Sparkling Wine Don’t Age Well!

Monday was my friend’s  “Welcome Spring” party, we had been waiting for the weather to warm up so we could be outside, but it was still a little cool, so we ended up staying inside. With at least 6 different wines to try, I was looking forward to the tasting and pairing with all the great foods she had made.

The food consisted of mainly appetizers and finger foods. And pretty much all the dishes were new recipes that she had found. Don’t know if I remember all the dishes, but I’ll give it my best. Gorgonzola stuffed figs, stuffed mushrooms, crab dip, crab cakes, little pastries stuffed with peach and gorgonzola cheese, tuna salad, and there was a ton of different cheeses and fruits. I think the stuffed mushrooms and the crab cakes were the two favorites, but I thought that the gorgonzola bites were an interesting surprise.

As for the wines, we started out sipping a recent favorite, Robert Mondavi’s Coastal Crush Red. Another guest brought a bottle of 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chateau Ste Michelle, Canoe Ridge Estate, wich was excellent. The Sangria ( made with a lot of fruit ) was quite popular. This was the only red wines at the party. I had picked up a couple of white wines that I thought would pair well with the theme of light foods. The problem was that there was not enough wine drinkers at the party to be able to taste all of them. So we had a bottle of Barefoot Chardonnay, wich is a very nice, easy to drink wine, and a bottle of Macon-Villages Chardonnay from Lois Jadot. I have been wanting to try this wine ever since I had their Burgundy, but the Chardonnay is priced a little over my budget. Then on my recent visit to Wegmans, they had it on sale for $10.99. It was not a heavy Chardonnay, nice and crisp, and just like the Burgundy, the Chardonnay went very well with the food. The biggest wow moment was pairing the Lois Jadot Chardonnay with the gorgonzola stuffed figs; a match made in heaven.

I was in charge of desert. And to keep the theme going, I tried a new recipe also. Cheese cake stuffed strawberries, paired with Asti Barbero Italian sparkling wine. The stuffed strawberries was very easy to make, even after three glasses of wine, they came out decent. The bubbles on the other hand….not so good. I had this bottle left behind by my roommate, and I was waiting for a occation that called for bubbles, to open it. Well, it took a while. I don’t even know how long she had the bottle, and now, afterwords, I’m embarrassed that I brought this bottle to the party. Kind of thought there was trouble when it turned out to a wrestling match trying to open the bottle. Usually you would have a little help from the bubbles when opening a bottle of sparkling wine. This one didn’t have any bubbles…….and it was disgustingly brown. Yak!

Lesson learned; Don’t age your bubbles! Any occasion, is a good occasion to go sparkling.

A great party with great people, and great food. Hoping to have many more evenings like this. Cheers! (except for the part with the bubbles gone bad)

Visited an Old Friend!

Went to Unionville Vineyards this afternoon for an event they had; Vintage North Jersey’s Food & Wine Pairing. A beautiful Sunday here in New Jersey, mid 60’s and sunny, and I was looking forward to a great wine tasting, at a vineyard that I had been wanting to visit for a while now.

Huge dissapointment…I knew something was up when I pulled into the parking lot, and there was only 4 cars there. The food was non existing. There was some crumbles of cheese, and some pepperoni (or something) on a plate, and that was it…

For the wines; not great. Sorry Unionville, but you are not a favorite of mine. I did only taste 6 of their wines, but this was very sad, and I must say, very “New Jersey like”. The wines were very fruity and acidly. The ones I tasted was Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. The Pinot Grigio came out on top, it was ok, and the Cabernet was a bit different. It was not great on the nose, but quite good on the palate. Black licorice stood out.

I didn’t spend a whole lot of time at the vineyard, and since I drove almost an hour to get here, I had to redeem my Sunday, and decided to go and visit an old friend of mine. He lives only about 20 minutes from where I was, so I just went and picked up some carrots real quick, ( he really likes that) and headed over to Southwind Farm, where he lives. His name is Muscle Hill, and he is a horse. I took care of him during his racing career, and we traveled all over. Now he is retired, and all he does is make babies. His first crop of babies will hit the racetrack this summer. He is, in my mind, the best trotter that ever lived, and I miss him. Can’t wait to see how his babies turn out.

   

Thinking that I had turned my day around, I picked up a bottle of French Pinot Noir (2009 Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire) on my way home. I might have messed up by pairing it with my salad with balsamic vinegarette, because I feel like I could have bought it at Unionville. That’s how bad it was. I was planning on having chicken later, so hopefully it will be better then. Not having a good day with wines. Oh well, it don’t happen to often. Cheers!

 

 

 

Corks…Synthetic, or Traditional?

I have been paying a little more attention to wine corks lately, and keep seeing new things. Until I tried the Arrogant Frog, I thought French wines would always have a real cork. (It had a screw cork) A lot of the California wines seem to have synthetic corks, and the wines from Down Under has a lot of screw corks. From what I understand; a screw cork, or synthetic cork is perfectly fine on a young wine. If the wine is not supposed to age, you will be ok with a cork that doesn’t let in oxygen. If you have an aging wine, you need a cork that will let unwanted gasses out, and oxygen in. The great debate “synthetic or real corks”, is really up to the winemaker to decide. Cutting cost with synthetic, or going with traditional corks to save the environment? Avoid cork taint, or avoid bleeding chemicals into the wine?

The Austrian wine ‘Skeleton” had a completely different cork again, just like old soda bottles or beer bottles. Haven’t seen that on any other bottles yet.

Then the other day I picked up a bottle of Red Knot Cabernet Sauvignon from Australia. This wine has plastic cork that I have never seen on any kind of bottle ever. I have a hard time describing it so here is the pics

Liked this wine. A little bold, but nice. Don’t think the cork ruined this one…

My personal opinion; there is something special about a traditional, real cork. And most important, you need to have that pop when the cork comes out. Cheers!

All About The Labels!

So, I guess I have to eat my words about the French wine industry, saying they are uptight. But that is quite alright. After I made that statement, I see fun French labels everywhere I go lol. The issue probably was that there is not that many French wines in the stores that I go to, and if I went to France, it would probably be even more of them.

I like label shopping. I’m on a budget with my wine buying/tasting, so that gives me something to play around with. And it lightens things up a bit.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a bottle of French Pinot Noir. Arrogant Frog from Jean Claude Mas. A nice Pinot that was not as light as some of the French I have tried. Could definitely taste cherries. I tried this wine with soft cheese and chicken, both paired excellent. Actually I even tried cooking with this wine. Not the best wine for that thou. Probably would have been better with a bolder wine, but after what I considered a great save (red wine vinegar, vegetable broth and honey for making up for too much red wine vinegar) my garlic, mushroom red wine sauce came out pretty good.

This was also the first French wine with a screw cork. All I had seen before this, was real corks on the Frenchies. Think I’m having a screw cork week. After using up the only bottle I had left in the house, for cooking…. I had to go to the store. (I have to finish preparing my taxes, so I can meet my accountant on Monday, can’t do that without wine, right?) Picked up another screw cork bottle from California!

OMG! Super sipping wine! This one competes with Cupcake Red Velvet for the throne of great sipping wines. This is desert in a glass, and you don’t need anything else. Kind of dangerous really. I might finish this bottle tonight, and who knows how my filing is gonna go. To be recommended: Scoops Red Wine Blend from Central Coast California!

I have to get back to that other job that I have to do, so happy Saturday, and keep sipping great wines. Cheers!

    

Officially a Wino!

It’s a fact; I’m officially a wino. The other day I went to see a new massage therapist (my old therapist moved back to Australia), and I drove to a town that I never go to. It’s just one of those things, I never go that direction for anything. And on my way home, I made a wrong turn, and there it was….. a Wine Store! One that I had never been to, and it was one that had a pretty good wine selection. Usually, the liquor Stores around here, have a better assortment of beers than wines, but this one was a Wine Store! So, here I was like a kid in a candy store, trying to find something within the budget, that would be both good and fun. And I didn’t get disappointed. Ended up with a couple of Frenchies again. I just can’t help it, French wines has made an impression on me.

Uncorked the first one tonight; a 2010 Josephine Dubois Pinot Noir, and it made a quite decent Sunday, Excellent! I Love French Wine! A light easy to drink Pinot, with raspberry, and a hint of chocolate. Paired well with grilled chicken in a garlic, mushroom, wine sauce. But as usual French wines pair sooo well with food.

Ok, the name “Dubois”, made me wonder a little. Since I was a little girl, the name Dubois is associated with one of the biggest horse racing families in the World. You see, my day-job is working with harness horses, and it has been a passion of mine my whole life. Seeing the name Dubois made me automatically wonder if they are some how related. Maybe a big powerful family like that, would be just as successful in the wine industry, as they are in the horse racing industry. So of course I googled it. But with no results, if anyone reading this knows something, please let me know, it would really be fun to know more about this, if there is a connection.

I’m just gonna keep sipping this delicious juice, Cheers!

Wine Tasting at Crossing Vineyards!

For once I didn’t have to work on a Friday night, so I put my heels on, and went to a “singles wine tasting”! Almost every Friday they have this event at Crossing Vineyards in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania. It’s about a 45 minute drive from my house, but I had been wanting to check it out for a while now, but I usually have to work Friday nights.

They charge you $10, and you get 6 tastings, and their bartender is very good. He kept everybody engaged talking about the wines, and telling jokes. It wasn’t a big crowd, only about 12 people, but still a nice experience. I got to meet some new people, and that is always fun.

As to the wines, it was good and bad. I guess I expected that. Chardonnay was dry, but quite good. Riesling, very sweet. Merlot I liked, it was dry, but nice. Merlot/Cabernet was my favorite for a while, until I got to try the Pinot Noir. Totally surprised me, Pennsylvania grown Pinot Noir! They don’t grow those grapes at the vineyard, but get them from somewhere in Pennsylvania. A great wine that was close to a French Burgundy in taste. My last tasting was the Cabernet Sauvignon, and it was, as the bartender warned me, too young. Not very pleasant.

I would definitely recommend the Pinot Noir, delicious. I didn’t meet the man of my dreams on Friday, but maybe next time! Cheers!

Burgundy Still My Favorite!

I have been kind of excited about learning about wines from Bordeaux lately. Tonight I was having chicken for dinner, and decided to try a French Pinot Noir (my old favorite).  I don’t know if there is a rule about calling a French Pinot Noir “Pinot Noir” or “Burgundy”, but I learned that “Pinot Noir” is the same as “Burgundy” in France. Anyway, my wine choise of the evening was a 2010 FAT bastard Pinot Noir. And again…. this is still my favorite region. A little fuller bodied than the previous Burgundy’s that I’ve tried, cherries, round and paired very well with my chicken dinner.

Reading the label, it sais that the two friends ( one British and one French ) created FAT bastard almost by accident. I must say an experiment that turned out very well. Looking forward to try more FAT bastard wines. Also the first French wine with a screw cork!

Tonight’s dinner – grilled chicken ( on the George Forman of course, love that grill, it’s the only way I can cook chicken without making it dry ) with a Dijon mustard sauce, and quinoa. Tried a different recipe for the sauce, warm this time, and it came out awesome. Who knew I could cook?

Think I’m gonna treat myself to another glass of this delicious juice while awaiting a new episode of my favorite show ( Criminal Minds ). Cheers!

Exploring Bordeaux!

Got brave, and went out and bought another Bordeaux. The last one wasn’t bad, and I found another one for only 10.99, 2009 Chateau La Barette Cuvée Prestige Bordeaux. A little strange on the nose, but excellent taste. Could taste black current and liqorice.

Excelled with my food pairings, first sandwich thins with Brie, later a homemade salsa with multigrain chips. Had big plans of making a fancy chicken dish for Sunday night dinner, but that never happened. I was quite happy with my salsa. I know that I’m not done exploring Bordeaux France. Hopefully I will be able to find more within my price range. A lot of the French wines cost a bit more because of the aging, and the wine industry there is controlled by many rules, which makes some wines less accessible, specially for us here in the US. But I will keep searching and tasting, so stay tuned! Cheers!

My First Bordeaux Purchase!

Made a visit to Wegmans last week, and they have a wine store that is absolutely awesome. The local stores around where I live, can’t come close to the selection they have at Wegmans. So here I am like a kid in a candy store, trying not to spend too much money. They have a whole section from France, and since I have been curious about Bordeaux, and really liked the ones at the tasting in New York, I wanted to get a bottle. Not many in my price range thou. I like to keep it around $10, but will in some instances pay $15. To bad they didn’t have any of the ones that I tasted in New York.

But to pick a bottle of French wine is easier said than done…. There is no description on the back…. How do you know what to buy?  I finally just picked one, almost doing “eeny-meeny-miny-moe”, and ended up with a 2009 Chateau Recougne Bordeaux Superieur. (only $10.99)

Uncorked this evening and at first I didn’t think it was that great. Very bold, a little dry, and dark fruits. I opened the bottle while cooking dinner, and now I thought, this wine is not going to pair well with my meal… catfish with a lemon caper sauce. But then again the French knows how to make a wine that will compliment a meal. It paired perfect. Obviously needed some air, and got better and better. It will not be my last trip to Bordeaux. Cheers!

WTF!!!

The social media and texting age is starting to influence the wine industry. This winemaker came up with his name through a text message. He gave a couple of wine samples to a friend, and the friend texted “OMG, good stuff”, the name TXT Cellars was born. The one I’m sipping tonight is “WTF!!!” A nice and light Pinot Noir, that reminds me a little of a French Pinot. Excellent sipping wine. Cheers!