wine review – Page 2 – Mystic Wine Shoppe

Turkey Day Wine Guide

Thanksgiving is around the corner (we can’t believe it either)!!! Don’t procrastinate this year… get ahead of the game and shop our delicious wines that pair perfectly with appetizers, turkey, and dessert. We’re making it easy for you with our Turkey Day Wine Guide!

Aperitifs:

Riva Rosé is a delicious sparkling rosé from the Mediterranean. The wine displays delicate yet persistent bubbles. The nose exudes aromas of small red fruits such as strawberry and raspberry. The palate offers refreshing notes of grapefruit and spice. Perfect for aperitifs and to possibly drown out the noise of your relatives… haha, just kidding!

The Main Meal:

Pinot Noir Wines are a perfect pairing for turkey! Here are two that we love –

Elouan Pinot Noir Dark: Shimmering ruby red. Deep notes of plum, red cherries and blackcurrant jam with subtle touches of toasty vanilla and spice. Rich, ripe fruit flavors of plum, cherry, mixed berry jam, and blackberry. Smooth tannins round out the mouthfeel.
Beaujolais-Villages Sélection Georges Duboeuf: An intense, brilliant cherry color with purplish tints. Complex nose with red and blackberry aromas. A smooth wine with fine tannins, harmonious and complete.

Along with a good red, we also love a good white wine to pair with turkey. Here are two delicious white wines from Trimbach.

Trimbach Reisling: The nose shows restrained citrus and a slightly lifted, very slightly aromatic touch of conifer. The palate is taut and slender, presenting sober, clean citrus flavors. This stands upright and has a wonderful backbone of freshness.
Trimbach Gewurztraminer: A very shy nose just releases the most teasing hint of peach. The palate is utterly restrained: peach flavors are dry and brightened by lemon and have a wonderful lightness of touch. The finish is dry, clean and long.

Dessert/After-dinner Drink:

You can’t forget about the post-feast wine! A great dessert wine is in order

Haut Charmes Sauternes 2015: Haut Charmes is a very special Sauternes bottling, made from the younger vines of the region’s most legendary château. While we aren’t allowed to actually reveal the source, it’s safe to say its location in the Ciron Valley exposes the Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon fruit to conditions perfect for the development of botrytis. Charming, elegant and an exceptional value for what’s in the bottle.

Not in love with these wines?! Head on in and let us help you choose the perfect wine. Our educated staff is always happy to help!

Thanks,

The Mystic Wine Shoppe Team

November 1, 2018/by Eric Faiola

Events, Wine

Grand Wine Tasting Event Recap

What an event!!! On Saturday, October 13th we held our second annual Grand Wine Tasting event at Mystic Wine Shoppe. We had customers from near and far, including dogs and babies, come sample over 20 delicious wines with us. This year we held the event in our attached garage to allow plenty of space for sampling. It was a great turnout and we’re so thankful for all the support.

Did you miss the event? Don’t worry, we hold weekly wine and beer tastings. Plus, make sure you reserve your ticket for our Dec. 6th Bourbon Tasting.
Thanks again for everyone who joined us!

October 25, 2018/by Eric Faiola

Weekly Wine Pick, Wine

Appassimento

Raisins are nature’s candy. The dried, sugary essence of a grape, concentrated into one little morsel. It seems hard to imagine a wine made from such a thing, but there are actually many. The most famous ones are from Italy, specifically the majestic Amarone, a blend of grapes used to make the very light and delicious Valpolicella wines and Vin Santo, the sweet, luscious desert wine the Italians eat with little biscotti called “cantucci.”

There are other wines made from shriveled grapes – mostly those affected by “noble rot” or botrytis and some “icewine,” made after the water has frozen in the grape so that you when you cold-press the grapes, you just get the sugars and acids and none of the frozen liquid. Excellent examples of these techniques come from Bordeaux in the form of Sauternes or Barsac and Germany, with their Trockenbeerenauslese (dry-berry harvest), but also in the Finger Lakes and the Niagara area where the grapes hang until they freeze before harvesting. I have an on-going love affair with all raisinated, botrytized and frozen wines, but they are all “special occasion” wines, so not on the regular rotation of every day wines.

But this wine is something new, that maybe you could drink more regularly. It is a raisinated wine from the Montepulciano grape, famous for the light, bright, fruity wines of Abruzzo. Most Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wines are meant for drinking casually, a cheerful blend of plums and cherries, with high acidity and low tannins that also “cleanse” the palate when you have it with pasta in a rich sauce. But when you dry the grapes and then press that precious, concentrated liquid into juice that ferments slowly and carefully, you get a deeply colored, deeply flavored wine that will stand up to heavy sauces and red meats and spice! This is a wine that has the intensity of a California Cabernet with all the mouth-filling aromas of fruit and some herbs, but has the acid brightness of wild cherries and summer plum, like a much lighter wine. It is a wonderful, unusual combination that will have you taking just one more sip, just to see if it really does have all that complexity. And the texture will have keep you sipping once you are used to the unusual mix of flavors, it is smooth and viscous. At $14.99, it will give that Amarone you’ve been saving for a special occasion a definite run for its money.

We had it last night with roasted leg of lamb and a wonderful mint sauce – definitely a regular from now on!

October 10, 2018/by Eric Faiola

Weekly Wine Pick, Wine

A to Z Oregon Riesling

There are some wines that everyone loves. And there are wines that cater to the few. There are wines that grow on you and there are wines that just stand up and smack you in the face. So, which one is this?

The A to Z Oregon Riesling is a puzzle. I will come out and say it – I love it! It is lush and fragrant on the nose with a silky soft and smooth mouthfeel. It is full bodied and fruity, delicate and floral and mouthwatering with a hint of sweetness all at the same time. As a wine writer, I have been told over and over that when I am tasting a wine, it is not about whether I like it or not. It is about describing the attributes of that wine and making clear notes that so that customer can evaluate it on their own and so that I will be able to remember this particular wine – grape, soil / climate and year – when I retaste it. But sometimes, you just love a wine.

So why am I questioning whether others will love this wine as much as I do? To be honest, I am not sure why anyone would not like a riesling. It is called a “noble grape” in Alsace for a reason. It is one of the few white grapes that has a very distinct character and is age worthy regardless of where it might be grown. Chardonnay is the truly the wonder grape, yes. It grows almost anywhere, it takes on the characteristics of the climate and of wood aging very well. It is versatile and pairs with a wide range of foods. It is fairly neutral, so there is rarely a lingering aftertaste – you get the fruity or flinty character and if it is cleanly made, it tastes clean and crisp. And it blends with a variety of other grapes.

Riesling, by contrast, is not Chardonnay. It stands in bold contrast to the other white grapes. It is finicky about where it will grow. It does best in a cool climate with rocky, slate rich soils that absorb the sun’s rays and drain away the rain. It does well when it has long, molasses days that last until a 10pm sunset and cool nights that allows it’s rich acids to develop. It loves growing on steep slopes that require hand picking and careful selection and it is very susceptible to Botrytis. Botrytis, under favorable conditions, is called “nobel rot,” and is a gentle affliction that punctures the skin of the grape, allowing the water to evaporate from the grapes on the vine. This concentrates the flavors and leads to the “trockenbeerenauslese” (dry berry harvest) that is so prized in German Riesling.

Rieslings come in a variety of quality levels and sweetness levels. While I love the German language, having lived there for well over 2 years, I won’t go into the details. That is one of the nice things about buying Riesling from the Pacific Northwest. It is labeled simply and can be appreciated without any angst. This wine, I would call ‘soft’ because it has an wonderful balance of sour and sweet that is perfect if you are having scallops or lobster. It has enough body to stand up to spicy foods – think Indian or Thai. And it is complex and quite simply tasty enough to just drink on its own. I would recommend serving it very chilled with the bottle on ice. The tart, tangy richness will be enhanced by the cold temperature.

Cheers, Seema

September 28, 2018/by Eric Faiola

Pairings, Weekly Wine Pick, Wine

Black Ops

Wine writers call wines like Black Ops by Hugh Hamilton a “rare red blend.” I would call it an “extremely rare red blend.” It is just luscious – deep, inky color paired with unmistakable notes of wild blueberries, dark blackberries, juicy red cherries and a slightly elusive savory/wild herb / ripe fruit note that soaks into every taste bud and makes your shoulders relax.

This wine is made of the unusual blend of Shiraz, Saperavi and Nero d’Avola. Shiraz, a mainstay of McLaren Vale, is the iconic grape of meaty, mighty and most especially tasty Australian wines. It is the same grape that is used in Rhône wines, notably Hermitage, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and Cornas, which is the only French wine made with 100% Syrah. The primary distinction between Shiraz and Syrah is stylistic. Most Australian Shiraz tends to have a riper, fruitier, more concentrated set of flavors, whereas the cooler climate Syrahs of the Rhône Valley in Southern France, then to be a bit more savory, a bit more structured and a bit more peppery. The trend these days in Australia is that Shiraz is planted in cooler microclimates and is producing a more restrained type of wine, closer in character to the Syrahs of France, while the French are dealing with warmer, longer summers and are producing much more alcoholic, powerful wines than in the past. But despite this climatic convergence, they are still very distinct.

To add to this distinction, Hugh Hamilton has lived up to his Black Sheep logo by introducing an extraordinary grape to Australia called Saperavi. It is an ancient grape variety from the Republic of Georgia. In my mind, it evokes romantic images of farmers thousands of years ago, plucking grapes by hand, stomping the grapes in celebratory fashion with their families, fermenting that must in clay amphorae and drinking it with joy at every hearty meal. It is a grape that deserves this image. It brings to this wine a sort of wild, gamey nature that the buttoned-down varieties of Western Europe lack. It is a teinturier grape, that rare grape whose flesh, not just the skin, has color. And it is known for its depth, acidity, and full body.

Another bold move was to blend in Nero d’Avola. Again, this is an ancient variety that has found its home in the southern parts of Sicily. Like its happy compatriots, it is a dark, full-bodied wine that exhibits bright cherry notes that when oak-aged, can become plummy and juicy.

Together, these three varieties make Black Ops a truly exceptional wine. It is fruity and fragrant while still being structured and powerful. The wine starts strong with aromas of black currants, plums and cherries and fills your mid-palate with wonderful roundness and the complexity of pepper, dark chocolate and a small hint of herbs that seems ingrained in Australian terroir. The mellow tannins are more textural than grippy, rolling over your tongue with very pleasing sensations. It finishes with a long, slow slide of lingering fruits and tobacco and perhaps a hint of smoke.

You’d be a fool to pass up this wine at $19.99 a bottle!!!!

Your wine expert, Seema

September 19, 2018/by Eric Faiola

Weekly Wine Pick, Wine

It’s all about managing expectations

I remember the first time I tasted a Soave in my wine class. I was expecting Riunite – a sweet fruity drink that would loosely be classified as wine. Boy, was I disappointed! My first taste – which went against every expectation I had – was tough. It was totally dry, dry as the Sahara dessert and therefore shocking to my palate.

Let me back up a step. Expectations are always a tricky thing. Sometimes, they become a self-fulfilling prophecy – you expect something to be bad, you make it bad in your mind by picking it apart. And vice versa, you expect something to be good, so you only see the upsides. But most of the time, expectations can mislead you. When someone hypes something to you and raises your expectations too high, you are bound to be disappointed. And again, vice versa, you hear only negative reviews of something, but then when you actually try it, it’s not so bad! My husband used to always tell me to spend about 20 percent of my time managing expectations. In order to get a job for example, you have to talk yourself up. But then when you actually get the job, you need to make sure people are going be realistic about what you can accomplish. So, walk the line of not being a complainer, but talk about the challenges, your problem solving strategies and so forth. Make sure people know what they are getting so then, they will be happy with the outcome!

Now, back to the shock to the palate. Soave is dry! Dry, dry, dry but also delicately floral with notes of peach and pear and a very refreshing, crisp, mineral-driven finish. In fact, it is one of the great wines of Italy. One would not necessarily know that because it is not as recognizable as Chianti or Prosecco. And furthermore, it is made from the terribly named Garganega (pronounced gar-GA-nega) grape. Sounds like mouthwash, but tastes sublime – it is fresh, lively and can pair with everything from white meats to shellfish.

Soave Classico is the heart of great wines made with the Garganega grape. It is in the extremely picturesque part of the Veneto that is just east of the gorgeous Lake Garda. The valleys are lush and beautiful dotted with castles and modern buildings alike. Rocca Sveva is made by the cooperative winery, the Cantina Di Soave, which having been established in 1898, is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year. They use high-technology to analyze soils and ensure the quality of the grapes supplied by their growers as well the latest techniques to ensure quality but make wines that are extremely traditional and hark back to their origins.

The Rocca Sveva Soave Classico 2016 is a wonderful, easy-to-drink, highly enjoyable wine. It’s beauty is in its simplicity. It doesn’t require any concentration to appreciate its depths like a white Burgundy might and it doesn’t lull you into a stupor like a big, high-alcohol, buttery Chardonnay might. In fact, at 12.5% alchohol, you can enjoy that second glass guilt free. And really prolong the enjoyment on a hot summer’s day. This wine has lovely notes of grapefruit and lemon zest with a hint of white peach on the nose. It has a nice, soft mouthfeel with some mineral notes and it leaves your palate with a fresh, dry snap.

Cheers! Seema

July 20, 2018/by Eric Faiola

Weekly Wine Pick, Wine

If you judge a book by the cover…

Ok, so no matter how serious you are about drinking wine and learning all you can, sometimes you are seduced by the label. And the João Portugal Ramos Alvarinho 2015 label is seductive. The voluptuous bottle shape is shown to great advantage by the slanting, “off-the-shoulder” style of the label, very simple and elegant lettering with just that small showy glimpse of a golden “L” in the word Alvarinho. I just had to try it.

Alvarinho (pronounced Al-va-reen-yo) is the same grape as the Albariño grape found in Spain. And it is grown in a very similar environment or terroir – the cool Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula. But the Portuguese version is a bit fuller and rounded with a lovely, rich mouthfeel with a bit of a sharp kick from its flinty, acid finish – every bit as seductive as the label.

Portugal has long been overshadowed by its neighbor in wine production. Spain is quite simply a powerhouse when it comes to wine. Everyone has heard to Rioja and Ribera Del Duero, they know the Temperanillo grape and most have heard of Garnacha as well. Spanish Cava, their traditional method sparkling wine, is beginning to be highly prized and is starting to compete on quality with Champagne in a way that Prosecco never will. So, how is Portugal to fight back and carve out its own identity when so many of the wines are so similar? The solution has been to really concentrate in recent decades on quality. Portuguese wines used to be of marginal quality largely because it has a very large domestic market where people drink their local wines by the liter. But over time, it has been recognized that to compete on the global market, the wines have to be really good with consistent and high quality.

This producer understands this challenge and has been making wonderful wines in its very short lifespan (for a European winery). Established in 1990, João Portugal Ramos only began making this Alvarinho in 2013. And for a third iteration, this wine is excellent. It is very carefully made – fermented at low temperatures to preserve that beautiful varietal character of peaches and lemons with a slightly briny character. It is then made richer by partially fermenting it in new French oak to bring out that voluptuous quality I had mentioned before.

Enjoy this wine with shellfish, sushi and anything fried!

Seema 🙂

July 15, 2018/by Eric Faiola

Weekly Wine Pick, Wine

Wine of the month: Taking Route Blanc de Cabernet

Moldova is a fascinating country. It sounds both very remote and yet very familiar to my ear – something about Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains to the west, the Black Sea to the east. It seems to sit at a sinister juncture of fairytale and legend. But in reality, Moldova is a country covered by gently rolling hills that reach no higher than 1000 feet. There are lush valleys and rich pastures with a very temperate climate that is not too cold in the winter and not too hot in the summer and it gets just the right amount of rain for farming grapes.

In fact, Moldova has been growing grapes for millennia. There is evidence suggesting that the native Moldovans were making wine as early as 3000 B.C.E. There has been constant cultivation since that time, excepting the 300 years of Ottoman rule that destroyed many of their vineyards. Further damage was caused during both World Wars, decimating their wine stocks. However, in the post-war period, there has been a concerted effort to replant the wonderful hillsides with vines and bring production back to its former glory.

They have succeeded to a very great extent and replanted many indigenous varieties such as the difficult to pronounce “Feteasca Alba”, “Rarã Neagrã” and “Zghiharda.” They have also followed global trends and replanted the lands with more international varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon, which seems to thrive almost everywhere, as well as Merlot, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay.

Until I tasted this remarkable wine, I couldn’t really predict what I would be tasting. I have had many, many red Cabernet Sauvignon wines and even had a few rosés, but I have never had a white wine made with it. This wine makes you appreciate just why Cabernet Sauvignon is indeed a superstar among grape varieties. My son would call it “o.p.” or overpowered. When it is gently pressed to preserve its fruit flavors and keep out the colors and polyphenols from the skins, it yields a white wine that has some beautiful aromas and flavors. Fresh and approachable, you smell grapefruit, herbs, perhaps some mango, pineapple and banana, and maybe just a hint of jalapeño. Then on the palate, you get creamy textures of summer fruit and with a mineral finish that is completely satisfying. Like most Cabernet’s, this is a full-bodied wine that is perfect with a range of flavors including shell fish, mature hard cheese, and charcuterie.

Thanks for reading,

Seema

July 10, 2018/by Eric Faiola

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