When to drink wine?

Those who know me might think the answer to this is "any day that ends in Y", which is also true.

:)

But for this purpose, I'm referring to when to open a bottle of wine you've been saving. First, there is no absolute answer to that one. You're just going to have to figure out your own palate. For example, I know that I tend to prefer California Cabernet Sauvignons at least 5 years from the vintage date - preferrably 7, and some 10+, depending on the year and quality. But generally, I keep them until they are at least 5 yrs, so right now I'm hard pressed to drink a 2010 or younger. Once again, this is me and my preference. I know people who love Cabernets right after they are released and others that think 5 years is too young. It's all in what you like.
But let's pretend you don't have a *couple* years drinking aged wine under your belt and you aren't exactly sure what you like. Where do you start? Here's a couple great sources:

http://www.erobertparker.com/newsearch/vintagechart1.aspx

https://www.winemag.com/PDFs/Vintage_Chart_2015_V3.pdf

It might seem a bit intimidating at first, but it's worth the time to review thoroughly. Naturally, these are just suggestions, but they are the experts so it's a good place to start while you figure out your own palate.

Tomorrow night the St. Louis Wine Club is doing a belated version of Open That Bottle Night and I referenced both of these guides to determine which of two bottles I was going to open....stay tuned in a  couple days for the choice and the results!

Faves from wine clubs past....

I ran across some notes of past wine clubs and thought I’d jot down some of our favorites. (they are not in any order, just the ones that scored the highest of the night and that we'd consider buying again)
Sometime I’ll probably find the scores for other ones, but for now here’s what I have readily available…

 

From Red Blends:

• 2006 Edward Sellers Le Theif
• 2009 L Preston
• 2008 Ferrer Bobel Priorat 

From Poor Man’s night:

• 2011 Field Stone Petite Sirah Rose
• 2010 J Opi Malbec
• 2009 Fieldstone Corvino Red Table Wine 

From Zinful Desserts: 

• 2008 Kenwood Reserve Zin 
• 2008 Martinelli Vigneto di Evo Zin 
• 2005 Peterson Winery Muscat Blanc

And I even found one from summer last year...

 

From Hot Weather Wines: 

• 2011 Domaine Lafond Tavel
• 2011 Chateau De Manissey Tavel
• nv Mumm Brut Rose
• 2007 Autry Cellars Petite Sirah (to go with BBQ fare)

Siduri Winemaker Dinner

A week or so ago, Mr. Lush and I (along with Ms. G) went to a Siduri winemaker pairing dinner at a local wineshop/restaurant. I’ll have to say that the winemaker, Adam Lee, is pretty darn funny, a smidge on the raunchy side in fact. While I don’t mind the raunchy sense of humor, and in fact love it, out of respect for his privacy I most certainly won’t post the jokes/comments! Just know, if you get a chance to meet him - go!

Here’s the menu:

My favorite wine was a tie- the Santa Rita and the Sebastiano (also from Santa Rita). My favorite pairing was the duck with the Santa Rita; (below) the veal was a bit too fatty and the pinot wasn’t big enough to cut through it, at least not in my opinion.

It was an interesting dinner to try pinots by the same winemaker. Unfortunately for my visual friends, all the Siduri Pinots look nearly identical.

And of course, whenever we meet a winemaker, Mr. Lush and I pose with them – here’s us with the funny Adam Lee. (The picture is a bit hazy-I think the person who took it was under a light so it flooded it out – boo!)

Terlato Pairing Dinner

Last weekend my wine club had a vertical pairing dinner party with 2004-2007 Terlato Family Vineyards Syrah. For the entree, we made a modified version of this Pastitsio (Greek lasagna) found on Food and Wine.  (my recipe will be posted tomorrow) Several side dishes, including Greek peppers, were served. (hopefully those who made it will reply with their recipes as well!)

Let’s talk about the wine for now. We got a winewoot deal on the 2004, 2006 & 2007 and bought the 2005 directly from the winery. The 2007 was the Block 9, but the rest were the estate vineyars. Mr. Lush and I agreed that the favorite wine by itself was the 2005, but it wasn’t our favorite with the Pastitsio- it actually paired better with the peppers. Our favorite(s) with the lamb were the 2004 and 2006 and the rest of the wine club agreed with the pairing. (I will note that I think the 2004 was at or just past it’s prime, so if I were to purchase any again, I’d focus on 2005 and younger.) The 2007 was my least favorite; it opened up a little bit by the end of the night, but if I had a bottle, I think I’d hold onto it for another year or two.

Anchovy Butter, Moroccan Carrots & Cab Franc

A couple weeks my wine club had a Cabernet Franc Vertical pairing dinner – with the 2004-2006 Adobe Road Cabernet Franc. As a wine club member I was able to get some library selections and we were able to get 2 of each bottle so it was a good sized dinner party. While we’ve had some other verticals, this was our first Cabernet Franc one! The wines were delicious-although one of the 2004s was past its prime, so if you have it, drink it! There was no clear favorite; it seemed to be was tied between the 2004 and 2005, although the 2006 was also lovely.

 

For dinner we had filets seasoned with garlic and tarragon, served with anchovy butter on the side (recipe follows), along with some Moroccan carrots (recipe follows), loaded baked potato casserole, and I think one other side. (my apologies if I forgot your contribution!) Anyway, this was my first time making – or even tasting – anchovy butter. It was relatively easy to make, but I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous because it smelled very anchovy-ish during the preparation stage, however I couldn’t even taste the anchovy once it was melted on the steak and even took another pat. All but one person loved it, and it paired well with the cab franc, so it’s something I’ll keep in the rotation (although not too often!). The carrots were actually amazing with the cabernet franc – and I don’t even like cooked carrots that much! For a "normal dinner" pairing I would recommend using cumin, coriander, and tarragon into as many dishes as possible. We looked at a cumin lamb recipie but opted against it because we wanted to focus on the nuances between the vintages, which was a good call, although it would’ve been an amazing pairing and is something I'll try next time I have a Cab Franc.

 

 

Here’s a couple of recipes from the event

 

Anchovy butter (makes about 20 ½ inch pats)

• 6 anchovies packed in oil
• 1 ½ stick of butter, room temp
• 1 tbs chopped tarragon
• 1 tbs garlic powder

Mash or food process ingredients together and then pour on a plastic wrap sheet. Roll into a log and refrigerate for an hour or more. Slice into pats and top steaks. (we chose to serve it on the side and allow guests to top their steaks themselves.) 

 

 

Moroccan Carrots 

• 4 medium carrots (3/4 pound), thinly sliced on a mandoline
•  1 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Large pinch of sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• Salt

  

1. In a medium saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the carrots for 1 minute. Drain.

 

2. In a large skillet, combine the carrots with the orange juice, water, coriander, cumin and cinnamon and simmer over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the sugar and the butter. Season the carrots with salt and serve. Credit: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/moroccan-carrots

Join me for #blindtober

If you’ve followed my blog before, you know I love blind tastings, so much that every October Mr. Lush and I taste everything we can “blind”. (for those of you who are nor familiar with the term, tasting wine “blind” means you have to guess what’s in the glass-usually the varietal, although experts can guess even more!) We accomplish this at home by switching off who pours the bottle; last night I selected a bottle, poured Mr. Lush a glass, and he correctly guessed it was a Chardonnay from California.

By no stretch are we experts-we both get more wrong than we do right, and we don’t try to guess the vintage or even specific AVA (although occasionally we might…but usually fail!). Naturally if its from our own collection we do better, because we can narrow it down. But we spend all year drinking and learning about wine, so it’s a good time to really focus in and apply what we’ve learned. Sometimes we throw each other easy ones, sometimes we mix it up and throw each other a curve ball, but we have fun with it.

I initially called this experience the Blind Ambition Tour (yes, that is a Madonna reference) but this year I’m going to tweet about my experiences with the hashtag #blindtober. My twitter name is stlwinelush and so I invite you to join me this October – taste wine blind and tweet about your experiences. Going to someone's house? Have them pour you a glass before showing you what it was. Head into a bar and tell the bartender to pick something out for you. Or, for even more of a challenge, head into a bar like Flemings, where they have 100 wines by the glass and ask them to make you a flight-so you’ll have 3 wines to guess. If you fail epically, don’t fret-we’re there with you. Get out of your comfort zone and give it a shot.

I’ll keep an eye out for the #blindtober tweet, cheers!

Grilled Buttermilk Chicken & Rose

Rose wines are a Lush favorite of summer, and so is grilling. (truth be told, grilling isn’t a season for the Lush Household, it’s a lifestyle!) For a recent wine club event, Mr. Lush found a recipe for grilled chicken drummies that pairs wonderfully with rose, so we thought we'd share:



• 1 quart buttermilk


• 1 tablespoon onion powder


• 1 tablespoon garlic powder


• 2 tablespoons kosher salt


• 2 tablespoons sugar


• 1 tablespoon ground cumin


• 1 teaspoon pepper


• 4 lbs chicken drumsticks/thighs (any combo or all one, we used drumsticks)


1. In a large bowl, mix buttermilk, onion and garlic powder, salt, sugar, cumin, and pepper.


2. Rinse chicken thighs /drumsticks and pat dry. Trim off excess fat. Submerge chicken pieces in buttermilk brine. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours, or up to 1 day.


3. Lift chicken from brine; discard brine. Wipe excess from chicken with paper towels.


4. Lay chicken pieces on a barbecue grill over medium coals or medium heat on a gas grill (you can hold your hand at grill level only 4 to 5 seconds); close lid on gas grill. Cook, turning frequently, until browned on both sides and no longer pink at the bone (cut to test), 20 to 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold.


Enjoy with your favorite rose-it went great with 2011 Andrieux & Fils Rose Cotes de Provence Cuvee Victoria, 2011 Domaine Les Aphillanthes Côtes-du-Rhône Rosé, and the 2010 Division Rose (from Washington). The Les Aphillanthes was a little fruitier than the other two, but all 3 were dry and stood up to the chicken.

Aglian-what?

It’s always a nice surprise when we get a varietal or blend that we aren’t familiar with in a wine club shipment. It doesn’t happen often – not because we’ve had a ton of varietals, but there’s a reason the varietals aren’t on every wine shelf- difficult varietal, specific climate needs, etc.


Well, in the past month we’ve received not one, but TWO of the same lesser known varietal, Aglianico [ah-LYAH-nee-koh] from two different wine clubs. (Aglianico is an Italian variety primarily grown in the southern part of Italy, performing best in hot climates and volcanic soils, although both of these were from California) I don’t recall ever having it, although it’s possible I tasted it but would remember having a bottle with dinner, for example.

The two we received were the 2006 Domenico Winery Aglianico and the 2009 Benessere Winery Aglianico. Clearly we chose to try the 2006 first, and the pairing recipe called for lamb, so a dinner was born. We bought a leg of lamb, seasoned with some thyme and tarragon, put it on the grill and opened up the bottle to taste.


Now, we’ve gotten in the habit of opening up the bottle for dinner about 30-60 minutes before dinner pouring a small glass to determine if the wine should be decanted, or just left in the glass and bottle to air. (in order to really allow an open bottle to aerate, you need to pour a small amount into a glass to get air into the wine in the bottle- not just uncork it)


Back to the wine – the recipe had called for lamb or a “heavily marbled ribeye” so we took that as the wine will be tannic and strong – we anticipated it would need some time and we were right. Right out of the bottle it was astringent and strong. We poured our glasses and decanted it while the lamb cooked, about 45 minutes and it opened up nicely. While still strong, it was no longer astringent – just tannic – and it was really wonderful with the lamb cutting through the fat. It continued to evolve with flavors of dark cherry and currant, with a little bit of spice. By the time we were finished with the lamb, it had softened to the point of no longer requiring food, so we clearly could’ve kept the 2006 for another 2+ years. Naturally we’re quite bummed, because that means the 2009 should be cellared for quite some time before reaching it’s peak.

Trying new wines is fun, so keep an eye out for something you've never heard of!

History of the Artist Series Quest

I was skimming my blog and realized I haven’t posted much on my Artist Series Quest in quite some time. One might think I haven’t been actively collecting – but one would be wrong. I have about 20 labels already taken off, with another…at least 30 ready to be taken off. But my inability to finish projects is not the point of this post- it’s to talk about the reason for my affection towards “artist series wines”.

When I was .. well, we’ll say a bit younger.. I worked a restaurant that had an excellent wine list and the owners were committed to their staff knowing about wine so we often had the opportunity to taste wines before a shift, or if a table wanted to give us a glass, we could share a little bit with them. It was a wonderful kick start to my wine knowledge – but also propelled my palate quickly past the “entry” level wines, thus I’ve always had a taste for wines that are more expensive than my pocketbook would like. One of the wines I learned about was the Kenwood Artist Series. I had mentioned it in another post, but since then the link has changed, so I’ll tell the story now:

In 1974 Kenwood released a wine (what is now their Artist Series) with a drawing of a naked lady on it. It was rejected by the ATF because it was “obscene”. They then submitted a new label, but with a tongue in cheek twist-it was the same label but with a skeleton where the lady was. It was also rejected. So, finally in 1975 they released the “Hillside” label- the same label, just with no lady, no skeleton. (no…fun). Times changed and in 1994 they released the same “Naked Lady” label – the originally rejected one – and it was accepted! Here’s a picture of the 1994 label, along with a very grainy picture I took at the Kenwood winery earlier this month of the 3 labels:

This was a very interesting story with a nice twist of sex, art, and booze. (while at the winery we also picked up 2 free posters; one of which was indeed, the 1994 label!) Times have certainly changed - you can find all sorts of provacative labels now! The best part about the Kenwood Artist Series is the wine is always great and ages well. So, I decided to try other wines with art-based labels -  typically if a new "artistic" label is released for a bottle, it's because the wine is special, whereas if it's just mass printed year after year, it may or may not be special.   I've liked most, if not all, of the wines with a true unique-to-the-vintage "artist series" label, thus, the Artist Series Quest was born! Currently my quest is focused on the Gundlach Bundschu artist series - a bit pricey, but I'm on the lookout for a deal....

Rappin with Andrea Robinson

As promised, here’s the info on the Cheese Seminar at the NYC Food and Wine Festival.


The Cheese Seminar was led by Laura Werlin and Andrea Robinson. Now, I’m not sure if they were trying to top Mark’s sabering, but this seminar started with Andrea rapping. Yes, RAPPING. Luckily, I had a much better view of her and got a good shot.

 

Awesome, right???

Here’s the pairing menu – now, they told us that some of the cheeses might pair better with other wines, so this would be an experiment for all of us and to find what we liked. And it was – some pairings were spot on, some paired better with other wines (in my opinion) and some just didn’t pair perfect with anything.

Sushi Seminar - with sabering!

Earlier month I had the pleasure of joining (the future) Mr. and Mrs. V at the New York City Food & Wine Festival. We attended two seminars, sushi and cheese. I’ll tell you about the sushi seminar first; stay tuned later this week for the cheese seminar.


The sushi seminar starts off with a bang-literally! Mark Oldman attempts to saber a bottle of bubbly and before he gets a chance, the cork flys out and shoots across the room! HA! Now, I’ve been lucky enough to see a couple successful saberings in my day, but I was happy that he decided to chill another bottle and give it another whirl later in the seminar. Note: Sabering can be very dangerous. The bottle must be very cold and you must hit the bottle at the exact spot, otherwise it can shatter and explode in your hand; I’ve seen the aftermath of that and it’s NOT pretty. Also, the force of the bubbles shoots the top – and the freshly cut glass ring-out ward, so make sure to point it away from anyone or anything. Here’s the video of the successful sabering: (I apologize for the bad angle- he was pointing the bottle towards the brick wall.

Ok, back to the food and wine. Here’s a copy of the menu. The pairings were perfect, wonderful – of course, some of the wines I didn’t care for without the food, but they were really very well paired.

And, here’s a door hanger that sums up Mark’s thoughts on wine – drink bravely. (so try something new, forge ahead into unchartered territory, pair things together that may not work, etc) LOVE IT!!!!

Wino Road Trip in July

My wine club’s theme this month is “Wino Road Trip”. Its basically to encourage us to drink wines from the US that would not be in normal repertoire; so no wines from California, Oregon, Washington and no wines from Missouri or Illinois, since those are local to us. Since wine is made in all 50 states, this should be somewhat easy; of course not all states distribute and so it likely won’t be without some creative pre-ordering!
In my research, I found a blog post by Time Magazine’s Joel Stein: "Fifty States of Wine" in 2008 – you can find the article here. Its an old blog post, but funny:

“I'm not sure why my instinct, upon learning that all 50 states make wine, was to try one from each. If I found out that every state has a water park, I wouldn't try to go to each one. That's because water parks can't get you drunk.”

(he SO had me at this one!)
“I learned a few general truths. White is easier to make than red. Wines made at golf courses are not good.”…. “I also learned that you can make and apparently sell some truly disgusting wine: six of the bottles I tried with a dozen friends were unanimously deemed "undrinkable." But 11 of them were quite good”……

So, not counting Cali, Washington, or Oregon, the other states that had an “excellent” wine were: Colorado, Delaware, New Hampsire, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Pensylvannia, and Texas. (For the record, the wine from Missouri was “good” and the wine from Illinois was “bad”, although its worth noting that the wines were selected at random AND the blog post was from 2008)

You can find the list of all the wines where you can filter out the best (or worst) here. 

Another more recent blog post can be found here. (and I apologize to the other five million wine bloggers, I don't have time to find all of your posts!)
So, I guess wish us luck, as we try some new wines out….and if you have any good recommendations, feel free to send them our way! Check back in August for the results!

June 17th: A global toast to celebrate my birthday!

Ok, ok, in truth it’s a global toast to celebrate the anniversary of Robert Mondavi’s birthday, which (would have been) June 18th. However, the toast is on my actual birthday, June 17, so its just another reason to celebrate!

At 2pm Pacific time (or 4pm for us in the Lou) please raise a glass and toast Robert Mondavi for his groundbreaking movements in wine, me for my birthday, and all who love wine!

You can also watch the toast (for Robert Mondavi, not me) online- from the Mondavi website:

Please join us in celebrating this special day. We will be offering a complimentary glass of Fume Blanc in honor of Mr. Robert Mondavi’s , as well as enjoying festive music on our lawn. At 2:00, Margrit Mondavi, and our winemaker, Genevieve Janssens will be hosting a live toast. Website: www.toastrobertmondavi.com

The bubbly process

My wine club’s theme this month is Celebrate! Bubbly and Chards! While I was looking up information for my selected wine (to be discussed tomorrow) and that it was produced using the traditional method of making Champagne, I realized that I really didn’t know what the other methods were. I knew the traditional method (called either Méthode Champenoise / Méthode Traditionnelle) was the “best way” to make sparkling wine, but I didn’t know what the difference actually was.  Now I do (and so will you):

 

There are 3 (ok 4, if you count directly injecting carbon dioxide into the wine) methods of making sparkling wine.

• Méthode Champenoise / Méthode Traditionnelle
• Transfer method
• Metodo Italiano (Charmat process)

All sparkling wines are made from still wine, so they go through harvest, pressing the grapes, first fermentation, and blending steps, which are nearly identical if its going to be still wine or sparkling wine. At the triage step, the process differs from still wine: After blending, the winemaker adds the Liqueur of Tirage, a blend of sugar, wine and live yeast that will begin the wine's second fermentation.

 

The second fermentation is where the methods differ. In the Méthode Champenoise the bottle is topped with a top like a beer cap and the wine is aged while it undergoes the second fermentation process (at least one year for non-vintage and three years for a vintage sparkling wine.) After fermentation, the next step is riddling, where the wine is slowly (over the course of 6-8 weeks) rotated and turned from a horizontal state until totally upside down and the sediment is in the neck of the bottle. The bottle neck is dipped into a brine solution to freeze the liquid, the pressure in the unfrozen part of the bottle forces the frozen sediment out and a dosage (sugar and sometimes brandy) is added to adjust to the final dryness. The bottle is then topped with the cork and wire cage.

 

In the Transfer method, the wine is transferred from the bottles to a pressurized tank where the sediment is filtered out and the wine is rebottled.

In the Charmat process, the entire second fermentation process is done in a large pressurized tank. The result in this process is that the carbon dioxide has less time to integrate with the wines so there are larger bubbles that dissipate faster. Usually prosecco is made using this process (hence the name).

 

Pairing with spiced duck

Yesterday I posted a recipe for Grilled Spiced Duck with Blackberry sauce and as promised, here’s the wines we had both the first night and with leftovers:


The first night we had it with the 2007 Simi Valley Petit Sirah, which we bought at a Black Friday cyber sale for half off - thanks to Scotchguy:

100% Petite Sirah; Inky, almost black in color with powerful flavors of intense, jammy fruits that mingle with dark chocolate and pepper. The tannins are firm and muscular creating a luscious mouthfeel and smooth finish.

It was FANTASTIC with it. The fattiness of the duck really needed a tannic wine and this was perfect with it. It really picked up the blackberry in the sauce and was complementary with the spice rub. If I recall, we poured the glasses about 30 minutes before we ate, so it got some air. If you're drinking it without food, I'd recommend at least an hour, but it really is a food friendly wine.

For leftovers a few days later, we had the 2004 Red Head Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, a selection from Gold Medal Wine Club:

Red Head Ranch sits on one of the oldest recorded vineyard sites in San Luis Obispo County, planted in Paso Robles by the Klintworth family over 100 years ago. This 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Petit Verdot, expresses Red Head Ranch's signature style: elegance and focus of fruit, producing wines that are supple and accessible. The wine press seems to agree, as Wine Enthusiast magazine names the wine among the Best of the Year and calling it "rich and robust, this soft, full-bodied Cab has a nice array of red and black cherry, black-berry jam, cedar and coffee flavors. Polished tannins help make it classy." The 2004 Red Head Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon was also awarded a Gold Medal at the Orange County Fair Commercial Wine Competition, in addition to a Silver Medal at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. The Petite Verdot was of excellent quality in 2004, hence a greater percentage (25%) of the blend as compared with the previous bottling. Its addition to the wine adds robust character that has resulted in a more complex, cellar-worthy wine. Try pairing the Cabernet Sauvignon with braised lamb shanks, burgers, and anything off the grill.

It was excellent as well. Very smooth – the age of the wine smoothed out the Cabernet, but the 25% Petite Verdot and the 50% new wood adds some additional tannins that once again, go great with the duck’s fat.
Both wines had typical dark berry characteristics which went well with the blackberry sauce, and the cedar notes paired well with the spices used. I'd say I liked the Petite Sirah a bit more with the duck, but loved the Cab as well and it was possible to drink it without food. Its rare you can order a wine with so much age on it – actually I just checked the winery website and they are sold out of EVERYTHING! Guess I’m hitting GMWC’s website for some more!!

An alternative for those of us who can't purchase a case of Silver Oak

Just got this email from wine.com, looks like they bought some of Silver Oak’s cellared wines…. While you likely could’ve always bought them from Silver Oak, its nice to see them on a general wine merchant site, so you can get one or two bottles and fill up a half case or case with something less costly. (for those of us who can’t afford a case of Silver Oak!)


From their email:

Today marks our most expansive and exciting Silver Oak Cellars offering. Beginning with Silver Oak's latest 2006 Napa Valley and Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon releases, we've also sourced an incredibly rare allocation of Silver Oak's library wines with vintages dating back to the early 90's, including Magnums, Double Magnums and 6 liter Impérial formats. Quantities are extremely limited and we strongly encourage collectors to make their selections as soon as possible. If you don't see some of these on our site, it means that we've sold out!

Twomey Too! With a dedicated following of its own, Silver Oak’s sister winery, Twomey Cellars, skillfully produces hand-crafted Merlot, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. By design, these wines are food-friendly and enjoyable upon release.


Click here to visit the site.

Cheers!

Cinqo De Mayo wine deals and recs...and tequila too!

Many think Cinqo De Mayo is just for margarita lovers, but I had a couple of wine specials hit my inbox today that I thought I’d share with you…. 

• Cameron Hughes Wine – they have 5 wines for 25% off using the code: CINCO25
• Wine Enthusiast 5% off your entire order, using promo code CINCO5.

If you do want a wine today, I'd recommend a white spanish wine (for obvious reasons); a Verdejo or Albarino. Iff you're going for something spicy to eat, maybe a white blend from California that has a little bit of Viogner, Riesling, or Gewurztraminer in it, to balance out the spicy, with a little bit of Sauvignon Blanc, to pair with the cheesy goodness that most mexican food is known for. I'd recommend a few readily available at most grocery stores such as 7 Daughters, Shoofly Buzz Cut, Kendall Jackson Summation or Conundrum, althought that one is typically a bit more full bodied/closer to Chardonnay.

 

Now if you’re in the mood for a high class margarita or just something smooth to sip on, ScotchGuy recommended some good tequilas in a recent article, Some tequilas are worth sipping, not swigging. We gave El Espolón Repasado a try and it’s excellent for the price (we got it for $18- a Resposado for $18!). We are margarita snobs - Jose doesn't even make it into the house - so we had it in our Lush Margaritas with Cointreau.

 

Enjoy!

 

Enjoying the grape journey

You know, it felt good to be thrown a “wine curve ball” and to take it in stride, like in my last post. Sure, I have a wine blog and so obviously I enjoy wine and enjoy learning about it. However, as you might have figured out, I don’t desire to know all about wine or even to have a career in wine – unless I can be an importer, travelling all over the world in search of great wine of course (feel free to front me the startup money for that venture!) – I just enjoy drinking it and I like to know a little bit about it. My knowledge is to complement my enjoyment – I get tired of analyzing wine and overthinking it. For example, by the end of Blind Ambition Month (October, where we try every wine blind), I can’t wait to just open a bottle and have the only think I think about is “Do I like this?”.


I enjoy being able to try something new and to learn about it. I like comparing similar wines and finding out why I might like one or the other – like we do in my wine club. I even enjoy trying something I previously didn’t care for and seeing how my taste has evolved. I enjoy picking out a bottle at a work dinner and having multiple people really enjoy it - a few weeks ago I did just that... I saw a bottle of the Kenwood Jack London Cabernet Sauvignon on a restaurant menu for $40. Normally it retails for about $30-33, I usually buy a couple bottles when its on sale for $25ish, so I knew it was a good deal (low markup) for $40 and it was fairly soft and easy going, and sure enough, everyone who had a class enjoyed it - and I didn't break the expense account! It wasn’t an overly impressive selection or an amazing life altering wine discovery, but everyone looked to me to order something, I did, and it was a success.

It’s the little things like that, that keep me learning about this ever evolving drink. Perhaps one day I’ll pursue a career in it, and I certainly commend those who study and increase their knowledge, but for now, I’m happy learning a little bit now and then. I encourage all those who are interested in learning about wine to not be intimidated – sure, there IS a lot to learn, but you don’t need to be a "certified" anything to know what YOU like, and in the end, isn’t picking something you enjoy what you’re really after? Next time you’re taste a wine you like, google it. Check out the website. Read the tasting notes. Notice what you like about it, so you can then replicate it. And if you care to, look up the ones you hate – so you can know what to avoid! (sometimes I think that's even more important!!)

Keep trying new things – try the wine flight next time you go out and take the sheet home with you. If you do want to start keeping notes, there are a ton of wine apps available for your smart phones and remember, you don’t have to keep a volume of wine notes either – just jot down enough to remember what to look for again and what to avoid. And most importantly – relax and enjoy what you like! Take a class if you want, but if you don't, then don't! The knowledge, however much you want to learn, will come eventually. Just enjoy the grape journey!

Vouvray and Foie Gras

For our anniversary, we went to Chez Leon, a French place in Clayton. (well, we really went to Curacao, an island in the south Caribbean as our anniversary trip, but for the celebratory state-side dinner, we went to Chez Leon) I had ordered a Vouvray before deciding what I was going to have for dinner - we all know I love my Chardonnays, but I thought I'd try something else that night. Now, I will be honest, I don’t often drink Vouvray and its probably been about a year since I had a glass, but I didn’t remember it being quite as fruity/sweet as this one was. The menu just said “Vouvray” (with no reference to body style) so I didn’t even think about sweetness being a factor - I was just thinking medium bodied, slightly fruity, likely food friendly.


Made from Chenin Blanc, it CAN be sweet- maybe not Sautnernes’ level sweetness, but sweeter. Usually the sweetness is noted on the label (Sec, demi-sec, moelleux, and doux –which I’ve never had, but I hear its almost syrup-like) but as I said, in this case, the menu just said “Vouvray” and the bottle was never shown. My fault for assuming, it was significantly sweeter than I expected, but still good and seemed food friendly, which of course, most French wines are slightly high in acidity, so I decided to order the seared Foie Gras with it. I was torn between the Foie Gras and the Escargot, but went for the Foie Gras and I was glad I did. I’ve heard it goes well with Sauternes, so I thought it might go well with the slightly sweet Vouvray, and I was right, it was great with it! (score one for remembering pairing tips!) The Foie Gras itself was fantastic, melted in my mouth!

For dinner we had the duck and the lamb scallopini, both were very good. We brought a bottle of 1999 Gevrey Chambertin with us - I read in the reviews their wine list was a bit limited. We opened it earlier in the dinner and poured a glass while we enjoyed our appetizer and salad. It needed a bit of air, Gevrey Chambertins (100% Pinot Noir from the north part of the Burgundy Region in France) are often blackberry, cherry, slightly earthy - but in a good way, not in a musty basement or barnyard way- the fruit usually dominates and the earthiness adds complexity and depth. In this case, since it was a bit older, the earthiness dominated a bit more than desired when we opened it. It was almost musty- but that dominance dissipated after about 30-45 minutes- the fruit characteristics were a bit darker and richer, and the finish went on for ever. It went fantastic with the lamb, which had a berry sauce/compote of some kind, and very well with the duck, although the orange sauce wasn’t a perfect match – I thought it paired better than Mr. Lush did.

All in all a good dinner! The service was a bit slow, but it was a nice evening, the food was really good and with their Prix Fixe menu, not too bad on the wallet. (although a better deal with our Groupon!) We'll be back!

Stock that Cellar at the Grocery Store

As I've mentioned in previous posts, occasionally the grocery stores around here have good deals- exceptionally good deals. Its worthy to note, however, that their "orginal" prices are either inflated just for that sale, or always inflated, so don't take the "Savings of" literally - buy with caution or look it up first.

Today, I was lucky enough to stumble across one. The Schucks off 141 and Clayton and I saw the Merryvale Cabernet Sauvignon - not the "Starmont", which is their lower end, but the middle of the road. They had the "before" price of $71 and it was on sale for $32. Now, I know $71 isn't really the retail price, but nontheless, I estimate it at around $55, maybe $60 and determine its a good deal either way and pick up a bottle. I get home, look it up, and am I happy to see that its priced direct from the winery at ..... $65! It recently was rated a 92 by WS, so that's probably why-I do think it retails for closer to $50-55 normally, but either way, it was a good deal, its just now a GREAT deal! Combine with the fact that if you buy a mixed 6 pack, you get 10% off (even if the other 5 bottles are cheapies, you still get 10% each one), it was a nice buy!!

So get thee to the grocery store, check out the good deals. They typically carry rather mainstream stuff, so get a couple prices of a few things, or have your smartphone handy, and stock that cellar!!!