November 23, 2011

Quick Wine Review: *****

Tonight is Thanksgiving eve, so last chance to eat a normal meal before ridiculously over stuffing ourselves.  Before going out to eat, we started off the night with some wine.  My brother's recommendation was a cab sav from California, not Virginia (ahem).  It was a pretty tasty wine, but I wouldn't say it was anything spectacular.  It was on the dryer side and wasn't as smooth as other cab's I've had in the past.

We decided to go out to dinner at Pappadeux to stalk my mom's dinner party.  I had some delicious fried calamari, shrimp cocktail and fried alligator.  Yummy. Afterwards, we went to the grocery store to get the final ingredients for tomorrow's Thanksgiving fest.  I'm pretty excited to start the holiday season!! When we got back home, we spent some time in the backyard with the puppies and then decided to finish off the night with some more wine.  The wine of choice was a barbera from Italy, which my Dad has really taken a liking to from our trip to Wine Country, USA.  I'm surprised since this is one of the older vintage's I've tried.  The barbera is a less dry wine with a bit of spiciness, but overall I think this is a pretty good wine and it is quite an enjoyable wine to sip.  We are going to watch the final episode of Harry Potter while finishing off the wine, so it will be the perfect way to bring in Turkey Day!

Name: Joel Gott 815
Vintage: 2009
Cork Type: Conventional
Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon
Origin: St. Helena, Napa County, California
Alcohol Content: 13.9%

Name: Barbera D'Asti - Castello del Poggio

Vintage: 2004

Cork Type: Conventional

Grape: Barbera

Origin: D'Asti, Italy

Alcohol Content: 13.5%

November 22, 2011

Quick Wine Review: *****

Tonight we are having another dinner party with Chris and Elena! I'm so excited to try his baked chicken that Elena raves about - the skin should be nice and crispy after having over a day to dry.  The plan is to have dinner and finish off the night with some games.

Name: Bonizio Sangiovese Di Maremma
Vintage: 2009
Cork Type: Traditional
Grape: Sangiovese
Origin: Toscana, Italy
Alcohol Content: 13%

Although the chicken turned out to be a little chewier than I expected,  it was delicious. The mushrooms are going to be my new addiction and I have decided to make the delicious mushroom medley that Chris made tonight for Thanksgiving. The wine was a more dry than I like, but overall it had a pleasant taste.

November 21, 2011

Quick Wine Review: *****

Tonight, I will be reviewing a wine brought over from Chris and Elena (C/E).  They have such great taste so I'm thinking it will be delicious.  We are making London broil with my favorite cabbage creation side.  I decided to put a twist on Chris' cabbage by using leeks instead of onions, so I am excited to see if it will turn out well - but then again, add a stick of butter to anything and it's pretty delicious.

The first wine had a fruity theme and definitely tasted a little richer once the tannins were allowed to breathe.  I think this is definitely a good value for the type of wine.

Name: Crane Lake
Vintage: 2010
Cork Type: Conventional
Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon
Origin: Sonoma, California
Alcohol Content: 12.5%













The second, our gift from C/E, was a red wine from italy.  We sampled this wine over one of our favorite games, Super Mario Brothers.  Unfortunately, it seems that some characters still seem to get those pesky Bowser treats in the red mushroom huts. These Italian wines always have a distinct flavor so compared to the first it had a lot more of a dry, woody flavor.  I think both were excellent, but the second had a more unique flavor than the first California wine and other Italian wines I have tried in the past. Both would make fantastic pairings with a Thanksgiving turkey meal!

Name: Vino Del Fratelli
Vintage:2008
Cork Type: Conventional
Grape: Montepulciano D'Abruzzo
Origin: Montepulciano D'Abruzzo, Italy
Alcohol Content: 12.5%

November 14, 2011

Quick Wine Review: *****  Pleasant Surprise!

Today I had a craving for a plethora of different foods so we had a protein rich, fiber rich meal with some of my favorite foods.  Shrimp cocktail, short ribs and butter cabbage...yum!  And of course, what goes better with my favorite foods than my favorite food pairing...wine!  We decided to try out the Texas wine that my mom brought over of which I had very low expectations.  It all started with the scary faced man who is plastered on the front of this bottle, and the fact that this is a Texas wine.  This was quite the pleasant surprise.  It paired well with everything that we had for dinner and was another easy drinking wine.  I would definitely recommend this scary face man red wine to any wine drinker.  Thanks Mommy!

Name: Becker Vineyards Iconoclast

Vintage: 2010

Cork Type: Conventional Cork

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon

Origin: Fredericksburg, TX

Alcohol Content: 13.8%

November 12, 2011

Quick Wine Review: ***** Easy drinking wines!

Today was all about getting into the holiday spirits.  Me and my mom went to the Nutcracker Market at the Reliant Center to kickoff the start of the holiday season.  It's like a winter wonderland with so many vendors selling Christmas decorations, delicious holiday treats and plenty of Christmas type gifts.  We spent a good 3 hours walking around checking everything out, after which I was completely beat.  My mom said that she could go all day looking around at everything, but I'm not sure I'm built to keep up with the best.  After our shopping extravaganza we went to Block 7 Wine Bar to get some much needed revitalization.  We ended up selecting two bottles of wine both of which were delicious.  The first was dryer than the second, so I preferred the second, although both drank pleasantly.  We sipped on our wines while indulging in popcorn with truffle oil, smoked salmon and delicious flatbread pizza.  We finished off the meal with a dessert which was a little too sweet for me.




Name: Chateau Coupe Roses Minervois La Bastide

Vintage: 2006

Cork Type: Conventional Cork

Grape: Blend - 90% Grenache, 10% Carignan

Origin: Minervois, France

Alcohol Content: 13%

Name: Crasto Douro

Vintage: 2009

Cork Type: Conventional Cork

Grape: Blend - 34% Touriga Nacional, 33% Tinta Francasca, 33% Tinta Roriz

Origin: Douro, Portugal

Alcohol Content: 14.5%

November 3, 2011

Quick Wine Review: ***** Very tart.


After an invigorating Thursday evening nap, my appetite is worked up and I'm ready for a delicious meal accompanied with some tasty wine.  I decided on the French Bordeaux to accompany the fettucine alfredo which would bring out the richness of the meal.  My first glass was quite tart and I thought a few minutes would give the tannins a chance to breathe and settle the flavor to make the wine smoother.  Unfortunately, close to an hour later, it is still as tart as the first drink.  I had to break up the sips with giving a follow up hair cut (faux hawk's are my favorite!), and washing the dishes.  I would not recommend this wine after the tart flavors really threw off the night.

Name: Graves Chateau Des Proms Cuvee Bellevue

Vintage: 2008

Cork Type: Conventional Cork

Grape: Blend - 70% Carbernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 5% Malbec, 5% Cabernet Franc

Origin: Bordeaux, France

Alcohol Content: 12.5%

October 24, 2011

It has been so long since my last post!  And I will admit, I have not been keeping up with the postings, but mostly because I didn't think anyone was reading my genius blogs.  I need to get a solid fan base that truly appreciates the delectable tastes of different wines.

Regardless, let's get started with tonights review.  Tonight we decided to go out to a new place to try some fresh, healthy food.  Zoe's Kitchen has quite the entourage of food to try, but I went with the Grilled Shrimp Salad which proved a good choice.  The place is right on Washington just a short distance from Sherlock Home.  I enjoy the thought of eating fresh food that is also healthy, so this was a premier pick.  We decided to take it "to go" so we could enjoy a nice bottle of wine with the meal.  The Shrimp Salad chose to be a good decision.  It had so many flavors that went well with tonight's meal.  I really enjoyed the Polka Dot themed label of the Grenacha wine.  I'm not sure I've had a Grenacha wine before, but it really enhanced the flavors of the grilled shrimp, feta and Greek sauce the salad was laced with.

I was able to enjoy the wine and dinner with a side of Dexter, Season 6 episode 4.  I must say, I really enjoy watching TV series back to back which is why I took a liking to the Dexter series.  But now I have to wait until each episode airs until I can get my fix.  Tonight's episode was especially dramatic, but I won't give away any details for the Dexter lovers that haven't yet watched it.

The bottle of wine has since been consumed and we are now on to watching the latest Parks and Recreation episode.  I'm excited to see what the show has been up to since we haven't been keeping up with it as readily as Dexter.  Either way, to epic TV shows equally worth taking time out of my busy Monday afternoon for a quality viewing.

Name: Monte Oton

Vintage: 2010

Cork Type: Synthetic

Grape: Garnacha

Origin: Bodegas Borsao, Spain

Alcohol Content: 14.5%