Too much sipping, not enough writing

It's a great week when the bottles fill the recycle corner of your kitchen counter top. We opened and shared some delicious new wines.

Throughout the week, we enjoyed a Malbec Rose from Maipe (Mendoza, Argentina). It's a nice drinking wine, perfect for these lazy, humid afternoons.

We love Chilean wines, recently favoring SB from the Anakena winery. On Friday, we opened a bottle of their 2008 Carmenere (Rapel Valley). Inky, lots of dark berries, great with grilled steak. Later that evening, we shared an Argentinian wine: Maipe Bonarda 2009 (Mendoza). Another inky, deep red--not quite as intense as a Malbec, but lots of interesting fruit. It went well with dark chocolate and almonds.

Saturday, a friend brought a 2009 Malbec from Alamos (Mendoza), and later on, we opened an excellent 2007 Zinfandel from Amador County, CA (Sobon Estate, Rocky Top). And somewhere in the middle, we had a glass of our former stand-by (now a treat when Daryl travels to Trader Joe country): Charles Shaw Cab. The Malbec and Zin were lovely wines--bold and teeth-staining.

Better tasting notes for the next round, we promise.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday...

So, we kicked off the weekend with a bottle of rose from Provence: Domaine Fontanyl Cotes De Provence 2009. Rather, I opened the bottle with a friend; Daryl would sample this late Sunday afternoon. I'm on the hunt for good roses now that the summer is almost here--still haven't found anything comparable to our beloved Ortman's Syrah rose. This, however, came highly recommended by John from Total Wine, and it didn't disappoint. Dry but with lots of fruit. I picked up another bottle from Tavel, France, which is supposed to be top of the line when it comes to rose. We'll save that for another Saturday...

Saturday afternoon, a friend stopped by with a bottle of organic Malbec from Argentina, which we enjoyed with Manchego cheese and almonds. Later that evening, we headed out to a brand-new restaurant.Vin 21 promised good food and wine, and we loved it. We started the night at the bar and perused the wine list--I was excited about all the different Spanish wines they had by the glass. I started with an Ipsum Verdejo/Viura blend; Daryl had a Ra Nui SB (Marlborough). We then got a glass of Pinot Noir by Cartlidge & Browne, which we used to drink years ago when we first started learning more about wine. Brought back some great memories of Fermentations in Seaside, FL, where it all started.

Two glasses of wine led to a plate of crispy fried calamari, which led to a table and more wine! Had a great meal (tuna for me; fillet mignon for Daryl), yummy dessert and coffee. Unfortunately, about halfway through dinner, I stopped writing down the wines we drank, but our favorite was a delightful red blend (Cab/Syrah/Grenache) from Stickleback (Australia). ("Rhymes with Nickleback," Daryl kept saying, so we'd be sure to remember it at night's end.) Daryl's thoughts on the Stickleback: "unexpected complex wine, delicious--but the bouquet was deceptively simple."

And on Sunday, we finished off the rose. Another delicious wine weekend!

Four Wine Weekend

Four delicious wines shared with several friends this weekend. We opened a couple bottles of Angeline Pinot Noir Reserve on Friday afternoon and evening as we sat out on the back patio and ate snacks and chatted. This Pinot Noir is always tasty--nice balance of fruit and just a touch of acidity. It's one of our favorites, and it can be paired with almost anything or enjoyed on its own.

For dinner on Saturday, we enjoyed three bottles with our guests. For appetizers (again, served on the back patio--loving the refreshing weather and low humidity this spring), we drank Franciscan Merlot, Vintage 2006 (Napa Valley). We don't drink much Merlot, but we keep hearing that winemakers are doing good things again with this grape. And this one went well with carmelized onion, arugula and goat cheese mini pizzas Kath made, along with fresh veggies, crackers & cheese and hummus & pita.

We then enjoyed an excellent 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon from Avenel Cellars. This was a wine I first sipped at my first Total Wine class. Very rich, lots of berries, yet smooth and enjoyable. Nice with burgers and sausage.

Lastly, we opened an unoaked Chardonnay--La Vuelta 2009 from Mendoza, Argentina. This was a pleasant surprise. Daryl usually despises Chardonnay, due to the oak, so most of our whites tend to be SB or Pinot Grigio. This unoaked wine, however, was lovely. Smooth, not quite as crisp as our usual whites, and we tasted more fruit, usually hidden by the buttery oak. Very nice! And it went well with my lemon bars.

Good food, wine and friends--that's what Saturday Sippin' is all about.

Wine, Food

It's truly a talent to pair wine and food. I say this because I totally lack any sort of skill in this area. I assume white for fish and chicken, and reds for dark meat. But that's not always true, and I've read or sampled pairings that seem incongruous at first (like a red and cheese, for example) that end up working beautifully. One of these days I'll read enough or develop a better palate to put together some amazing, unexpected pairings. In the meantime, I'll stick with what's tried and true.

This weekend, we opened a Torrontes from Uruguay. This was another bottle I picked up from my recent wine class. Pisano Rio de Los Pajaros is 100% Torrontes and is similar in color to a Chardonnay, more straw than pale gold of a SB or Pinot Grigio. It's not quite as thick as a Riesling but has a little texture and body to it. It's off-dry with notes of peach and apricot.

We brought this wine to our friends' home to serve with a Greek feta cheese, asparagus and shrimp risotto. Great pairing!! And great risotto! I found the recipe online at Cooking Light, but instead of Arborio rice, I used a short-grain brown rice, which gives the dish an al dente texture, rather than the traditional creaminess of the starchy Arborio. We sipped the wine with some pre-dinner Spanish cheeses, and it also complemented those.

Nice weekend, good food and wine, and great friends!

Sunday's Celebratory Sips

Happy Easter! Happy Spring! Whatever you're celebrating, it's April and lovely. Time for some new wine!

For Christmas, Daryl got me a five class punch card for wine tasting classes at our local Total Wine. Usually, we prefer to buy our wine at a locally owned shop; however, our nearest one shut down within a month of our relocation to Florida. Total Wine opened up, and we are actually very impressed with their selection and prices. And I'm especially enjoying these classes: Our instructor has over 20 years in the business, and she explains wines in an interesting but non-intimidating manner. In February, I tasted Sauvignon Blancs and Cabernets from all over the world; March's class (held this past Wednesday) was called "Grapes Less Traveled: A Look into Fun Alternative White and Red Wines". I picked up today's bottle from that tasting.

To complement our non-traditional Easter meal (grilled rib-eye steaks served with asparagus, green salad, mashed potatoes and Publix's holiday cupcakes), we have opened a delicious Zinfandel: Sobon Estate 2007 Fiddletown Zinfandel (Amador County, CA). Oh, this is a lovely, complex wine. Deep, rich purple with an aromatic bouquet (to borrow from my tasting notes). It tastes of dark fruits, spice, pepper and earth. It's high in tannins and acidity. Daryl adds that it's "excitingly bold and perfectly paired with the Easter rib eye". We have a winner!

A few interesting facts I learned about this wine and region: Amador County is slightly south of Sacramento and known for its Zinfandel. Fiddletown is an AVA, which I learned stands for Agriculture Viticulture Area (like the DOC you see on Italian wines). The grapes are organically grown on this estate, and it's family-owned and operated.

Happy holiday!

Monday's Thoughts on Weekend's Wine

Two wines to talk about on this rainy Monday morning. Horse Head Sauvignon Blanc (Washington State): every time we go to one of our favorite seafood restaurants (Captain Charlie's Reef Grill, Juno Bch), Kath always orders this wine by the glass. Two visits ago, while waiting for 45 minutes for a table with a large party, we shared a bottle of this fantastic, crisp SB. Little did we know, until we actually looked at the bottle, that we had been enjoying a Washington wine all along. We tend to look for SBs from New Zealand because we love their fruity crispness, and we drink ones from CA, enjoying their more mineral notes. This wine is tasty: crisp, nice balance of acidity. We didn't notice quite as much big tropical fruit notes like you would taste in a glass from Marlborough. Very nice wine and delicious with seafood (Kath ordered the sauteed cobia and Daryl got the pan-fried scallops).

We also opened a Cabernet Sauvignon from Argentina to enjoy this weekend: Maipe Andean Culture 2008 Cab from Mendoza, Argentina. We always think Malbec when we consider picking out an Argentinian wine, but we were happy with this Cab. I first tried this wine at a tasting class in February and loved it. It's medium bodied, low tannins and medium acidity (from my notes--on weekend sippin', we try not to get too technical). It's a great wine to drink on its own. We paid around $10 for it and will keep this on our restock list.

Easter is next weekend, and I have another tasting class on Wednesday. Will look for some new wines to try for another lovely spring weekend.

Coming Back!

We had forgotten how much fun it was to write about our wine discoveries. Look for new posts soon--the weather is getting beautiful, and we're ready to open some new bottles!