Melodramatic Monday Post

Hello and happy post-Halloween

Yes, I didn’t make a Halloween post which is a bit terrible. Or is it? Because I seem to see quite a few wannabes around Halloween touting supposed candy-pairing knowledge. I guess I felt a bit disgruntled and frankly, I didn’t want to look so unoriginal. I do this year ’round so hmph. Anyway, thanks for being my loyal followers.

Annnnd you might just question that loyalty with this pair! Blech. Blech. Blech. So who wants to get negative? Getting negative is one of my best traits, so lets hop to it!

The (Gross) Wine: Abadia de la Oliva, Granach 2012

Sailor Moon Bad Choice

The (Quite Tasty Actually) Candy: Trolli Apple O’s

The Misguided Dream:

I picked the wine first. I only have gummy candy to choose from at the moment (besides some chocolate I’m saving for a later post), so I chose the red because that is my new obsession. Ever since my red-wine gummy breakthrough, I go for the red.

Out of all my choices, I got the Apple O’s because I imagined their sweet-tartness balancing out the granacha. In my experience, a granacha is not too fruity or sweet, so I did not think the candy would throw the flavors.

The Cruel Reality:

I did not like this wine. The tannins overpower the taste buds and only the most bitter flavor notes survive (for example, an unripe blackberry…not tasty). It was like biting into something not quite ripe, like an apple that was picked too soon. My lips puckered and not in a good way. Dear manufacturers of this wine: pump the breaks on the tannins. Pump. The. Breaks.

Lovin’ the pics this round though

If we want to be technical, this pairing was good. But we are being negative! The candy mellowed out the tannins and made the wine much smoother to drink. But the candy needs to be in your mouth to help. If you swallow the candy then boom, tannins. Too many tannins. And ultimately, I don’t want to help the wines I pair….I want to enhance an already great wine! This isn’t a buddy I am helping out with math homework. I don’t owe this wine any favors! Anyway…this is getting too personal.

The Take Away:

I am going to put a little more thought into these pairs. I have this wine subscription, but I am relying too much on the wines I get through that. Instead of the exploration and the puzzle, I just grab a wine from my subscription and one of my many candies I keep around and meh….that’s not as fun! This blog and I need to go back to the early years and relearn what we loved about each other.

This got too personal again.