Rosé Saves the Day (as usual)

So originally we had planned to write about the Kirkland Signature (Costco) Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (which was good!) but between drinking the wine and writing the blog our tasting notes were...misplaced. Fortunately, Alejandra had a $4 bottle of Chilean rosé sitting around so we were able to salvage the day! The wine was intensely aromatic and floral- seconds after the bottle was open the whole room smelled of perfume. Beautifully pink with a hue similar to blood oranges the wine is slightly sweet and a bit unbalanced but surprisingly pleasant for $4.49 at Trader Joe's. A good summer aperitif wine, try it with some dark chocolate for dessert or use it to pregame your dinner. Plus it's an import so people will think you're fancy if you bring it to the party.

2014 Viñas Chilenas Rosario Estate Reserva Rosé Wine
12.5% ABV
$4.49 at Trader Joe's

Tasting Notes

Theme: "Let's get this tasting over with so we can drink and watch Friends"

Sight

Beautiful pink with the slightest tinge of salmon orange, it resembles a very low concentration blood orange juice. Lots of rim variation.

Nose

Immediately after opening the bottle the whole room smelled fruity and floral, like somebody had spilled a bottle of perfume, or like being in a meadow of wildflowers.

Very strong aromatics: sweet lemon-perfectly ripe, like a lemon tree at the height of the season. Strawberry candy, like those little ones that come wrapped in foil in grandma's purse. Almost like artificial strawberry, intensely sweet. After a minute grapefruit starts to shine through, offering some complexity.

Palate

Tastes like fresh citrus with sweet notes of honey and a short strawberry draw. It's not as crisp as it smells, it's a little round and syrupy at first, but the acid develops in your mouth and feels almost a little effervescent on the back of the tongue. The wine is a bit unbalanced, the acidity is much more prominent than the alcohol, which is almost undetectable despite the wine being over 12%.

Overall we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the wine compared to the price. The wine definitely provides a good bang-for-your-buck (really, you're pretty much getting 3% alcohol per dollar) and is at least worth a try, even if you don't generally like rosés. It's a little sweet and completely approachable, a good summer wine if you aren't feeling like drinking something super crisp. Poking around online it appears that this is primarily a rosé of cabernet.

7.5/10

The wine gets a score bump for the price, but it was still unbalanced and didn't blow our socks off. It's a solid everyday drinker, and one that we wouldn't be ashamed to take to a casual occasion.

Cheers,

A&P

¡Sauv Blanc and Ceviche!

We've been away for a while and we hope you've been drinking lots of wine (learn by doing)! This week we picked up a bottle of Save Me, San Francisco Wine Co "Bulletproof Picasso" Sauvignon Blanc. Though the bottle ran for a little more than our usual price range, with our Ralphs card we were able to get it for $13 rather than the $16 it usually goes for. While looking at the endless sea of white wines, this green tint bottle caught our attention. The Painted Ladies of San Francisco are showcased on the label and this is all inspired by Jimmy Stafford from the band Train. Though the price and the fancy celebrity endorsement would usually be a turn off, we ranked this sauv blanc at an 8/10. This fresh and crisp wine screams summer!

2013  "Bulletproof Picasso" Sauvignon Blanc

California

13.5% alcohol

All stainless steel 

Sight

Clear straw color-pale gold with a slight hint of green.

Low color concentration.

Very artistic and colorful label with the Painted Ladies

Aromas

Strong aromas of grapefruit and citrus, with undertone of grass and lemons. Very similar to the usual profile of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs

Taste

The wine tastes super grapefruity and grassy, almost like drinking a milder form of grapefruit juice at times. Potent acid structure but despite of this the wine is still quite smooth with a very light body and mouthfeel.

Strong notes of minerality on the draw. No oak or evidence of malolactic fermentation.

This wine is really reminiscent of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc with a bit more nuance and minerality. Though we splurged a little this week, we highly recommend drinking this wine solo or with some fresh fish or, like we did, some ceviche! (Recipe detailed below). This is a great bottle if you're looking for a fresh crisp white for a summer's day or if you're on the quarter system (like we are) and you still have a few more weeks of school you can class up your Friday afternoon before the weekend begins. Worth bringing with you to a get-together if you need a nicer bottle of white or just want to class up your day-drinking. We gave it an 8/10 for being a pretty solid wine, even if it is a tad pricey at $13.

Check out our little photo story of Paul's family ceviche recipe and enjoy some wine :)

Cheers,

A&P

Ceviche

So, when we tasted this wine on Friday we were trying to think of what food it could go with (since it's a great standalone wine) and I'm always trying to justify buying seafood/prove to Alejandra that I'm more Mexican than her so we had the idea to mix up a batch of ceviche on Memorial Day and try it out with the wine!

What you'll need:

Snapper (or if you're on the West Coast, Rockfish)

Scallops

Calamari (tubes)

White onion

Limes. Many limes.

Tomato

Cilantro

Jicama

Salt

Avocado

I also diced in about half a jalapeño, which I think it adds a really nice little kick. The flavor is almost imperceptible if you don't know it's leaves a refreshing tingle in your mouth. A serrano would also work for this.

You're going to want the freshest possible fish for this, both for quality and food safety reasons. I opted to get my fish at Whole Foods.

First you'll get your squid ready. These will need to be boiled until soft, about 10 minutes.

Delicious, delicious tubes

Boil for ~10 minutes or until soft

A stray tentacle worked its way into my tubes!

Tentacle Buddy

Once the tubes have been boiled, slice into strips

 Place the strips of calamari into the bowl that you will be marinating in.

 Next up comes the snapper or rock cod. You'll need to separate the the skin and avoid the couple pin bones.

On a fattier fish one slice on the end will do and you can easily peel the rest of the skin off

The skin did not want to cooperate

 After skinning the fish you'll slice the meat into ~1/2" chunks. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of this but you can see them in the pictures of the marinade. Place the chunks into the marinade bowl with the calamari.

Next comes the scallops. I opted for bay scallops, as they're a little bit smaller than sea scallops and you can just cut them in half, instead of the multiple cuts you would need for the larger sea scallops.

Gold is worth its weight in scallops

 Slice each scallop in half and add to the marinade bowl.

Dice up your white onion and add it to the marinade bowl.

Guest appearance by our tentacle buddy

 Now slice and dice the (optional) jalapeño, and add to the marinade bowl.

Remove the ribs, you only want the flesh of the jalapeño

Now it's time to get marinating! Pretty simple, just fill the bowl with lime juice until all of the fish is covered. You're going to need a lot of limes!

Squeeze like you've never squeezed before!

Just kidding. Pick up a bottle of lime juice, your forearms will thank you later. I grabbed two but the one bottle ended up being the perfect amount.

Fill bowl until fish is covered

Mix evenly and ensure all parts of the mixture are submerged in lime juice.
Add a pinch of salt.

 This mixture is going to marinate for about an hour and a half.

When you start geting close to hitting the end of the marinating time, it's time to make some totopos!

Cut corn tortillas into quarters (homemade or store bought tortillas work fine for this) and get some vegetable oil up to frying temperature in a pan. Drop sliced tortillas into the oil and fry them to your desired crispiness (it'll take a few batches to get your fry timing down).

No ceviche can be enjoyed without totopos

  

 Once your chips are fried, pull them out of the oil and place into a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Salt the chips at this point (I use a mixture of salt and chili powder).

Salt and let cool

Kick ass chip and dip container recommended

 Dice up your avocado, jicama, tomato and cilantro.

Perfection

 Alejandra wanted to snap a picture before we completed the dish

Your fearless leaders

 Drain most of the marinade from the fish bowl and add your tomato, avocado, jicama, and cilantro.

Mix well and serve!

Enjoy, with good wine, good beer, and good friends.

Life doesn't get more perfect than this

¡Salud!

Paul

College Uncorked Wine Archive

College Uncorked Wine Archive!

Here's all the wines we've reviewed to date, with their ratings (Updated Weekly):

Our Tasting Structure/Rubric

Reds

2012 Caretaker Cabernet, Paso Robles, CA - 7/10

2011 Kirkland Meritage, Napa Valley, CA - 5/10

2013 Rosemount Shiraz, SE Australia - 8/10 (9/10 with Thin Mints)

Whites

2013 Edna Valley Chardonnay, Edna, CA - 7.5/10

2014 Green Fin Pinot Grigio, California, - 7/10
2013 Save Me San Francisco Wine Co Sauvignon Blanc, CA - 8/10 (With bonus ceviche recipe!)

Rosés

2014 Viñas Chilenas Rosario Estate Reserva Rosé Wine - 7.5/10
2014 Les Portes de Bordeaux - 8.5/10

Pinot Gris for Me

This week we picked up a bottle of 2014 Green Fin California Pinot Grigio (or Pinot Gris if you prefer) from Trader Joe's for $4.99. This bottle had caught our eye in the display at Trader Joe's with its sweet Woody label and carefree beach living vibes. It's fruity, easy-drinking and a little sweet- the perfect combination for a Pismo bonfire or backyard barbecue. While it's not personally a style that I seek out it's a solid wine for five bucks and it's worth picking up a bottle to see if it suits your style. Who knows, you may end up drinking it all summer! We gave it 7/10 with a little boost for the price tag. Try putting some frozen berries in it for the perfect warm-day glass.

Pinot Gris is a white grape originating in Alsace, a cool growing region right on France's eastern border with Germany. Pinot Grigio is the Italian name for the same grape, though they usually denote different styles of wine (Gris generally being more heavy and viscous, a bit more prone to bottle aging and Grigio being light, crisp, and airy, ready to drink right away). Fun fact: The word pinot comes from the French word for pine cone, because the grape clusters resemble pine cones.

2014 Green Fin Pinot Grigio
California
12.5% ABV
Organic

Sight

Dope ass label

Light golden-green color, very clear

Bright, but translucent 

No rim variation- low color concentration throughout

Aromas

Strong fresh aromas of peaches and pears, a little bit of vegetal-grassy aroma and some hints of melon

Taste

Very fruity, sweet, peaches and pears.

The wine has good acid structure, which stands up to the sweetness, with no noticeable alcohol burn. Very smooth. No oak flavors/aromas

Personally I prefer my whites to be drier and crisper, but there's nothing objectively wrong with this, what you think of it is going to depend on your palate. If nothing else, it's worth springing the $5 to pick this bottle up and see where you stand on the spectrum of white wines to help you pick out wines in the future!

It goes down easy and smooth, and though we didn't have any on hand when we were tasting, the idea was brought up of putting some frozen raspberries and strawberries in it, muddling a bit, and drinking it that way, which should be pretty good. Serve chilled with some friends and you'll have a good time with this wine. Or maybe a wine smoothie?

Chloe came to investigate the photo shoot

If you end up trying it out with the fruit shoot us a pic and let us know how it is!

Cheers,

A&P

A Pleasant Surprise

Greetings fellow drinkers!

It's the most wonderful time of the year. As you may have noticed we are now beset by brown clad preteens peddling their delicious and addictive wares outside of grocery stores. That's right, it's Girl Scout Cookie season. To honor that, we picked a wine this week that we thought might go well with one of our favorites, the undisputed champion of Girl Scout Cookies: The Thin Mint.  We walked down to the liquor store and snagged a bottle of Rosemount Estate Shiraz (Syrah in American) for $11.99. By itself it's already one of the better wines we tasted, but when we brought out the thin mints it became hands down the best pairing either of us have tasted in our (admittedly short) lives. We gave it an 8/10 without the thin mints and a 9/10 with thin mints-our highest rating yet. A bottle plus a box will run you $16 and it's the bees knees. Check it out.


2013 Rosemount Shiraz
13.5% ABV
$11.99

Sight

Bright, deep garnet (purple-red) color
Minimal/slight rim variation, no sediment

Nose

Bold nose, smells like dried plum and black currant jam, followed by french oak

Palate

Very smooth tannins, little acid up front, really hits the back of the mouth

Very hot (alcohol) right after opening the bottle, mellows out a bit 

Full-bodied with flavors of black pepper and plum, and a little bit of vanilla and oak on the draw-like bourbon

With Thin Mints?

Initial reaction: "Damn, that's good".

The mint seems to cool some of the heat from the alcohol and actually pairs very well. It also perks up your taste buds and the chocolate combination is rich enough to stand up to the bold flavors of the wine. You gotta try this. We were both a little skeptical at first but I don't think it could have turned out better.

8/10 solo: probably going to be my go-to inexpensive red from here on out

9/10 with thin mints: SO GOOD

Plus it's a screw cap!

Cheers,

A&P

Chardonnay Cures our Midterm Woes

Hello aspiring winos!

This week we decided to take a cue from the warm weather (sorry to all of you not in California) and switch it up a little bit. We wandered down to Sandy's Liquor in downtown SLO and perused their generous collection of wine (and beer!) in the wall coolers until a bottle of white caught our eye. We decided to go with a bottle of 2013 Edna Valley Chardonnay, for its attractive label and similarly attractive price tag at $13. This might seem like pushing the boundary for a cheap white, but I'm willing to shell out a little extra dough for a good white for reasons that will be covered in this week's Wine 101 post discussing a little overview of production techniques for red and white wines. Additionally, we've both had good experiences with Edna Valley in the past, and we're proud locavores, so drinking a wine made 7 miles away from the store we bought it from gives us the warm-tinglies. All-in-all we were happy with the wine: it looks good in the glass, smells good, and tastes alright, even if it's not too complex. It's a little expensive, but it's a good example of a balanced chardonnay (not super buttery, but not straight fruit expression) so if you find yourself with a little extra pocket money give it a shot and see if you like it. We rate it a 7.5/10- better than average but not good enough at the price to keep the fridge stocked. Find the full tasting notes below.


2013 Edna Valley Chardonnay
13.9% Alcohol by Volume
$13 at Sandy's Liquor in Downtown SLO

Sight 

Looks nice in the glass. Pale gold/straw colored, with a tint of green

Low concentration, very transparent, especially around margins

Crystal clear and bright, no sediment

Nose

Very clean, sharp/crisp aromas, but not overwhelming. I would call it a light bouquet, it's a little subdued but not muted, just not very concentrated.

Smells organic, with fresh grass, floral, and fresh red (fuji?) apple aromas . After a bit more examination there's a slight buttery aroma coming in behind them.

Taste

The moment the wine hits your lips there is a very pronounced acid structure up front. Not unpleasant, but in the body fails to stand up to it and as a result seems a bit flabby and flat after experiencing the initial pointed acidity.

The wine is velvety smooth as you swallow with an oaky aftertaste, complemented by a subtle butter flavor.

No flavors stood out except for the oak influence on the draw, so as far as taste goes this one gets a "meh".

Words that came to mind when we were deciding our rating were "good, fine, acceptable, boring" in that order. I would suggest trying this Chardonnay with food, maybe something spicy, that will allow the acidity and textures to shine and make up for the lack of flavors on the mid-palate. That said, we decided to give it a 7.5/10, because we felt it didn't deserve a 7, but didn't really earn an 8. 

I'll probably be buying another bottle of this to try with dinner some time. 

We hope you're all feeling better than we are about this quarter (if you're going to drown you might as well drown in wine, right?) but in case you aren't, here's some pictures from today's tasting featuring Chloe to brighten your day.

Cheers,

A&P

Salt and Pepper

Hey y'all!

Paul and I will be trying wines from different stores, this week we went to the generally reliable Costco. We had been told that we were able to buy alcohol without the need of a membership card. Turns out it was more complicated than that. We picked out the wine of the week, went to the register, turns out we needed a "pass" from the membership counter so I left the wine at the register (Paul was filling up his truck with cheap, cheap Costco gas, with the only membership card we have between us...). I had to stand in line behind a family with many kids, once I got the pass it turned out I needed cash which I didn't have (Paul also had all of the wine cash with him). Finally when I got back to the register the wine was gone....so I had to go back to the wine section in the back corner of the store. Finally paid and had to wait for Paul in the cold.

(What a sob story- Paul)

Unfortunately, the wine didn't pay off. This week's wine is the 2011 Napa Valley Meritage by Kirkland Signature. Meritage (pronounced like heritage) is simply a word for a Bordeaux-style blend, which is generally a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot (sometimes Malbec is thrown into the mix as well). This name was created to give California wineries a label they could use to denote the wine they made to be specifically in the Bordeaux fashion and set it aside from the rest.

It felt like we were cracking fresh pepper directly onto our tongues. Probably pass this one up the next time you're out buying pallets of instant ramen at Costco.

Sight

Not cloudy, very dark, but not dull
The color is deep and concentrated, almost opaque
Deep ruby red color, colorfast, doesn't lose any color on the margins

Nose

Moderate-strong aroma
Spicy black pepper dominates any other aromas that may be present
Smells like Dr. Pepper (23 flavors, bitches!)
A little bit of red fruit flavor shines through, hard to put a finger on exactly what it is

Palate

The first thing we noticed when we tasted the wine was a kind of dirty feeling and aftertaste. Already off to a bad start.
The tannins are a bit subdued and flat, yet still somehow manage to be unpleasant and command a presence in the mouth. Acid comes in strong at the end and is not to be underestimated.
I wish you could have seen Alejandra's face when she took the first sip:
Bottle of Kirkland wine?
10.99.
Her grimace?
Priceless.

The body is weak and lean, the the draw is mediocre at best, and the only thing we could glean from the flavors other than overbearing black pepper spice was a hint of cherry.
Simple and straightforward, but not a particularly strong tasting wine. It's difficult to focus on the flavor when the mouthfeel is so pronounced.

Scenes from our glamorous tasting

Rating 5/10

I'm going to drink the rest of the bottle, because I'm a cheapskate, (in fact, drinking this as I'm writing and it's been open a few hours it tasted a little better) but I'm not going to be buying it again. Maybe turn it into a sauce for chicken and pasta. Kirkland, you betrayed our trust.


Cheers,
(Just for you, Christian)
A&P

Wine 101: Basics of Tasting

This is Wine 101, a segment where we will try and drop some knowledge on ya every once in a while.


Hey y'all!

We wanted to throw together a little info sheet to help explain some of the terms and ideas we use and look at when we're tasting a wine. We also thought it would be cool to show you the tasting and evaluating process so you can go through it yourself if you want-- No pressure though, we're doing this so you can drink good wine without having to do the legwork!

Key Definitions

Acidity: The sensation of acid the wine creates, judged by how much the wine makes you salivate.

Body: Describes the weight or fullness of the wine in your mouth.

Nose/Bouquet: All of the aromas coming off of the wine.

Finish/Draw: The lingering taste or sensations left by the wine in your mouth after you swallow.

Measures of Sweetness (Dry, off-dry, sweet): How much sugar is left after fermentation (% Residual Sugar or RS). Technically speaking a wine is considered dry if it has less than .02% RS, but for our purposes a wine is dry if it has no detectable sweetness, off-dry if it has just a little bit, and sweet if the sweetness is really prevalent.

Rim Variation: How the concentration of color changes from the center to the edges of the glass (hold the wine sideways to view), and how large of a margin of clear liquid there is.

Tannins: Compounds found in wines and bitter foods (kale, some types of carrots) that create sensations of bitterness in your mouth and dry it out by precipitating proteins in saliva. A wine with a prominent tannin structure is described as being tannic.

Tasting

When we're tasting a wine for evaluation, we (loosely) follow this chart, starting with sight, then progressing onto nose, palate and taste. (Link to a larger version)

Basically, we start out by looking at the color of the wine- how bright it is, how clear it is, the hue (which color it most closely resembles), and the concentration of color. To look at the concentration you tip the glass to the side, generally against a white background, until it's thinned across the glass. From this view you can see how the concentration of color changes as the wine thins out and roughly estimate how intense the flavors of the wine will be when you taste it.

After looking at the color we start to smell the wine, first looking for any overpowering bad smells, then trying to pick out different aromas, many times fruity aromas. This is one of the most intimidating things about starting to evaluate wines. In fact, we really aren't all that great at it ourselves, so we aren't looking for minutia, just the big few aromas that are really going to influence a person's enjoyment of the wine. After all, most of what we taste comes from what we're smelling!

We use this flavor wheel to help us figure out what we're smelling and tasting. It's a great thing to have on hand if you're trying to figure out what the heck that taste/smell is but you can't quite put your finger on it.

(Full version here)


After we've made made some judgments on how the wine smells we get to the exciting part: drinking! Make no mistake, there is no sipping and/or spitting here.

With the first swig, we try to feel out the texture of the wine: primarily bitterness, astringency, acid, and alcohol. once we have a good grasp of that we start digging into the flavors of the wine using the same wheel that we used for aromas (seriously, it's a great thing to have on hand). We loosely go through fruit first then move onto any non-fruit flavors that may be present, focusing on the prominent flavors that jump out at us. On the tasting grid shown above, it also has sections for conclusions, but those are for blind tasting, so we ignore that.

After we've gone through that, we compare notes with each other and decide what we want to rate the wine on a 10 point scale.

10 Point Scale

1- Why did they even put it in a bottle?

2- Run away

3- Sub-2 Buck Chuck

4- Bottle useful mainly as a weapon in case of emergency

5- Maybe give it to your ex for their birthday.. if you're feeling mean

6- Open this one after you're almost done with the first bottle

7- Average. If it was given to me as a gift, I wouldn't complain

8- Good value. Buy it in a pinch.

9- Take it to a pot-luck with your friends and impress them

10- Hunt it down. It's serious y'all

Following our full evaluation, we properly dispose of the rest of the bottle.

I hope this was helpful! In the future we might delve a little more into what's happening behind the scenes to get the wine to your table so you can get a feel for everything that goes into it. If there's anything that we didn't explain or anything you'd like to hear more about from us please drop a line in the comment section! And if this seems intimidating to you don't worry about it! Just drink wine! Strive to drink new wines every time you do pop a cork. If you're into it you'll start to notice some of these things without even thinking. And that, my friends, is when you know you're hooked.

Cheers,
A&P

Introducing College Uncorked!

Hey y'all!

We're Alejandra and Paul, two Wine and Viticulture students at Cal Poly here to help you wade through the sea of inexpensive wine.

Wine can be delicious, but delicious wine can get reeeaal expensive. And if you're anything like us, you can't afford to be dropping a bunch of cash on wine every week. So you aim for the $5-15 price point (we won't talk about boxed wines... yet), and it's pretty hit or miss. You go to the store, and the only thing you really have to go off of are the backs of bottles. Not very helpful (just look at the "Winemaker's Notes" on our first bottle down there. What you need are honest reviews. Not snobby or esoteric tasting notes. So we'll be here every week, drinking cheap wine and avoiding our homework to help you class up your Netflix "date" night without breaking the bank.

For our first ever Monday post, and with Valentines Day just around the corner, we picked a perfect wine for you to enjoy with your significant... self.  Ringing in at just $9.99, today we tasted 2012 Caretaker Cabernet from Paso Robles, CA. Pleasant aromas of dark fruit with a little bit of spice; pair this slightly over-tannic wine with caramel milk chocolate squares and loneliness to cut the bitterness. Full tasting notes continued on the next page.

Cheers,
A&P