - Bodegas y Viñedos Maurodos - Toro Viña San Román - Another tempranillo, this one has a velvety mouthfeel and almost a port-like feel to the finish.
5. 2005 - Bodegas Muga - Rioja Gran Reserva Prado Enea - Hmm... another tempranillo, but in this case it's a blend - fruit, red meat and some acidity.  This would go great with food.
6. 2010 - Domaine Serene - Pinot Noir - Evenstad Reserve - An Oregon pinot noir, this is fruity, peppery, and chewy.  It's quite expensive, but it's very good.
7. 2000 - Donatella Cinelli Colombini - Rosso di Montalcino - We brought this back from Italy. Presumably, this was past its prime, but nobody told the wine that.  This was excellent and we are going to open our last bottle we brought back from Italy, a Brunello, very soon.
8. 2012 - Chakana - Estate Selection - This is an Argentine red blend.  This is a delicious round, complex, smooth drinking wine.  
9. 1998 - Krug - Champagne Vintage Brut - A second champagne from our tasting in December.  While not quite as expensive as the Salon, it was very close to being as good.  
10. 1968 - Gaja - Barbaresco - Brett's 40th birthday gift from Brian and Teresa, this was another wine that should have been past its prime. Was it?  Probably, but it was a delicious experience to try a 40 year old wine and while it might have been a bit past its prime, it was still holding up very, very well.

Worst wines

Throwing out the bottles that were obviously flawed, these were the worst 5 wines of the year.

1. NV - Peaks of Otter Winery - Frosty Morn - This supposed to be a dessert wine so it's not unusual for it to be sweet, but this was disgustingly syrupy sweet.  
2. 2011 - Ferrari-Carano - Bella Luce - Again, very sweet with burned eraser notes on the finish.  
3. NV - Lamplighter Vineyards - This is supposed to be a chardonnay blend, but this tastes about as much like chardonnay as Twinkies taste like steak.  
4. NV - Peaks of Otter Winery - "Chili Dawg" - Any wine tasting that they squeeze Cheez Whiz on your hand so you can lick it then take a shot of the "wine" deserves to be in the bottom 5.  
5. NV - Leo Grande - Roaring White - Like sweet?  Want even more sweet?  Try this!

Best foods

Here's our top foods from the year (not in any particular order).

• Mike's Pastry (Boston, MA) - Boston Creme Pie - We had this while we were in Boston and it was absolutely delicious and rich.  
• Mike's Pastry (Boston, MA)- Chocolate Ricotta Cannoli - Also from Boston, this was also very good.
• Sea Dog Brewing (Portland, ME) - Risotto arancini - deep-fried risotto with nice spiced breadcrumbs, lots of umami, delicious;  served with pomodoro for dipping.
• The Summit (Christiansburg, VA) - Apple Rutabaga Bisque - On first blush, this probably sounds like a very strange combination, but it was quite good, so much so that we asked if we could get a container to go (obviously, we'd pay for it). 
• The Summit (Christiansburg, VA) - The Brigadier - Brett had this.  The steak was literally melt in your mouth tender, the gorgonzola sauce was not overdone and the flavor of the steak was fantastic. 
• The Summit (Christiansburg, VA) - Chocolate creme brulee - In short, it tasted like a super delicious chocolate mousse with caramel on top with a bit of sea salt on top.  
• Villella's Ristorante (Niagara Falls, NY) - Lemoncello Gelato - It's a dessert of creamy vanilla gelato served in a flute with lemoncello.  Think of it as a refreshing and adult ice cream float. Hard to imagine that the best Italian food we've had since we left Italy was in a Super 8.
• Britt's (Carolina Beach, NC) - Glazed donuts - These are apparently the second best donuts in the US.  Neither of us really care about donuts, but man these were good!
• Natty Greene's (Greensboro, NC) - Turkey Razz sandwich - Megan says this was amazing and all her mayo should be raspberry.
• Cooking Light - Chicken and Black Bean Burritos - We made these and took them on our trip. Fast, easy, healthy and delicious.

Worst food tastes

• Cabot - Horseradish Cheddar - Neither of us like horseradish and this was way too much for either of us.
• Oregano vinegar - This flavored balsamic vinegar was like chewing on oregano.
• Whole fruit persian lime olive oil - lime peel and lime juice - not really very olive oil-like.

And that's the end of our 2013 summary.  We'll have new tastes starting up in 2014 soon!