Saturday, May 3, 2008

Malden Library Wine Tasting

A wine tasting to raise funds for a local library? What an interesting idea and one that the Malden Public Library has been doing for the last six years. Last evening, I attended their Sixth Annual Wine Tasting which is held in conjunction with M&M Liquors of Malden.

At this tasting, there were over 55 wines available for tasting as well as plenty of food from local vendors. There was also a raffle table. Overall, the tasting seemed smaller and less interesting than last year's event. There were not as many intriguing wines and even the amount of attendees seemed less than previous years. The raffle table also seemed to be a bit downsized from previous years. Maybe an effect of the economy.

I was already familiar with many of the wines available for tasting. Most of the wines were $15 and under and if you ordered a case, you got a 10% discount. Not many of the wines sparked my interest.

Of the wines, these are what I enjoyed the most:

2006 Falcon Hill Dry Riesling ($8.99): A crisp wine with just a touch of sweetness and lots of good fruit.

2007 Gascon Malbec ($12.99): Good berry flavors with a bit of an edge.

2004 Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir ($29.99): A light red wine with more subtle fruit and a bit of spice. More Burgundian in style and a pleasure to drink. Plenty of complexity and a lingering finish.

2004 Bolla Amarone della Valpolicella ($39.99): An excellent wine with good red fruit flavors, a touch of spice and a good balance. A long finish and subtle complexities.

Graham's Six Grapes Port ($19.99): Made from six Portuguese grapes, this Port was a bit sweet but had nice berry flavors and it was not bitter at all. I did have some of this with chocolate and it made for an excellent pairing.

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