If you are a regular wine drinker and haven't had a wine by Chateau Ste Michelle, you've at least heard of them. With Vee out with her mother for the night, I was only cooking for one and the camper in me was craving for my favorite cold weather camp fire dinner: meat, potatoes and onions.
We had some left over wines in the fridge from our party over the weekend and I was excited to discover we had some Chateau Ste Michelle Cab left, because I couldn't think of a better match.
I think I may have to update my favorites list once again, because I forgot how good this cab was. It had hints of dark fruits, subtle spice and a full body. The wine wasn't particularly dry, which I enjoyed and it wasn't too acidic either.
Because this wine is so approachable I would recommend it for any dinner party where you need to serve a red wine, but don't know everyones' preferred tastes. I think this wine has a classy taste for a wine under $20.
Chateau Ste Michelle: Cabernet Sauvignon
Wines worst enemy.... CORK!
Have you ever had a bad bottle of wine and suffered through it because you were sure it was YOU and not the WINE? well there's a pretty good chance your taste buds weren't deceiving you. You and your wine may have fallen victim to CORK TAINT! BLECH! The real downer is our assumption that perhaps it was the type of wine, or the winery that failed you and then you cross them off your list forever.
So after a bit of good ole wiki-research we've nailed down the culprit of icky cork taint: a bacteria called Trichloroanisole (TCA). Imagine this, except for with an angry face:
TCA has an odor that is often described as moldy newspaper, wet dog, or damp basement. Because the bacteria manifests after the wine has been bottled, aged and opened the distaste and stinkiness may range from anything to your wine tasting or smelling a little "off" to being totally undrinkable (as a note, TCA is completely harmless, just a downer). TCA is also known for muting the aromas of the wine- the bastard.
So why must we winos suffer through the risk of bad tasting wine? Well...we don't really have to. its just as simple as considering cork a thing of the past...
But thats opening another conversation entirely. I'm gonna save the great debate of corks vs screwtops/synthetic stoppers for another day. Until then may your wine be taint free!
