Wine



I've decided to start doing Wine reviews because I like wine and I think I have a decent sense of taste.

So let's start.

Santa Rita Merlot 120 year 2005 from Valle Del Rapel Chile. I bought this from the Lotte Mart near Sillim Station in Seoul, South Korea. I bought it on sale for 15,000 won.

It's a very medium light merlot with a slightly dry after-taste. It goes down a little like blackberries and the tannins have add a slight pepperiness. I would say this would go great with a steak, but because I am a vegetarian- a nice kung pao tofu with a spicy sauce or even a nice roasted eggplant with a garlic black bean sauce. I would recommend leaving it open for a while, it gets a rounder taste.

The wine is very drinkable. I would give it 5 out of 10.
A one in my book is Korea's own Majung which tasted like drymouth with the sugary scent of Cherry Cola ((this wine always had bits of cork in it and I tried it over 3 times.

A ten is something I haven't had yet.

A nine was a wonderful 1999 Silverado Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. Maybe it was because I was a poor college student having a glass of wine with some very rich people (I can't remember who those rich people were, but I was told they were rich.) Anyway, they said the wine was very good and I remember it having a slight vanilla smoothness next to a bold cherry heat which warmed my proletarian heart and made it wish it was bourgeoisie. The juxtaposition of taste made me realize that wine wasn't all the same and have made me look over the perfect 10 ever since.

Popular posts from this blog

5 of the Best Jajangmyeon 짜장면 in the City of Seoul, Korea

Image
The Best Jajamyeon in Seoul by Daniel Gray Jajangmyeon 짜장면: Korea's favorite hand pulled noodles in an black sauce is also a favorite dish of mine. It's so famous they even have a holiday for it. It's filling and hearty like a bowl of spaghetti but with Asian flair. It's one of those dishes that you can get whenever you need a quick meal and it doesn't break the wallet. It's a pretty ubiquitous dish and every Chinese restaurant must have it. If it does it well, the place becomes famous. If it is just alright, it is just a meal and gets classed in with all of the other places in the city. I can't say I have had any seriously terrible jajangmyeons except maybe some delivery places (where the noodles are overcooked and terribly clumped together so it takes like 10 minutes to get the sauce mixed into it) but even then it is still edible. With the noodles, I love to get fried dumplings and a place is good fried dumplings or some other sides like tangsuyok
Read More, See More >>

Calories in Soju and other things I Know about Korea's Famous Swill

Image
Just in case you were wondering, one bottle of Soju contains 540 calories. That's like 4 beers. So to put it in perspective, you would need to walk about two hours to exercise it off. (Walking two hours with a soju hangover is not an easy task.) Soju originally was made from rice but whenever there were rice shortages, people were forbidden to make Soju. Alcohol producers the started to use sweet potatoes and tapioca to make an ethanol based alcohol. Overtime they doctored up the taste so it has a smooth, crisp taste that goes great with raw seafood and grilled meats. The world drinks a lot of Soju. 61.38 Million cases of soju were produced in 2012 with Korea consuming about 2.75 billion bottles of Soju a year. You would think that everyone would be falling over drunk in Korea, but this is not the case. The alcohol is only about 17-19% so a bottle won't wreck you (but two or more might.) Koreans judge how good of a drinker you are by the number of bottles o
Read More, See More >>

5 of the Best Gamjatang Restaurants in Seoul: Korean Potato and Pork Stew

Image
Seobu Gamja-guk One of the dishes that came out of necessity is gamja-tang or pork-bone potato stew. This dish has its origins from the Incheon dock area where laborers that were working in the construction wanted to have a cheap and hearty food after a long day of work. The soup consists of pork spine that is slowly cooked with potatoes and topped with sesame leaves. The result is a satisfying dish that goes great with a bowl of hot rice. This was often cooked throughout the day and then eaten at the end of the work day. This dish goes perfectly with a chilled shot of Korean soju. After the first train line was built that would connect the Incheon area with Seoul, one entrepreneur decided that he wanted to make a restaurant focused on this dish. The first restaurant of this type was built near Noryangjin station, which was near the end of the han river railway construction. The dish became a big hit and soon many copycat restaurants started popping up all over Korea. The name gam
Read More, See More >>