Wine and Cheese 1: Chateau Morrisette Wine

Below is the experience that my friends and I had trying 3 different wines along with a few cheeses. We got a few different wines from reds and whites to much more fruity wines. First are the reviews of the wines themselves and lastly is the experience of how they changed with the cheeses. 

THE WINES

Wine #66

Name: Sweet Mountain Laurel
Variety: Native American Grape Varietals

Region: Virginia
Country: USA
Year: N/A
Price: $8.49

Winery review: 
A unique and refreshingly sweet dessert style wine made from native American grape varieties. Firm acidity balances the sweetness, producing a crisp finish with aromas of freshly picked grapes.






My Review:

Basically really bad tasting grape soda. On the nose it has grape soda and funky flavors super present, which is not surprising considering that Welch's grape juice is the same species of grape as this wine. On the taste there is an over abundant gasoline/burned rubber taste that absolutely ruins the wine for me.

Rating: -.5


Wine #67

Name: Chateau Morrisette Blackberry
Variety: Blackberries
Region: Virginia
Country: USA
Year: N/A
Price: $9.99

Winery review: 
A sweet and smooth wine packed with the vibrant fruitiness of succulent, sun-ripened blackberries.











My Review: 
Extremely jammy tasting almost like eating some blackberry jam right out of the jar. It has an extreme nose of fruity flavors with just the hint of alcohol heat coming off the wine. This wine also had tastes of rubber off of a playground, like the padding they use, after a hot day. Surprisingly it finishes sweeter than it starts. Overall an okay wine that is easy to drink a little of but hard to drink a lot of due to the lack of acid to balance the overtly sweet wine.


Rating: 0

Wine #68

Name: Bogle Petite Sirah
Variety: Petite Sirah
Region: California
Country: USA
Year: 2012
Price: $8.47

Winery review: 
Petite Sirah is today considered Bogles heritage varietal. Ripe summer blackberries and plums overwhelm both the nose and palate of this wine. Its trademark inky, jammy qualities are a barrage of black fruit and spice, adding layer upon layer of complexity.









My Review: 
Black dark fruits and raspberries are the order of the day for this wine. It starts it nose with a large amount of dark fruit but also some more earthy tones. In the taste the earthy tones really take flight and become more like hay and barnyard smells. These barnyard tastes remind me a little of wood which makes me think that this could have been oaked for a little bit at some point. Lastly it has some nice tannins and acid to balance out the wine. Overall a solid wine that everyone enjoyed.


Rating: 1

THE CHEESES

The cheeses that were used were: Goats Cheese, Camembert, and Gouda made from sheep's milk. These cheeses were also fresh and light, mature and musty, and strong and pungent respectively.

Goats Cheese: Light and creamy this fresh cheese was expected to at least play nice with all the wines and pair best with the second due to its fruity flavors playing well with the cream cheeseyness of the goats cheese.

Camembert: Not super strong without the rind and musky with the rind, this cheese was meant to pair best with the red wine and also the white as long as the rind was not eaten with the white.

Gouda: A much stronger almost cheddar like cheese, this really only had a chance with the red as we thought it would overpower all the other wines.

TASTING THE WINES

Sweet Mountain Laurel

Goats Cheese: Much stronger petrol and grape soda flavors cuts much more to the burned rubber. The cheese picks up some more creamy flavors as it is offset by the acid in the wine.

Camembert: No fruit anymore to speak of only tastes of gasoline and rubber, the cheese does not pair with the wine again. The wine does not really effect the taste of the cheese.

Gouda: Wine looses almost all taste! it really is only slightly funky water now, the cheese also remains unchanged. I think this cheese may be too strong for the wines we have.

Chateau Morrisette Blackberry

Goats Cheese: Tones down the jammy taste and makes the more acidic components of the wine show better. With the apparent addition of malic acid the wine becomes more pleasant and well rounded feeling. The cheese also changes to become almost more like a cream cheese spread that is fruity and would do well on a bagel. Paired very well.

Camembert: The cheese was overpowered this time, killed by sweet grape tastes. It made the wine taste more like the Sweet Mountain Laurel however, gaining some properties of the rubbery and gasoline and loosing the fruit. Did not pair well at all.

Gouda: Wine looses almost all taste! Some slight aftertastes of the wine survived on the mid pallet, the cheese also remains unchanged. This cheese is continuing to be a problem.

Bogle Petite Sirah

Goats Cheese: The only real change in either the wine or the cheese was the addition of alcohol heat in the wine. Other than that they didn't really effect each other.

Camembert: As expected the rind of the cheese played into the slight musty heavier red wine flavors enhancing them and making the wine become more fruity almost like a big fruit bomb of a wine. Lots of black fruit found typically in Cabernet such as blackberries and currents.

Gouda: Surprisingly this wine did not pair with this cheese as we thought. We expected that the big red flavors would be able to compete with this wine, however it look like none of them were able to. We can conclude then that Gouda is just not a cheese made for wine and that we should look other places for a strong cheese.

All of us around the table with the wines and the cheeses enjoying the wine culture of american made wines. Also alcohol.