Taste Level
*This post is sponsored by Ribera del Duero Wine. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own, as always. ;)
Mike and I have been together for almost 7 years. In that time, our taste levels have grown an incredible amount! Thankfully, together. Our interior design preferences changed from Modern Industrial to Mid-century Modern, and now we're into some sort of hybrid between Mid-century and cozy-mountain-cabin.
We dress more and more alike every day (made worse by the fact that he wears most of my clothes) and over the years we have broadened each other's food palettes! When we met, he wouldn't eat anything from the sea and I wouldn't eat mushrooms, mustard and hot sauce. But now a-days we're chowing down on all of that! There's still a few exceptions... but we're working on them.
I think the biggest area we have changed though is our preference in wine. Seven years ago we didn't know a thing about wine. We ordered wine based on what our parents drank. Over the years we developed a palette and have narrowed in on what we both really love.
And lord knows we put in the leg work to find it out!
We are huge fans of Sauvignon Blancs and Rosés from around the world. When it comes to red wine, we are all about Spanish wines. We drink Cabernet Sauvignons and Pinot Noirs, but we recently have been hooked on Tempranillo wines from the Spanish wine region of Ribera del Duero. They're super versatile, so they pair with all kinds of different food, from steak to salad.
In the last three weeks, we have tried Tempranillos from three different vintages (16', 15' and 14') and I found the older the wine, the more complex the flavors. They age the wine in oak barrels, so the longer it's left to age, the richer the wine gets. They're spicy, dark and almost smoky.
We have been staying in and cooking more and more (trying to stay healthy), so we paired our garlic lemon chicken and rainbow carrots with this Convento San Francisco Roble wine. It goes great with steak or heartier meals, but I liked how it played off the earthy elements in our dinner.
If you're in the market for a new wine, I highly suggest trying Convento San Francisco Roble or Vina Gormaz Tempranillo. You can find wine from Ribera del Duero at your local wine store. Just look for the Ribera del Duero Tempranillo logo on the back of the bottle. You can also find it on wine.com! There's a huge range of affordable wines from Ribera del Duero that are perfect for a quiet date night at home.
What kind of wines are you guys drinking? Let me know in the comments below!
