THE SIDELINED WINE :ROSÉ WINE

Often times, people don't talk enthusiastically about rose wine. Its like that friend you are indifferent to.You don't know whether to be happy or sad to see them. For most people, it is either white or red wine. People think of rose and they automatically think Sunday afternoon picnics and family days. Or those uneventful weekends with cousins or friends.

This is a wine that is stereotyped and sidelined and almost ignored. I have also been that person who had no regard for it. I thought that it was the wine for girls in frocks running through fields and meadows. I don't know where I got that impression. Probably from an old movie or book. This wine hovers in limbo between red and white. In hindsight, red wine is wine that has been left with the grape skins on. Theses skins are responsible for the wine colour. The more wine stays with the skins the deeper the colour. Red wine is the best because it has a lot of antioxidants.White wines have no skins included in the wine making process. Rose wine on the other hand, is wine that has had the grape skins for a few hours. I recently changed my opinion on rose wine when I tasted the Abeso Rose Frizante. I loved this wine. It tasted of pomegranates and it reminded me of the fruit.

We had a pomegranate fence when I was growing up but we never did anything with the fruits. I regret not knowing that I could have made fruit salads or grenadine. Grenadine is a common bar syrup made with pomegranate fruit and it is used to make cocktails.
 The wine was made by exposing the skins of the grapes for 5 days. It had a slightly pink colour and it was so fruity. This was a great wine and it went well with pork. I have learned to do away with the misconception that rose wine is somewhat inferior.Next time you go wine-shopping, show some love for this wine.

THE MARIE PIERRE WINETASTING POST EVENT WRAP-UP

Sunday is the countdown to reality. A few hours and we are back to the hustle and bustle of the week day job. I always love to do exciting and motivating things on Sunday because they determine the note at which my week will commence. I decided to attend a winetasting at Michael Joseph Centre in Westlands, Nairobi. The event was organized by Marie Pierre. The companies that participated in displaying their wine were El Vino and The Wineshop.

Sommelier Juan Ignacio Cambil was at the El Vino station and sommelier Geoffrey Kariuki was at the Wineshop station. What made the tasting interesting is the fact that Juan and Geoffrey were personal friends and they liaised with each other to facilitate the tasting. They displayed their wine knowledge and they collaborated in answering the myriads of questions from the throng of people in attendance.

The once lifeless wine scene is Kenya is burgeoning at an alarming rate and people are interested in knowing about the brands of wine that they consume. They want to know what wine goes with our traditional food.  When I started this blog late last year, I got like 3 views and no comments everyday but this is not the case. People are interested to know more. Someone pointed out that very few people have done a food and wine pairing for Kenyan food and this is one of the reasons very few people in Kenya appreciate wine. Well I tried to do an authentic food and wine pairing here.

Juan Cambil is a respected Somellier and an expert in his field. He displayed his mastery of wine by taking us through a detailed tasting. We tasted five exceptional wines and I will review the tasting notes in subsequent posts. I even got a new favorite wine. The wines we tasted were

• Eresma Semiduce
• Abeso White Frizante
• Abeso Rose Frizante
• Abeso Red Frizante
• Carvida Tempranillo
  

The most exciting thing is that El Vino had not stocked this wine before and it had just been shipped for the tasting. Even the Sommelier confessed that he had not had time to do small tasting earlier on. They were selling the wine at a slightly lower price than the price that it would retail for at Chandarana Supermarket and Caribana Restaurant in Lenana Road. These are the two places that you can find the brands. The Carvisda tempranillo was the best wine I have tasted in a long time and it is definitely something I am storing away for a special occasion like an anniversary, family Christmas or my birthday. It had these undertones with an aroma of molasses. It reminded me of some sweets we had while we were younger, that were made out of brown sugar.

Geoffrey  Kariuki is our very own Kenyan Somellier. I even managed to sneak a small interview with him. Keep reading the blog for his amazing story. He has a relaxed demeanor and he talks with a certain mastery and confidence that keeps people interested in the wines. He works at the Wineshop at Piedmont plaza in Ngong Road. I had done a post on the Wineshop here. We were tasting the hardy VR collection of wine. This included:

• Hardys VR chardonnay 2011
• Hardy VR Shiraz 2011
• Hardys VR Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

The shop stocks a variety of wines from different parts of the world including Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, France, Chile, Italy and South Africa.

Kevin, Geoffrey and Sanjey from the Wineshop

Also in attendance was Kamal Kaur who was the MC for the event.

 I attended the event with a friend of mine who was indifferent about wine. I had hoped that by the end of the evening she would have changed her mind about wine and I have to say I succeeded in that. Sommelier Juan Cambil said that if you are new to wine it is probably a good idea to start with white wine because the reds have potent tastes and complex intricate aromas.

My friend Kendi- new winelover

Below are photos of the guests.

Here were the bitings that accompanied the wine. Cheers!!

Cheers

Photos by Akili Black and The Wine and Food Review

WINETASTING: USING YOUR EYES

I recently took up an online wine tasting course and the things I'm learning are amazing.  There's so much to learn about wine and even the connoisseurs don’t know everything there is to know about wine. The classes are fun and Ill share some tips with you.

Wine-tasting is an art that involves the senses.

EYES

Colour

To check for wine colour one is supposed to look at the glass against a white background. This reminds me of chemistry and how we would investigate the colour of a solution using a white tile.Wine is organic and it changes over time. The more a wine ages the more the colour range and becomes mature.

Clarity

All the wines should be clear. They should not have any cloudiness or haziness.When you notice haziness the wine may not be good or it might be exposed to air. However it is okay to find sediments at the bottom of white wine. White wine sometimes gets crystals at the bottom when it ages.

Body

I was always curious why people swirl their wine glasses during wine-tasting. They do this to determine the viscosity of the wine. To determine the body, one should swirl the wine in a clean glass and then look art the drippings/ the treads left by the wine. A dry and light wine has thin legs that flow freely while a heavy wine should have thicker and solid legs.

In the next post I will share about how to use your nose when tasting wine.

Enjoy...