Wine Club Red Wonderful @winc

I still love a good red blend. A good blend will bring out the best of the grapes used. This red blend Wonderful was really nice, and more so on the 2nd day with a little O2 to round out the flavors. [I kind of wish I had saved this for the wine & Girl Scout cookie pairing as it was pretty good with the Peanut Butter Sandwich cookie!]

A smooth, deep red blend. Hints of strawberry. A nice jammy blend. This could become my next go-to jammy wine

Wine Club 2nd Selection @winc

Sometimes, the occasion calls for a sparkling wine to celebrate something awesome. And sometimes you just want a sparking wine just because. I was excited to see a sparkling wine in my first Winc selections as it's always nice to have a sparkling wine just for that 2nd reason.

I must admit that I'm no longer intimidated by a sparkling wine cork and I think I'm getting pretty good at getting that nice "Pop" without wine going everywhere. This is the 2015 WKND Chenin Blanc. When I first popped the cork, I got strong grapefruit flavor. As it sat a bit, banana and pineapple joined the flavor profile. The bubbles are awesome: long-lasting and great mouth-feel. A nice long finish. This is a Prosecco-style American wine.

This is a nice wine, but a little tart with the strong grapefruit start. As I'm not a fan of grapefruit (I've tried, I've tried, but I just haven't found a way to enjoy that particular tart), I'm not sure this would make it back on my list of choices in the club. I will be looking for another sparkling WKND in my next selections.

First Wine Club Wine @winc

I joined an online wine club (Club Wine)! More about that later.

This is the first wine, Passarola Vinho Bronco (see a review from Club Wine here). We had salmon tonight and I thought it would be a good match. This is a light, semi-sweet white, hints of white peach, grapefruit & lemon. It's been a while since I've had wine from Portugal and I am really enjoying this wine. I think this could be a great deck wine, something light to enjoy on a warm summer's day!

Girl Scout Cookie Pairing #2

When I started thinking about doing this pairing, I thought shortbread would be easiest: a nice buttery Chardonnay seemed the obvious choice. And while that is a good pairing, I saw a recommendation to pair with a sparkling white. I chose Cupcake's Moscato d'Asti.  While very sweet, pairing with the Shortbread takes a bit of the edge off the sweetness. It brought out the peachy flavor to the sparkling wine that was nice, not too overbearing. The sparkling added some fun to the shortbread.

I'm thinking this could be made into a fun dessert with fresh peaches!