Celebration Part II

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day! Hope everyone had a great celebration. We kept ours low key: Daryl stopped at the wine bar for some Smithwick's and Pinot Noir, and Kath stayed at home enjoying the last of a delicious Riesling.

Last weekend's celebrations went very, very well. The par-tay was well attended; everyone mingled, ate and drank. We weren't expecting many wine drinkers, so to start, we only offered a 1.5L bottle of Fetzer Chardonnay and a Charles Shaw Shiraz. However, we kept opening more and more bottles! Good times.

Our new bottle for this weekend was a gift from our friend Pascale, who travels to Napa once a year. This was a bottle she brought back from last year's trip, and it's one of her favorites: V. Sattui Winery 2004 Johannisberg Riesling (St. Helena, CA). Daryl's reaction: Fun and exciting. Vibrant fruit flavors, including a touch of kiwi. Dry but not red-wine-dry. We both noticed that unlike other whites we tend to drink, this one wasn't "crisp"; instead, we'd describe it as smooth--but not syrupy, a common feel for sweeter, smoother wines. It's a clear yellow with a slight hint of green.

Interesting to note that V. Sattui's wines are only available at the winery or online.

From this year's trip, our friend brought us a 2005, same wine. We'll keep that for another time.

Good whites

We're back, for this weekend, at least. It's been snowy and cold recently; we've spent a lot of time at home in front of the fire or watching movies. We've also tried two tasty whites.

ZUANI vigne (D.O. Collio) Blanco 2005. An ass-kicking wine, to quote Daryl. At 13% alcohol, this wine surprised us. It tasted light and refreshing, complementing our chicken and spinach pasta, but wow.... A glass-and-a-half each knocked us out. Our wine store owner recommended this, and we thank her! It's fruity and dry, but not as light as a pinot grigio or even a sauvignon blanc. For a much better description of this wine (we drank this a couple weeks ago and didn't take notes), please click here.

Fun With Mac and Cheese--that's been the theme of our meals this week. It's just one of those weeks where I hit the pantry and skim through the Kraft magazine to come up with dinner. Last night, it was taco-flavored macaroni, tasty with sour cream and lots of cheddar cheese. Daryl stopped at the wine store on the way home and picked up the following (again, recommended by the owners): Loosen Bros. 2005 Riesling "Dr. L" (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer). Ooh, very nice! Light, fruity, sweet--the tiniest hint of syrup but not enough to make it "thick". Low alcohol at 8.5%. We enjoyed a glass but didn't feel sleepy afterwards. We have enough for 2 glasses tonight (it might be a little light for the minestrone soup) and we're looking forward to it.

When it comes to whites, we almost exclusively drink Rueda or N.Z. Sauvignon Blanc. These were nice surprises, and we'll look for them again.

Cheers!