Hubby and I went to a wine-tasting class at Whole Foods last night. I highly recommend their programs, if you are lucky enough to live close to a store with a Culinary Center. We went to a Family Cooking Night on Saturday and the kids made pasta and a sun-dried tomato and ricotta sauce. It was really yummy and lots of fun. So, the class last night covered lots of different wines, but our favorites were:
Nozzole Chianti Classico (Italy) – This was medium-bodied, with spicy hints of cherry and rosemary. I was wishing for a big plate of Spaghetti Bolognese to go with it.
Conde de Valdemar Gran Reserva Rioja (Spain) – Beautiful color and subtle oak flavors. I thought I tasted a bit of caraway/celery flavor, too.
Ben Marco Malbec (Argentina) – VERY dark, smooth, full-bodied. Plum flavors.
Buehler Cabernet Sauvignon (California) – Mmmm…..full, rich, chocolate-y flavor.
Hubby and I have a decided preference for red wines, but this one was good, too:
Reinhold Haart Piesporter Spatlese Riesling (Germany). Normally, Rieslings are way too sweet for me, but this one was very good and spicy, even though “Spatlese”, we learned, means that the wine was made from the last grape harvest of the season, so the grapes are usually a little more mature and sweet. I actually bought a bottle of this and will serve it the next time we have something really spicy (Thai?) for dinner.