Semillon

Hello,
Today is all about Semillon. This variety is found all Australia but especially in the Hunter Valley, Baross, Queensland, and Riverina in New South Wales. These grapes grow in compact bunches with thins skins. This makes it asker for these bunches to get a disease.  The color of Semillon is pale straw but can turn into a rich gold with age. It tends to have green bean, pea pod, hay, citrus, lemon, apple and tropical fruit aromas. The way it interacts with the palate can actually vary between regions. Those made to drink right away tend to have more tropical flavors and attack the mid palate but the drier styles tend to have lingering citrus with more acidity.

In class we tasted two Semillon

1) Mount Pleasant Elizabeth (2015)
    Made in: Hunter Valley
    Alc/vol: 10
    Price: $14

Appearance: The core contains a pale pale straw yellow color and the rim is a light golden yellow. There are some green hues making it seem like a young wine. The body of the wine seems to be light and the wine has great clarity and vibrancy. It also appears to be light bodied and have no oak content.

Aroma: This wine contains a mixture of aromas including hay, cut grass, lime/lemons but it is a delicate balance b between these.

Palate: The wine is very light and the intensity starts off slow in the front palate and then build in the mid palate and then drops again on the back palate. There is a faint taste of tropical fruit in wine with the acidity.


2) Mountain Valley Blue label (2007)
    Made in: Hunter valley
    Alc/vol: 11
    Price: $22

Appearance: The Rim is a golden yellow color where the body is a pale golden yellow. This wine seems to be full bodied. The color shows that this is aged or has had oak contact. It is a full bodied wine  and it is clear and vibrant.

Aroma: The smell shows that there is no oak contact. It smells heavy of petroleum, asparagus, and buttered toast.

Palate: This wine is very heavy on the tongue and is very rich. It also have a buttery aftertaste. The flavors are not in the front palate, the start to build in mid palate and then keep building to back palate where then it drops quickly.


Thank you
~Karli

Sauvignon Blanc

Hello,
This week in class we tasted two Sauvignon Blanc. Sauvignon Blanc is typically grown in the Lorie Valley in France, Washington, New Zealand, and South Australia and Tasmania. Sauvignon Blanc tends to ripen early so it is best when they are grown in colder temperature to slow down the ripening process and allow for an increase in flavor. The grapes are typically small and tightly packed with, small, think skinned grapes. When the grapes are made into wine the color is a watery pale straw yellow to a light gold color.  These wines do not age well so a darker color is not normally a good sign.  Tropical fruit, kiwi fruit, leafy, steely, cut grass, and green beans are some aromas typically found in Sauvignon Blanc. There is normal a refreshing crispness all over the palate due to the acid. If there is less or oak contact there may be creamy characteristics as well.

In class we tasted two Sauvignon Blanc

1) Warburn est "Gossips" (2015)
    Made in: South East Asia
    Alc/vol: 12.5
    Price: $4

Appearance: The core contains a watery pale straw yellow color and the rim is a pale straw yellow. There are some green hues making it seem like a young wine. The body of the wine seems to be light and the wine has great clarity and vibrancy.

Aroma: This wine smells very acidic. The acid id very overpowering and masks many other aromas but there are  minor fruity smells like tropical fruit. I do not detect and secondary aromas as it seems to be a simple wine.

Palate: The wine does not have much intensity in the front palate but builds in the mid palate and reaches a high point in the back palate.


2) Villa Maria (2015)
    Made in: Marlbrough NZ
    Alc/vol: 13
    Price: $14

Appearance: The core contains a watery pale straw yellow color and the rim is pale gold. Some green hues show that this is a young wine also.

Aroma: This wine has intense smells. The main one is a passion fruit and other tropical fruits.

Palate: This wine is very heavy on the tongue. It fall short in the secondary flavors so it is not complex. The taste is very fruity with passion fruit. This seems to have some intensity on the front palate and builds in the mid palate and the falls again in the back palate.

Next up is Semillon

Thank you
~Karli

Riesling

Hello,
Today I learned about and tasted Riesling. Riesling was first grown in Germany but is now also grown in France, New Zealand, Canada, and Oregon. This is due to the fact that they love cool climates. The cool climates allow for the acid and sugar to balance while enhancing flavor. Therefore in Australia it is mostly grown in Southern Australia in the Clare Valley and the Eden Valley. Riesling grapes are typically small bunches that are tightly packed that vary from a pale gold and gain dark spots when ripe.
The wine they produce is typically pale straw yellow with green hues when the wine is young. As it ages it becomes more full bodied and develops a rich gold color. It can have many different aromas including citrus, lemon ( especially when young), tropical fruits, floral, guava, and apple. Aged Rieslings can also gain aromas of honey, toast and kerosene. The taste seems to have an apparent acid crispness with subtle viscosity in the mid palate.

In class we tasted three Rieslings

1) Jacob's Creek Classic (2015)
    Made in: Australia
    Alc/vol: 12.1
    Price: $6

Appearance: This Riesling had a pale pale straw yellow color in the core and appeared more white on the rim with hues of green indicating a young and vibrant wine.

Aroma: This has a intense acidic smell but there are also aromas of floral and hints of green apple and honeysuckle.

Palate: There seemed to be a strong taste of citric acid especially the front and mid palate. This intensity falls short of the back palate though. There is also a soft sweetness even though it is very dry and makes your lips pucker.

Overall Quality and Balance: The color is nice but it is a bit watery. Also it falls short as a Riesling due to the acidity.


2) Annie's Lane (2015)
    Made in: Clare Valley
    Alc/vol: 13
    Price: $16

Appearance: This Riesling had a pale yellow color in the core and appeared pale stray yellow on the rim with hues of green indicating a young and vibrant wine.

Aroma: This has very faint and almost undetectable but there are hints of grapefruit and green apple.

Palate: This wine has a strong intensity on the front and middle palate but then falls short in the back palate. It seems like there are slight floral notes and a slight taste of green apple.

Overall Quality and Balance: This was a very nice Riesling and had a vibrant color. It contained many characteristics of a good Riesling.

3) Annie's Lane (2009)
    Made in: Clare Valley
    Alc/vol: 12
    Price: $22

Appearance: This Riesling is golden yellow in the core color and slightly deeper on the rim. This means that it could be aged with oak or be aged. ( since it is a Rielsing though it would not have had contact with oak)

Aroma: This has a strong sense of petroleum and a slight mix of honeysuckle and some citrus fruits.

Palate: This is not as acidic, however there is still a dry sense in the back of the palate. It taste a bit like kerosene.  

Overall Quality and Balance: This was very smooth and had many characteristics of an aged Rielsing.


More wines to come!
Karli

Wine studies #2

Hello,

Today we started the tasting process but not yet with wine.

First my professor wanted us to see how the wines could attack different parts of our tongue and have different intensity. 

We first started with a sugar solution. Most of the sensation came from the back of the palate. When compared to water the sugar solution is rounder, softer and heavier on the tongue. Also the sugar solution is more viscous than water.

Citric acid (tasted like lemon water)

 The citric acid seemed to attack the middle and back palate. It also tasted very sour and bitter. Compared to the sugar solution it was harder and heavier.

Tartaric acid

This acid attacked very strongly in the front palate, fell in the mid palate, and then grew slightly again in the back palate. This was the most bitter out of all of the samples and it was the hardest out of the samples. Also Tartaric acid contains Aperitif, which cleanses the palate and stimulates appetite. This is also found in sorbet and wine. This is what some places will give you sorbet between meals.

American Oak water solution

This tasted exactly what I think the inside of an oak tree would taste like. The sensation came in the back part of the mid palate. It tasted woody and made my top lip feel dry. This was a result of the Tannins in it. We tasted this to allow us to pick this out as a secondary taste. 

This session was very interesting but also challenging. It was hard at first to determine where the flavors were on the palate because I have never thought about that before when tasting food/drink. I also learned about words like softer/ harder and heavier/ lighter. Softer and harder are distinguished but the way they feel and roll of the tongue. If it easily rolls off the tongue it is probably softer and if it does not glide off the tongue it is harder. Heavier and light describe the physical weight of the liquid on the tongue. This was a very eye opening experience and I cant wait to use my new knowledge.

~Karli

Wine studies #1

Hello, 

So today I began my wine tasting class. In the first class we mostly discussed the history of wine in Australia. We did though talk about the most important part of tasting which is the ability to discern specific taste and smells. My professor noted that we should all go to the grocery store and smell the produce in order to commit the smells to memory. Also that we should not only know good smells, such as fruits and flowers, but also bad smells such as dirty socks and sweat horse blanket. These "bad"  smells occur when something in the wine has gone bad. Typically it is from mold in the grapes or from a build up of 2,4,6 trichloroanisole in the cork of the wine. This 2,4,6 trichloroanisole can sometimes be considered good by adding complexity to the wine but more often it will ruin the wine. That is why now in Australia they use screw caps instead because then none of the wine will go bad from the corks. 

Taste is also important so I have decided to do a run to the store after class to pick up different fruits, and fruits I have never had before, to try to commit those to memory. Also I will have to learn to distinguish primary and secondary tastes. Primary tastes are the typically fruity taste of the wine and secondary tastes are the ones that come from the wine making process such as an oak flavor if stored in an oak barrel.

We also learned that we would be tasting the wines and then writing about their Appearance, Smell, Palate (taste and feel), Overall quality, and then giving it a food match. 

This part will start next week and I can't wait to get started. 

~Karli

Welcome to Australia

Hello!
I have officially landed on the Gold Coast. I am so excited to start a new adventure in a new country. From now on my blogs will have a new focus. In America I was learning to distinguish flavors and train my pallet to look at more things than just taste. I was doing this using chocolate. Now that I am in Australia the focus will switch to wine. I will be attending a wine studies course at Bond University on the Gold Coast. I will not only be learning about the history and wine making process, but also about the flavors and qualities on wine. The class has to parts. On odd weeks we will learn about wine ( history, qualities, process and more). During these weeks I will be trying to increase my abilities by doing my own research and wine tastings as well. Then on odd weeks we have actual sensory evaluations in class and are allowed to taste and learn about specific types of wine and the qualities it typically processes. I also have planned a wine tasting tour in the Yarra Valley in March.
I am so excited to start the is part of the my learning experience.

First though I found a chocolate shop in Australia called Max Brenner. It happens to be located right next to my housing so I am sure that I will be there often. My friend and I went and ordered the "lick" which is essentially your own pot of melted milk chocolate. This was so smooth and creamy and made me think of melted dove chocolate with its sweet flavor and silky texture. It was so smooth you just wanted to move it around in your mouth. There seemed to be slight hints of vanilla as well which made it more appealing. I cant wait to go back and try many other creations such as the chocolate pizza and the 80's Milkshake.

Family tasting

Hello everyone,

Over the holidays I decided to do a tasting with my family. I decided to switch it up a little bit though and instead of focusing on flavors, I wanted to see if the could recognize their favorite chocolates by taste alone. I decided to use Lindor's milk chocolate (my moms favorite), Dove dark chocolate (my dads favorite) and then a cheap palmer Santa I bought as well.

Chocolate #1 (Palmer)

My mother thought this chocolate was very cheap and waxy. She did not like the taste at all and he ended up asking me of this was dollar store chocolate.

My father thought it tasted very sweet and didn't taste like true chocolate. 

Chocolate #2 (Dove)

My mom thought it was very silky and smooth but had a very bitter taste. 

My dad loved this chocolate. He immediately noted that it was dark chocolate and loved the smooth texture and mouthfeel. 

Chocolate #3 (Lindor)

My mom instantly loved this chocolate. To her this was a perfect milk chocolate and she said it reminded her of Lindor chocolate.

My dad thought it was very silky as well but not as much as chocolate #2. He also thought it had a milky flavor.

Overall it seems that in order to truly recognize your favorite chocolate you need to see it in its trademark packaging. Even though my mother was close to notice her favorite chocolate, she could say for certain that it was Lindor and my father also didn't know that he tasted he favorite dark chocolate. It’s interesting to see that there is a correlation between the recognition and the packaging of the chocolate. I hope to look into this more as a taste more chocolate. 

Bling tasting #8

Chocolate #8

Appearance:

This chocolate's appearance was described as extremely dark brown in color and matte.

Touch:

 The chocolate was hard and sticky until it melted in your fingers, and then it seemed silky and smooth.

Sound:

The tasters thought that this chocolate had a soft break.

Aroma:

The smell was described as rich and slightly fruity. The smell also reminded us of a pine tree.

Mouthfeel:

The chocolate had a smooth and slightly waxy mouthfeel.

Flavor:

The flavor was noted to contain sweetness, slight bitterness and faint astringency. Also there were detectable floral undertones.

Aftertaste:

The aftertaste seemed to linger and was bitter and slightly fruity.

Overall comments: 
This chocolate was very unique. The texture was nice and smooth and the aroma seemed to compliment it. Some of the tasters thought the chocolate tasted like soap.

This chocolate is Dagoba organic lavender blueberry chocolate

Overall thoughts:

I didn't really care for this chocolate. I  thought the lavender was a little to overpowering and reminded me of tasting perfume. It also needed more blueberry to increase the sweetness and flavor profile. This was only 59% cocoa so it was not as bitter as many of the other chocolates tasted, but it was not especially sweet either. This chocolate is very unique and it is not typically my favorite, I can see how others could find this combination appealing. 

This chocolate is sold for around $2.39 for a 2.0 oz bar so about  $1.20/ oz. 

Blind tasting #7

Chocolate #7

Appearance:

This chocolate's appearance was described as medium brown in color and dull.

Touch:

 The chocolate was very silky and smooth.

Sound:

The tasters thought that this chocolate had a soft break and crumbled when broken.

Aroma:

The smell was described as intense cocoa smell. It also seemed rich and slightly earthy.

Mouthfeel:

The chocolate had a smooth and dry mouthfeel.

Flavor:

The flavor was noted to be very bitter, astringent, and slightly sour..

Aftertaste:

The aftertaste was lingering and was both bitter and dry.

Overall comments: 
This chocolate was very bitter and tasted like it had a high cocoa content. It was also nice and silky but  the at seer seemed split on who liked it and who didn't.

This chocolate is Patricia's Chocolate Fortunato No.4 Dark Chocolate.

Overall thoughts:

This chocolate also came from rare cocoa bean as did chocolate #4. The cocnching technique is also the same which allows it to retain as much flavor as possible and get its silky and smooth flavor. It contained 68% Grand Cru chocolate. It is noted to have layered flavors, with citrus and coffee. It is also known for its lingering aftertaste which is considered longer than most chocolates. Overall this is a very high quality chocolate and is recommended for anyone who enjoys rich dark chocolate.

This chocolate is sold for around $3.80 for a 0.56 oz bar so about  $6.79/ oz. 

Blind tasting #6

Chocolate #6

Appearance:

The overall appearance is very dark and glossy. This was considered the most beautiful looking chocolate out of all of the types. 

Touch:

 The chocolate was very waxy and sticky.

Sound:

The tasters thought that this chocolate had a soft break and seemed to crumble when bent.

Aroma:

The smell was a strange mix. You could smell the sweetness of the chocolate, but there also seemed to be a hint of something fruity and also something that seemed spicy. 

Mouthfeel:

The chocolate had a waxy but also gritty mouthfeel. You could now tell that there were pieces in the chocolate.

Flavor:

The flavor was noted to be slightly bitter but than contained an intense spicy flavor mixed with some sweetness

Aftertaste:

The aftertaste was lingered and was slightly dry and spicy.

Overall comments: 
This chocolate was very unique. It contained a mix of sweet and spicy which was something we had never seen in chocolate before.

This chocolate is Chocolove's Chilies & Cherries In Dark Chocolate Bar

Overall thoughts:

Personally I thought the idea between mixing something sweet and spicy is a great idea but I don't think the flavors are perfectly in balance. The chocolate says that the Chilies supply the heat while cherries provide sweetness. I think it seemed to have a little to much chillies and not enough cherries for me. The chocolate itself though was very nice. It says dark chocolate but this was not as bitter as many chocolates I have tried before which was good with the extra flavors. This is due to it being inly 55% cocoa.  The flavors do attack your tongue in different areas giving you a unique and full chocolate tasting experience. If you like something spicy then defiantly try this chocolate!

This chocolate is sold for around $2.79 for a 3.2 oz bar so about  $0.87/ oz. 

Blind tasting #5

Chocolate #5

Appearance:

This chocolate's appearance was described as dark and slightly dull. t was noted that this was a favorite among the testers with appearance.

Touch:

 The chocolate was very silky and waxy.

Sound:

The tasters thought that this chocolate had a soft break and created a crisp snap when broken.

Aroma:

The smell was described as having a very  intense dark chocolate smell.

Mouthfeel:

The chocolate had a silky, smooth, and dry mouthfeel.

Flavor:

The flavor was noted to be mainly bitter. It contained a little sweetness and was also astringent.  There also seemed to be a hint of vanilla flavor.

Aftertaste:

The aftertaste seemed to linger in the mouth for sometime but the aftertaste seemed very dry.

Overall comments: 
This chocolate truly showed its dark chocolate side by being bitter and dry. Most of the tasters considered this very good dark chocolate and a classic dark chocolate. 
This was Christopher Elbow No. 1 70% dark chocolate

Overall thoughts:

Overall this seemed to be a classic dark chocolate. I contained a perfect mixture of bitterness and dryness with just a touch a sweetness. This chocolate seems to be a must have for many chocolate lovers.  It was even noted by the tasters to be a favorite. 

This chocolate is sold for around  $3.50/ oz.