Wino Wednesday: Red Varietals

Two things: Yes, it has been many days since Wednesday. I just had an INSANE week, so sitting down to do this entry has taken some time.

Second of all, the pictures are too dark because I can't work Sean's camera for shit in low-light situations. We'll get there someday. 

So Miranda hosted Wino Wednesday this week and had delicious goodies — bake brie, cherries, chocolate, meatballs and caprese skewers!

Mmmmmmm! And so pretty, too.

Miranda passes out notecards so that Jennifer (and the rest of us) can document our wine thoughts. 

We had:

• Steak House Wine: A dry Cabernet Sauvignon with a nice finish, apparently perfect with steak. 

• Menage a Trois: Our unanimous favorite; a blend of cabernet, merlot and zinfandel. It was fruity, but soft with a touch of vanilla. A little sweet, but perfectly so. 

• Banfi Bell'agio Chianti: I brought this one; I'm a fan of Chianti with red-sauced pasta dishes, especially lasagna and ravioli. It's a very light yet spicy Chianti, enough flavor to balance with meat but not heavy at all. 
• Stonehedge Reserve Merlot: To be completely honest, I didn't write anything about this on my card. Not sure what happened there, but the description says "cherry berry plummy" flavors, which sounds good, right?

• Thom Clarke Milton Park Shiraz: I learned two things: shiraz and syrah? Same thing (what the what?!) Also, good shiraz comes from Australia, Italy and California. Good thing this spicy shiraz comes from the Outback!
• Zen of Zin: A delicious red zinfandel with a smoky, oaky taste and a bit of a burn at the end (but in a good way!). 
• Trinity Oaks Pinot Noir: Light, fruity yet spicy wine – a little heavier than normal. 
• Nero d'Avola: a mild, almost effervescent red varietal from Sicily. Very, very good.
• Cabernet Sauvignon: A tangy start but a smooth finish. We learned that cabs have more tannins. Lookatme, I'm so fancy!
• Cline Zinfandel: So I'm not totally positive this is the one we had, but it sounds close. It was oaky and had notes of chocolate — very rich. 

Ashleigh and Lauren discuss wine intelligently before the eight or so glasses went straight to our heads.

I unfortunately forgot these ladies names, but they were a lovely, sassy mother-daughter pair full of fun stories!

Erica educates us; without her, we'd be ordering syrahs and saying we don't like shiraz. 

AND she makes wedding cakes! She brought this one for us to try a new fondant recipe...I'm such an underachiever. 

Next time, we're doing a meet-up at Lubo in Virginia Beach on Friday, July 31. If you're interested in coming, let me know!