How do you know if a wine is worth the money? Do you trust the tasting notes or someone else's opinion? Or do you just buy a wine and hope for the best?
This month we decided to put 6 wines to the test. We selected three varietals, one under $15.00 and one that was considerably more.
What we found out surprised us.
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Before we began the blind tasting we enjoyed brie with garlic rubbed bruschetta and a sparkling wine, a Chandon Blanc de Noir from CA. It was perfect with the brie with lively acidity and strawberry and cherry flavors.
The 2014 Sauvignon Blanc from Oyster Bay, Marlborough New Zealand had pineapple and citrus on the nose with flavors of guava and lemon and slight minerality, finishing with crisp acidity. This wine averages about $14.00 a bottle.
The 2014 Jean Reverdy Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre France was crisp with herbal notes and citrus flavors. It averages about $26.00 a bottle.
Everyone guessed the $14.00 wine was the more expensive wine. When we were told that we had one Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and one from Sancerre we immediately thought we knew the answer. But we were all wrong. It was very interesting to compare these two wines and find such surprising results. We decided it might have been due to the fact that the New Zealand wine was aged sur lei to enhance the structure and mouthfeel of the wine, giving it extra body.
The Sancerre wine did however go best with the food pairing, Mac and Cheese with Goat Cheese and Pesto. It was in fact delicious.
The next wines we compared were Cabernet Sauvignons.
The 2013 wine from Josh Cellars winery had aromas of dark fruits and vanilla with flavors of dark cherries and plums with firm tannins. This wine sales for about $14.00 a bottle.
Josh stood up well to Adaptation, a Cabernet from Napa Valley CA, roughly a $54.00 bottle of wine. Adaptation is made by PlumpJack winery. The texture is silky with flavors of blackberry and black currants with a long finish.
We knew which wine was more expensive but most everyone agreed that for the money, Josh was the better buy.
Josh was the favorite for the Carne Asada which were truly authentic with hand made tortillas from California.
The Adaptation was a good pairing with the Red Wine Beef Stew
Next we compared Penfold's Hyland Shiraz, less than $15.00 a bottle and Herman Story Nuts and Bolts, about $50.00 a bottle.
The 2012 Penfold's Hyland Shiraz from South Australia was very rich with blackberry fruit aromas and flavors with some oak, a very nice wine.
The 2013 Herman Story from Santa Barbara County in California was obviously the more expensive wine, more balanced with fruit flavors, oak and tannins. But the food pairing was better with the Penfold's Hyland Shiraz, a tart with minced lamb, red onions and mango.
The two dessert wines were Robertson Winery from South Africa, a 2003 Almand Grave Riesling, Noble Late Harvest. This wine was a full-bodied wine with flavors of dried apricots, almonds and honey and balanced acidity and a smooth finish.
We also tasted a late harvest 2002 Riesling from Australia, Mount Horrocks Cordon Cut had a more golden color with intense floral, spice and lemon aromas. The flavors of pear and citrus fruit and terrific acidity paired deliciously with the pear and apple crisp.
