Tag Archives: botrytis cinerea

Sweets to the Sweet!🎄🍭

It’s holiday time! 🎅 Time for some fun, and time for tasting!🍷🎄

Click the video below for a little wine round up!

👇😄

Typically, the rule is sweet wines with sweet treats, but we might take a few little twists and turns in candy land! 🍭🍬

Candy Cane Ice Cream –

Peppermint has always seemed like a tough pairing with wine. And I guess because brushing your teeth before a wine tasting always makes for a wonky flavor. Maybe it’s a toothpaste thing (heavier concentration of mint, surfactants in toothpaste that maybe coat the tongue) rather than a mint thing?🤷🏼‍♀️

But since peppermint is an aromatic herb, why not try it with an aromatic white wine or rosé?

•Gewürztraminer – intense floral aromas, grapefruit and lychee. Higher sweetness pairs with sweetness and mint. And just saying Gewürztraminer makes you sound kind of drunk. Don’t believe me? Try it!

•Sauternes – dessert wine from Bordeaux with Botrytis cinerea (which makes it delightfully sweet). Flavors of honey, quince and apricot make it sweet and oh so smooth. 🍯

•Sparkling Rosé – nothing better than bubbles to cut into some of the creaminess of the ice cream. The gentle acidity of the delicate fruity notes play hide and seek with the minty sweetness of the ice cream. 🍨🍾

Gingerbread Sticky Toffee Pudding

Combining gingerbread with dates, cloves, allspice and toffee is basically a carnival on your palate!🎪

•Chenin Blanc – sweet golden nectar of pear, yellow apple, chamomile and honey, little more acidic to help carve through the richness of the toffee and cake consistency.

•Riesling – aromatic variety ranging from bone-dry to quite sweet. If you like dry, look for “Trocken” on the label. Anything sweeter: look for “Pradikat” – Kabinett (sweet) , Spatlese (sweeter), Auslese (sweeter still), all the way to Eiswein (sweetie sweet). Flavors range from dried apricot, citrus, green apple, green papaya, jasmine, depending on the growing region. High acidity again cuts into the rich cake.

•Port – Beautiful notes of black plum, chocolate, dries cherry and cinnamon complement this ooey gooey dessert as you nestle deeper into a spicy bliss with each sip.

Fruit Cake

I always feel a little bad for the nutty fruit cake. It’s so maligned. True, some can be as dense as a brick (and maybe even taste like one). But the combination of the buttery rum cake, rich nuts and dried fruit can be a lovely melt-in-your-mouth experience. Aromatic whites are a terrific pairing but so are some light-medium bodied reds.🍷

•Torrontés – From Argentina, this white wine can smell sweet but is dry and matches well with the spices, and melded aromatic flavors in fruit cake. Flavors of rose petal, geranium and peach round out this interesting wine.

•Cabernet Franc – Flavors of strawberry, raspberry and a hint of chili pepper make this a nice complement to the fruit cake’s nutty vibe.

•Merlot – Merlot is a softer red, and often blended with Cab Sauv soften its harsher nature. Yummy flavors of black cherry, plum and chocolate add to the fun, making that fruit cake the best you’ve ever had.

And if you find yourself overwhelmed, Ice Wine goes with everything!

So there ya go! Sometimes the best pairings are unexpected. Feel free to try your favorite holiday treats with different new, and fun wines.🍷🎄

♥️Thank you so much for stopping by, and supporting my blog. It’s fun to write, and I hope it’s fun to read.♥️

Wishing you all a happy and healthy holiday season, and we’ll see you in the new year for more wine adventures!🥂

Be safe, everyone!🤗

Cheers!🍷

©️Copyright. The Wine Student, 2022.

Birthdays, Blessings and a Glass of Biltmore

Lately, I’ve been writing about white wines on Wednesday but I wanted to push it back for a very special occasion. It’s my girl’s birthday. What makes it doubly special is that her day is also my late father’s birthday. I still celebrate with a toast to him. My sister used to make the joke that while she and our other siblings got him traditional birthday gifts, I gave him a grandchild. On that one particular April 16th, I got marks for creativity, and timing (I wasn’t expecting her debut until the 18th). And her birth had no other inducement than a warm bath and watching the movie Jerry Maguire. I wonder how many other births have been brought on by hearing Tom Cruise yell, “show me the money!”?

To toast the occasion, I wanted to find something that would pair a simple but spicy dish. Riesling came to mind. Instead of finding the traditional Alsace version, I wanted to find an offering that was closer to home. The 2013 Biltmore Riesling fit the bill. Cultivated on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville North Carolina, the combination of mineral rich, yet tough soil and cooler climates create the perfect environment for producing some fine, complex Riesling.

Qualities of Riesling ~

  • thrives in cool climates and poor soil ~ cooler climates increase its acidity which gives it the bright complex quality.
  • aromatic and floral. stone fruit vibe : apple, apricot, peach, pear. clean in taste, clear in the glass, complex aromas in more mature vintages including a gasoline (yes).
  • the compact bunches on the vine make it prone to noble rot (botrytis cinerea) which is actually a good thing.

Noble Rot serves two distinct purposes to wine:

  • It intensifies a wine’s sweetness while adding intensity and complexity. It does this by causing grapes to dehydrate while at the same time keeping sugar levels constant. Grapes affected by Noble Rot are more syrupy, sweeter and some may have a higher alcohol content.
  • It adds flavor ~ noble rot grapes have have higher levels of phenylacetaldehyde, an aromatic compound that can be described like honey, rose, or beeswax.

If you can say ‘phenylacetaldehyde’ quickly three times, you get to take a sip!

On the scale of dry to sweet, this Riesling tended to be more on the sweet-ish but with a distinctive spice finish. It was full-bodied with a honey-like, viscous mouthfeel. Subtle floral notes of stone fruit (apricot) were prominent on the nose. Paired with grilled chicken tacos, it brought out a nice spiced pear vibe that was most satisfying.

One of the things about enjoying a glass of wine is that it allows you the chance to sit back and reflect on times shared with those you love. It helps to slow the world down to savor the moment because, as I’ve found over the past few years, those moments can be fleeting. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that my daughter is growing up so quickly; and that my dad has been gone for almost five years. And while I miss him every day, I feel very blessed that he and his granddaughter will always share this day. There’s a beautiful continuity in that, and it fuels the belief that some blessings were meant to be.

Cheers!

©TheWineStudent. 2015