April is mostly over, and it has come with some crappy weather and a touch of nice weather. We've had days where we had a fire going and days when the windows were open. Last weekend was particularly lovely, I actually got a sunburn! Spring is springing in Morven! Finally.
There are 4 bottles to reviews (wait, four you ask? When there's only been three weeks? Yes, we were naughty one week...), so I'll get right to it. The rest is just jibber-jabber anyways.
April 7, 2016
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| Apparently Tyson didn't want to play along... |
This week we got a dry bottle from South Africa: Graham Beck's Brut, Blanc de Blancs. Shane got a bready scent, and to me it smelled dry and appley. The first sips were very tart, a dry sour. It has a beautiful colour and lots of bubbles. It's quite dry, with an abundance of apple and pear flavours.
It really reminded us of a cider, like a Strongbow. In my notes I've got "cider-esque" and I later scratched out the "esque". We quite liked it and would get it again.
This was our naughty week. Shane didn't want me to put them both up here, but because we took notes on both, I figured we should.
Anyways, first bubblies first: Grande Cuvée, Brut Rosé, by Vueve Ambal. This one smelled like you'd expect a white zinfandel to smell, light, a bit fruity and a bit sweet. The first few sips were quite tart, like granny smith apples that were too young to eat.It was quite dry on the back of the throat and tongue. There was a smell that we couldn't quite identify at first, but we decided that we thought it was peaches, hard, white peaches.
It was a lovely colour, and had lots of bubbles. It had a lovely smooth mouthfeel, not creamy like some crémants can be. It was really nice and we could easily drink this one again.
April 14, 2016 Bottle #2
Next up was the Italian Bottega Prosecco. Right off the top it smelled quite sweet, I said Swedish Berries, and Shane was adamant that it was candy necklaces. It was a very light bubbly, light on bubbles, light on colour (almost colourless), a light sweet flavour. It was nicely thin, had a very clean mouth-feel: when you swallowed it, it was gone from your mouth, nothing lingered.
It was quite a nice, easy sipper. And we would (and will) have it again, half because it's lovely, and half because we have another bottle in our fridge from Shane's dad. This has the potential to be a good transitional bubbly. One to try if you like the sweeter side of the sparkling wines, but are trying to get your palate to steer to the drier side of things. This is dry, but it does come across as semi-sweet.
April 21, 2016
Last but not least, this past week. This week was picked because of the label. It looked like fun. We had Contraband's Brut (pink label on the website). Their website isn't great at this point, and there isn't really any information on their wines, so that's too bad.
Keep in mind, both Shane and I are sick this week, so our noses and palates aren't working so well... On the nose, there was an unidentified scent, all through the bottle, I couldn't place it. It smelled a little off to me, like something had gone sour... It didn't take away from the flavour though. There was an abundance of strawberries in the first few sips. Shane said fresh strawberries, but not overly sweet. I thought it smelled dry but tasted sweet.
The mouth feel on this one was a bit odd. It had a boozy burn, like you were drinking a rye or a liquor, but again, this didn't take away from the bubbly. It was nice, I've quoted Shane as saying "I like it" a couple times. The bubbles were great, lots of small ones. The colour is fun, a beauty of a pink. The bottle says that it's "extra dry"... it's not. It's got a sweeter mouth-feel. Near the end of this one, I was getting a kind of burnt taste, like burnt sugar or something, a little bitter sweet.
Long story short, we'd probably get it again, just to try and see if our un-sick selves notice much of a difference. It was okay.
That's it for this post, have a great week! I'll try to stay on top of things better next week!
~S
April 7, 2016
- Brand: Graham Beck
- Type of Grape: Chardonnay
- Sweetness: 6g/L
- Price: $23.95
- Tasting Notes: Nicely dry, tart apple flavours. Would pair well with a curry apple soup.
April 14, 2016: Bottle 1
- Brand: Veuve Ambal
- Type of Grape: Pinot Noir, Gamay, Chardonnay
- Sweetness: 10g/L
- Price: $20.95
- Tasting Notes: Nice smooth bubbly, tart apples and white peach flavours. Would pair nicely with a baked brie.
- Brand: Bottega
- Type of Grape: Glera
- Sweetness: 14g/L
- Price: $14.95
- Tasting Notes: A nice sweet feeling bubbly, fruity flavours, clean mouth-feel. Would pair well with a fruit salad or ice cream.
- Brand: Contraband
- Type of Grape: Not noted
- Sweetness: 17g/L
- Price: $20.95
- Tasting Notes: Sweeter bubbly, lots of fruity flavours like strawberries. Would pair nicely with a light fish dish.
