Tasting - W. & J. Graham's Six Grapes

 

Name: W. & J. Graham's Six Grapes
Variety: Port Wine with many varietals in it
Region: Bouro Valley
Country: Portugal
Year: No year since there are many grapes in it
Price: $26

Winery Review: Wow! This is dark! Inky purple color. There are aromas of black currant, stewed blackberry and cherry, and blueberry. As the wine glides over the lips, silky smooth tannins deliver rich flavors of spicy blackberry, cassis, blueberry, and cherry…lots of cherry! There are notes of black pepper and spice mid-palate. Decadent full body and mouthfeel. The finish goes on and on with chocolate covered cherry, blackberry, and soft spice (https://appetiteforwine.blog/2018/09/11/review-grahams-six-grapes-reserve-port/).

Wine Folly: There are several styles of port, but the 2 major styles of Port include a red Port with more berry and chocolate flavors (and slightly less sweetness), and a tawny-colored Port with more caramel and nut flavors (and more sweetness). I definitely get the berry flavors and also a slight hint of chocolate. The chocolate reminds me of chocolate sauce used in icecream and desserts (https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/what-is-port-wine/).

My Review: This is a very interesting wine and the first port wine that I have ever had. The smell is subtle but I get some hints of blackberry, blueberry and cherry. I didn't smell any alcohol but it is definitely a sweeter smelling wine. Upon tasting, I get immediate berry tastes with blackberry being the most prominent. The port wine is very sweet, and is a tasty change from the previous red wines I have had. An interesting part is that I also get a taste of chocolate sauce as the main source of the sweetness. The tannicness is low and I did not pucker at all. I think this wine would go great with a dessert like cake or some fruit. 

Wine and Cheese Pairing #1

     For this blog, we are going a little further than my regular tastings and testing out some wine and cheese pairings. I brought a few of my friends to also try the cheese as well as some crackers and turkey pepperoni.

For the cheeses we had Smoked Goat, Rembrandt Aged Gouda, and Old English Aged Cheddar. I choose the goat and the cheddar because I had heard that they go great with Cabernet Sauvignon. On the other hand I chose the Gouda because it sounded good. 

Starting with the wines, we had a 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon by 19 Crimes. The smell was a very strong alcohol, almost like a hard liquor with a noticeable sweetness to it. The taste is very strongly alcoholic but quickly gives away to a sweet taste. It then again gives away to a strong tannic taste that made my mouth pucker quite a bit.  

For this wine, we paired the smoked goat with it. With the cheese, the strong alcoholic beginning disappeared and the taste started off on the sweetness. I had already liked the wine by itself, save for the strong alcohol taste so this pairing was perfect for my palette. The wine also complemented the saltiness of the cheese with the sweetness of the wine. All in all a good pairing. 

Next, we have a 2022 Tropical Moscato by Sun Pop. As the name implies, it smells very tropical, with pineapple taking over most of the smell. I was not able to smell any alcohol at all. My first impression of the taste was that it was like a Welch's fruit juice. Pineapple was definitely the strongest fruit taste of the wine and none of the alcohol was detectable. 

For this wine, we decided to pair it with the aged gouda. For such a great wine, it was a surprisingly bad cheese pairing. The tropical fruitiness of the wine completely overpowers the taste of the cheese and removed the cheese taste from my tongue. The opposite direction was also true where tasting the cheese right after a sip of wine just removed the wine flavoring for the cheese. I think I can attribute this to me not personally liking the gouda, so it was a bad pairing all around. 

Finally, we have a 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon by Sebastiani. It smelled like the 19 Crimes wine but did not have as strong of an alcoholic smell. The first taste was extremely tannic and my mouth was super dry after tasting. Alcoholic taste is light and the sweetness is light as well. I would say the 19 Crimes is much sweeter while this wine is more tannic even though they are both Cabernet. 

For this wine, we decided to pair it with the aged cheddar. The pairing quickly stopped the tannicness of the wine and let the sweetness go through faster. The cheddar-cabernet pairing was very supported online, but I didn't really feel the hype during this tasting. I think it was because of the wine, and the fact that I didn't really like it on its own. The cheddar removing the tannic taste was really interesting though and I would love to try another Cabernet in this pairing. 

All in all, the cheese pairings were average tasting. The Moscato-Gouda was bad, the Sebastiani-Cheddar was alright, and the 19 Crimes-Goat was great. Next time I will try another Cabernet-Cheddar pairing to try and see if the hype online is true or not.