LightCatcher Winery: The Tasting

LightCatcher Winery: The Tasting – Sangria Summer Port

Caris and I got to talking about how wine should be fun. Sometimes wine writers get hung up focusing mostly on dry wines like Cabernets and Chardonnays that get high accolades. Caris has definitely created a serious red wine portfolio that can go up against the best as evidenced by LightCatcher’s success in major competitions like the Houston Rodeo Wine Competition and the Lead Steer Award from the Texas’ Best Competition. She has also found success getting her wines into first class restaurants like Del Frisco’s Steakhouse in Fort Worth where carnivores eat rare steaks (and other stuff) and only drink the best red wines.

Well, Caris said that if I wanted a great fun wine that I should try LightCatcher Sangria Summer Port. The Summer Port is a blend of LightCatcher Cabernet and Merlot that has been infused with white peaches, nectarines and apples, and fortified with brandy. $32

After tasting it, I believe that the only words that can come close to an adequate description are simply……”Sweetly Succulent!”

The LightCatcher Sangria Port wine is mildly sweet but the sweetness is paired well with a kiss of acidity to keep the wine bright on the palate, sip after sip. The weighty Cab/Merlot fruit carry the peach-laden, fruit salad aromas and flavors. It provides the “Full Monty” of fruit, flavor and fun. 

The fun in this wine is obviously the palate-popping flavor, but it also comes through in the number of ways you can serve the Sangria Summer Port.

1. Drink it neat at room temperature as you do with most Port wines.

2. It even works paired with Stilton cheese and figs; smoked white cheddar and Fuji apples also works).

3. Serve it chilled for sipping on a hot day.

4. Pour it over crushed ice with a slice of lime hanging on the glass while you kick back on the patio or your favorite chair.

5. Combine it with just about any citrus or tropical fruit juice.

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LightCatcher Winery also has a compliment of premium red and white wines crafted for your drinking pleasure:

LightCatcher Red Wines
 
LightCatcher 2003 Merlot
Newsom Vineyard • Texas High Plains Appellation (Triple medal winner). The first Texas wine in over seven years to be selected for the wine list at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House in Fort Worth. $36
 
LightCatcher 2004 Merlot Reserve
Newsom Vineyard • Texas High Plains Appellation
Barrel aged for 35 months, this wine is concentrated and full bodied, with aromas of brown sugar and currants, and flavors of vanilla, raspberry, plum, chocolate and cherry. $32
 
LightCatcher 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
Newsom Vineyard • Texas High Plains Appellation
Texas Grand Champion & Class Champion – Houston LSR 2008 and four time medal winner. Recently selected to join our 2003 Merlot on the wine list at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House in Fort Worth. $30

LightCatcher White, Rose and Sweet Wines

2007 LightCatcher Chardonnay (Unoaked)
Texas High Plains Appellation • Canada Vineyard with 17 year old vines. $26
 
2007 LightCatcher Barrel Reserve Chardonnay
Texas High Plains Appellation • Canada Vineyard. $45
 
2007 LightCatcher Etain’s (DRY) Rose
Texas High Plains Appellation
Texas Reserve Grand Champion – Houston LSR 2008.  $18
 
LightCatcher 2005 Orange Muscat (dry)
Newsom Vineyard • Texas High Plains Appellation
Gold medal winner. This wine, one of only ten selected from all Texas wineries, was taken to Manhattan to be poured in a blind tasting for NY wine and food writers. It was put up against a world class wine, a Bott Freres Grand Cru Muscat from France, and… WON! $80

For more information on the complete range of wines from LightCatcher, go to:

http://www.lightcatcher.com/ourwines.htm