Jmo and I have been involved in a plethora of book clubs. Book clubs we loved, but we often find ourselves never finishing the books in time. During one of our wine days, a few tastings in (where all the best ideas are located), we pondered, "What if we had a book club, but with no books?". Logical, amirite?
Welcome the idea of Wine Club (followed by the best drum roll, please). We decided to do a horizontal tasting, where we picked a grape varietal and provided folks with six options from each, all from North Carolina obviously.
Now comes the hard part! Of all our favorite wines, where to do we begin. How do we select just one grape to focus on?? We started with the popularity meter and selected Chardonnay, I mean it is the #1 planted white wine grape, and the top vinifera variety planted in our favorite state, North Carolina!
To set the stage for you, we invited the entire Facebook world and had an amazing mix of 12 people in an apartment living room. Quite cozy. We made food (think goat cheese bruschetta and baby ice cream cones) and did a tasting of 6 wines. Because we can't always keep our inner dork under wraps, we also had a slideshow about the yummy grape, Chardonnay. And scorecards, clearly.
1. Coastal Carolina: A winery located at Broadway At The Beach in Myrtle Beach doesn't present itself as a great option (the wine is made in NC = loopholes!). But this wine was very light and crisp because it was a stainless Chardonnay. A great starter, and crowd pleaser. We are off to a great start!
2. Surry Cellars - 2013: I was so excited to find this beauty in the local grocery store. I may have even broke into a jig in the aisle. This wine is special because it is made by the community college nearby that has a Viticulture & Enology program. A wine made by wine students! While we loved the novelty of this wine, and do not regret having it in the sampling, it was mediocre amongst the others. It rated as "I don't hate it" on our oh so sophisticated scale.
3. Grassy Creek - 2011: This was an oaked wine, but lightly oaked. Also another crowd favorite.
4. RagApple Lassie: We selected this wine because it was made using a unique wine-making technique called sur lie. This made us sound so fancy, but in short sur lie aging is allowing the finished wine to continue to sit on the lees (ie yeast) to extract more flavor. This was also a crowd favorite, are you sensing a trend?
5. Morgan Ridge -2012: I am going to give this one the benefit of the doubt and say that the wine had turned. This was a very deep/off-putting color, and was the crowds least favorite. I swear it was good during my tasting! Can't win 'em all.
6. Childress- 2014: I'm not sure if it was because it was the last wine tasted and the palates were fatigued or because it is a well renowned winery, but this was the crowd favorite. A perfect mix of body and acidity - it was neither too oaky or too tart. This was the first bottle of wine completely consumed.
We look forward to our next Wine Club installment, and hopefully you will be there!
Welcome the idea of Wine Club (followed by the best drum roll, please). We decided to do a horizontal tasting, where we picked a grape varietal and provided folks with six options from each, all from North Carolina obviously.
Now comes the hard part! Of all our favorite wines, where to do we begin. How do we select just one grape to focus on?? We started with the popularity meter and selected Chardonnay, I mean it is the #1 planted white wine grape, and the top vinifera variety planted in our favorite state, North Carolina!
To set the stage for you, we invited the entire Facebook world and had an amazing mix of 12 people in an apartment living room. Quite cozy. We made food (think goat cheese bruschetta and baby ice cream cones) and did a tasting of 6 wines. Because we can't always keep our inner dork under wraps, we also had a slideshow about the yummy grape, Chardonnay. And scorecards, clearly.
1. Coastal Carolina: A winery located at Broadway At The Beach in Myrtle Beach doesn't present itself as a great option (the wine is made in NC = loopholes!). But this wine was very light and crisp because it was a stainless Chardonnay. A great starter, and crowd pleaser. We are off to a great start!
2. Surry Cellars - 2013: I was so excited to find this beauty in the local grocery store. I may have even broke into a jig in the aisle. This wine is special because it is made by the community college nearby that has a Viticulture & Enology program. A wine made by wine students! While we loved the novelty of this wine, and do not regret having it in the sampling, it was mediocre amongst the others. It rated as "I don't hate it" on our oh so sophisticated scale.
3. Grassy Creek - 2011: This was an oaked wine, but lightly oaked. Also another crowd favorite.
4. RagApple Lassie: We selected this wine because it was made using a unique wine-making technique called sur lie. This made us sound so fancy, but in short sur lie aging is allowing the finished wine to continue to sit on the lees (ie yeast) to extract more flavor. This was also a crowd favorite, are you sensing a trend?
5. Morgan Ridge -2012: I am going to give this one the benefit of the doubt and say that the wine had turned. This was a very deep/off-putting color, and was the crowds least favorite. I swear it was good during my tasting! Can't win 'em all.
6. Childress- 2014: I'm not sure if it was because it was the last wine tasted and the palates were fatigued or because it is a well renowned winery, but this was the crowd favorite. A perfect mix of body and acidity - it was neither too oaky or too tart. This was the first bottle of wine completely consumed.
We look forward to our next Wine Club installment, and hopefully you will be there!
