So, last night, my dear friend Maeve came over and we had a picnic of sorts on the floor of my living room. This is something we do often, as these cheese, bread, and salad meals remind us of how we ate while in Paris together (where we shall be again in 36 days. But who's counting?). Of course, we always have some wine as well - usually the same kind of Beaujolais or Montepulciano. But, tonight, I decided to make things interesting. I bought two bottles of wine (both super reasonable, obviously), and Maeve and I each tried one and recorded our findings in my best pretending-to-know-what-I'm-talking-about wine jargon. Luckily, I have my handy Wine Bible and Wine Moleskine for some much needed guidance.
The contenders:
2009 Bourdeaux Chateau Grimard
My Wine Bible tells me that Bourdeaux is the largest fine-wine vineyard in the world, and produces complex, age worthy wines. The range of red Bourdeaux is huge, from very simple to the extremely refined.
Maeve found the Bourdeaux to be crisp, yet sultry (a word that was not on my glossary, but it's awesome so we'll use it anyway) and almost raw. Not sweet at all, and a little earthy - slightly herb infused and spicy, too.
2009 Casamatta Toscana
Tuscany is the home of Italy's three most important wines, according to the Wine Bible, Chianti, Montalcino, and Montepulciano. This wine is a Sangiovese, which is a major Tuscan grape, and it produces a lot of the Super Tuscans, apparently.
I found it to be very clean and light, with very little oaky flavor, which I appreciated. I hate wines that sit on my tongue with a lot of aftertaste. I learned in my wine glossary that these wines are called "fat," which was kind of amusing. There was definitely an herb-y and earthy twist to it, but I found it really nice for a simple, easy to drink red that's still substantial enough to have when it's cold outside.
Delicious!
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