Yesterday I went to my first wine tasting as a “trade” member when I attended the Washington Wine Trade and Media Tasting at Stella’s Fish Cafe in Minneapolis. The event was sponsored by the Washington State Wine Commission as part of their “Washington State Wine Month” promotion. My co-worker and I sampled about 100 different wines. There were only a couple of dessert wines offered, more on those below, but some dry table wine standouts were:
- Tamarack Cellars: Aside from being one of the friendliest people at the event, owner and winemaker Rob Coleman makes some amazing wines. At $16 retail, the Firehouse Red was probably the best red blend I tasted all day. It’s a perennial award winner in the wine mags and now I know why. His $15 Chardonnay was also amazing, considering that Chardonnay doesn’t do particularly well in Washington. It was just about as well balanced as a Chardonnay can get and the quality-to-price ratio (“QPR”) is unbeatable.
- Middleton Family Wines: The table by Middleton Family Wines was another one at which I probably could’ve spent all day due to their knowledgeable and very friendly rep. They were sampling wines from their Buried Cane and Cadaretta brands, all of which were fantastic. Across the board, these were some of the most aromatic wines we tried. Even the reds, which were categorically tight at this event, had wonderful bouquets. The 2009 Buried Cane Columbia Valley Riesling, which is fermented dry, was probably the best I had and it’s a steal at $14 a bottle retail. Their Cadaretta 2010 White Bordeaux Blend ($23) would’ve actually fooled me in a blind taste test as actually being a Bordeaux Blanc. The 2008 Buried Cane Hartwood Red Rhone Blend ($25) was also delicious. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Beerenauslese, Botrytis, Dry Wines, Fortified Wine, Riesling, Sweet Wine, Tasting Events, Tasting Note, Trockenbeerenauslese, Washington | No Comments »
I’ve been trying to put together another article about one of my favorite dessert wines, but my day job has gotten in the way of that. I do want to publish something, so I’ve put together another sweet wine news roundup for you. I like this article format, so I might make it a regular occurrence on the site. It gives me a chance to research and to keep abreast of what’s going on in the sweet wine world.
Without further ado, here are the interesting articles I found this week;
- Leah Koenig discovers that Austria makes a lot more than just Gruner Veltliner. Like its neighbor, Germany, Austria makes some amazing sweet wines. Many of these wines are made in the province of Burgenland and are affected with noble rot. If you’re familiar with Germany’s sweet wines, Austria’s use of similar terminology should help guide your explorations.
- Sticking with the American sweet wine theme, you should also know that some of Virginia’s wineries are making good sweet wine. One Charlottesville restaurant and food blogger recently visited Barboursville Vineyards (great website!) and discovered they make a delicious and reasonably priced passito-styled dessert wine called the Maxlavio Passito. Passito-style wine making involves drying the grapes on straw mats as a way to concentrate their sugars and was probably invented in ancient Carthage. The most renowned (and expensive) style of passito dessert wine is Tuscany’s Vin Santo, while Amarone della Valpolicella is a famous passito wine that’s fermented dry. Before dropping $100+ on a 1/2 bottle of Vin Santo, perhaps you should try the offering from Barboursville?
- Finally, wine blogger Meg Tiffany takes a look at a fad that I really hope dies a quick and painful death: Chocolate Wine. Ms. Tiffany is a lot more kind than I would be if I ever actually reviewed this product.
Posted in Beerenauslese, Botrytis, Icewine, News, Passito, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, Sweet Wine, Trockenbeerenauslese | No Comments »
