My Wine Education » Florida

Epcot: Beer!

Michelle — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:14:30 +0000

This year we were far more impressed by the beer than by the wine. I think we tried every beer available at the various booths, particularly Germany’s biergarten and the special 15 Beers for 15 Years booth. At both booths, you could order beer flights, so trying every beer (in a much smaller pour) probably isn’t as much of an accomplishment as it sounds. The video below is Kevin with two of the tasty selection, this time from the Sam Adams-focused booth in Epcot’s “USA”.

Epcot: Dessert & Champagne

Michelle — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:13:10 +0000

My favorite booth at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival is the Dessert and Champagne booth. It always has Moet & Chandon bubbly and some interesting desserts. This year, they offered a dessert trio, meaning I didn’t have to choose between the pastries.

(Video embedded below.)

Epcot Tasting: Achaval Ferrer Winery

Michelle — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 13:45:14 +0000

We kicked off our Epcot Food & Wine Festival adventures with a special wine tasting given by Achaval Ferrer Winery of Mendoza, Argentina.

Achaval Ferrer produces low-yield wines, consistently rated in the 90+ in both Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator. They produce around 15,000 cases per year, 85% of which is exported (25% of that to the U.S.). The winery was launched 10 years ago by 5 friends and they purchased land near the Andes mountains with vines that average around 80 years old.

The winemaker takes an interesting tactic, spending more time with the wood in the barrels and in the field than worrying about the actual blends. In fact, the wine ferments in extremely warm temperatures in concrete vats for 5-6 days – other wineries take months, not days, before moving to the barrel.

We tried three wines at this tasting. Prices listed are what I call “Disney prices,” so in many cases you’ll want to drop $5-$10 from the cost of the bottle.

2009 Malbec Mendoza ($29.95): The winery specializes in Malbec. This one has a lot of big fruit on the nose, as well as violets. There are also a lot of big fruits up front on the palette. I found this wine to be a little hot, and the presenters mentioned that while it is drinkable now, it is a little young. Lay it down for at least a year, I think, and some of that alcohol hotness will burn off (14.5% abv). My rating:

2008 Quimera ($54.95): This blend is named for the mythical beast Chimera, which is a blend of different animals. This wine includes 40% malbec, 22% merlot, 20% cabernet sauvignon, 14% cabernet franc, and 4% petit verdot. Interestingly, the winemaker chose to blend this wine right after picking – no fermenting first. The petit verdot and the cabernet sauvignon lended a lot of structure to this wine, as well as a long finish. The middle of the palate though was all malbec. This wasn’t my kind of wine – the fruit was just too big and I still felt like it was a little too hot for me. But if you love the big fruit monsters, you’ll enjoy the Quimera. My rating:

2007 Finca Mirador ($142.95): The Finca Mirador is one of three separate single vineyard wines produced by Achaval Ferrer. Each one of these showcases malbec from a specific elevation, really emphasizing altitude, terroir, and soil. The Finca Mirador Malbec is grown at 2400 feet, and the other two single vineyard wines are grown at even higher elevations. This wine is pricey, but it tastes like it. I loved it. There was a lot of “dirt” in this wine, with dried cherries and dried fruits. There was a lot of complexity and structure to this wine, reminding me of a really wonderful bordeaux. My rating:

Achaval Ferrer is imported by TGIC. The rep was pretty sure you can pick it up at either The Party Source or Cork n Bottle.

Portobello at Downtown Disney

Kevin — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:06:44 +0000

We’re in Disney!

Ahead of the Disney Epcot Food and Wine festival, Michelle and I stopped for dinner at Portobello in Downtown Disney. The past few years, we’ve kicked off our trip with Irish pub Raglan Road, but we decided to switch things up a little.

Eating at the bar allows for a choice of 4 different speciality meatballs. The beef, pork, or chicken meatballs are 1.95 each add a dollar for the salmon. You can also get a selection of 3 for 5.00 (6.00 if you pick salmon). Each type of meat is paired with a single spice to drive the pairing: Chicken with Sage, Salmon with Tarragon. My favorites were the spicy pork and beef meatballs, while Michelle enjoyed the chicken.

I was also able to try two beers from Orlando Brewing which is an organic brewery located not surprisingly in Orlando. I started with the EPA (English Pale Ale) which had a fantasic amount of malt to help balance the hops. There was almost a caramel flavor at the end right before the bitterness came in. It was a nice and round flavored beer that went really well with the Spicy Pork and Beef meatballs. The sage and the hops didn’t match as well.

For dessert, I tried a bottle of the Blackwater Porter, also from Orlando Brewing. Nice rich coffe flavor and a deeper color than I expected in a porter. The flavor was nice and paired well with one of the signature desserts, the Beerimisu. Michelle ordered this in order to keep her streak of trying Tiramisu deserts as often as possible.

Instead of an expresso, they added the same porter that I tried in order to get the roasted coffee flavor. It was a great switch that had us wondering if we could switch our tiramisu recipe at home to use a stout or porter. Nice and creamy with the light hint of coffee that Michelle prefers.

A great time the first night at the Meatball bar at Portobello in Downtown Disney.

Your Requests for Key West?

Michelle — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:08:05 +0000

As I mentioned, a week or so ago I did a coast-to-coast run of the country, from Seattle to Orlando. April doesn’t look much better for staying home, as my business is taking me to Baltimore, West Virginia, and Miami.

I have no complaints at all about Miami. In fact, I’m taking the Miami trip (starting this Thursday) and extending it into a couple of quiet days in Key West. Now, while Key West does have wine bars, it’s not exactly known for its wine. Is there anything in particular that you, my readers, would like me to hunt down while I’m in the southernmost place in our country? Anything Key-West-related that you’d like me to write about? Let me know in the comments (or via email, of course).

Cheers!

Captain Tony’s Amber Ale

Michelle — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:10:03 +0000

I’m not much of a beer drinker. Kevin and the Hoperatives would all tell you I like the wheat-y girly beers. But I did quite well with the Captain Tony’s Amber at Captain Tony’s Saloon in Key West. If you’re mulling the phrase “Captain Tony” around in your head, wondering why you’ve heard of it, the good Captain stars in the Jimmy Buffett song Last Mango in Paris. The video below is a mostly me, with Kevin chiming in because I don’t really trust myself to review beer. (Yeah, I know. I need to get over it.)

Key Lime Pie on a Stick

Michelle — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:33:17 +0000

This has nothing to do with wine. But when we were in Key West over the holidays, I had some Key Lime Pie on a stick, dipped in Belgian chocolate. Now, longtime readers know that dessert is my favorite part of every meal. This was pretty much a dessert I ate for breakfast. Nothing can compare, so I thought I would share with you. Well, I’m sharing the video; I can’t share the Key Lime Pie – I ate it.

The Southernmost Microbrewery: Kelly’s Caribbean

Kevin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:07:33 +0000

It’s Kevin, once again filling in while Michelle is at CES.

We spent Christmas week in southern Florida, with several days in Key West. While we were there, Michelle got a tweet from the Hoperatives suggesting we visit Kelly’s Caribbean. Turns out, Kelly’s is a microbrewery. Like anything in Key West, they are the “southernmost” in the US.

Below you’ll find a video of me reviewing the three beers they had available.

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