Episode 50: Gettin’ Chile With It

Episode 50: Gettin Chile With It

Spring Break ‘mini-cast’ packed with goodies about Chile, Carmenere, and some exciting upcoming events. Steph and Val share a Chilean Negroni cocktail and toast to our 50^th episode. We also peep some info about our one-year celebration in a few weeks – and you’re invited! Pour a glass, get ready to play along in our first live tasting tweet fest!

Val:  “Welcome Wine-Two-Five listeners!  Steph & I are so ridiculously stoked to be recording episode 50 in the same room today! You know, Steph – I got to drink with you on my 50th birthday AND we get to drink and podcast together for episode 50!”

Steph:  “Hey Val! I’ll totally drink to all of that and all the fun we are going to have from Episode 50 onward and throughout the rest of this year. So what are we drinking tonight?”

Val:  “We’re both drinking a Chliean Negroni – made with Chilean Pisco (a grape spirit made with Muscat – and other – grapes). Chilean Pisco is different from the more popular Peruvian pisco in that Chilean Pisco can be aged in wood. We also have a Spanish Vermouth, Campari, and some Fee Bros Orange Bitters.”

Discussion:

Steph:  “Since we’re getting ready for our tour of Chile next week we have just a few factoids about the country and wines. Chile was settled by the Spanish and they planted vines primarily for religious regions – so they’d have wines for mass. And of course this is the case with many other regions with respect to the spread of viticulture.”

Val:  “Chile is located on the west coast of South America and has 3,000 miles of coastline on one side, and is bordered by the Andes Mountains on the east.  The climate is somewhere between Bordeaux and Napa Valley, which is considered Maritime, however, all the regions have their own climates and growing conditions as well.”

Steph:  “In fact, our affiliate partner, Taste Vacations, has a tour to Chile and Argentina coming up in November 2016, and you can check it out here.

“Here are the tour highlights from the website:

• Exploring multiple wine regions in both Chile and Argentina
• Crossing the Andes by plane, with views of the continent’s highest peak (Aconcagua)
• Visiting and tasting at over a dozen wineries, including blending your own wine

Lovely upscale hotels, great food and plenty of vino

So check it out, share with your travel-junkie friends – tell them Steph & Val from Wine Two Five sent you!”

Factoid:

Val:  “In preparation for our Carménère tasting next week, I thought we should lay out some facts about this grape that is making its name in Chile, but actually got its start in the vineyards of Bordeaux! In fact, it’s rarely planted there now, and wasn’t even taught to us in on of my early classes. I walked around thinking there were only five red grapes in Bordeaux blends. There isn’t much of the grape left in Bordeaux since it was a fussy grape and after Phylloxera it wasn’t re-planted much, but a few estates still grow and use it.

“So how did it end up in Chile? Well, when Europeans were moving to South America during the 1800s, vines were brought along. In fact, many thought the Carménère grapes were Merlot – and wines were labeled as such – until 1998.”

Winoradar:

Steph:  “Oh by the way, we’ll be having our one-year anniversary soiree here in Colorado on April 16th and our listeners are invited. We can tell you the location will be in Downtown Denver at a snazzy establishment to be revealed in the following weeks. It will be a fun and appropriate celebration … ”

Val:  “… and hopefully you won’t fall off your stool like you did last night. I mean one minute you were there, and the next I heard “fa-flump” and saw a flash of red hair disappear behind the counter. We’re so glad you’re OK – my honey looked worried – as he’s used to me falling all the time.”

But yes – celebration – with bubbles – on April 16th.

Shoutouts:

Steph: “We had some lovely wines yesterday from Domaine Saint Siffrein – a Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc, 2011. This is a typical blend of Grenache blanc, Clairette, Bourboulenc, Roussanne and Picpoul.”

“Then there was that super approachable the Barton & Guestier Vouvray 2012, which is Chenin Blanc.”

Val:  “My shoutout is to Tori D. and Sherri G of the Because Wine Girls blog. They are long time friends who are both originally from – get this – Grapevine, Texas, and are obsessed with the Wine Two Five podcast! They and their friends are all about learning about wine and the blog helps them gather information and maintain their friendship over long distance and mutual love of wine. Cheers, ladies!”

#WineTwoFive Challenge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next week we’ll be doing a tasting of Carménère from Chile with Sharron from Banfi Vinters, and we already have the winesin our possession. Live tweeting will be during the actual tasting on Monday, March 28th at 1245 Eastern Daylight Time. These are the wines we will be tasting:

Concha y Toro, Casillero del Diablo, Reserva, 2014, Central Valley, Chile – 100% Carmenere

Concha y Toro, Serie Riberas, Ribera del Cachapoal, 2013, Peumo Vineyard, Cahapoal Valley, Chile  – 90% Carmenere, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon

Concha y Toro, Marques de Casa Concha, Gran Reserva, 2012, Peumo Vineyard, Cahapoal Valley, Chile – 100% Carmenere

Concha y Toro, Terrunyo, 2012, Peumo Vineyard Block 27, Cahapoal Valley, Chile – 85% Carmenere, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon

Use the hashtag #W25Carm if you have questions for Sharron about these wines or Chile.

Meanwhile …

Connect with Val on Twitter @WineGalUnboxed and on the Vino With Val FB page, and on Instagram as Vino with Val.

You can find Steph on Twitter @Albarellosoap and on the AlbarelloSoap FB page, and check out our videos on the Albarello YouTube channel!

 

Visit us on the WineTwoFive website, FB page, Twitter, Pinterest & YouTube.  You can also email us at winetwofive@gmail.com.

Also, if you love W25, please share us with your friends and online community.

We’d appreciate your feedback and please drop a review on iTunes.

Until next week:  use the #W25Challenge when you are trying new wines and drinks.

For those of you that have been with us since Episode 1 and all of our listeners, thank you for sticking with and/or joining us for Episode 50! Cheers to you!