Tag Archives: Wines

A Wine Lover’s Weekly Guide To $10 Wines – A Cabernet Sauvignon From South Africa

It may be hard to believe but this is our first bargain wine from South Africa, one very major wine country. The Nederburg winery was founded in 1791 near Paarl not far from the Cape of Good Hope. This wine is part of their series, the Winemaker’s Reserve. This wine is marketed by Stellenbosch Farmers Winery which is not your little farmer’s winery. Stellenbosch markets about one third of all South African wines with a value of over one third of a billion dollars. I don’t think that I have to tell you about the Cabernet Sauvignon grape, one popular red grape in Bordeaux France, California, and many other locales as well. Let’s see if we can get a bargain. It seems like a fairly long time.

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed Nederburg Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 12.5 % alcohol about $ 9

Let’s start with the marketing materials. Tasting Note: Medium – deep red/purple; aromas of game, sweet cherry, cassis, earth, liquorice and cedar tones; dry, medium-full bodied, red currant and spice flavors with soft tannins to finish. Serving Suggestion: Grilled or roasted meats, white meats, pizza or pasta or old cheese. And now for my review.

I started by sipping this wine alone. It was oaky with tobacco, long, and presented round tannins. But seemed a bit too acidic. The first meal included a commercially barbecued chicken and potato salad. The Cab displayed plummy and earthy notes. It was more forceful with the chicken than it was with the potato salad.

The second meal centered around slow-cooked beef ribs with potatoes accompanied by a lime and garlic tomato salsa. The wine was powerful, mouth filling, and long. I got tobacco and dark fruit. This Cab was chewy. With the somewhat spicy salsa the wine became peppery and didn’t lose its force.

The final meal consisted of a packaged baked Ziti Siciliano with eggplant covered with grated Parmesan cheese. There was a fine balance of acidity, tannins, and fruit with a faint bit of tobacco.

I finished the tasting with two cheeses. The first cheese was a Yellow Cheddar. This wine was round, oaky, and it displayed good fruit. The second pairing was with a Swiss (Emmenthal). Things worked out about the same but the wine was more acidic.

Final verdict. I would definitely buy this wine again. This really struck me as somewhat of a bargain. If you’re a big fan of Cabernet Sauvignon, you might take it up a notch with Nederburg’s Manor House line. I prefer staying in their bargain price range but trying another grape.

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Spanish Wines (Rioja Wines)

Spain stands out as the third largest producer of wine after France and Italy. The Northeastern part of Spain that is the Rioja Region produces one of the best Spanish wines. This is divided into three geographical zones that happen to be Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja, and Rioja Alavesa. Each zone has its own unique flavor of grapes. The climate and quality in the soil in each of these three subzones influences the category and also the character of its grapes. Rioja wine is made with a blend of grapes from different subzones. Tempranillo grapes are the commonest form of grapes which are made with Rioja wines.

This is what gives its distinguishable flavor.  Tempranillo grapes are combined with Grenache grapes or Mazeulo grapes. Grenache doesn’t have that fruity taste and its alcohol content is higher. Rioja Wines are available in three classifications and they are the Crianza, Reserva and the Gran Reserva. Crianza is probably the most affordable one and is viewed as table wine. What they typically do is age this for only a year inside the oak barrel and another year in the bottle. You could get this for five or ten US dollars. Now, let us talk about Reserva. This is aged at least one year inside the barrel and two years inside the bottle.  This will amount to around eleven to fifteen US dollars. Aging for the Gran Reserva is completed with all the wine staying in the barrel for two years then in the bottle for 3 years.

This generally is a bit pricey. Unfortunately the Gran Reserva is not offered every year. It is much better that you retain several bottles for special occasions. Rioja wine is often the Spanish version of the Italian Chianti. This sort of wine is best-known for its unique flavor. Now, the Rioja wine is considered one of the most well-liked wines in the world.

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A Wine Lover’s Weekly Guide To $10 Wines – A Pinot Noir From South Africa

We have reviewed several South African wines lately, and many of them have been quite successful. Pinot Noir can be a fine grape; I often am fond of it. I like its classic tastes of earth and mushrooms and the fact that it isn’t very tannic. And it’s considered food-friendly. The site where it’s made is fantastic, at the conjunction of the Pacific and the Indian ocean. It’s not only beautiful (what vineyard isn’t?) but it’s said to be a winemaker’s dream. On the down side, Pinot Noir is not usually at its best in South Africa.

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed Two Oceans Pinot Noir 2008 13.1% alcohol about $ 9.50 Let’s begin by quoting the marketing materials. Tasting Note : Pale ruby color with a slight hint of garnet; aromas of blueberry, cherry, and earth; dry, medium bodied, with flavors of toasty oak, and raspberry on the long smoky finish. Serving Suggestion : Serve with roast chicken or duck. And now for my review.

At the first sips the wine was almost mouth filling, with touches of earth. Its first pairing was with a ready-made chicken potpie. The wine was thick, earth tasting, and quite short but there was the taste of the underbrush. When I added zesty green jalapeno pepper sauce the Pinot Noir gained in roundness and perhaps length.

The next meal involved chicken meatballs and a barbecued chicken leg with a black bean, corn, chickpea, and pimento salad. This time the wine was almost hefty; it was fairly dark with lots of chocolate and good length.

My final meal was composed of hamburgers, green beans in a tomato sauce, and a salad described below. The wine was dark and had a slight aftertaste. There were dark cherries but no tannins. It was stronger with the green beans but the aftertaste remained. With the accompanying red, yellow, and orange plum and cherry tomatoes and basil leaves this Pinot Noir had a touch of harshness and not much flavor.

I ended the bottle with two local cheeses. With a virtually tasteless brick cheese the wine did not have much taste. So in a way, it was a balanced pairing. With a somewhat stronger yellow cheddar the wine perked up a bit and I tasted some oak.

Final verdict. I do not intend to buy this wine again. While it did manage some fairly good wine pairings it was far from consistent. And with all the inexpensive wines on the market that just isn’t good enough.

More Pinot Noir Wine Articles

Wine- and the Healthiest Wines

Wine is very good for our health. But are they the same impact? What is the healthiest wine? We can list many kinds of wine, such as Ports, Tables, Red, Whites, Rose’s, Fume’s, Ice…This article will give you much information about wines.

 

 

Well let’s start with the obvious. Any wine you drink too much of is not going to help you. One glass per day is recommended for men and no more than 3 per week for women. (Women can’t digest alcohols as well as men. I’m not making this stuff up, Dr. Nancy Snyderman actually reported this on the Today Show recently). Any more than that and the alcohol content is linked to cancer, obesity and other health problems.

 

So, answer 1 – the healthiest is the one you enjoy drinking in moderation.

 

Let’s move on to the different types. Red’s rule the health roost. White’s don’t use the healthy grape skins in the fermentation process, ice has too much sugar, Rose’s are a combo of red and white and tables/ports are pretty much reds.

 

So answer 2 – red wines are the healthiest choice in wine

 

Of the red wines, which are the healthiest? We’ve got two answers here. The first is organic wines. Organic aren’t always the best tasting but some are surely good. You’ll have to try a few to find your favorite. Organic wines are grown without pesticides and chemicals so the grapes are left to fend for themselves. Do you know what chemical grapes produce to help fight disease and fungus? You guessed it – Resveratrol!

 

The second category of reds are the Italian and French wines grown in the mountain regions. Because these zones are colder, the plants must battle more fungus, which means more resveratrol – which means healthier wine.

 

Bottom line – If you can find an organic red wine grown in the mountains of Italy or France, you’re going to live forever (well in theory). 🙂