Italy – Page 7 – @sommeligay

2010 Vietti Roero Arneis

March 22, 2013November 16, 2015 by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale lemon, watery rim
Nose: clean, youthful, med- intensity, lemon, minerality, touch of stone fruit
Mouth: dry, med bodied, med+ acidity, med+ intensity, med+ alcohol, med+ length, lemon, peach, minerality
All in all: Good quality; drink now.

I’m currently really into reviewing my Italian wines and regions and I have no idea why I’m suddenly into this phase, since I haven’t had some kind of weird Italian wine epiphany following some godly sip of something. Anyways, I love to delve really far into a region (book-wise only unfortunately), and revisit my tasting notes. Most of the time, I think “WOAH, I had the opportunity to taste THAT?” and get angry that my knowledge was more limited back then (despite the fact that it was only last June), and sometimes I doubt what I had rated these wines, since after reading about them, I have a greater appreciation of what they’re supposed to be like.… read more

Quaffing

2010 Fattoria Colmone della Marca Bianco del Moro

March 13, 2013November 16, 2015 by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, water white with peachy tinge
Nose: clean, low to med- intensity, youthful to developing, vanilla, spice, floral, subtle woodiness, apple
Mouth: dry, med body, med- to med acid, med+ alcohol, med- intensity, med- length, bitter citrus rind
All in all: Good quality; drink now.

Blind tasting time!

A clear, almost colourless wine. I wasn’t sure whether or not the hint of peachiness in the wine was due to the red stains in the wine glasses we were using or because of some strangely coloured grape. Like Gewurztraminer.

The nose was weird. I captured little to no fruit – just an ethanol-like spice, a slight neutral vanilla fruitiness, and neutral wood. Further smelling revealed a flutter of apples and more notably, nuts.… read more

WSET Advanced

2010 Tolloy Pinot Grigio

February 23, 2013November 16, 2015 by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale lemon, watery rim
Nose: clean, med intensity, youthful to developing, almond, floral, neutral + vague fruit
Mouth: dry, med+ to high acidity, med body, med+ intensity, med to med+ alcohol, med length, citrus, minterality
All in all: Good quality; drink now.

Pinot Grigio. Who’d’ve thunk it?

I’m not a big fan of Pinot Grigio, and even recently, one of my newer co-workers and I excitedly burst into complete excitement into how we both disliked this particular variety. “Oh my God, you hate Pinot Grigio, too?!”

It’s very middle-of-the-road and generally crowd-pleasing: its characteristics don’t seem to reach many extremes very often. Acidity, body, intensity, and so on, are usually kept in check, which perhaps gives the quaffable and enjoyable quality – unfortunately, this varietal seems to lack character at the same time, which I find happens in many Italian whites.… read more

WSET Advanced

NV Mionetto Treviso Brut Prosecco

November 14, 2012November 16, 2015 by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale lemon, large bubbles
Nose: clean, med intensity, youthful, bubble gum, cotton candy, pear drops
Mouth: dry with a sweet impression, med bodied, low to med- acid, med length, low alcohol
All in all: Good quality; drink now.

Prosecco is one of those bubblys that I feel has a bad reputation. More than often people assume that it’ll be sweet – which isn’t entirely false, but its unpopularity might be due to the fact that it has that less serious personality – especially if it has fun packaging like this (but that being said, it’s not so hard to find more serious Prosecchi. Usually.).

And ironically enough, this was like sparkling white Beaujolais Nouveau and happened to get a solid 2.5… read more

Quaffing

2009 Cascina Castlèt Barbera d’Asti

November 2, 2012November 16, 2015 by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, medium ruby, a little hazy?
Nose: med+ intensity, developing, cherry, hint of red fruit roll-up, wood spice, smoky, oak, touch of floral, vanilla
Mouth: dry, med- body, low to med- tannin, med+ acid, med to med+ alcohol, med+ intensity, med length, black pepper, expressive, cherry, savoury finish, blue fruits
All in all: Good to very good quality; drink now, but has potential for ageing.

The store was not as busy as I thought it would be. There were a couple of costumes here and there but nothing too wild. Which was great! I find Halloween @ UBC to be such a pooper, though, because no one dresses up – and even though I sort of hate Halloween, it kinda sucks when you’re all up in the Halloween spirit and end up embarrassed because you’re the only one in a 200-person lecture that decided to dress up.… read more

Tasting

I NEED A BIGGER KNIFE. (UBC Wine Tasting Sesh #2)

October 24, 2012November 16, 2015 by Josh

Long-ass day. Doesn’t seem so bad in retrospect, but I woke up early for a 9AM thing at UBC, took the 99 to the last stop for work, and then needed to travel all the way back to UBC to lead Part 2 of the sort-of-intro-to-wine themed tasting, all while wearing pants that weren’t jeans, one of those shirts you’d hate to spill wine on, and shoes that didn’t fit just enough to make my feet cry. The garb was fitting for all of the day’s events but for this day in particular, I would defs have lead a wine tasting wearing nothing but seven layers of random comfortable 7-foot-long linens, cinnamon-bun-Homer-Simpson style. I was that uncomfortable (ugh rain + sickness).… read more

Quaffing

2010 Tranchero Moscato d’Asti

May 7, 2012November 16, 2015 by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale straw, few fine bubbles
Nose: clean, light intensity, lychee, green apple, touch of stone fruit, orange/tangerine
Mouth: med sweetness, med acidity, light body, med finish lychee, orange, citrus
All in all: Great quality; drink now.

I bought this wine one Saturday night where I think I decided that I needed to treat myself to an entire bottle of wine and an uninterrupted evening of 9gag and SNL. It was pathetically amazing. So there.

Moscato d’Asti is such a crowd pleaser. A typical one will be sweet but light, along with beautiful fruity and floral notes. I recall aromas of lychee, green apples, notes of stone fruit, and oranges. It had a medium sweetness with a perfect balance of acidity to clean off the palate.… read more

Quaffing

2007 Le Ragose Classico Superiore Valpolicella

May 3, 2012November 15, 2015 by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, med- ruby
Nose: med- to med intensity, red fruit (sour cherry, hints of strawberry), black pepper, cloves, liquorice, earthy
Mouth: dry, med body, med- tannin, med+ acidity, med to med+ length, sour cherry
All in all: Good quality, drink now; save the bones for something more interesting.

So lots today happened in my world of alcohol. Just after tying up my Superman chucks and opening the door to jet out to the bus that’s almost at my bus stop, I see this huge package in my mailbox which I can only hope is my WSET Advanced-level books. And it is. So I snatch it and run for my bus. I dizzily flip through it and end up with some lack-of-sleep-early-morning-physical-extertion-motion-sickness nausea, but new books, or new reading material – new anything, for that matter, is too exciting to pass.… read more