| |
 A
night of red wine and chocolate. What could be
better? We had a truly interesting and enjoyable evening learning
about both the red wines we were drinking, the chocolate we were
eating, and how the two paired together. Our speaker this evening
was Joh
Gerum, who described to us his thoughts on the wines, and
gave us his suggested chocolate pairings. We also had Laurel
Adam from Rogers Chocolates this evening. She provided
us with the chocolates and taught us how to taste and enjoy chocolate.
Our reception wine was the Barossa
Estate "E&E" Sparkling Shiraz 2002. It had
a chocolate flavour with plum and dark cherry. The tannins were
low. The residual sugar balanced with the sparkle nicely. A great
way to start our tasting.
The first wine of the evening was the Zuccardi
Tempranillo 2003 which comes from the famous Mendoza region
of Argentina. The tempranillo grape is widely planted in Spain
and has since started to be grown elsewhere in the world. This
wine had red plum and vanilla aromas. There was nice fruit on
the palate with some grippy tannins on the mid-palate. The second
wine was the Simonsig "Frans Malan"
Pinotage/Cabernet 2003. Simonsig means "in sight of
Simonsburg Mountain". This is a family owned winery, much
like the majority of the wineries in South Africa. The Frans Malan
is a "Cape Blend", which means that one of the varietals
that make the blend, must be Pinotage, which is the varietal cross
born in South Africa. It is the cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault.
This particular wine is a blend of Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon
and a lesser amount of Merlot. The wine spent 16 months in French
oak. This wine had aromas of dark fruit, earth, spice and oak.
The wine has medium tannins, some spiciness, and flavours of cherries
and chocolate.
We then enjoyed the Barletta "Clare
Valley" Grenache 2002. Fruit for this wine was sourced
from very low yielding, 35+year old, dry grown, bush-vine Grenache.
This wine had some brickish colour at the edge with a medium red
core. There were cherry and nutty aromas. On the palate there
was toffee, cherry and fruitiness. This wine also had low tannins.
A very intersting wine due to the maderized "toffee"
flavour.
The next wine was the D'Arenberg "Laughing
Magpie" Shiraz/Viognier 2002. The wine is composed
of 95% shiraz and 5% viognier. This is a typical blend in the
northern Rhone, particularly in Hermitage or Cote Rotie AC. The
aromatic viognier lifts the fruit flavours and causes more extraction
from the shiraz grape skins. The wine was dark purple in the glass
and coated the glass when you swirled it. It had a gamey, earthy,
tarry bouquet. On the palate it had cherry fruit flavours, some
earthiness and low tannins. There was also a bit of sediment,
showing it's age. This wine paired very well with the Tournedos
of AAA Alberta beef.We tasted this wine in January
2005. To see how it has changed you can follow this link.
The Viu Manent Malbec Reserva 2005
from Chile was our next wine. This wine, still youg, was purple
in the glass and had aromas of cassis, leather and meat. It had
a soft entry on the palate with low tannins but still grippy at
the end.
We next tried the Concha Y Toro "Don
Melchor" Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. This wine head a
wonderful bouquet of cherry, chocolate, mint, oak and some capsicum.
This was the most tannic of the reds, but it had good dark cherry
fruit and a long length.
Our last two wines of the evening were fortified. The first fortiefied
was the Whiskers Blake Tawny Port NV.
Being a tawny port it was orangy brown in appearance. It had spicy,
nutty, toffee and orange peel aromas. On the palate it was creamy,
sweet, orangy and nutty. The second was the d'Arenberg
Vintage Fortified Shiraz 2002. It was inky purple in appearance
and coated the glass when it was swirled. Spice, black currant
and plum aromas were detected. This wine had spicey and sweet
with cherry flavour.
After trying the wines on their own and then with our appetizers,
we moved on to the chocolates. We had a selection of milk chocolate
and dark chcolates with different degrees of cacao. Laurel from
Rogers Chocolates started by telling us how to
taste chocolate in our mouth (melt the chocolate in the centre
of your tongue) and then let John talk about his suggested wine/chocolate
pairings. He indicated that light chocolate pairs well with light
wines, and dark chocolate goes well with heavier wines. The milk
chocolate wine had 33%, the hazelnut 54%, and Mystere 72%, cacao.
We also had specially brought in by Laurel a 99% cacao chocolate.
The 99% cocoa chocolate is meant as a base chocolate which is
then diluted in percentage to make the other chocolates. The 99%
cocoa chocolate was very bitter and chalky/gritty. Not a chocolate
to eat on it's own. John had this chocolate brouhg in to try it
with specific wines. With the Don Melchor
this chocolate atttacked the tannins and make the wine feel medium
body and taste more fruity. This chcolate also took away the creaminess
of the tawny port. The hazelnut chocolate paired nicely with the
Zuccardi Tempranillo. The Mystere was a good match with many of
the wines.
 Tasting
Selection
Our first favourite red wine was the Concha
Y Toro "Don Melchor" Cabernet Sauvignon 2003.
Our second favourite red wine was the
D'Arenberg
"Laughing Magpie" Shiraz/Viognier 2002.
|
|
