I went to Zeppoli’s last Sunday for the wine tasting of as I
like to classify ‘House wines vs
slightly-more-expensive-but-much-higher-quality wines’. Unfortunately my camera was broken, so I was
unable to take pictures and apparently it is an honor code violation to share
pictures, as everyone refused me.
However, you can check out http://vtwinewheels.blogspot.com/
for his take on this experience complete with pictures, as that is who I went
with.
The food was delicious and plentiful, of course. There was a salad, pizza bread, ravioli,
assorted cheeses, a delicious pasta alfredo salad, an eggplant dish (I did not
realize this was eggplant the first time I put my fork into it and was quite
concerned by the texture), and my favorite with garlic infused bread with the most delicious pesto topping. Mmmmmm!
We started with the white wines. The first house wine was Muscati NV Brut Sparkling Wine Penedes Spain running at $7.50 with
an 11.5% alcohol content. This wine was
interesting to me, because as Matt
explained, the wine is made exactly the same as Champagne in the Charmat
process, but is produced in Spain. Therefore
it must be called Spanish sparkling wine.
He explained it is not really a negative quality though, as it decreases
the price enough to allow it to be
included in the tasting, which would have been difficult with traditional
champagne. I liked this wine. It had strong hints of lemon and green apple,
basically an overall tangy taste. It was
extremely crisp, as most tangy fruits are.
Quite pleasant to the palate.
There was no difference in taste when paired with food to me.
The second wine was Wine
and Venus Chardonnay 2006 Central Valley Chile, which is $8.99 and has 13.5% alcohol. This white intrigued me immediately as they
usually are not aged so long. However, I
knew I was not going to be a fan at the first sniffy sniff. It smelled like olives. There was truly no other way to describe it.
I told this to my friends who were struggling to describe the scent and they
immediately agreed. Olives. Gross.
I gave it a chance though, and it was…tolerable. I would never buy it simply due to the
taste. The description on the handout
read it is good with pasta dishes in light cream sauce, so I tried it with the
pasta alfredo salad and it was much improved.
But the dump bucket was still used.
I will never get over the smell. Never.
The next white
Rubus 2009 Chardonnay Russian River Valley California has a 13.9% alcohol and is the comparable, but
slightly higher priced wine (at $11.99) compared to the olive flavored house
wine previously tasted. They are
different in how they were fermented. In
addition to the barrel fermentation, this used malolactic fermentation, while
the previous did not. Malolactic
fermentation creates a more full and less buttery taste to the wine. Which was fine with me. As long as olives weren’t involved. Also, Rubus uses grapes from other vineyards
to reduce the price because there is no status quo that has to be maintained
when it comes to pricing. They do not
disclose which vineyards they take their grapes from. Unfortunately, this one did have a slight
olive smell, but not nearly as strong as the first (or perhaps I was just
better emotionally prepared for such a travesty to occur this time). Either way, it tasted oaky, to be expected,
but also a little hot throughout, although there was not a lingering hot
finish. And I actually enjoyed it when
paired with mozzarella cheese.
The last white is the Borealis 2010 “The Northern Whites” Willamette Valley. It is $12.99 with an 11.5% alcohol content. Matt explained that this terroir usually grows
Pinot Noir and rarely produces whites.
But, as he said, this wine brings out the terroir, which is complex and
earthly. After the previous hotness, I
was looking forward to a lowered alcohol content and this truly delivered. It was ‘exotic’ if I may use a word from the
description. It tasted apply and sweet and crisp, with a nice acidic feel. I definitely enjoyed this wine.
As for the reds. we started with San Elias 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon which is $7.99 and has a 13.5%
alcohol content. It had a strange smell
that my friends described as soapy, which I felt was accurate. However, I genuinely enjoyed the wine. It was fruity, specifically with cherry
tones. It got a tiny bit hot on the
finish, but I think that is just how I view all reds, whether they deserve to
be complained about or not.
Next was Kenwood
2009 Yulupa Cabernet Sauvignon California running at #11/99 with a 13.5%
alcohol content. This wine actually
deserved my very verbal complaints about how hot and spicy it was. I could describe it as cinnamon, which I got
from the description, but the kind of downplays the unpleasantness I felt when
tasting it alone. However, I enjoyed it
when paired with the ravioli.
Rubus 2009 Old
Vine Zinfandel Lodi, California is $12.99 with 14.4% alcohol, slightly
higher than most we try, but not out of range for a red. It was extremely fruity at the beginning,
with sweet cherry and raspberry flavors.
On the other hand, I tried it with a cracker and it unexpectedly had
full blown, in your face pepper flavors.
So I just stuck to drinking it alone.
Next was Mars and
Venus Merlot 2007 Central Valley Chile at $8.99 and 13.5% alcohol. Although there is no way I could describe
this as a ‘good’ wine or complex, I still absolutely loved this wine,
especially considering it is red. It had
so many berry flavors, but was not overly sweet. There wasn’t even a hot finish! I drank it alone and with pizza bread.
At this point I ran out of food on my plateand the only
dish they had left was a house salad (I really wanted more of that garlic
infused bread with pesto). Anyways, the
last wine Trentadue 2009 Block 500
Merlot Sonoma County California could not be paired properly with any
traditional red wine foods. Matt said
this is the vineyard that grows big name, mass produced, low quality wines such
as Barefoot and Franzia. But they choose
the highest quality grapes on the estate and manufacture them under Trentadue,
proving the winemaker is just as important as the terroir. It had a dark color
and was fairly dry. I liked it but wasn’t
super crazy about it.
All in all, with the exception of my camera breaking, it
was an excellent experience and I feel I learned so much more about wine with
this pairing than either of the previous ones.
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