In my efforts to try to drink more red wine, I went to the grocery store a couple of weeks ago and just hit the wine aisle with absolutely no preparation, which is very unlike me. All I knew was that I was looking for something reasonably priced and interesting. I wandered around for awhile until I saw a random sale rack with wines from Cupcake Vineyard. “Cupcake”? They had me.
Looking through the different wines, I found one called “Red Velvet.” I love red velvet cake, so I decided to take a chance on it. When I got home, I looked up the Tasting Notes on the Cupcake Vineyards website. It’s actually a red blend with Zinfandel as a base. You can expect subtle chocolate flavors, red and blackberry fruits, and a hint of coconut. They suggest pairing it with something rich like Hoisin steak, a barbecue bacon cheese burger, or dark chocolate fondue.
Since this was my evening treat, I chose to pair it with dark chocolate. Red wine and dark chocolate is one of my favorite pairings anyway. As I have been doing wine club reviews lately, I have been learning a lot more about the way that the right pairing really brings out the best flavors in the wines.
I settled into the bath with a block of dark chocolate, a glass of the Cupcake Red Velvet wine, and a new book. It was heavenly! The wine was definitely heavier than the wines that I usually drink, but not in a bad way. In fact, my husband and I usually drink a full bottle of white wine on Saturday nights but ended up being satisfied with only half of this bottle. Great news because it meant that we got to drink the other half of the bottle the next night!
I wondered if it might have just been the novelty of trying a new wine that made me like this one so much. The next weekend I had my husband get another bottle of the exact same. I paired it with a chocolate cupcake from our local bakery as a treat for running 10 miles earlier that day. I loved the wine again!
The Cupcake Vineyards Red Velvet Wine is now getting added into our permanent rotation. However, because most of my friends prefer white wine, I am also going to pick up a couple of bottles of the Cupcake Vineyards Angel Food wine and give that a try. Look for Cupcake Vineyards wines at your local liquor store or grocery store.
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