Wine Wednesday – Rare Red (or as I liked to call it – “Guess the grapes”)

Hello, hello!

Guess what day it is?!?!

I ❤ Wine Wednesdays!

And, you’re in luck! I remembered to get the pictures off my camera!

Usually I take them with my phone but for some reason, I decided to be all fancy and use my regular camera.

source

Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.

Anyway, this is another wine I found at my local wine market.

The Rare Red 4 Grape Blend.

Mike knows I like blends so he wanted me to give it a try.

I can’t remember exactly how much the bottle cost and I’ve since thrown my receipt away but I’m pretty positive this was one of my less than $10 bottles.

I bought 6 bottles that day (1/2 case discount, thankyouverymuch) and only spent around $60 total. After tax. #winning

As with all blends, I flipped the bottle around to read the breakdown of the grapes.

And discovered that they didn’t say ANYWHERE on the label what ANY of the 4 grapes are!

Oh, ho, ho, it’s a guessing game now, is it?

source

The first thing I noticed when I poured the wine was the dark ruby color.

When I swirled and took the first sniff, I was treated to lovely earthy aromas, some black pepper, and dark fruit. I also thought I smelled a little chocolate which, honestly, I’ve only smelled in a Port so I wasn’t really sure.

I was pretty positive I knew one of the grapes just from the color and the aromas, maybe two, but you know I had to taste it. I mean, c’mon, it was practically inviting me in!

My first sip was luscious and smooth, all fruit and earth and yumminess. There was a bit of spice/pepper on the back of my throat but not too much. The tannins, for a wine that’s 13.5% alcohol, were really mild which surprised me. Especially since I knew at that point that I definitely knew what 2 of the 4 grapes were.

I said with certainty that the wine was a blend of Syrah (hello fruit!) and Zinfandel (hello earth & pepper/spice).

And those wines can be quite tannic and big. Like maybe 14% alchohol or more!

(If you don’t know, tannins come the skins, seeds, and stems of the grapes. Red wines are more tannic than white because the skins are left in the juice longer. That also helps to add color and depth to the wine. Tannins are what makes a wine taste “dry” – like you want to pucker a little and not because it’s sour like a green apple. High tannins are also known to cause massive headaches in people that drink too of the much wine. Wine hangovers can really suck. #justsayin)

Anyway, I swished and swirled and sniffed and tasted my way through that glass in the hopes that I would come up with the other 2 grapes used in the blend.

I never did figure it out but I can say with definite certainty that the Rare Red 4 Grape Blend is a very delicious wine!

And, because it’s so smooth, you can pair it with a variety of foods. Pasta, burgers, pizza, grilled chicken, grilled salmon or tuna (I think a white/lighter fish might not be a good choice), chili, stews, hot dogs, sausages (that’s what we had!), etc, etc, etc.

The other two grapes? I had to look them up. Barbera and Sangiovese.

I never would have gotten that.

I can’t remember the last time I drank a Sangiovese and it’s been a few years since I had a Barbera.

Guess it’s time for me to grab some of those and refresh my taste buds’ memories! 🙂

Talk to me: Do you like challenges? Can you pick out different aromas and tastes in a glass of wine/beer/whiskey/bourbon/etc?