Today’s tasting at K&L was an “International Bubbles” tasting. My highly complex and detailed tasting notes consisted of: Good, Meh, Too Sweet. Oh – and a star next to a few of the goods for extra delish :)
1. La Caudrina La Selvatica “Asti” $19.99 (Italy) way too sweet ( I spilled mine out – yuck)
2. Latitude 50 N Sekt Trocken Weiss $14.99 (Germany) *good
3. San Venanzio Prosecco Valdobbiadene Brut $14.99* (Italy) *good (this was my favorite actually)
4. 2008 Raventós i Blanc “L’Hereu Reserva” Brut Cava Penedes $17.99 (Spain) good
5. 2008 Antech “Cuvee Eugenie” Cremant de Limoux $13.99* (France) *good
6. NV Quartz Reef “Methode Traditionelle” Sparkling Wine Brut Central Otago New Zealand (Elsewhere $29.99) $15.99 (New Zealand) meh – was OK. Husband liked a lot.
7. J Vineyards “Cuvée 20” Sparkling Wine $21.99 (CA/US) Have had before. A yummy favorite. No note was needed.
8. Ariston Aspasie Brut Rosé Champagne $32.99* (France) meh – was OK. Again, husband liked.
9. Michel Loriot “Marie-Leopold” Sec Champagne $34.99* (France) Good but didn’t love. Sweet but nowhere near as sweet as the Asti10. Henry’s Drive “Scarlet Letter” Sparkling Shiraz 10. Padthaway South Australia $16.99 (Australia) Double-meh. Spilled out and got refill on Prosecco
And look – my favorites are all the lower priced ones! That never happens to me! The ones with astericks after the prices means they are K&L Direct Imports so I knew I had to buy those if I liked them :) So I bought 2 bottles each of the Prosecco, Latitude 50 N and 2008 Antech “Cuvee Eugenie”. I can get the J Vineyards at Safeway. Actually have 2 bottles in my fridge now.
I took the bottles out of the car to put them in the drink fridge and realized I need to make more room for bubbly bottles. Oops. I am way behind on my bubbly drinking! :)
Super fun tasting. The pourer was knowledgeable but also nice and pleasant to talk to. What I like about these events is that I get to taste things that I would likely never buy. I told her (the pourer), that there is little to no chance I would have ever bought the German bubbly without a personal recommendation. “German = good bubbly” just doesn’t come to mind. So that was cool. There was a constant flow of people in the tasting room but not so crowded that it was ever uncomfortable. AND I found out the date of the Champagne Tent event in October and bought our tickets! Whew…can’t miss that! Thankfully that moved back to the Redwood City location this year. No need to drive into the cesspool of SF.
