Weekly Wine Update No. 4
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Another week has come and gone, and it's time to let you know how we're doing on our #TO100wines challenge! It wasn’t a great week for the Wine Enthusiast Magazine list (as in, zero sampled), but we had a lot of fun seeking out wines at local shops and bars that are easy-to-find and also under $15. This week we sampled wine from two venues — West Orange Chamber of Commerce’s Business After Hours event held at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital and Ember in downtown Orlando.
At BAH, organizers gave the experts at Total Wine the Latin-themed menu, and Total Wine selected wines they thought would compliment the meal. The white options were La Vuelta Torrontes 2012 (retail price $9) and Famille Bougrier Vouvray Douce Chenin Blanc (retail price $12). Both were really good! And perfect for a large group where you don’t know everyone’s drinking preferences. These were both super light and slightly sweet. But the La Vuelta Torrontes was the hands-down favorite white of the evening.
Your red options were a 2009 Aspaldi Rioja Crianza, which is $13 at Total Wine, and something else that we didn't try. Sorry! But the Aspaldi Rioja Crianza was deeeeelicious! A super duper easy red blend that was perfect for the event and menu. It was obviously a crowd pleaser, because it was alllllllll gone before the evening was over.
The TodaysOrlando.com team also took a trip down Interstate 4 to Ember in downtown Orlando. It has a decent wine menu, and we sampled three of the selections, based on our server's recommendation. Kate had the Dr. Loosen Dr. L Riesling. Fun fact! This Riesling is on WE’s list, but it’s the 2011 vintage. Unfortunately, 2011 is out of stock forever, and everyone had to moved on to the 2012. Kate was a big fan though, so it looks like 2012 was also a good year.
I tried the Gouguenheim Malbec and Williams Cabernet Sauvignon. Let’s not mince words. Neither were amazing and I won’t be ordering either ever again. But Ember has some other great reds there I love, so it definitely won’t be my last visit to the Central Boulevard bar.
Our grand total is 31 wines sampled, 69 to go, 4.5 weeks to get it done. Wow, we need to step it up! Luckily next week’s update should be pretty awesome, because it’ll have all the Thanksgiving wines. Yum! Happy wining! #TO100wines