Wine Lab Wine Dinner Blog

Wine Lab Wine Dinner Blog:

On March 31st, my girlfriend and I went to the Wine Lab in Blacksburg for a three-course wine dinner. Since we know the Wine Lab has a great selection of wine and a good menu, it was an easy choice for a wine dinner out. When we got there, we started by going over the menu trying to figure out what we wanted to eat for each course. After we had that in mind, we started looking over the wine list to see what might pair up with the food items we picked out. 

    Our first course involved the baked brie and a glass of the Remhoogte Honeybunch Chenin Blanc. The wine on its own had a slightly savory and buttery nose that gave hints of oak. Also present from the nose were notes of tropical fruits and some herbaceous notes, possibly something along the lines of thyme. On the palate, the wine was a nice balance between savory and sweet. The tropical fruit hints from the nose were still present and became a slightly more clear pineapple type note. The wine ended with a slightly dry and savory finish. The thyme notes from the nose were also present in the back of the palate. When I tried this wine before trying some of the brie, the wine brought out the cheese more so than the topping that was with the brie. The wine also had the effect of making the bread we tried the brie with stand out a little more while eating. When I tried the wine after having a bite of the brie, the food amped up the fruit flavors of the wine more than the savory flavors I had found when trying the wine on its own. The wine seemed to also make the aftertaste from the cheese a much creamier flavor and it really extended how long the cheese flavors would hang around in my mouth. Overall, these two items went well together. Drinking the wine after taking a bite of food really emphasized the richness of the cheese and the fruity notes of the wine. I don't think either of these items really overpowered the other, they tended to complement each other nicely and bring out something new in the other. 

Figure 1: Me with the First Course

    For our second course, we split a charcuterie board consisting of Ibeico Chorizo, Speck, and Finnocchina Salami paired with a Vermont Honey Truffle Goat Cheese, An aged Manchego, and a Woodbine cheese. The board also came with a variety of other small items, but those were the main parts of the board. To go with this second course, I got the Vina Galana Tempranillo. On its own, this wine had very nice jammy notes that featured raspberries and some other types of berries on the nose. There were also hints of cedar, plum, and sage present before a slight spice could be found. On the palate, this wine kept the plummy and jammy notes upfront before shifting to a dry, tannic finish where the cedar and sage notes rounded off the palate. There were too many combinations of meat, cheese, and other toppings to keep track of, but in general, when I would sample this wine before having some of the food, it tended to bring out the flavors of the cheese over everything else. One of the things that I noted was that when I would eat the aged Manchego after taking a sip of the wine, it would bring out some of the funkier aged notes of the cheese. When I started sampling the wine after eating some of the food, one of the things that I quickly noted was that the taste of the wine would mix with the aftertaste from whatever meat I was trying and really accentuated the flavor of the meat. The oiliness of the meat also helped bring down some of the tannins and dryness from the wine and brought out more of the cedar and sage notes. Like the first course, neither of these items really overpowered the other, but they did bring out some nice new flavors or effects from each other. 

Figure 2: Me with the Second Course

    For the third course, we got a flourless chocolate cake and I paired it with the Bernard Griffin Syrah Port wine. On the nose, this wine was full of sweet raisiny notes, but I was able to pick up on some brandy notes and some very slight traces of ethanol. On the palate, this wine was much less sweet than the nose had me expecting. The wine was still sweet, but just not to the level I was thinking it would be. The raisiny notes were still present on the palate, but there were now flavors of plums and raspberries that I was also able to pick out. The wine finished with some slight tannins. When I tried this wine before having a bite of food, the wine made the cake much more creamy and it took away some of the fruit flavors that came from the cake's toppings. Instead, the wine greatly intensified the chocolate flavors of the cake. When I tried the wine after having a bite of the cake, I found that the wine's flavors and the chocolatey aftertaste of the cake blended really nicely with each other. Unlike drinking the wine before the cake, it lowered the amount of chocolate flavor I was able to pick up on. The fruit from the topping, especially the blueberries, was much more intense tasting after having a sip of the wine. Like the other two courses, this wine paired really nicely with the food and neither really overpowered the other. Drinking the wine after having some of the food brought out some really interesting notes from the wine and eating some of the food after the wine brought out some really nice flavors from the cake. They both complimented each other really well. My Girlfriend and I forgot to get pictures with the third course the night we had the dinner so we went back the following weekend and ordered the exact same things so we could get out photos so that's why the seating and outfit are slightly different. 

Figure 3: Me with the Third Course

Winery Visit Blog - Wilson Creek Winery

Winery Visit Blog - Wilson Creek Winery:

Figure 1: The Wilson Creek Clubhouse

    On March 8th, my girlfriend and I visited Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula, California for a private tour with the head winemaker, Gus. Since they were bottling at the winery that day, we had to wait until Gus was free to give us a tour. While we waited we stopped in the tasting room to start sampling some wines while we were there. We had enough time to taste two wines before Gus was ready to start our tour. We got ourselves some tasting cards and started looking over their tasting menu. One of the first wines that caught my eye was the white cabernet they had on the menu. It caught my eye because it was a white wine made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. On the nose, this wine had notes of strawberries and peaches along with some notes of melon. It was much different than I would have expected, even though it was a white made with Cabernet. On the palate, this wine was delicately sweet with more notes of peaches and some slight floral notes. 

Figure 2: The Wilson Creek Tasting Room

    The second wine I sampled before our tour was their Cabernet and Zinfandel blend. This wine was recommended by one of the employees in the tasting room, so I decided to try it out. On the nose, this wine was full of tobacco and pepper notes with some slight jammy notes that followed. On the palate, this wine was dry and tannic upfront with some notes that reminded me of pepper jam, and sweet tobacco. The jammy notes from the nose faded away on the palate. While we were doing our tasting, Gus let us know he was ready for the tour so we headed over to the bottling area to meet him. 

Figure 3: A Picture of Me With the Cab Zin

    We started our tour with Gus in the bottling area by talking about the machine they use to bottle the wine. It was a big assembly line-style machine that did everything from depositing the wine in the bottle to corking and foiling the wine. It was interesting to learn about all of the things that needed to be done to make sure the wine was bottled properly. One of the things that were really interesting to me was hearing about how they vacuum out the air from the bottles so there is minimal oxygen interaction with the wine. Before the tour, I wasn't sure if they just sealed the bottle with the cork and left some oxygen in or not, but it makes sense that they would vacuum out the air. We then saw where the corks and foils were added to the bottles and where they come out of the assembly line. After it came out of the assembly line, we got to see where all of the bottles come out of the bottling machine and get moved around on a conveyor belt where the people working in the bottling line move the bottles into cases. 

Figure 4: The Shipping Container They Bottle in

Figure 5: The Bottling Machine

    After we finished up in the bottling area, we moved outside to see the fermentation tanks they use for all of their wines. We got to look at tanks that they keep both inside and outside. The outside tanks were covered in what looked like some foam insulation to help modulate the temperature. The tanks themselves were tall stainless steel tanks with temperature control sleeves they can use to keep the wine at whatever temperature they want it to be at. We got to look inside one of these tanks and see some of the different valves they use to pump in and drain the wine. One of the interesting ones was that they have valves at two different heights so they can drain the skins separately from the wine. They had a few different locations of tanks to hold all of the wine they make and we got to see how the tanks themselves are cleaned. Gus had wanted to show us a tank that still needed to be cleaned up, but we weren't able to find a tank. He wanted to show us the tartaric acid that builds up on the sides of the tank, but he just showed us the cleaning system instead. Each of the tanks has a sprinkler-type thing on top of it that they use to spray out the tanks. After we finished talking about the wine tanks, we moved on to the barrel room to talk about some of the barrels they age their wine in.

 

Figure 6: The Outside Wine Tanks

Figure 7: The Inside Wine Tanks

    In the barrel room, Gus gave us the rundown of all the wines they age in there, mainly the reds they make and chardonnays. They don't age the other white wines they make at the winery, but they do age almost all of the reds. While we were in the barrel room, we also talked a little bit about the different barrels they use for aging, mainly the different wines they age in French Oak and American Oak. One of the things we spent quite a bit of time talking about was how much wine they would lose during the aging process. Gus talked about how they would open up the different barrels every three months or so to check on the wine and fill the barrels up. They would use other barrels of the same batch of wine to fill up other barrels to limit the amount of oxygen that gets to interact with the wine. After we spent some time in the barrel warehouse, we moved back outside to check out the vineyards. 

Figure 8: The First Wall of Barrels in the Storeroom

Figure 9: An Upclose View of a Syrah Barrel

    In the vineyards, we started talking about the vines and some of the daily upkeep they need for the vines. We started by talking about how old the vines were. We found out they were planted roughly 70 years ago. We talked about some of the water needs of each of the vines and the irrigation system they have in place. It was really surprising to hear that they use about 8 gallons of water each day just to keep one plant watered. That was really interesting to me because one of the first things I think of when I think of southern California, I think about the water drought that has been a big deal for the state. We also talked about some of the ways they keep insects off of the plants like using pesticides. Another one of interesting things Gus mentioned was that they have owl boxes dotted around the vineyard to keep some of the smaller birds and rodents away from the grapes. While we were talking in the vineyard, I asked about the equipment they use to crush the grapes right after harvest. Gus told us that the equipment was packed away by the side of the building and that they usually only bring it out when they have to process the grapes after they're harvested. He said that when the grapes are harvested, he will come in before the sun rises in the morning to make sure they get all the grapes processed before the sun has a chance to affect them. After the grapes are turned into juice, they get the juice is transferred to the vats for fermentation. After we were done in the vineyard, we finished up our tour and headed back to the main area of the winery. 

Figure 10: The View of the Vines from the Winery Clubhouse

Figure 11: An Owl Box Overlooking the Vines

    We finished up back in the tasting room before they were ready to close where I tried their Pinot Grigio. This was the first of the 2022 harvests that they had bottled and ready to taste. On the nose of this wine, I got notes of crisp apples and citrus followed by some light floral notes. There were some hints of honey at the end. On the palate, I got upfront floral notes that were followed by a dry apple finish. This wine was a nice low acidity wine to end our tour with. 

Figure 12: A Picture of Me with the Pinot Grigio