Quick Review: Cono Sur "Bicicleta" Riesling 2012

Chile, Valle Central, Cono Sur "Bicicleta" Riesling 2012
+ // Crisp // Petrol, Lemon // Lime, Green apple, Herbs // Medium

Semi-dry, pretty long lasting on the tongue. A little more savory than we are used to.

Trying a New Riesling

At this point, we are pretty confident about Riesling. We've tried traditional German Rieslings, a whole slew of Rieslings from New York, and some amazing ones from California. So upon discovering a Riesling from Chile, we jumped at the chance to do some comparison.

Going with what we know, we poured a glass to go along with Friday night take-out from the local Indian restaurant. Riesling does well with spicy dishes. Even the lightest and driest version usually have a thickness and sweet flavors that cool the tongue. Of course, with a truly hot vindaloo, you can't really expect any wine to stand up to the searing heat. But with a milder Malai Kofta (vegetable balls in a lightly spicy tomato cream sauce), a nice crisp Riesling can cut through the richness of the cream and soothe the tongue after the hot chilies kick in.

This is what we would expect from any Riesling. So, what did we get from the Chilean Riesling? For the most part, it matched up to what we know: it was crisp, with citrus and apple flavors. What was different and unexpected was some strong savory herbal notes that reminded us of sauvignon blanc... in a good way.

Quick Review: Outer Limits Pinot Noir 2012

Chile, Aconcagua Valley, Outer Limits Pinot Noir 2012
+ // Earthy // Perfect strawberry, Forrest leaves // Tart cherry, Cola, Tobacco, Leather, Graphite // Medium

Wine With Caribbean Food

Friday nights are our casual nights: dinner ordered in, a fun movie, and a bottle of wine.  In our neighborhood, the trick is finding a wine to go with Caribbean food. We always get a great meal, but the Caribbean lacks the wine culture to match. With hearty meat or seafood dishes with a heavy influence of Indian spices, this unique food is hard to match to wine.

We do eat a lot of Indian food on our Friday nights at home, and we feel like we have found good pairings to match. Most of those dishes seem to rely on their spices, rather than the protein, for flavor (whether fish, goat, or chick peas). We usually pick a rich white wine to counteract the heat between bites. In contrast, the Caribbean food we have tried seems to use a lot of those same spices, but with a heavier hand on the meat: resulting in a much more earthier palate while retaining the spice. A white wine can get lost when matched with goat or ox-tails, so we have been seeking a red wine that can match the full flavors yet deal with the spice.

Pinot Noir seems to be pretty versatile among red wines. It's lighter and fruitier than many other varietals and can still bring some other interesting flavors. Most red meats can benefit from a little bit of sweet fruit flavors, but many Pinot's have an earthiness that matches the iron rich protein. With curried goat, you are looking at a lot of savory, even gamey flavors that need that bit of earthiness from a red wine, so we pulled down a bottle of Outer Limits Pinot Noir. We've never had a Chilean Pinot Noir, but it did what we expected, bringing a balance of sweet flavors to the spicy and savory curry. With rich side dishes like creamed spinach and macaroni pie, the wine helped round out the greasy mouth-feel left from the fat in the food.

We like to use a nice bottle of wine to transform a casual night in on Friday into a special evening. Finding the right wine for take-out food isn't always intuitive, but it's fun to keep searching for the perfect match.

Quick Review: Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

Chile, Colchagua Valley, Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon 2011
+ // Spicy  // Berry, Red apple // Leather, Tobacco, Cedar, Jalepno, Dried cherry // Full

An explosion in the mouth. Flavors are a bit scattershot.

Earthy when paired with pork and brussels sprouts.

Quick Review: Outer Limits CGM 2012

Chile, Colchagua Valley, Outer Limits CGM 2012
+ // Spicy // Blackberry, Old wood // Blackberry, Graphite, Cinnamon  // Full

A blended wine, made from Carignan, Granache and Mourvedre.
Aggressive right out of the bottle. Big flavors. Hot (high in alcohol content), but doesn't really taste like it.

Wine Wednesdays

We talk alot about using wine to make an evening special. But on a Wednesday night, with half a week of work remaining, we might turn to a good glass of wine to simply make the evening bearable.

Usually, we consider our wine and food pairing and try to plan an interesting meal for an interesting bottle of wine. But by mid-week, that can be hard to do. It is useful to have a few more flexible bottles lying around that will go with whatever you throw together for dinner. Blended wines offer you a comparatively neutral palate, with a mix of the flavors from multiple grapes. This is something easy to mix and match with a range of meals.

Cooking a real dinner mid-week can be overwhelming, so having a few simple recipes in your back pocket will help. Sometimes, a good crock pot stew can be lifesaver. You develop some deep flavors, and are still ready to eat as soon as you get home from work. Some beef, rice, tomatoes and some broccoli to round it out made for an loose take on Cuban Mofongo.

We picked a bottle of blended wine from Chile. A mix of Carignan, Grenache, and Mouverdre, we had no idea what to expect. But the complex mix of flavors from the mofongo--earthy, acidic, fatty, and a bit of green vegetable--meant we needed some complicated flavors from our wine. This blend of grapes gave us flavors of blackberries, with hints of graphite and cinnamon. The spice of the wine matched the hot pepper spice of the mofongo, while the flavors from the sweet and acidic tomato brought the sweet fruit of the wine to the forefront.

Blended wines are often mistaken for "table wines" (unless, of course, a Bordeaux). It is good to remember that winemakers might attempt to create a versatile blend of flavors that lend themselves to easier pairings... especially on those Wednesday nights where you just don't want to think too hard about it.

Quick Review: Sauvignon Blanc at Salud!

Chile, Quintay Clava, Sauvignon Blanc, 2010
++ / Crisp - Fruity / Fresh canteloupe, citrus, honeydew / Tart apple / Light bodied

Went well with the spicy appetizers we had - empanadas and spicy quacamole. Surprising to find such a fruity quality to what is normally a crisp wine.

Did You Know?... About the Wines of Chile

Like northern California, Chile relies on mountains to funnel sea breezes to cool its vineyards that otherwise might be too warm. Warm, sunny days tempered by cool evenings, with a long growing period means that a wide range of grapes thrive here.

Among red grapes, Chile grows most of the more popular varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Malbec. Most notably though, they also grow Carmenere, a European varietal that disappeared from the Old World, only to be found among Merlot vines in Chile a century ago.

For white grapes, the country focuses on Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Vintners are starting to explore other whites as well, creating fragrant and vibrant Gewurztraminer and Viognier, and bracingly crisp Rieslings.

Quick Review: Outer Limits Sauvignon Blanc 2013

 Chile, Aconcagau Valley, Outer Limits, Sauvignon Blanc 2013
++ // Crisp // Lime, Green pepper, Watermelon, Grass // Grapefruit // Med

Refreshing in a thirst-quenching sort of way. The grapefruit flavors were an unexpected surprise.

Outer Limits Sauvignon Blanc from Chile

One of the benefits of traveling is trying the local wines from new and interesting places. When we can't get away, we can always pick up a bottle and pretend we have. We might miss out on the local food or culture, that way, but at least we get to enjoy the wine.

We've enjoyed a few bottles of Sauvignon Blanc recently. So when a bottle from Outer Limits in Chile arrived in the mail, we expected crisp flavors with strong undertones of grass and herbs. In this case, it seemed like Chile's warm climate had given the wine an additional edge--some sweet and tropical fruit flavors to add to the natural herbal quality of the grape. In fact, hints of grapefruit pleasantly surprised us at every sip.

We paired it with baked lemon chicken on a bed of spinach and mango salad, with a side of vegetable biscuits. The crisp herbal flavors complemented the chicken, as thisnneutral white meat can always use some additional flavors. The wine was ideal with salad, as the sweet tropical flavors that were so unique to this style played with the tropical flavors of the mango, a needed counterpoint to the natural bitterness of the spinach. Unfortunately, the wine was a bit too big and bold to work well with the veggie biscuits, but not every course can be a winner.

We thought we knew Sauvignon Blanc. But thinking back, we've had others from Chile with a similar flavor profile. It just goes to show that there is something to the whole "terrior" business, as the geography and climate have a big part to play in the flavors of a grape.

Quick Review: Wines at Vitae pt 2

Chile, Curico Valley, Echeverria Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2007
++ // Sweet // Forest, Leaves, Grass, Floral // Burnt Carmel, Honey // Light

QUICK REVIEW: American Airlines "red wine"

On a recent American Airlines flight, I thought it would be fun to sample the "red wine" offered. Airlines are paying more attention to their wine offerings, and I wondered what their house red would taste like.

Chile, Santa Rita "120" Syrah 2009
/ // Fruity // Plum, Berry // Oak, Grape Seeds, Plum // Light

The biggest problem? The wine was served cold. I wonder whether my rating would have been higher if the wine had been served a little warmer. This would have allowed it to "open up" more, so that I could get at the richness of the flavors. Instead, it was very "one note", and the coldness made it seem like I was drinking a grape juice that had gone bad. This speaks to the importance of serving wine at "wine temp" (or, 55-60 degrees).