Girlfriends Wine Club: May 2013

What this is all about...

It all started with a "little" book called 1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die. I asked a few girlfriends if they would be interested in working through the book with me. I mean, 1001 wines, by myself? Thought that would seem a little selfish. Fortunately, I have some of the greatest friends in the world and they have willingly agreed to take the plunge with me. We have gone a little "off book" but I haven't heard a complaint yet.

As we continue with these tastings, I hope to share not only the wines and what we thought of them, but also the food we paired with the wine and recipes as needed. Food can make or break a wine and our tastings have borne that out. I want to share that information and help break the "mystique" of wine.

We are expanding our wine knowledge and narrowing our choices at the same time. The real time goal is for all of us to find a few varietals (that is what the different grapes are called) that we like and then find the lowest, consistently good price point for those varietals. You do NOT have to spend a lot of money to drink really good wine!!!

13 tastings down, 100s still to go. So grab a glass, pop a cork, and join us!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Flavor Mapping Update - May 2013

WOW!

I really thought that the whole "flavor mapping" thing would be kind of confusing and totally unhelpful.

I was wrong.

Did you get that?

I was wrong.

In a big, big way.

I think that the flavor mapping was one of the most useful and educational tastings I have ever done. Thank you so very much, Master Sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson!

As we went through all the wine pairings (see below), each of us truly tended towards either mostly moderate zone wines or to the extremes (cool & warm). It was very interesting and will definitely help me in my wine purchasing for gifts. This lesson really requires the maps that Andrea created so I encourage you to either check out the book at your library or go out and purchase it. Great Wine Made Simple is the name of the book and it is worth every penny!

The best thing I learned from this lesson is WHY I don't generally like Cali wines. Most of California is in a moderate growing zone and I prefer either cool or warm zone wines. It was nice to finally have a reason for my general dislike of Cali wine (there are a some exceptions, but then Cali has some pocket zones and my wines seem to come from them).

We had some yummy wines - lots of yumminess, actually. This is not a cheap tasting as we opened 11 bottles, but it is SO worth doing! We will do this one again, promise!

I picked up everything at Wegmans. Order of tasting: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay,

Pinot Noir, & Shiraz.