Today's wine is Arrington Vineyard's Antebellum Red. Two of the things I find fascinating about this winery are A) their tasting notes, which are pretty spot on, IMO. and B) how much the flavor of their wines reminds me of other beverages. Like REALLY reminds me of other beverages!
Antebelllum is aged in whiskey barrels, which always imparts really interesting scents and flavors. The color is almost a russet red, very opaque with good legs.I detected strong leather, tobacco and spice notes on the nose.
The taste was reminiscent of the kind of spiced wines I like to drink warm in the winter months. Drinking it at room temperature and without the actual spices, just that smoky, whiskey barrel oakiness was intriguing. This is the kind of wine I could imagine Adam Sasso (Oberon, books three, five, seven and eight) producing at his winery in an attempt to keep Siobhan Quinn from ruining (ie mulling) his wine for the holidays.
There was an elusive flavor that I couldn't quite identify, very fruit forward, oddly familiar, ALMOST sweet, but not. THEN I read the tasting notes and they mentioned cherry cola and yeah. Spot on, again.
I don't drink cherry cola--or any soda, really. It's not my thing. Other than Topo Chico, which I could happily mainline in the summers here. And I certainly NEVER looked for it in wine, but it's honestly very interesting.
This wine is made with grapes grown in Washington and Tennessee--some of them actually at Arrington. I always love that for the terroir effect. One of the grapes is a "new" grape called "Enchantment" which...don't get me started. Nevada does that too, and it's like inventing new cacao flavors (they do that too, God help us) and...can we just not? I know. I'm weirdly rigid and traditional about some things.
ANYWAY...I would pair this with apple pie--not a food I would previously thought to pair with wine, especially a non-sweet red wine--but there you go.
This strikes me as being a very Autumnal wine...possibly because the book I'm currently working on is set in the fall? Or maybe it's just the oak and spices.
The tasting notes suggest pairing it with things like steak and smoked meats, which I personally don't see. Dark chocolate? I mean...possibly? But no, not really. Give the apple pie some thought, though. Because I bet that combo would be really delicious.
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