Kroger Wine Tasting of February 13th, 2016

Wine Number One

Name: Italo Cescon: Artigiano del Vino                                  Variety: Riesling
Region: Italy
Year: 2013
Price: $10.99
Shop: University City Boulevard Kroger
Personal Review: Initial aroma causes curiosity with blends of fruits, specifically peach and apple with a hint of salt and pepper. Tastes of crisp apples and earthy tones allows the Riesling to be a highly flavorful, yet simple type of wine. Would be very good with a pasta dinner or even good for sipping in the afternoon.

Wine Number Two

Name: Italo Cescon: Artigiano del Vino       
Variety: Pinot Noir
Region: Italy
Year: 2014
Price: $10.99
Shop: University City Boulevard Kroger
Outside Review: "Elegant flavors of cherry, spice, and rose petals. The long finish goes on and on!"
Personal Review: Aroma is very fruity, yet dry upon initial smell. Subtle hints of apple and pepper are the first tastes that comes when drinking, and as the air passes through the wine stronger cherry, rose and earthy flavors take over. Very earthy, and bold wine.

Wine Number Three

Name: Chateau L'Insoumise: Vin de Bordeaux  
Variety: Bordeaux

Region: France
Year: 2012
Price: $11.99
Shop: University City Boulevard Kroger
Outside Review: "Fruity wines with tannins. Ideal with traditional meals."
Personal Review: Delicious Pinot Noir. Very earthy smells along with subtle hints of cherry, fruits and pine. Very smooth taste with initial sip, but the pepper and alcohol content makes the after taste very hot. Lingering taste of pepper and cherry stays with you for a couple seconds after the first sip and the cherry taste really comes out when breathing in after drinking this wine. My favorite of the three that Kroger provided for the tasting.

Wine Number Four

Name: Evodia                                
Variety: old Vines Garnacha

Region: Spain
Year: 2014 Altovinum
Price: $10.99
Shop: University City Boulevard Kroger
Outside Review: "This 100% Old Vine Garnacha offers a lovely perfume of spice box, mineral and wild cherry. This perfectly balanced mix of flavors lends itself to an intensely fruity wine with loads of taste, a smooth texture, and a pure, fruit filled finish."
Personal Review: Initial smells of pepper and leather. First taste entangled with fruits such as plum, grape, peach and cherries. Second taste gives way to strong cinnamon flavors and the cherry taste takes over. Evodia is my favorite wine that I have tasted so far, and has become my go to for dinner and even a nice wine to sip on a relaxing night.

Wine Number Five

Name: Apothic Crush                                  
Variety: Smoth Red Blend

Region: California, U.S.A.
Year: 2014
Price: $12.99
Shop: University City Boulevard Kroger
Outside Review: "The first taste entices, stimulating the senses, the next taste ignites, arousing the passion. A decadent red blend that combines red fruit flavors with notes of carmel and a velvety smooth mouthfeel."
Personal Review: Extremely earth, tobacco, oak and chocolate aroma when first smelling. Taste is complex and very different that smell however. With strong tastes of apple and cherries, the wine finishes with subtle hints of pepper and chocolate. Very rich and bold wine, and is probably just good for sipping by itself. I would say it is too heavy to pair with dinner, but may go well with crackers and brie.


This wine tasting really backed up my love for red wines an helped me start to appreciate the aromas and blends in tastes of wines. I am very excited to try even more wines and see what bursts of flavors and smells I have yet to discover!!

Starting off...

Hello!

My name is Sarah, and I'm currently a senior in Biology here at Virginia Tech. I'm stressing out about graduation but trying to enjoy my last semester so I figured why not take a timeout from bio classes and learn about wine! Although I am a senior, I found out about this time last year (when all my other friends were turning 21) that my birthday is really quite late (September 17th)! Of course, I did not wait to turn 21 to try alcohol, but I didn't experience a lot with different kinds of wine until I turned 21. Before being legal, I pretty much just drank whatever my friends were able to get, and most of the time that turned out to be white girl Bud Light or the infamous Franzia. Franzia used to be my go to alcoholic choice. I used to think it was so tasty and I loved that it came in such great quantities so we could all enjoy it together.I really enjoyed getting all the differnet kinds of Franzia and seeing which I preferred. In the beginning, I LOVED all the whites (besides pinot grigio, yuck!). I remebered when I tried the Merlot, I thought it was so dry and bitter. I liked the sweetness and fruitiness of the whites much better than the dry and tart reds.

It wasn't until I bought my first bottle of wine that I learned that I had really been missing out. On my 21st birthday, my roommate and I went into 'Ghetto Kroger' so I could make my first alcoholic purchase. A very nice man asked us if he could help us with anything and all I could tell him was that it was my birthday and I had no idea what I was doing. He seemed to LOVE that and I'm sure you could've seen his smile from a mile away. I told him that I liked more of the sweet wines and that I didn't really like the bitter tastes of what reds I had had. He introduced me to my first love: Little Bosco, a subtle red with fruitful flavors. I had always focused on buying the wines with the most alcohol content before I had tried this wine. I got it home and checked the percentage and it turned out to be 6%! I was so shocked! Franzia at the LEAST had 12%, so I felt like I had been ripped off. But then I tasted Little Bosco. It. Was. DELICIOUS! I'm pretty sure we drank the entire bottle that night. It was so rich, yet light enough to not kick you on your butt within the first glass or so. I learned that night that alcohol isn't about just getting drunk, it truly is about the experience, taste and situation that you are presented with.

Everytime I buy wine now I go back to Ghetto Kroger and get help from the man that helped me on my birthday. From Little Bosco, to Pensador, all the way to Evodia (my current love), I have such a great appreciation for wine and I cannot wait to learn even more!