Two Woodbridge Robert Mondavi Wines

2013 California Chardonnay
and
2013 California Pinot Grigio
According to winemag.com, they scored 84 and 83, respectively.

I bought these wines purely because it was on sale and I know the name Robert Mondavi name from when I worked in the bar. They were both on sale for $7 bucks a piece so I figured why not make my first wine purchase for class.

I started with the Chardonnay, I paired the lightly chilled chardonnay with a perfectly prepared frozen microwaveable cheeseburger. The delectable fresh poppy seed bun really complimented the rich oak hints of the wine. Well that was how I imagined it, or at least something better than what I experienced. I recruited the help of my roommate to try and figure out what we should be smelling and tasting. The only thing we were able to come up with was "I smell fruit, what about you?". After doing some research online about the wine we learned that it had a citrus and floral scent to it, the taste had the citrus taste but also sugary and bitter. The citrus seemed powerful and the sweetness was trying to cover it up but seemed as if someone didn't read the recipe right and didn't put enough sugar in. Not a solid first wine taste test.

Next up was the Pinot Grigio, we rinsed out our wine glasses, dried them and started over. The Pinot Grigio had a light yellow color like the chardonnay but had a more green secondary color. It smelled very similar to the previous Robert Mondavi, but had a different smell at the same time. The taste was once again very familiar, but had the right amount of sweetness to cover the bitterness of the the citrus taste and balanced it quite nicely. The aftertaste was very refreshing and made me want to drink more. The more I drank the more I seemed to enjoy the wine, before I knew it we were pouring a 2nd glass. With each passing sip the wine seemed to just flow down my throat with more ease with each sip. It reminded me of a beer, in the sense that I could just keep drinking it without thinking about it. And not before long I forgot I was even drinking wine haha. I've got two bottles of Yellow Tail that were also purchased on sale that are up next on the taste test!

My newly established wine blog and experience with wine.

I have never been a wine drinker in my 21 years on this planet. I am mainly a beer and occasional shot guy, and you will never see me reach for a glass of wine. You can catch me drinking champagne before wine (although technically champagne is wine). I know nothing about wine except red wine tastes one way and white wine tastes another way. My mother and family drink wine and I'm not really sure why I never gave wine a fighting chance to grab at my taste buds. I took the World Regions class with Professor Boyer last semester and he mentioned that he taught a geography of wine class. Sure enough when I was scrolling through the elective classes I saw it and immediately signed up, so I decided I would give the wine class a shot to broaden my wine horizon.

Wine always reminded me of old people when I was growing up, therefore never really thought much of it. That was until I started working behind the bar at Catch 31 at the bottom of the Hilton in Virginia Beach. I was a barback for 2 years, constantly stocking all sorts of juices, liquors, beers, and of course wines. We had a wine room with hundreds of bottles with a shelf value of hundreds of dollars themselves. I was constantly around nice bottles of wine and knowledgeable people but if you work at the busiest bar in the state of Virginia, there's never a moment of free time to learn about wine from your co-workers.

I want to learn how to distinguish different wines from one another and how to taste and smell wine properly because they all smell and taste very similar to me, but granted my sample of wines that I have tasted is very small. I am very knowledgeable of different types of liquor, beer, and wine of my time working in the bar, but of the three, wine is the one I know the least about. So this semester I intend to increase my knowledge of wine and how to talk about it to make me seem more... Smart!