Today, I visited Busch Gardens, Williamsburg with my family. On the side of rollercoasters and amazing food, Busch Gardens has fantastic wines from across the world. The three regions that were accentuated were France, Germany, and Italy. Today in each of the wine tastings, the people pouring the wines told stories about the regions the wines were from and helped boost my thirst for knowledge about wine!
France:
Starting with the left of the whites from France is Francois Montand Demi-Sec Ice Edition. This wine isnt an ice wine, but when you add ice to it, itll enhance the flavor. This sparking blend is immensely fruit forward and will put you in the mood to drink more wine! I would place this wine at a 10/10 and I came back later in the day to drink more!
The second wine is Cote Est Catalan. This wine has a variety of flavors. My family described it as Orange, Grapefruit, and Lemon. This drink is a solid 7/10.
Third white wine from France is Saint Veran 2020. This wine gives a crisp apple, lemon-water, pearish flavor. It is incredibly refreshing and I gave it an 8/10
The next wine we tried came from the red side of the table (the last two wines from the white were dessert wines and were tried later). The first of the reds was Figuiere Mediterranee Rose. This wine slapped me in the face with strawberry and tannins. It also presented a green apple background, but due to the strength of the tannins, my mouth was extremely dry and I felt like I needed to drink water afterwards. I gave this wine a 7/10.
The next red wine was a Pinot Noir from Bourgogne. This wine presented a smoky cherry flavor and unfortunately I didnt write down a rating for this wine. As I can remember, this wine was light bodied and was easy to drink. This rating is several hours after the tasting and after 13 different wines, but I believe that I wouldve placed this wine at a 7/10
3rd red wine from France. is a Saint Cosme. This wine gives full blackberry and black currant. The wine also coats your mouth and leaves a beautiful aftertaste. 8/10
The final red wine from France is Chateau Peyrat, Graves. This full body red is extremely dry, but gives a strong chocolate, cherry, and oak flavor. Once again, I forgot to give a rating, but my sister especially loved this one and went back for seconds. because of this, Ill have to give this wine a 9/10.
Going back to the whites, the Emotions De La Tour is an especially interesting wine. This story immediately captured my interest and stuck with me after drinking an entire day. As the sommelier told it, there are three ways to make an especially sweet wine. You can leave it on the vine for when winter comes and itll shrivel up and leave all of the concentrated sugar, grape juice. You can add it afterwards. Or you can do a third, riskier maneuver and expose the grape to botrytis," noble rot" for a short time. This was absolutely astonishing to me after completing a lecture where if the grape had botrytis the grape was thrown out. In this wine that I tried, the botrytis had extracted some of the juice from the berry and left an extremely concentrated juice in the center of the grape. When trying this wine, it was extremely sweet. It tasted like an ice wine. I felt like there was a hint of a moldy taste that was covered up by caramel and sugar, but it could've also been my mind playing tricks on me. 10/10
The last french wine was an Avive White Peach Spritz. Normally I'd expect a fake peach flavor that I normally get with tart foods, but this wine tasted almost identical to a homemade peach cobbler. Delicious all the way through. 10/10
Germany: Red Wines
Unfortunately, in Germany I only got to try the red wine palate side, but I'm going back on Friday to try and get the white side. The first was Fitz Riesling Sekt. This white wine had a sharp apple flavor and was extremely dry. The server said that this wine would pair amazingly with fried chicken and Id have to agree. This wine cut through all of the grease that was on my tongue after eating a pretzel with beer cheese. 8/10
This Pratsch Rose was unfortunately made from the zweigelt grape. It had amazing flavor, but the server there told a story about how the zweigelt grapewas used by a nazi scientist to make wine to fund his research. BACK TO THE WINE, this wine had a crisp orange, apple flavor. 7/10
This Pinot Noir had notes of a dry cherry, but had a light enough body to where it was easily drinkable 7/10
This wine is just like the Rose two pictures up, but in this wine the skins were left to soak in the wine for longer. The flavor profile was drastically different and changed into a cherry, blackberry, extremely high tannins, with a slight orange flavor to remind you that this is the same grape as the Rose.
Italian:
These wines were the most diverse in their flavors.
I started with the Zardetto Prosecco. This sparkling wine tasted strongly of pear and cinnamon. after drinking the tasting, my sister ordered limoncello and mixed it with this wine and it turned into a fruity lemonade. It tasted amazing and I highly recommend it. 9/10
The Suave Classico tasted of a strong crisp apple and pear. and unfortunately at this time the wine started hitting me and I lost some of the descriptors due to getting lost in the moment. 8/10
Zenato Pinot Grigio: This was a light green apple with pear and lemon. 7/10
Lugana, Ian Benedetto: This refreshing drink was definitely less acidic and had a tart apple taste but was definitely refreshing! 6/10
La Valentina: This citric drink tasted of a sharp pear and tangerine 7/10
Giuseppe Cortese:This first red wine threw me off of the fruity trail completely. I was hit with a smoky, earthy, woody, grilled flavor that would be amazing with barbeque. unfortunately, I couldnt see myself drinking more than the half glass pour. 5/10
Palladio Chianti: This dry red had the sandpapery mouthfeel afterwards, but tasted of pepper, blackberry, and cherry. 6/10
Avignonesi Cantaloro Toscana: This was the driest red wine, but it didnt taste as dry as the last one. It was extremely smooth and tasted of blackberry.8/10
La doria Moscato: This dessert wine was an extremely sweet, bubbly pear, tart orange, light bodied drink with a sense of lemon. 9/10.
Overall all of these wine tastings were fantastic and the people serving the wine were extremely happy that we wanted to learn about wine. It made for a fantastic experience and an amazing day!
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