Welcome to Friday Night Flights for 1 June 2018… we’re in Ireland this week and not drinking Guiness. Sorry for the late post. Sometimes the rotwein|jaeger has to attend to that pesky career as an economist. The more you read and like, the sooner I can give up that silly research stuff and concentrate on the important business of tasting wine.
So we’re in Ireland because trusty cork puller and wine pourer extraordinaire Alison Beach is here leading a lusty band of students from Ohio State in a study abroad course at the Blackfriary in Trim, Ireland. We’re joined today by a few graduates from the class of 2017 from Middlebury College: Eliza Jaeger, Sofy Maia, and Tom Canaday. As you can guess, Eliza is our daughter. And Sofy and Tom are getting married this month! What better reason to open a few bottles of great wine…
Getting down to business… [Sorry, no glass pictures this week… they’ll return next week]
Wine A
Wine A has a medium ruby color in the glass. Really a lovely color, but rather Pinot Noir-like.
The nose has definite floral notes, with red cherry, raspberry, blueberry some white pepper. We all agree that there are vanilla notes as well.
On the palate, it has high acid, with raspberry, red cherry, lingonberry, and vanilla, and white pepper on the finish. The balance is super between the acid and fruit and medium tannins. This is not a “big” wine, and has medium body. The finish is pleasant and long.
Overall, we all agree this is a really good wine, but I think that of the group I probably like it best.
Wine B
Wine B is definitely darker than Wine A, a deep ruby.
The nose here is more complex than Wine A, with more black fruit (black cherry, blackberry) than red. There’s also a bit of forest floor and cedar and vanilla. It’s really lovely and I think my young co-tasters are especially enamored of it.
The palate has all of the things we detected on the nose plus some black pepper on this finish, with really nice acid. The tannins are restrained, but the great fruit in the wine gives it more body than Wine A. The finish is long and great.
Boof… a couple of great wines, but I can see where my young tasting colleagues are headed with their preferences.
Click here to see what we were drinking…