Last Friday night Alli and I hosted some friends for dinner. This blog post is a brief recap of the three wines we had.
None of these were stellar, unfortunately, although one was very interesting and appreciated by one dinner guest (the lovely @jennalyns).
We had a bottle of the 2007 Pacific Rim dry Riesling with the appetizers / before dinner. It was nice and light, easy to sip. Not a lot to it, but then again, it's a Riesling. Not bad. Beautiful bottle / label.
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The main dinner wine was good, but not stellar. I expected it to be great. It's a 2005 Novelli Sagrantino di Montefalco. I really like this grape in general, but I haven't had luck with producers other than Arnaldo Caprai, so I'm going to stick to him from now on. His higher prices are apparently justified.
This wine was lush and smooth, no tannins. But it lacked depth and finish. Really kind of disappointing.
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Finally, with dessert, we had a 2007 late-harvest Riesling from Rheingau, the Edition Maximillian. I wanted a mellower, less sweet, dessert wine than what we usually serve. This was a wine we had at Meritage once with a tasting menu, and really liked it.
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It's a tricky match, though: the brownies were awesome but too rich for it, we didn't try cheese (could have been really good, depending on the cheese), and the grapes were reasonable.
Overall, it was a fun evening with good friends and good conversation. The wines were decent, but I was hoping the Sagrantino would be amazing.![]()
None of these were stellar, unfortunately, although one was very interesting and appreciated by one dinner guest (the lovely @jennalyns).
We had a bottle of the 2007 Pacific Rim dry Riesling with the appetizers / before dinner. It was nice and light, easy to sip. Not a lot to it, but then again, it's a Riesling. Not bad. Beautiful bottle / label.
The main dinner wine was good, but not stellar. I expected it to be great. It's a 2005 Novelli Sagrantino di Montefalco. I really like this grape in general, but I haven't had luck with producers other than Arnaldo Caprai, so I'm going to stick to him from now on. His higher prices are apparently justified.
This wine was lush and smooth, no tannins. But it lacked depth and finish. Really kind of disappointing.
Finally, with dessert, we had a 2007 late-harvest Riesling from Rheingau, the Edition Maximillian. I wanted a mellower, less sweet, dessert wine than what we usually serve. This was a wine we had at Meritage once with a tasting menu, and really liked it.
It's a tricky match, though: the brownies were awesome but too rich for it, we didn't try cheese (could have been really good, depending on the cheese), and the grapes were reasonable.
Overall, it was a fun evening with good friends and good conversation. The wines were decent, but I was hoping the Sagrantino would be amazing.
