Alana's Wine Blog

 Wine Tasting: Insomnia Cabernet Sauvignon The red wine that I tried at the Vintage Cellar this week is the Insomnia Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is made of a variety of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. Its country of origin is the United States, in the California region. The vintage year that I tried was 2022. A bottle retails for $5.95 at the Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg, Virginia.  I found over 700 reviews of this wine on the Vivino website. This wine has an average of a 3.4 out of 5. Most people noticed the dark fruity flavors, such as blackberry and plum. I also read a lot of reviews of people saying that they found this wine smooth with a medium dryness. Wine Folly: Cabernet Sauvignon grapes tend to have dark berry flavors and aromas. This includes blackberry, black cherry, plum etc. As mentioned on page 30-31 they talk about the dark aromas you may smell. I smelt a lot of aromas from the black fruit category; blackberry, cherry, a...

  Wine Tasting:  Cantina di Castelnuovo del Garda P inot Grigio della Venezie On Thursday, March 27th, I visited the Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg, VA, for their weekly wine tasting. One of the white wines that they had to sample was the  Cantina di Castelnuovo del Garda P inot Grigio della Venezie. This wine is made up of 100% Pinot Grigio grapes. The country of origin is Italy, in the Veneto region. The vintage year is 2023 and a bottle of this wine retails for $8.95 at the vintage cellar.  I found a total of 37 review of this wine on the Vivino website; which is a website that sells various wines from all over the world. This wine had an average rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars. Most of the reviews mentioned that this wine was dry and crisp with floral aromas. People mentioned flavors of various fruits like apple, pear, etc.  Wine Folly: Page 149 in the wine folly textbook focuses on Pinot Grigio. They mention that this grape can vary...

  Drink This Now Lesson #2 For my drink this now blog me and my friend, who is also taking Geography of Wine this semester decided to do lesson 2. This lesson is focused on how glassware change alter your perception of wine. For this lesson we had to pick a aromatic white wine and an aromatic red wine. I decided to get Kangaroo Ridge 2022 Shiraz for my red and the Barefoot Deliciously Sweet Moscato for my white wine.  I had not tried either of these wines prior to doing this activity to ensure that I would be unbiased and get the full experience. While I’ve sampled and enjoyed several Moscato wines in the past, this was my first time tasting a Shiraz red wine. I typically enjoy wines that are on the sweeter side and have no enjoyed most of the red wines that I have tried. But I have really enjoyed being able to learn more about and try more wines while taking this class.   For both the Shiraz red wine and the Moscato white wine I had the...

Wine Tasting:  Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling and Martin's Rake Sauvignon Blanc I went to Kroger to do a wine tasting. While at Kroger I was able to try 2 wines for free.  The first wine I tried was Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling (#3 on the board). The variety of grapes in this wine are made exclusively of riesling grapes. The country of origin is the United States and the region of origin is the Columbia Valley in California. The vintage year is 2022 and at Kroger it retails for $9.99 a bottle.  I found a detailed review of the Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling on the honest wine review website. They split this review up into its appearance, aroma, taste, and finish. Their overall review of this wine was that it is a balanced wine that wasn't very sweet and more on the dry side. They tasted floral and fruity flavors.    Wine folly: Page 158 on the wine folly textbook focuses on Riesling gr...

 Wine Tasting: Canyon Road Merlot The second wine that I tried while at the Vintage Cellar is Canyon Road Merlot. This wine is made from the Merlot grape variety. The country of origin is the United States. The region of origin is Geyserville, California. The year is from the 2022 vintage year and retails for $8.95 at vintage cellar.   This wine has a total of 86 ratings/reviews for the Canyon Road Merlot vintage year 2022, on website 'Vivino'. A lot of the reviews mentioned that this wine has a jammy, berry flavor. They also said that its a dry and full body merlot wine. The aromas from this wine are from the black cherry category on page 30 on the wine folly. The aromas I smelt are plum, blackberry, blueberry, and black cherry. The wine folly book talks about the Merlot grape 131. The typical flavors are blackberries and plum.  I did not have this wine with any food. After, I swirled the wine I smelt dark berries like; blackberry, plum...

 Wine Tasting:  Pierinvaletta Moscato d'Asti Organic I enjoyed my first wine tasting at the vintage cellar when I went last week so I decided to go again when they offered free tastings to try some more wines.  My favorite wine that I tried during the tasting was the Pierinvaletta Moscato d'Asti Organic. This wine is made of 100 Moscato grapes. The country of origin is Italy in the Piedmont region. Its vintage year is 2020. A bottle of this wine retails for $9.95 at the vintage cellar.  On the timeless wine website they give a review of this wine from the Pierinvaletta winery. Timelesswines.com is an online store that sells wines various wines. They mention that this wine is organic and has a tropical fruity flavor and aroma. "Delicious on its own, but also with  sushi or cheese". (Timeless wines).  Flavors and aromas from the Pierinvaletta Moscato d'Asti Organic wine that correspond with the Wine Folly textbook: Aromas: One of the main fruit...

 Wine Tasting: Witness Mark Central Coast Pinot Noir  While at the Vintage Cellar I also was able to try a red wine at one of their free tastings. I haven't tried many red wines so I was excited to try this wine. This is the Witness Mark Central Coast Point Noir.  This wine is made of Pinot Noir grapes. It's from the United States in the California region. The vintage year is 2020. The vintage Cellar a bottle retails for $12.95.  4.) A found a good review on this wine on the website 'Casemates'. This website has created an online wine community that allows people to write reviews on various wines that they have tried. This is really helpful for people that are looking to try new wines but want to see others options before spending their money.  I really liked the review from the user 'Knlprez' they had an extensive review on the Witness Mark Pinot Noir. They tried the wine at various times to see if the flavor changed with...

Wine Tasting: Burgo Viejo Rosado I went to the Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg, Virginia for the first time to do one of their free wine tastings. I was able to try 4 different wines at the tasting but for this blog I will be focusing on the sparkling rose wine that I tried and enjoyed.  The first wine that I me and my friend tried at the Vintage cellar was the Burgo Viejo Rosado Wine 2021. The variety of grapes that make up this wine are 100% Garnacha grapes. The country of origin is Spain. Which is located in northern Spain in the Rioja region. This wines vintage year is 2021. At the Vintage Cellar a bottle retails for $7.95.  4.) https://www.kysela.com/wine/burgo-viejo-rioja-rosado.html Attached is a link to the Kysela website with various reviews on the Burgo Viejo Rosado Wine. The most recent review says "100% Garnacha fermented in stainless steel with clean, bright notes of red cherry, strawberry, and dried orange peel. As it opens up it notes sweet tobacco and...