A trip to Spain was in store with this week’s wine, Rioja to be exact. As with several previous weeks, Wine Awesomeness was sending me on a journey to a place I had never been before with a wine varietal I had never tried. Therefore, the research began. There are four main levels when it comes to Rioja wines. It starts with the Rioja level and then moves upward to Crianza, then Reserva, and finally Gran Reserva. In the case of this wine, a Crianza, I learned that these wine generally age in oak barrels for six months to a…
Tag: red blend
Zazou Minervois
Moving back to the Wine Awesomeness monthly box this week, meant trying another type of wine that I had never seen before. This time, it was a Minervois. I quickly discovered that Minervois is an appellation, the title given to a specifically styled product from a specific place or region, for red wines in western Languedoc France. Although the Minervois title is usually bestowed upon red wines, it also covers rosés and white wines as well. This wine was made up of the most prominent varietals for the region. It was 60% Syrah, 30% Grenache, and 10% Mouvedre. * It…
Caves Velhas Cardeal Selected Harvest Red
Well I can honestly say, that this week I had no idea what to expect from my last wine from Portugal. My first red was no good, but the second bottle, which was a white, turned out to be amazing. I was a little nervous about trying a second red, but I figured that an entire region would not be able to let me down twice right? This red was also made from a selection of Portuguese grapes. It was 35% Tinta-Roriz, 35% Alfrocheiro, and 30% Touriga-Nacional. I hoped that this would turn out to be one of the “elegant…
Caves Velhas Vinho Tinto
I received my next box from Wine Awesomeness this week and inside I found all Portuguese wines. I had never tried any Portuguese wines, so I was quite eager to get down to business on these. The first I chose from the box was the Caves Velhas Vinho Tinto. This red wine was made from a mixture of three different grapes. It was 35% Touriga-Nacional, 35% Tinta-Roriz, and 30% Touriga-Franca. After a little research, I discovered that Portugal is famous for Port. Which makes sense right? Port? Portugal? HaHa! Anyway… I went back to my Wine Awesomeness box to see…
Cellar el Masroig Vi Novell
I have tried a few Spanish wines in the past and I found them to be about average. I was hoping this week would change my mind, as I would be trying a red blend from Monsant, Spain. Vi Novell is Catalan for “New Wine” and is released in celebration of San Marti on November 11th. This wine blends Grenache, Carignan, and Syrah. * As the story of San Marti goes, he was living as a soldier and one night he came across a beggar with no clothing. He cut his own cloak in half and wrapped the beggar in…
Van Ruiten Electric Red Blend
This week was back to normal. After New Orleans, I was back to work and back in the swing of things. Which also means, I was back to wine from my Wine Awesomeness box. While we were in New Orleans, my husband just so happened to purchase a yellow electric guitar. This worked out perfectly for me, because this week was Electric Red Wine week, so I was excited to display the wine with the new guitar as you can tell from the photo. However, even though I was excited about the photo taking, I was not very excited about…