Petit Verdot - Red Wine Grape Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Petit Verdot - Red Wine Grape - Essay Example The distinct nature of this wine is its inherently tart taste. This is of course the direct result of the high levels of tannin that are represented within the fruit itself. As a function of the fact that the wine is red, a large component of the color as well as the taste is concentric upon the level to which the grape skin itself is involved in the process of creating the juice which will in turn be fermented (Cejudo-Bastante et al 2011). Likewise, as tannin usually specifically resides within the skin of the grape, a process that is heavily intensive on using the skins to differentiate the wine will likely lead to a darker and more tart rendition of the wine as compared to a process that does not extensively uses these tannin-laden skins (Bird 2011). Although many authors belabor the point with regards to tannin, complaining that too much causes a bitter and or unpalatable wine, this is not the case with petit verdot, as experienced by this author. Although the bottle that was sam pled exhibited a distinctly bitter aftertaste; however, this was not so much the case that a meaty food paring such as veal or a type of gamey fowl could not easily compliment this (Herdenstam et al 2001). Critics have claimed that the wine exhibits elements of flavor similar to an aged leather, banana chips, and/or pencil shavings. The personal experience of this author noticed that of these three distinct tastes, that of pencil shavings mixed with a distinctly floral aftertaste was what most defined the wine when sampled by itself. Having done a fair amount of research into this specific wine prior to actually buying a bottle to sample, I had come to the realization that the best food combinations would be concentric around very earthy and hearty standard fare as a way to counteract the nature of this particular wine. It is necessary to note that although petit verdot is a particular type of grape, it is almost always used as a way to differentiate a certain way (Martinez-Gil et a l 2012). In other words, elements of petit verdot are often added to a given wine as a way to give a more full body and varied or nuanced taste. Alternatively, fire scorched and grilled foods also help to differentiate the taste of the food when paired with petit verdot. Due to the particular nature of the fruit itself, it is amenable to being used in this complimentary way due to the fact that by itself it would likely be considered to be too tart for normal consumption and individual food pairings. What is equally interesting about this particular wine is the fact that due to the fact that it is neither widely known nor popular, food parings is not an issue that has been fully developed as compared to other much more popular and well known varieties. It was precisely this approach that this author has chosen to take with respect to pairing the wine with the best available food. As a way to enhance the experience, this author set out to cook a meal that would help to bring out the well-balanced nature of the wine as opposed to many of the more harsh attributes that many wine critics seem so oddly fixated upon (MacNeil 2001). In this way, a meal was prepared that featured grilled duck filets along with a medley of seasoned vegetables with grilled corn prepared on the same grill as the