Tasting - Opera Prima Sweet Red

Image credit: Vintage Cellar

Name: Opera Prima Sweet Red
Variety: Blend
Region: La Mancha
Country: Spain
Year: 2010
Price: $4.95 (Vintage Cellar)

Shop Review:
Doesn't try to hide its warm-climate terroir, with a soft texture framing jammy-sweet black raspberry, cherry, red currant, root beer and sweet tea. Drink now.

My Review
The third red wine in the five wine tasting, I was not pleased with the first two reds and was expecting the worst. Even the name, with should be inviting, made me wonder. If a wine company puts the word "sweet" on their bottle, what does that mean? When I smelled the wine, it also had a very fruity, sweet smell, but this time i did not assume anything. However, when I went to taste this wine I was greatly surprised. I could definitely taste a hint of chocolate covered cherries. I found the wine to be quite enjoyable. This was the first wine I have ever been able to say this about. For only $5, people have said that there was no way for this to be a "good"wine, but I enjoyed it so much that I bought a bottle on the spot.

Tasting - Montes Alpha Syrah

Image credit: Vintage Cellar

Name: Montes Alpha Syrah
Variety: Syrah
Region: Apalta
Country: Chile
Year: 2009
Price: $7.95 (Vintage Cellar)

Shop Review:
Blackberry and cola aromas are cool and collected. The palate has weight and texture to accompany berry, mint, herb and peppery flavors. Turns more herbal and roasted as it unwinds. Pepper and spice lead the finish.

My Review:
After the dry and bitter Coreto Tinto, I wasn't sure what to expect from the next red wine. One big whiff of the Montes Alpha Syrah i was taken back to my childhood. It was just like a glass of grape juice in the morning. I was excited to taste this one. I was quite disappointed by the flavors. I was expecting a very fruity wine, but instead got yet another bitter flavor. This wine also had a slight burn as well. I didn't linger long, but I could definitely feel the alcohol in my mouth.

Tasting - Coreto Tinto

Image credit: Vintage Cellar

Name: Coreto Tinto
Variety: Blend
Region: Lisboa
Country: Portugal
Year: 2010
Price: $6.95 (Vintage Cellar)

Shop Review:
Despite its light touch, this is fruity and full, with its blackberry fruit dominating the warm spice note and acidity. Soft tannins keep the wine together.

My Review:
Definitely not a wine I enjoyed. Dry and bitter are the only two words I wrote down when I tried this wine. Not only was it dry, it left my mouth feeling dry for some time after. As all the tastings for the first few months of this, I would be willing to try it again after my palate has been trained, but for now I probably won’t be buying a bottle for myself.

Tasting - Maipe Sauvignon Blanc

Image credit: Vintage Cellar

Name: Maipe Sauvignon Blanc
Variety: Sauvignon Blanc
Region: Mendoza
Country: Argentina
Year: 2011
Price: $7.95 (Vintage Cellar)

Shop Review:
Yellow color with green hints. Expressive wine, fresh, very aromatic. This Sauvignon Blanc displays grapefruit flavors, with hints of melon and honey. It finishes with bracing acidity and fresh mouth feels that make it a terrific aperitif and an excellent accompaniment to virtually all seafood, especially shellfish.

My Review:
This was my first Sauvignon Blanc. Compared with the Vinho Verde, I found this to be much stronger and lasting longer on the tongue. It wasn’t a very remember-full flavor. Again, dry and bitter describe this wine, but I feel like it would be better tried side by side with other Sauvignon Blanc wines.

Tasting - Encostas do Lima Vinho Verde

Image credit: Vintage Cellar

Name: Encostas do Lima Vinho Verde
Variety: 80% Loureiro and 20% Trajadura
Region: Vinho Verde
Country: Portugal
Year: 2010
Price: $4.95 (Vintage Cellar)

Shop Review:
Pale golden silver color. Bright floral aromas of peaches, raspberry and honeysuckle with a soft, dry-yet-fruity medium body and a crisp, tart citrus and talc accented finish. A delightful sipper that is sure to please.

My Review:
Being my first wine tasting, and not just throwing the stuff back to get drunk, I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. I used what I was told about white wines to help me know what to look for and did my best to find the flavors. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing and for the most part use this tasting as the base for the next 4 wines in the tasting. It definitely tasted like wine. I took notice of the crisp- and dry-ness. I don’t know if I would call it sweet, more of an alcohol taste, but hey, I’m learning.

Preface: My Experiences with Wine and Alcohol

It wasn’t until my freshman year of college that I started to experiment with alcohol. My family is a very traditional American family, in almost all meanings of the phrase, and I lived a very sheltered life under my parents’ roof. In my house, it was just understood that the kids do not drink. Anytime, anywhere, at parties, or even evenings after a long day at work, if my parents and people around my brothers and I were drinking, we just learned to ignore it. We got our soda (which can create a high of its own, and to quote Boyer, “[soda is] poison and it will kill you”) and we were happy.

As we got older (7^th and 8^th grade), my brother and I would start to feel left out. All the adults and my older brother were having lots of fun, and it was more intense after they had a few drinks. We would attempt a taste, were graciously offered a sip (probably some “ass-tasting” beer, I can’t remember), and quickly turned back to our soda happily. (It was as if my parents knew we wouldn’t like it, hmmm). I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to drink something like that. I was with my grandparents on this one, “I’ll stick with my soda and sweet tea, thanks.”

A few years before graduating from high school, my parents thought it would be a good idea to start letting me try a little bit more alcohol, and they started talking to me about being a responsible drinker. They would let me have a little sip of this and that, try this beer and that one, this wine and that, expressing their opinions on what they do and don’t like and why.

Like most college students, my first time drinking went pretty badly. Luckily, I was with a really good friend at a small house party. After my first year of college and safely “party-drinking” once or twice a month, I soon lost interest in “drinking till I drop”, became really turned off by the taste/burn of ethanol, and only drank in small social forums among friends.

Today, I still prefer social drinking in small groups and among friends but have been drinking wines and hard ciders more than beers and liquors. I took the beer class offered here at VT last fall and was still hard pressed to find beers I like, but even so, the class helped me find a few beers I can drink casually. I have stopped the bad habit of taking shots, and on that end of the spectrum, I have found myself mixing rums and liquors into very fruity drinks. So now I am left with finding a nice wine I can drink at dinner. This is one of the major reasons I am taking Geography of Wine this year and am excited to get started tasting and discovering.

Also:

• My mom and dad have started making their own wine, building a wine cellar and quickly filling it. They have gotten together with other home wine makers, shared wines, and have thrown around the idea of possibly starting a club.

• My girlfriend went to Europe and picked up drinking wine every day while there and is also in the class. This is our first (and only) class together before I graduate this spring, and we want to have something we can learn and talk about together. See her blog here.