Reijosfood

What a great wine tasting experience and without booking in advance! And odd dialog in the background while tasting wines.

Boutique hotel Yöpuu & Restaurant Pöllöwaari are located in Jyväskylä and provide quite unique hotel-restaurant combination. All 26 hotel rooms are individual and every room is decorated with its own personal style. Names of the rooms tell about style; like Marimekko, Aalto, Hemingway and Jugend.

Visited Winebar which offers a possibility to have a wine tasting with an iPad and without reservation. The tasting begins from tasting technique and continues to characteristics of wine. The price of the tasting is 20 € per person and it includes 8 cl of 3 different wines. However, machine did not beat the waiter as he professionally described wineyards, grapes and tasted 3 red and 3 white wines. And I think 8 cl per wine was just an rough guidance 🙂

Tasting started from lighter wines and ended up to full-bodied wines.

White wines tasted:

Roero Arneis from Matteo Correggia – grape Arneis (Italy). Unknown grape for us but definately has more bouquet than Pinot Grigio’s. (4-/5)

Te Muna Road wineyard Savignon Blanc 2011 from Craggy Range – grape Savignon Blanc (New Zealand). Typical aroma of grape but did not taste too much for black currant leaves. (3+/5)

2011 Estate Chardonnay from Ridge wineyards – grape Chardonnay (USA). Typical aroma of grape and some butter in flavor. (3,5/5)

Red wines tasted:

Pinot Noir from Becker Family – grape Pinot Noir (German). Stronger and darker than typical grape. (4+/5)

Baron Louis 2009 from Chateau de Montfaucon – grapes Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Carignan, Mourvedre (French). Excellent ensable of grapes, full-bodied aroma and soft taste. (4,5/5)

Ridge 2009 Geyserville from Ridge wineyards – grapes Zinfandel 78%, Carignane 16%, Petite Sirah 4% (USA). Pleasant surprise for Zinfandel but maybe other grapes supplemented well. (5-/5)

My favourite was Ridge 2009 Geyserville as it had enough character. However, as Chateau de Montfaucon has Finnish hostess, would also rank Baron Louis high.

You can also order small bites from short menu and we decided to taste SLICE’s OF CHEESE chef’s marmalade, thin crispy bread. Goat cheese, white cheese and swiss gryerere suited well with red wines but for white wines of course not perfectly.

Winebar is quite unique in Finland and especially outside of Helsinki. It is really difficult to find such a place you can drop by without reservation. 20€’s for tasting 3 different wines and getting excellent service is unexpensive. Next time have to dine at restaurant Pöllöwaari because it is also quite famous.

Quite odd happened in the background while we tasted wines. Man dressed in orange clothes (yes, orange jacket and trousers) told to one of the Pöllöwaari waitresses, while interviewing her about the menu’s, that he writes blogs to one afternoon newspaper and intended to write about the restaurant. What did he expect; free meal or drinks in order to write positively? If he really was restaurant critic why tell beforehand about it?

REVIEW: SERVICE 5-/5 – OVERALL GRADE 5-/5

PS. Yöpuu = Perch and Pöllöwaari = Owl grandaddy in English; not so easy to translate

http://www.hotelliyopuu.fi/en/4/2/Winebar