Ah, wine. Since its conception over 8,000 years ago, wine has been a unifying staple in papers of the human experience. Yes, the art of fermenting grapes to create the heavenly concoction of wine has enabled its consumers to accomplish so many things. For one, it helps millions of people every year muster up enough courage to go to confession. It also helps the watchability of all sporting events (although beer seems to be the master of this).
Think I’m lying? Trust me, three bottles of wine helped enabled me to watch an entire professional baseball game, and all I can really say about the experience is, “It could have been worse.” This is something that would have been impossible for me to accomplish without the wine. Granted, I’ll never do that again, but I blame that solely on the sport and not the wine.
My preference for wine consists of red, although there are some tasty whites out there. In addition to my love of red wines, my favorites are traditionally Italian, but that might have to do with me being in Italy when I first started drinking wine.
So for my first “Something to Wine About” wine I thought I’d introduce you to Querceto Chianti Classico Riserva 2003. My introduction to this wine began shortly after one of my best friends, his friend, and I finished having dinner and headed back to my place to drink, reminisce, and possibly play the Wii, because wine makes playing the Nintendo Wii more entertaining as well.
The Querceto Chianti Classico Riserva 2003 is $20-24ish a bottle. The price will vary depending on the tax your state puts on alcohol. If you enjoy Chianti’s this one is superb for the price. Some of the sentiments that either I or my friends expressed while drinking the wine were:
“Mmmmm.”
“That’s really nice.”
“What is this called again?”
“Oh no, I’ll wait until that’s all gone before I start drinking beer.”
“This wine makes my entire existence happy.”
“Damn it, it’s all gone already.”
“We really should have gotten a bottle each.”
Here is my recommendations for drinking the Querceto Chianti Classico Riserva 2003:
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The wine has some very nice berry aromas in it to, I do recommend sniffing your glass of this wine before drinking it. - Let it breath (open the bottle and let it sit for 10 to 15 min before serving, this oxygenates the wine and gives the wine a fuller flavor).
- Take a slow sip and let the wine cover your entire tongue. The initial flavor fills your entire mouth, kind of like when you take a shot of breath spray, but in a good way instead of the eye waters “oh god why do I keep spraying this stuff in my mouth” kind of way.
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Pause after your initial and all yourself to experience the wine’s finish. The finish, or lingering flavor of the wine after you swallow it, was soft and lasting, which is what I enjoyed most about this wine. Like when you eat a warm cinnamon roll out of the oven, and the flavor is warm and lingering. Even after you are done the cinnamon at the back of your throat keeps reminding you of that perfect delight as you get to experience the flavor over and over again even though it’s all gone.
On a side note, the wine bottle also makes a fabulous prop for your singer if you happen to stay up until 5 in the morning playing Rock Band with two drunken friends and one sober high school friend that you haven’t seen in about 10 to 12 years. But, that’s a different story altogether… even though it happened the same night.