Drink This Now: Lesson 1 Report

Yesterday, three of my friends and I got together and completed the Drink this Now Lesson 1. We purchased bottles of the Chateau de Segries Cotes du Rhone 2015. We were also recommended at the Vintage Cellar to buy parmesan cheese to pair with this wine and also purchased salami and pepperoni to along with it. Once we had our supplies, we tried the wine after freshly opening and waiting for two hours and with the cheese and meat and recorded our observations.

Step 1: We opened the bottled and tasted it immediately and recorded our observations:

Name: Chateau de Segries Cotes du Rhone 2015
Variety: 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Cinsault, 10% Carignan
Region: Côtes-du-Rhône
Country: France
Year: 2015
Price: $11

Wine Review: The wine is ripe, rich and round, with black raspberry, white pepper and spice flavors. Good concentration and acidity. A true Cotes du Rhone in a Bistro style.

My Review: Bouquet of oak and slightly fruity with hints of raspberry and darker cherries. Tastes jammy with a slight, spicy finish. Medium bodied, very well-balanced, with slight tannins.


Step 2: Taste the wine again after opening it and letting it sit for 2 hours:
After leaving the wine open for 2 hours, I immediately noticed it tasted more herbal and earthy than after freshly opening it. It also tasted less fruity with about the same amount of spiciness but did not come off as tannic and had a smoother finish.

Step 3: Try the wine with cheese:
After taking a chunk of the parmesan and eating it, the bouquet of the wine remained the same but we all noticed how the wine tasted much less dry and more fruity. The cherry flavors popped out more and we tasted less of the tannic dry flavor but more of the fruity characteristics. We also tried it with sharp cheddar cheese, and it did not pair as well as the parmesan did. The parmesan with the wine was excellent!

Step 4: Try the wine with meat:
Now, we tried the wine with the salami and pepperoni which made the wine have a much more spicy aftertaste. It tasted also slightly more oaky and herbal and the spicy pepperoni made the wine taste extra spicy. We also ventured to try the salami, parmesan, and wine together by wrapping the meat around a chunk of cheese. This was interesting because it allowed the wine's fruity and spicy flavors to come out together.

Step 5: Let the wine sit open overnight:
We left some wine sitting in the bottle overnight and tried it again the next day. It tasted again more herbal and not as fruity. I definitely preferred the wine after freshly opening the bottle and when we paired it with the parmesan cheese.

In conclusion, this lesson provided insight on how foods can change our taste of wine and how leaving the bottle open alters the flavors as well. In general, we discovered how this French wine tasted much better with the meat and cheese, and we were able to notice much more of the flavor when it was paired with something as opposed to drinking it by itself.