3 TIME Family of Wines Paired with Cheese and Prosciutto

I received three wines from TIME Family of Wines over the summer, but holiday travel and other busyness kept me away from tasting these wines until now. Two are white and one is a rosé wine. I tasted the:

• Evolve Cellars Spontaneity 2020 (50% Pinot Gris, 30% Sauvignon Blanc, and 20% Ortega)
• Chronos Rosé 2020 (made from Syrah grapes)
• McWatters Collection White Meritage 2020 (55% Sauvignon Blanc and 45% Semillon)

The wines came in this beautiful gift box.  I don’t know if you can order these or other combinations of wines in this gift box, but I think it would be great for a holiday gift.

I noticed the Chronos and McWatters Collection bottles were very heavy. I’m not used to seeing bottles this heavy anymore.  Hopefully, it was a bottle supply issue caused by COVID and they will go back to lighter bottles in the next vintage release.

One thing that I did in addition to tasting these three wines was to try pairing them with a mature cheddar cheese, a Camembert cheese, and smoked prosciutto.  I will give you my pairing suggestions after my wine tasting notes.

My Wine Tasting Notes

Evolve Cellars Spontaneity 2020 (BC $21.99)

Appearance: A medium minus intensity straw colour in the glass.
Nose: Medium-plus intensity starting off with pears, oranges, other sweet citrus plus a hint of spearmint and honey. But as the wine warms up in your glass you get tropical fruit, plus lots of lychee aroma. With decanting you get less of the pear and orange aromas, and again when the wine warms up in the glass a bit, lots of lychee.
Palate: Dry, light body, and light roundness, and higher acidity that leaves a light prickle on your tongue. Ripe tropical fruit and stone fruit mix on the palate with some pepperiness toward the finish. Then if you let the wine warm up you get lychee, lime and roses!  The wine has a thicker mouthfeel after decanting.  The flavours stay the same and again if you let the wine warm up a bit, lots of lychee and roses on the palate.
Finish: A medium plus length finishing with pears, peach, some grape skin, then tropical fruit and honey at the very end. A bit puckering finish. I noted some pepperiness on the finish with decanting.

A fun wine to drink, but make sure you don’t serve it too cold, otherwise, you will miss the lovely lychee aromas and flavours.

Rating: A delightful, easy to sip wine.  Medium-plus aromas with pears and citrus to start then add tropical fruit and lychee with swirling.  This wine is dry with higher acidity that leaves a light prickle on your tongue.  Tropical fruit, stone fruit, plus lychee and roses when the wine warms up a bit.

Chronos Rosé 2020 (BC $24.99)

If you haven’t noticed, Chronos is a new label for the TIME Family of Wines.  The name “Chronos” comes after the Greek primordial god of time.  As the winery is called TIME, Chronos makes sense.  I do like the intertwined circular logo as wine goes through circular stages each year from Spring budburst, to flowering, and grape formation, Veraison in late summer, Harvest in the Fall followed by winemaking and bottling.  Then repeat.

Appearance: A bright medium intensity orangy salmon colour.
Nose: A light intensity nose with a mix of rhubarb, candied rhubarb, strawberries and red fruit flavours. Maybe also a touch of floral. Mainly rhubarb and red fruit aromas with decanting.
Palate: This wine is off-dry, round with a thicker, waxy mouthfeel. A medium acidic prickle on your tongue. Deeper flavours with red fruits primarily, with lesser amounts of candied red fruits, wild strawberries and grape stem. The acidity felt higher with decanting.  I also picked up rhubarb flavour, and there was no longer any candied fruit flavour.
Finish: A medium-plus length finishing with rhubarb, tart red fruits, and some pepperiness. There are some grape stem tannins on the finish with decanting.

Rating: – A Rosé with light aromas of rhubarb, strawberries and other red fruits.  Medium-plus body, round with a thicker waxy mouthfeel. Deeper red fruit flavours plus wild strawberries and some candied red fruit flavours upon opening. 

McWatters Collection White Meritage 2020 (BC $29.99)

Appearance: A bright medium intensity lemon with green tint in the glass.
Nose: Medium intensity aromas of nettles, toast and citrus with a hint of peaches. No change with decanting.
Palate: Dry, medium-minus body, very smooth and round. Almost silky. Mouthfilling. Toast mainly with light citrus and apple flavours, plus a hint of stone fruit. Pears identifiable with air. The wine still keeps its smooth roundness, but increases to medium body. I also add pine needles or resin to the wine’s flavours. 
Finish: Medium-plus length finishing with toast, plus some light citrus behind and grape skin tannins.

I recommend this as a food pairing wine, rather than a wine to sip on its own as the nettles and toastiness, and texture, fit better with food.

Rating: A medium intensity nose with nettles, toast and citrus aromas.  Dry, very smooth, round and mouthfilling.  Toasty with light citrus apple, and stone fruit flavours.

Cheese, Prosciutto, and Wine Pairings

Cathedral City Mature Cheddar – Light yellow butter colour.  It has a very light, mild nose.  Dry with medium sharpness that gets creamy in your mouth.  There is a touch of saltiness and butteriness, with some nuttiness toward the end. I really enjoyed this cheese on it’s own.  I enjoy the combination of the creaminess and light sharpness of this cheese.

Ile de France Camembert – An acetic nose if you put your nose right up to the cheese, but otherwise not noticeable.  Soft and buttery with some bitterness from the rind and some mushroom flavour from the cheese.  

San Daniele Smoked Prosciutto – Dry, lightly smoked, some fattiness, nutty and ham flavour. I quite like the addition of smoke to prosciutto.  It adds some nice complexity without being overly smoky.

I tried both kinds of cheese and prosciutto upon opening the wine and then again after the wine was decanted.  

The Evolve Cellars Spontaneity 2020 Worked the best overall with the Prosciutto.  The Prosciutto toned down the fruit flavours but left light tropical fruit flavours for the newly opened wine.  This pairing was also excellent after decanting.  The wine pairing with the cheddar was good for the decanted version of the wine.  The Camembert flavour and texture did not work with this wine. 

The Chronos Rosé 2020 paired nicely with the Camembert and with the Prosciutto upon opening the wine.  The Camembert pairing was complimentary.  You get the acidity and rhubarb flavour from the wine with the creaminess of the cheese, plus you pick up the mushroom flavour at the end.  The Prosciutto texture and smokiness went well with the red fruits and acidity of the wine.  The Cheddar was not bad once the wine was decanted.  You picked up red fruit from the wine and creaminess from the cheese.

The McWatters Collection White Meritage 2020 paired very well with the Prosciutto for both the newly opened and the decanted versions of the wine.  You get salty, nutty and smokiness from the Prosciutto and a lessened nettle / pine needle resin flavour, but still high acidity. The Cheddar was also good both with the decanted and undecanted versions of this wine.  The creaminess and graininess from the cheese was complementary to the wine’s flavours.  The Camembert unfortunately did not mesh well with the wine.

Where Can I Buy These Wines?

You can purchase these wines directly from the TIME Family of Wines website.