#22 – Garlic

Bottled (25) 325ml and (2) 750ml (from 3 gallons) at 17.5% on 13 July 2012.

Yes, Garlic!  Why?

Well, we were on our way back from the 2011 Burning Man and had stopped in Yakima to pick up some fruit and visit some tasting rooms.  At one of the tasting rooms, I mentioned that I make fruit wines — and got a response of “you mean you can make wine without grapes?”  I replied that you could probably make wine out of just about anything that ferments — even garlic…  And with that, the gauntlet had been thrown, and I knew what I had to do.

At the very least, I figured it’d probably be good for cooking.  Actually, it’s excellent for cooking…  I’m by no means a good cook, but I’ve made some very tasty marinades for steak and pork, and have added this wine to a Bolognese sauce for extra deliciousness.  Some of my more culinary-skilled friends have used this garlic wine in stir fry, scrambled eggs, and in a bacon carbonara (which I had the pleasure of sampling personally!)

But what was really surprising is that it’s actually quite drinkable, too!  Granted, the nose is all garlic.  But once you get past that and you get it through your lips and across your tongue…  WOW.  I remember it being kind of like a sweet chardonnay, not really tasting anything like what it smells like.  It’s a savory wine.

My mixologist friends have also suggested that garlic wine will find a home in their chosen field of study as well!  😉

I revisited my 2013 reserve bottle on 14 April 2014…  The nose is still there, although that may have mellowed a bit from what I remember.  The flavor, too, has mellowed a little bit.  Still quite sweet, but not as evocative of chardonnay as it was previously…