Tasting - Dr. Loosen Blue Slate Riesling Kabinett

 

Name: Dr. Loosen Blue Slate Riesling Kabinett

Variety: Riesling

Region: Mosel

Country: Germany

Year: 2022

Price: $22

Winery Review: The 2022 growing season in the Middle Mosel was characterized by a warm spring, intense summer heat, and a severe drought that persisted from June to September. Overall, average must weights in 2022 were a bit lower than in recent years, leading Cellar Master, Berni Schug, to declare, “It’s a Kabinett year!” Nevertheless, through quick action and über-meticulous harvest selection, we brought in excellent quality fruit. The summer heat left us with slightly lower acidity levels, but it is an exceptionally well-integrated acid structure that beautifully complements the delicate nature of the vintage.

Wine Folly: German Kabinett (239): The lightest style of Riesling, made from grapes that have a sweetness level of 67-82 Oechsle (148-188 g/L sugar). Kabinett wines range in style from dry to off-dry.

My Review: My inspiration to drink this wine came from a simple Google search on which wines pair best with Chinese food. The first wine that the Wine Folly website recommends is a German Kabinett Riesling, so that's exactly what I did! The wine alone immediately gave me hints of apple and it was very light and refreshing. When I paired it with dumplings and soy sauce, it did a great job at toning down the saltiness of the dish. Also, the wine tasted even lighter and dampened down the acidity.

Tasting - Barone Fini Pinot Grigio

 

Name: Barone Fini Pinot Grigio Valdadige D.O.C.

Variety: Pinot Grigio

Region: Valdadige

Country: Italy

Year: 2022

Price: $19

Winery Review: Barone Fini’s flagship wine is made with minimal human intervention and from 100% handpicked Valdadige grapes, found in the pristine northern Italian Alps. Here, altitudes range from 150 – 300 meters above sea level to produce a beautifully bright, natural wine that is incredibly approachable and easy to share.

Delicate floral aromas with notes of lemon delight the nose. Refreshing flavors of honeydew and ripe apples are balanced with a bright acidity and warm minerality. Mouthfeel is crisp and lingering.

Wine Folly: Pinot Grigio In Northeast Italy (256): The regions of ALto Adige and Friuli are famous for Pinot Grigio. In the alpine, Alto Adige, wines are more floral with piercing acidity. In Friuli, you'll find them to offer peach and chalky flavor. Investigate Colli Orientali and Collio for great quality.

Lemon, White Peach, Crushed Rocks, Saline, Lime Zest.

My Review: Upon my first tasting of this wine, I could immediately pick up hints of tropical fruit. As I continued I honed in what I was tasting to traces of Pineapple and possibly even some lemon. I didn't really pick up on the honeydew that the winery describes, but I think that may be due to not being super familiar with what that flavor is like in general. I paired this wine with my salmon dinner, but honestly didn't notice a real difference in the taste of the wine or the salmon. This makes sense, as now that I look at the winery's website, they recommend pairing with lobster linguini or creme brulee.

Winery Visit - Chateau Morrisette

    Today (Sunday April 7th 2024), three of my friends and I took a trip to Chateau Morrisette in Floyd, Virginia (about an hour away from the Virginia Tech campus). This was my first ever trip to a winery, so I was looking forward to this trip all week! We got very lucky with some beautiful Southwest Virginia spring weather today. I decided to go with Chateau Morrisette because I was having a hard time figuring out exactly which local wineries did tours of their production centers and I knew from the example blog post that I could definitely get one here.

This was a picture we got with Mrs. Morrisette herself near the end of the visit.

    Immediately upon entering the main indoor space of Chateau Morrisette, we were lucky enough to be greeted by Mrs. Morrisette herself. She was extremely helpful in giving my friends and me a wonderful experience. We learned a ton from her in about an hour and it was especially helpful for my friends who are unfortunately not in Professor Boyer's class.

    During our tasting experience with Mrs. Morrisette, she gave us a sample of about 20 different wines produced at the winery, ranging from their signature "The Black Dog", to their "Farmhouse Sangria".  The first part of the tasting that really stood out to me was early on when we tasted their Unoaked and Oaked Chardonnay back to back. It's an experience that I wasn't able to easily create at home, so I feel like it gave me a much better understanding of the differences and my preferences. Personally, I now know that I prefer the oaked version, as it was much smoother and less acidic. I also had my first experience with Rosé today. I was pleasantly surprised with their style of the wine, as the hints of strawberry were very evident, especially at first scent. Another unique experience we were lucky enough to have was to try bottle-shocked wine. Although it wasn't the finished product of their unreleased 2023 Chambourcin, it was super interesting learning what a young wine tastes like and hearing how the viniculturist gets excited about the potential of the wine a few months down the road. This wine had hints of chocolate, which was an entirely new taste in wine for me. During our tasting, we even got to sample their $60 bottle of Archival 12, their 2023 Virginia Governor's Cup gold medal-winning red blend.

An overhead view of the warehouse portion of Chateau Morrisette

    Following our extensive tasting, we were lucky enough to be given a tour of the production center within Chateau Morrisette. In the image above, you can see some of their massive, 6000-gallon stainless steel fermentation tanks, as well as some of their oak barrels.

Bottling Machine

    Within the back warehouse, we also walked by the machine bottling area where all Chateau Morrisette's wine is bottled and corked. As we walked by some of the oak barrels, Mrs. Morrisette pointed out to us the unique identifiers on each barrel that signified every detail of the wine within. From vintage to section of the vineyard, the staff keeps track of many variables in case of issues that arise, like as a sugar recall.

$10 Flight Alongside Morrisette's Cheese Spread

    As for the flight I purchased, it was made up of some of my favorite wines during the tasting. Those included; The oaked 2021 Chardonnay, 2020 Dry Dog, The Black Dog, and the Sweet Mountain Laurel. The Sweet Mountain Laurel was a ripe Niagra grape wine that was very sweet and surprised me how much it tasted exactly like white grape juice. I made sure to buy a bottle to save and cure my sweet tooth at home whenever my cravings hit. I also made sure to buy their sangria to bring back home to my mom in a couple weeks, as she's a huge fan.

    We could not have asked for a more beautiful and fun experience at Chateau Morrisette today. My friends and I were so grateful for Mrs. Morrisette's hospitality and extensive wine and life knowledge she shared with us. I will be highly recommending my other friends to come out and pay the place a visit, and I'd love to return in the future!

Tasting - DaVinci Chianti

 

Name: DaVinci Chianti

Variety: 90% Sangiovese, 10% Merlot

Region: Chianti, Tuscany

Country: Italy

Year: 2021

Price: $14

Winery Review: DaVinci Chianti is a well-balanced wine of medium weight with jammy flavors of ripe plums, cherries and red fruit. It has a deep crimson color and is a lively wine with a soft mineral finish and round tannins that linger in long, peppery finish. This wine pairs perfectly with all starters, pastas and meat dishes and is best when served slightly below room temperature (64°F)

Wine Folly: Chianti Classico In General (250): The Classico designation means the wine comes from the historic boundaries of Chianti. Wines are primarily Sangiovese but also may contain Canaiolo, Colorino, Cabernet, and Merlot. The Riserva, and Gran Selezione are the area's finest wines and age 2 and 2.5 years respectively.

Didn't find much reference to specfic tastes in this description besides the mentioning of cherry, which I definitely picked up on quickly.

My Review: What stood out to me immediately was a decent acidity and dryness, followed by hints of red fruits like cherry. I drank this wine at room temperature and enjoyed it, but plan to slightly chill it next time like the winery recommends. I did not taste this wine with any food this time, but will taste it with a red sauce pasta or pizza next time.

Tasting - Tortoise Creek Zinfandel

 

Name: Tortoise Creek Zinfandel

Variety: 85% Zinfandel, 3% Barbera, 3% Teroldego, 2% Aglianico,

2% Petite Sirah and 5% other reds

Region: Lodi, California

Country: USA

Year: 2019

Price: $12

Winery Review: Our Zinfandel has a deep color and rich, spicy aromas of wild dark berries

and plums, It is round, rich, and bursting with flavor. The other red varietals add

a delightful complexity to the final blend.

Wine Folly: Zinfandel in general/Lodi, CA (191) - I could definitely pick up on the dark fruit mentioned like blackberry bramble, as well as the strong presence of spices like pepper. I don't think I picked up on any peach like they mentioned.

My Review: The dark berries are what hit my nose first, then soon after I was hit with a strong tingle on the top of my nose from the peppery spices. I paired this zinfandel with different meals on two consecutive nights. The first night, I enjoyed it with sausage, chicken, and black olive pizza. The second night, I paired it with a ribeye steak and eggs. While drinking it with both meals, I noticed that the food masked the hit of the spices to my nose and made the dark berry taste a bit sweeter and last longer. Overall, I really enjoyed the wine and think that Zinfandels will often be my wine of choice with red meats and foods with Italian seasoning.

My Personal Experience With Wine Thus Far In My Life

    Hello Everyone! My name is Chase Ackerman and I'm currently in my final semester at Virginia Tech studying computational modeling and data analytics with minors in math and statistics. After hearing that mouthful, you may be wondering how in the world I ended up in a class about wine. Although a lot of what I do in my classes involves crunching numbers and typing thousands of lines of code, I have a ton of interests completely separate from that classwork.

    I grew up in a household where my parents would indulge in the occasional glass of wine during dinner and they always served bottles of wine whenever we had guests over. When I was younger, I never paid much attention to anything pertaining to wine and kept a mindset that it was just something that all adults drank mostly at dinner parties. My parents weren't overly strict about letting me try a taste of their glasses of wine whenever I wanted, but the taste definitely didn't appeal to my undeveloped senses. That changed slightly in recent years, and now I'm able to appreciate about any glass of wine with a meal at a restaurant.

    Going into this class, I really knew nothing about the variety of wine produced, the way you're supposed to drink it, or even the proper way to open or store a bottle. I had zero preference of which wine to order, and I would almost always order whatever my girlfriend was getting. I decided to take this class to fulfill my final free elective credit requirements, as well as to set myself up for my adult life whenever I need to talk the talk at work or family events. The same way people emphasize that most business is done on the golf course, I feel like there's a ton to say about business done over a meal and a glass of wine. Just in the first two weeks of the course, I feel like I've learned a ton of things that I'll carry with me for life! If I leave this class learning anything, I hope to at least find out my favorite variety of wine.