Tag: Fortified

Pairings

Pairing Leche Flan and Spirits: On Desserts and Libations

Posted on by Josh

I’m tempted to say I’ve never been a huge dessert person, but almost every week in high school involved at least one large bubble tea, my cravings a pendulum swinging between green tea and mango – there may have been a taro phase. Bubble tea in hand along with cheap (and good!) sushi found at what seemed like every block in that Vancouver neighbourhood, and with homework tucked in our backpacks: a past vision of our version of the Central Perk couch from Friends. That one month we became obsessed with High School Musical, which started with a bootleg CD passed among the student body, was a good one.

My dad was always the one known for making and bringing Filipino leche flan to parties, but his version was always a little too rich for me.… read more

Pairings

Pairing Pinakbet and Wine: on Limp Wrists and Verb Forms

Posted on by Josh

With all of the American high school drama and college rivalries that we saw on TV which left something to be desired in real life for us Canadians (but that I no longer crave for particular reasons), there were some moments of tension between some local schools when I was a kid. There might’ve been the school labeled as the “artsy” one, or there might’ve been that one school who thought they were hot shit because they had that one famous actor who was in that one show for a hot second. Compared to a lot of my friends’ parents, my mom and dad immigrated to Canada a little earlier in their lives, so they ended up attending high school in Vancouver and became familiar with its networks and stereotypes.… read more

Pairings

On Filipino Food and Wine Pairings: an Experiment

Posted on by Josh

I never thought it would feel this quick, but I’ve spent almost 10 years in the wine industry, accompanied by all types of grapey gripes. They range from folks who think red wines are served too warm (which is a perfectly reasonable thought that I also vibe with), to those who decry Chardonnay as if it was Satan manifested into a liquid. Some are oddly offended by the slightest hint of sugar to the point where anything remotely sweeter than battery acid is considered a flaw. I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum (even when said yum yucks other yums), but damn. Let’s loosen our sommelier pins just a smidgen.

Onto what Lagrein-ds my gears: I fucking hate pairing suggestions that generalize off-dry wines into super generic categories for particular cuisines, like this line: “try this German Riesling with Asian food”.… read more

Tasting

Jerez-ted Development

Posted on by Josh

In my early 20s, I once brought a bottle of Lustau’s “East India Solera” Sherry to a house party – and to sincerely enjoy it while sharing recent revelations on the tipple rather than for its elevated alcohol. I’ve slowly started to bring less and less esoteric things to these types of shindigs and my choices have devolved from cool sherries to anonymous six-packs.

Stumbling upon Lustau’s Certified Sherry Wine Specialist course, I couldn’t not awaken a category I’ve put on hold, especially after a recent hoo-ha at work involving a Manzanilla that everyone hated but which I gladly paired with a Saturday morning American Horror Story binge. Within the past few years, the fortified wines from the southwestern corner of Spain have shed their reputation for drinks that only grandmas consume (and no seminar on sherry is complete without any mention of this), and they’ve graduated from unfashionable status to hipster status, and with newer energy flowing through their soleras.… read more

Tasting · Travel

Souzãoberry Fields Forever: hang time with Portuguese grapes in Lodi

Posted on by Josh

Of the mad scientist-viticulturist laboratory that is Lodi, California, we’ve touched upon southern French varieties; grapes classically grown in cooler areas of Europe like Germany and Austria; and Lodian odes to Spanish wines. We reached the part of the conference where we would end up on one of twenty-or-so different excursions – and to complete the circle of a trip, or at least extend the semi-circle or whatever – I eventually decided to go on the excursion that hinted at a visit to a winery with a heavy lean towards Portuguese grape varieties.

What the fuck is Souzão, anyways? Let’s whip out a tome and read the following paragraph in our Jancis voices. (She is, by the way, in the running for being my Snatch Game impression if I’m ever on RuPaul’s Drag Race.)… read more

Life · Quaffing · Tasting

24 wines for turning 24

Posted on by Josh

This post serves two purposes: a sincere smile-and-nod to the 23rd year of my life, and a spring cleaning wine dump of, coincidentally, a number of bottles that equals the number of anniversaries since I was pushed out of my mother. Alas. The past prime number of a year has been good to me, and I’m stoked for the next. Beyond this whole becoming-an-adult thing, I’ve done many things including completing the WSET Diploma (i hate to keep mentioning about it – but perhaps the youngest in BC to do so!), changing jobs, travelling to New York, travelling to France, travelling to Spain, and other things that would probably be best not to put on the internet. Heh.

And home. Oh God – connecting to your roots and family – sometimes I dig myself way too deep into wine culture and its countries that I forget where I come from.… read more

Tasting · Travel

Fox Run and fun rocks

Posted on by Josh

We went to Fox Run right after Anthony Road, for the WBC15 pre-conference: the sun was sure punishing me for being bald, and slathering scented sunscreen on my head would be a death sentence to the people trying to sniff the shit out of their glasses of Lemberger. At least my head would be shiny enough to be used as a security mirror at a grocery store. Yes? Yes? Halloween costume idea?

A display of the vineyards, winery gadgetry, and discussions with the winemaker were followed by a lunch involving six wines, and then a geological tasting on different vineyards and the subsequent expressions of Riesling. Here, we compared the Hanging Delta vineyard to the Lake Dana vineyard, the former having soils composed of silts and clays with glacial till, and the latter having alternating layers of sand and clay.… read more

WSET Diploma

Semen of Dionysus: NV Seppelt “GR 113” Rare Muscat Rutherglen

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Note:

Eyes: clear, deep brown, legs
Nose: clean, pronounced intensity, fully developed, figs, Christmas cake, spice, wood, earth, mineral, brown sugar, raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg, white pepper, dried fruit, burnt toffee, ripe citrus, hint floral
Mouth: luscious, full-bodied, med fortification, med- acid, long length, pronounced intensity, cola, fig, earth, spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, Christmas cake
All in all: Outstanding quality: given its style, the wine is balanced, intensely flavoured, boasts complex characteristics, and has a very long length. Drink now, not suitable for ageing.

NV Seppelt "GR 113" Rare Muscat RutherglenSeven HELLS this was delicious. I’m not even going to go with the vague “bodily fluids” description here like I did with that unctuous Pedro Ximénez. Where the PX was sort of verging on the “very good” to “outstanding” range, this was undeniably smack-dab in the “outstanding” category.… read more

WSET Diploma

Break-up wine and cheap buckets of ice cream: KWV Paarl Cape Tawny

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Note:

Eyes: clear, med- tawny, legs
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, developing, spice, brown sugar, dried red fruit, caramel
Mouth: sweet, med+ body, med fortification, low acid, med length, med+ intensity, candied citrus, brown sugar, caramel, hint red fruit, nutty undertones
All in all: Good quality: harmonized and balanced components along with rather intense but simple flavours accompany this great-valued fortified wine. Could use more complexity and length. Drink now, not suitable for ageing.

KWV Paarl Cape TawnyThis wine was more of a quick afterthought and I’m sad that we didn’t really talk about it some more, though it was probably overshadowed by the wines surrounding it. It was the sixth wine in our flight out of seven: the first four costed a bit more and were superlative in their respective categories, and the fifth wine was both shitty and cheap but still served to show something.… read more

WSET Diploma

#no: Brights “74” Apera

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Note:

Eyes: clear, med- blood orange?, legs
Nose: clean?, low intensity, youthful?, nothing – faint scents of nuts gently macerated in rubbing alcohol if you really tried
Mouth: medium-sweet, alcohol, slightly nutty, cough syrup, med body, Halls, low acid, med length, med+ flavour intensity
All in all: No.

Brights "74" AperaThis was repulsive and we tasted it for educational purposes. The classmate to my left thought it was hilarious that I was writing a tasting note because it was that horrid, and I really thought it wouldn’t be.

The wine was a strange colour between pink and pale brown. The nose seemed to have faint ghostly aromas of the slightly nutty and alcoholic aftermath that were probably low-quality grapes destined for high-yielding “sherry” production.… read more