Chateau Morrisette Blushing Dog

Name:  Chateau Morrisette Blushing Dog

Variety:  Semi-sweet blush table wine
Region: Virginia
Country: United States
Year: 2011
Price: $8.99 (Kroger)

Winery review:  A refreshing semi-sweet blush wine made from a distinctive blend of Vidal Blanc and Traminette, with a touch of Chambourcin for depth as well as the inviting blush color. Lush aromas of flowers and fruit are balanced by crisp acidity. (Winery, thedogs.com)

My review: I wanted to try some local wine for this review. I’ve tried several of Chateau Morrisette’s wines but haven’t seen this one on the shelf before. I usually like their wines, including Red Mountain Laurel and Our Dog Blue, so I was excited to try this.

I poured it into the standard Vintage Cellar stemware and swirled. I was surprised how long this wine took to have any nose at all. It just smelled fairly nondescript for a long time. Once it began to breath, though, it was overwhelmingly floral. Not roses, at all, but more spring wildflowers.

The blush wine was far sweeter than I expected a “semi-sweet” wine to taste. It tasted very floral and citrusy, pretty pleasing although I think I would’ve liked a slightly drier wine here. The more it breathed and warmed the better it was and the more the flavor came out. I didn’t detect the amount of fruit that others have tasted with this wine; the floral notes really overwhelmed this blush.

I would definitely try this again, probably with dinner this time.

I tasted this on its own with no food.

Riunite Lambrusco: Sweet, fruity, inexpensive. The Budweiser of American imported wine.

Name: Riunite Lambrusco
Variety: Lambrusco Maestri, Marani, Montericco, Salamino, Lancellotta.
Region: Emilia Romagna, Daunia
Country: Italy
Year: 2012
Price: $6 (Food Lion)

Abv: 8% (low)

Winery review: Riunite Lambrusco is a red wine, a sparkling wine and a sweet wine ~ and it is one of the most cherished drinks in the U.S. Forest berry, raspberry and cherry will come through on the nose and the mouth will be dominated by fizzy sweetness. According to the Italian Wine and Food Institute in New York, Lambrusco remains the number two imported wine in the U.S. after Pinot Grigio. April 2010 (Wine Enthusiast)

My review: This was probably the first wine I ever tried. It’s a favorite of my parents for inexpensive, cheap wine and when I saw it at Food Lion I decided to get a bottle. I had it chilled out of stem-less glasses—not the most appropriate for a chilled wine but they were what was clean in my college apartment. I understand this is a massively imported Italian wine and very popular among the average consumer.

The nose with this wine was very subdued at first. All I could smell was sweet and vaguely fruity. After it warmed up the berry smell came into its own. Tasting notes were overwhelmingly raspberry. I didn’t get the cherry or strawberry notes that other reviews seem to get from this wine. It was overwhelmingly sweet but the alcohol taste and smell came through as well.

I will definitely drink this again. It was a perfect wine to be inside during a freak snowstorm with the girlfriend. She enjoyed it as well, saying it was sweet but not in your face like many of the fruity drinks she likes.

I tasted this with a mushroom and spinach casserole I made. It balanced the spiciness of the dish very well; the bottle indicated would be a good pairing.

Technical info on this wine: http://www.banfiwines.com/wp-content/uploads/riunite_lambrusco_TC.pdf

Welcome to my Wine Blog!

This is my wine blog for Geography of Wine taught by John Boyer at Virginia Tech. For my own interests and along the same lines, there’s a mirrored blog on Tumblr that will have all this content and more. That one will feature more beer and culture posts than this one will—since I’m taking a wine class this one will predominantly feature just wine.

Anyway, on to an introduction about my wine experience and myself: I am a senior at Virginia Tech studying professional writing. I hope to go enter the complicated, competitive, and far-reaching world of professional writing in just a few months. I’m not sure where this will take me, whether it’s graduate school or a job either in the industry or not. I have many broad skills and am not committed to do something strictly related to what I’ve been studying in college. 

My wine experiences so far have been very limited. In the past year that I’ve been of-age to start consuming alcohol of my choosing (that isn’t whatever Natty swill that’s in the keg) I have done a fair amount of beer tasting and gained a good amount of knowledge on that side of things. My dad even asks me for recommendations when we’re out at dinner on the subject. Wine has been different; I’ve only tried a very limited amount and am interested to try more. Thanks to Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg, Virginia and Boyer’s wine class, I can do just that.

As far as my tastes are concerned, I’ve tried reds I’ve liked and whites as well—I have very little opinion yet about what I like. It’s also mood dependent just like food and beer. With beers, I tend to gravitate towards darker beers like porters and stouts (Left Hand Milk Stout on a nitro tap is my favorite), but I don’t know yet with wine. Dry wines rather than sweet, maybe, but even that I’m not sure on.

I like local things, so I tend to like Chateau Morrisette’s selection. They’re a winery based just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Floyd, Virginia. Their red blends are great, especially Red Mountain Laurel, which is a very sweet wine. Other than that, I’ve just tried whatever is in front of me and no wines have especially jumped out as amazing to me yet.

I look forward to using this blog and learning about wine in a great class. Check back for more information and—unless you’re the one grading me here—please go check out my Tumblr for way more wine and beer information.