Featured Tasting! El Cortijillo Verdejo 2015

This is my first ever "Featured Tasting!" These special reviews are of wines that I like enough to purchase a bottle myself for re-enjoyment.  I will accompany the main review with a little research of the variety, terroir and other various aspects particular to the wine.

Name: El Cortijillo Verdejo
Variety: Verdejo
Region: La Mancha
Country: Spain
Year: 2015
Price: $4.95

Bonus Background Research: To classify as a Spanish Verdejo, the percentage of grapes used only need be 50% Verdejo.  This allows for liberal blending of other grape varieties to make each Verdejo especially unique.  Furthermore, Verdejo grapes are harvested at night to control temperature and fermented in stainless steel barrels.
The La Mancha region and central Spain in general is a strange region for viticulture. The soil is almost desert-like and even rocky in some places where vines look more like tumbleweeds (see photo).  This doesn't deter Verdejo grapes though, which are by far the most common grapes grown in the region.

Winery Review: Golden straw color. Bright, attractive, tropical aromas of creme brulee and fruit tart with a silky, bright, dry-yet-fruity light-to-medium body and a smooth, intriguing, snappy lime and apple finish with crunchy, fruit tannins and light oak. A super smooth and pure white sipper.

My Review: Delicious and refreshing! Despite this being the first of five wines tasted, I still remembered my good experience with it after it all. Similarly to the Tempranillo, you can really smell the sandy/rocky/salty terroir of La Mancha in a whiff of this. Honey-butter and nectarine also linger in the air as you prepare for first taste.  Plunge in for a refreshingly dry, high acid, summertime-reminiscent light-bodied white.  The honey-butter whiffs are validated in the immediate after-taste. Take another mouthful and swish around to find that lemons, limes and other citrus seem to provide the high acidity. At $4.95 a bottle, this wine is a steal for the refreshing taste it delivers. My favorite glass of the day and made me forget the winter cold that awaited me outside in Blacksburg.

Tasted without food.

Tasting - Dona Sol Sweet Red Wine N.V.

Name: Dona Sol Sweet Red Wine
Variety: Red Blend (Shiraz, Petite Syrah & Symphony), Dessert
Region: Sonoma County, California
Country: USA
Year: N.V.
Price: $6.95

Winery Review: Shiraz has a unique jammy fruit character that is well represented in the Sweet Red. Both on the nose and on the palate, jammy fruit, like strawberries, cherry pie and red licorice, entices the senses and pair well with cheeses and desserts.

My Review: I could not tell much from the nose besides a sugary sweet open airy aroma. The label does not lie: this dessert wine is sweet though it trails off with time and tastes of fatty lactic cream. The after-taste in particular made me crave a coconut cream pie to go with it.

Tasted without food though I wish I had.

Tasting - Avery Quinn Zinfandel 2013

Name: Avery Quinn Zinfandel

Variety: Zinfandel

Region: Santa Rosa, California

Country: USA

Year: 2013

Price: $6.95

Winery Review: Lightly spicy aromas and rich, soothing fruit flavors make this an attractive, lovable and classically proportioned wine. Cherry and raspberry flavors rest on a lightly tannic but smooth texture, and linger on the finish.

My Review: Cherry is at the forefront of the aroma and is backed up with a whiff of fresh forresty air. The cherry and other forresty fruit come through onto the tannic palette. Oxygenation brings on a pungent spice that works well with the present flavors.  This bottle presentation in particular prepares you well for the wine it contains.

Tasted without food.

Tasting - Finca del Castillo Tempranillo 2015

Name: Finca del Castillo Tempranillo

Variety: Tempranillo

Region: La Mancha

Country: Spain

Year: 2015

Price: $4.95

Winery Review: Vivid ruby. Spice-accented red and dark berry aromas show good clarity and a hint of fresh rose. Juicy and seamless on the palate, offering lively currant and bitter cherry flavors that become sweeter with air. Clings with good tenacity on the energetic finish, which repeats the floral note and shows no tannins.

My Review: The initial nose is filled with a salty sandy air which speaks to the terroir of La Mancha, but then warm dark fruit permeates through in accompaniment.  Once transferred to the palette, the salt recedes and the dark fruit reveals itself as cherry with some sort of accenting berry.  Though dark fruit is foremost in the senses, the overall taste is light with a slight spice similar to peppermint.

Tasted without food.

Tasting - Pieter Cruythoff Chenin Blanc 2015

Name: Pieter Cruythoff Chenin Blanc
Variety: 100% Chenin Blanc
Region: Swartland
Country: South Africa
Year: 2015
Price: $9 (Sale for $4.95)

Winery Review: "A wonderful nose of bananas, oranges and melons jumps from the glass of this 100% Chenin Blanc, which is finished with a screw cap. Another great value from South Africa, this wine is medium-bodied, fresh, lively, and a terrific dry white to drink over the next year."

My Review: A sweet nose of fruit leaning more towards a mix of softer tree fruits than anything else, though I cannot pinpoint a distinct flavor in the aroma. In the mouth, the aromas are backed up with substance in this sweet, medium-bodied white.  Mix it in your mouth with a bit of air and you will feel a bite that lingers not dissimilar to that left by sucking on a lemon wedge.

Tasted without food.