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A Wine Review and a Tasting Game

The Felino Vina Cobos Malbec 2007 ($20) from Mendoza, Argentina has a really nice, crimson color, with aromas of cherries and blackberries and a hint of liquorice. It’s a meaty wine on the palette, bursting with intermingling flavors, each dancing alone briefly before merging with the whole. I taste cherries, white pepper and wild mushroom. There’s a woodsy finish, but it’s not overpowering. This Malbec is intense and complex, but the flavors fit together like a puzzle. It has a nice bitterness that's balanced out by the fruit.

Here's a fun game to play: I like to taste a wine, jot down some notes about the color, aromas, flavors and structure, then google it to find other reviews online and compare. I'm often shocked at how close my assessments agree with others. Sometimes I feel like I'm making stuff up off the top of my head, having no clue if others drinking the same wine will agree with what I'm writing. Give the taste test a shot. Swirl the wine around in the glass, stick your nose right in there and in hale. Think hard about what you just smelled, then write the aromas. Next, take a good swig and roll it over your tongue, open up a little air hole in your mouth and pull a bit of air in, without swallowing the wine. Swish it around in your mouth with the air and write down the flavors you taste. Think about fruits, wood, vegetables, mineral and herbs. And there's no reason to stop there -- sometimes even off-putting flavors can be found it great wines, such as barnyard, petrol and leather. Happy tasting.

Here's one I found after writing my review above: http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1041126.





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“A Wine Review and a Tasting Game”