Tag: Red

Quaffing

NV Cul-de-Sac Cabernet Sauvignon

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, med- ruby
Nose: clean, med intensity, youthful, dried cherry, confectionary (turkish delight), cola, bubble gum
Mouth: dry, med- body, low acidity, med- length, med+ alcohol, low intensity, low tannin, slight tartness, dilute
All in all: Do not want.

Haha, after having come together for a small meeting at school (UBC Wine Tasting Club  collaborated with le Club Français UBC), I did a bit of wine research and writing blog posts and what have you. You know, instead of doing homework. So, after, instead of going home from school like a good boy, I caved in on my own desires and stopped by a different branch of the private liquor store I work at. I ended up spending a ridiculous amount of time there, and left with 6 bottles even though I planned to maybe buy 1 or 2 at the most.… read more

Quaffing

2010 Finca La Amalia Malbec Reserva

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, deep ruby, tinge of purple
Nose: med+ intensity, developing, raspberry, oak, pepper, jam, touch of barnyard, blueberry, spice
Mouth: dry, med+ bodied, med tannin, med+ acid, sour cherry, med- to med length, med+ intensity, med+ alcohol
All in all: Good to very good quality; drink now, but can age.

Many of my co-workers have come to agreement that Malbec is the new Shiraz in terms of its trendiness. I think it’s true – all too often wines made from Shiraz or Malbec can be made in a jammy, fruit-forward, and crowd-pleasing style with lower complexities. That being said, there exist Malbecs that aren’t just simple fruit bombs. I can tell Malbecs are still a little bit under the radar since my computer thinks Malbec isn’t a word. … read more

Quaffing

2009 Cascina Castlèt Barbera d’Asti

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, medium ruby, a little hazy?
Nose: med+ intensity, developing, cherry, hint of red fruit roll-up, wood spice, smoky, oak, touch of floral, vanilla
Mouth: dry, med- body, low to med- tannin, med+ acid, med to med+ alcohol, med+ intensity, med length, black pepper, expressive, cherry, savoury finish, blue fruits
All in all: Good to very good quality; drink now, but has potential for ageing.

The store was not as busy as I thought it would be. There were a couple of costumes here and there but nothing too wild. Which was great! I find Halloween @ UBC to be such a pooper, though, because no one dresses up – and even though I sort of hate Halloween, it kinda sucks when you’re all up in the Halloween spirit and end up embarrassed because you’re the only one in a 200-person lecture that decided to dress up.… read more

Tasting

I NEED A BIGGER KNIFE. (UBC Wine Tasting Sesh #2)

Posted on by Josh

Long-ass day. Doesn’t seem so bad in retrospect, but I woke up early for a 9AM thing at UBC, took the 99 to the last stop for work, and then needed to travel all the way back to UBC to lead Part 2 of the sort-of-intro-to-wine themed tasting, all while wearing pants that weren’t jeans, one of those shirts you’d hate to spill wine on, and shoes that didn’t fit just enough to make my feet cry. The garb was fitting for all of the day’s events but for this day in particular, I would defs have lead a wine tasting wearing nothing but seven layers of random comfortable 7-foot-long linens, cinnamon-bun-Homer-Simpson style. I was that uncomfortable (ugh rain + sickness).… read more

Quaffing

nine bottles for six bodies

Posted on by Josh

Yeah – part of my job is that I get to taste a lot of wines. It’s really helping with stressful midterm season, and my co-workers and I decided to taste some stuff at one of our houses (Thanks! I’m sure we annoyed your neighbours oops). Unfortunately one of us was sick and couldn’t make it, which really sucks because we tasted some pretty cool things, but I guess more wine for us OH WELL.

Also, we all had these blind with the exception for the last one, which is always fun. I’m glad everyone waited for a co-worker and I to close and travel to the place – I’m sure everyone was itching to open the first bottle, which was delish.… read more

Tasting

wine 101 @ UBC

Posted on by Josh

So yeah! I led the first tasting of this school year at the UBC Wine Tasting Club. It was awesome and complete with me spilling wine while demonstrating swirling, me speaking horrendously quietly and fast while avoiding the tens and tens of eyes on me, and me silently freaking out and wondering if people were getting bored as I barked on and on about the noble grape varieties. Which is great, because that’s me being normal.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating.

What was also fantastic was that Holly brought her Le Nez du Vin set which was amazingly fun. People were trying to quiz each other with smells or just smelled the little vials in general. My favourite picture was the one with the goat-looking beast with weird fangs (“Musk”).… read more

Quaffing

2007 Le Ragose Classico Superiore Valpolicella

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, med- ruby
Nose: med- to med intensity, red fruit (sour cherry, hints of strawberry), black pepper, cloves, liquorice, earthy
Mouth: dry, med body, med- tannin, med+ acidity, med to med+ length, sour cherry
All in all: Good quality, drink now; save the bones for something more interesting.

So lots today happened in my world of alcohol. Just after tying up my Superman chucks and opening the door to jet out to the bus that’s almost at my bus stop, I see this huge package in my mailbox which I can only hope is my WSET Advanced-level books. And it is. So I snatch it and run for my bus. I dizzily flip through it and end up with some lack-of-sleep-early-morning-physical-extertion-motion-sickness nausea, but new books, or new reading material – new anything, for that matter, is too exciting to pass.… read more