A Toast to Me!

In true “Claudia’s going to try wines” style, I went to a friend’s house to celebrate the release of his first published article.  A very good friend of mine brought out some of his wines for us to try, talk about generous because I was there about 4 hours and at that time, guests had gone through nearly 4 cases of wine!  Peter, knowing that he is responsible for the creation of this particular wine-fanatic, pulled out a special bottle that he purchased years ago- and he shared it with me .  He popped the cork and poured me a taste of what had to be one of the best wines of the evening (aside from Army of Geese, of course!).   It was a bottle of 2003 Domaine Alfred Pinot Noir from Edna Valley.  I say “was” because it quickly became the hush-hush, “you’ve got to know somebody to try it” wine.  The nose was fruity, yet earthy.  The alcohol and the tannins had smoothed out and I dare say that for every review I’ve read today stating that the wine was just “ok”, that you opened the bottle up way too early – because this wine was at it’s prime my friend!  It was delicious and #YUM, and that would be an accurate way to describe it.   

To say that the other wines Peter poured that evening were less than DELICIOUS would be inaccurate as they were stellar!  Peter poured a French Beaujolais, for which I can’t think of the vintage nor vineyard/winery, that I had eyed almost 3 years ago.  I never had the chance to try it then, but was so glad that I was able to taste it now.  Truth be told, I was so impressed that 2 bottles made it home with me *shhh*.  (Hi Peter! )

The next wine that I was patiently waited to try was Volatus.  I am going to go out on a limb and say that it was the 2004 that we opened.  I remember trying it at the last Loose Goose Wine Festival, for those that attended the festival this was the wine poured by the woman wearing a flight suit.  At the time, I remember thinking that this wine was REALLY young, but that it would be delicious when it was ready — well, let me tell you, it’s READY!  The wine is very well balanced, just enough tannins that make you want to take another sip and enough fruit that give it a wonderful flavor.  I can’t wait to try it again in about 6 months – 1 year to see how it holds up — I have high expectations!

And, of course, we had the 2005 1667 Army of Geese, which is just a treat in its own right.  For those of you who have tried it, you know what I’m talking about.  It’s so easy to drink, rich yet approachable.  Delicious with any meal, and so satisfying on its own — you can never go wrong with Army of Geese.

Such a delicious, rewarding, fulfilling evening – full of wine, friends and accomplishments.  I was both thrilled and honored to be a part of it and look forward to the next one!

Wine

Last week I was struggling with the menu for a wine pairing afternoon that myself and a friend were hosting.  The start of the planning process was a little labored (see last week’s post), but eventually turned into a delicious treat for 6 friends to share.  The following was our menu:

We started off with a few simple starters that included various cheeses along with pita chips and a pepper jelly dip paired with a Mezzacarona Moscato.  The spice from the jelly dip, the saltiness from the pita chips and the sweetness from the Moscato were just perfect together. What an unexpected treat!

We followed with a chilled Gazpacho that had concentrated flavors of cucumber and paired it with a Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc from Spiral Wines.  The pairing worked well and at less than $5/bottle, the wine proved to be a a true value wine for our end of summer afternoon.

Next was a crunchy avocado salad, a Bobby Flay recipe from Foodnetwork.com, which we again paired with a Sauvignon Blanc, this time from Kim Crawford Vineyards. I really wasn’t sure if the pairing would work because of the tomatoes and the vinegar from the salad, but again we were surprised to find that the pairing was very light and refreshing.

One of my favorite summer dishes to make was the next one, a Smoked Salmon, Avocado & Mango sandwich.  I first found this recipe in Tom Colicchio’s book titled ‘Wichcraft.  It’s a rich, yet light sandwich that reminds me of my trip to Maui years ago.  I wasn’t sure what to pair this with, so I went to my wine rack and found a rose’ that shared its coloring with that of the smoked salmon – let’s try it.  The sandwich itself was amazing, and the wine was itself was good.  I think the pairing would have rocked if we had hosted this celebration a few months ago, or if it was a younger bottle — but overall the pairing was successful, thank goodness!

Probably one of the most anticipated recipes of the day was another Bobby Flay dish – Grilled potato and Goat Cheese Napoleon with Balsamic-Basil Vinaigrette which we paired with a Viognier from Poet’s Row — How delicious does that sound? Well I can assure tell you that this was so yummy that I confess to making it for the follow 2 nights for dinner!

The meal concluded with a dish that I admit to being skeptical of at first — a light bread pudding recipe from Hungry Girl which was paired with a Ste. Domaine Michelle Brut Sparkling Wine.  The wine I wasn’t concerned about, but the bread pudding…. hmm.  Well to my surprise, the bread pudding was decadent and really really really good!

We chalked the afternoon up to another successful celebration – complete with delicious wines, amazing food and irreplaceable friends.  I’m SOOO looking forward to the next one!

Wine, Wine Pairing

Well I haven’t gone anywhere, i guess I just haven’t been turning my computer on at home (which is where I would blog from) when I get home from work. So what have I been up to? Well, wine of course! Oh and my recent explorations have included discovering the world of coupons – hey we’ve got to bank roll the wine somehow, right? Anyways, I do have a few bottles that I need to review and I promised I would blog about it.. so stay tuned because I plan on posting much more frequently than I have been! Hugs….

Wine

Little known fact about me is that I’m kind of a foodie — by that I mean that I enjoy cooking and I actually think I’m pretty good at it.  But I don’t only enjoy cooking, I enjoy exploring new recipes, learning new techniques (because I don’t know that many) and trying new foods.  The reason I bring this up is because I was only this evening looking for a good and affordable set of cutlery.  So of course, after traversing through one of my favorite web sites – Food Network — I opted to check out overstock.com — where I came across a unique set designed by Italian designer Raffaele Ianello.  Who is Raffaele Ianello?  <shrug> beats me, but according to his website, he designs “cutting edge, ground breaking and thought provoking products” — I’ll say!  The design I saw that made me think WTF was this one:

Twisted right?  And get this — this is called “The Ex”!  Overstock.com’s description reads:  “Though frowned upon by many, stabbing your ex can really give you some closure, although it’s often the kind of closure that leaves you closed for thirty to life.”  And it goes on to say that the set not only “makes a great gift for any occasion and it’s also considerably cheaper than therapy”  Like really?  I’m not sure if I’m more disturbed, or if I find it more funny than anything else — or maybe I should be disturbed about the fact that I find it funny???

So of course I had to do more research on this piece, along with others from Mr. Iannello.  I learned that The Ex has made its movie debut in Jim Carey’s Yes Man! And that Mr. Iannello also has another piece called The Five Finger Fillet which houses steak knives….

Crazy right?  All I know is that whereas I wouldn’t buy it for my kitchen, and no matter how twisted they are, they’re definitely conversational pieces that are pretty funny.  If however, you find that this is something that you would like for your kitchen, then check out overstock.com or Mr. Iannello’s website at http://www.ricsb.com/us.

Wine cutlery, food network, foodie, iannello, knives, overstock.com, raffaele iannello

This evening I had the impromptu pleasure of meeting up with a close friend of mine to visit a new wine bar, Roman Holiday, which just opened (like yesterday) in Santa Clarita. I say visit loosely because (a) we wanted to meet up somewhere where we could talk and catch up on the happenings of our lives, and (b) because it’s a wine bar and we’re wine people, so why not review the wine bar while we’re there? The place is actually quite beautiful, the ambiance absolutely receives an A+. It’s warm, refined, comfortable and unpretentious – and they have a good number of wines available to taste. There is no menu to speak up, except for the chalk-writing on a dark wall listing the available cheeses, meats and sides. The wines require you to walk around and see what is being offered from the self-serve, portion controlled, wine dispensers. Quite honestly, I think it would be pretty cool to have one of those dispensers on my kitchen counter – but that would require a kitchen counter, and a kitchen, and a house, and that’s an entirely other blog! Anyways, the dispensers are pretty neat. This is how it all works:

• purchase a wine card – which is very much like a prepaid gift card
• grab a glass
• walk around and select your wine
• slide your wine card into the slot – and leave it there. Your balance is displayed before you.
• Select your wine and your desired pour — a taste is 1 oz, a 1/2 glass is 3 oz and a full glass is 5 oz
• the cost of your selection is automatically deducted from your prepaid tasting card
• Enjoy.

It’s all fairly simple and pretty fun — my friend described it best when he said it was like going to Vegas because it goes quick!

While enjoying the wines, you have an option to purchase a small cheese, meet or combo plate. I opted to purchase a combo plate, which includes 3 items and 3 sides — for a mere $15. I say that sarcastically, because once you see how much food you get, you realize that like Vegas, the favor goes to the House. It was tasty, but rather sparse. Good thing I had some cheese in the fridge at home to munch on later.

Let’s talk about the wine selection – there were some good ones, like the flight of Far Niente they offered, over to some not-so-great ones, which I already forgot about. Our favorite for the evening had to be the Cab/Zin blend named The Vault from Banknote Cellars — yummy. A 1/2 glass was about $6.20 – and worth every cent! I did try a wine that I had high expectation of, only to find that it had already turned. When I brought it to the attention of management, politely of course, the explanation I received was that it was ‘performing as expected’. What does that mean? “Performing as expected”? All I know is that it wasn’t good and it wasn’t getting any better — so if she meant that it’s bad and it’s getting worse, then I’d say that she described it to a “t”! Otherwise, my unsolicited advise would be to remove it from the kiosk and replace it with a fresh bottle.

On another note, when I got home, I began wondering what exactly a “roman holiday” was, so I looked it up. Apparently it has 3 definitions –

1. A 1953 production staring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck (he was cutie) where a princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American in Rome
2. Enjoyment or satisfaction derived from observing the suffering of others.
3. A violent public spectacle or disturbance in which shame, degradation, or physical harm is intentionally inflicted on one person or group by another.

I’m hoping that the name of the wine bar stems from the movie. If it doesn’t then I’m wondering if Roman Holiday is going to “perform as expected” in a community which already has a fairly decent number of wine establishments pouring delicious wines.

Overall, I’d rate Roman Holiday as a B-. It’s definitely above average, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. I look forward to seeing what is to become of Roman Holiday, because the space and atmosphere are top notch. Would I go again? Sure!

General, Wine Roman Holiday, santa clarita, valencia, Wine, wine bar, wine review, wine tasting

A couple of weeks ago I stopped off at The Celler to pick up my WSET certificate — that’s right, I passed (with Merit, baby!)!  I met up with Eve (if you haven’t seen her blog, you should check it out, the link is in my blog-roll) and a few of her friends — and the fun begins . Not only was there a wine tasting going on, but there were delicious appetizers that I didn’t have to pay for on our table — and a scrumptious steak that Eve and I split for dinner — YUM!  Anywho….  fast forward past the introductions and tasting the wines offered (which, truth be told, weren’t anything really worth writing about) and we ended up talking about our favorite wines — hence the question — if you were stranded on an island with only one bottle of wine and a CD, what would they be?

Mike:   Mike’s a writer, and I’m sure something else during the days, and it took him no time at all to answer — Carlisle, any bottle, accompanied by Steve Earl’s Transcendental Blues.  (I’m not even sure who that is really, but the Carlisle that Mike opened that night was DELICIOUS — so two thumbs up there Mike!)  (Oh and thanks for sharing that bottle!).

Karen:  Karen, I learned, is in the insurance business  (I empathize my friend) and she’s a big fan of Turley Wine Cellars — anything Turley really.  Karen’s husband, Mike, also opened up a bottle of  Turley that evening and I have to admit, it was very tastey!  As for her music — she prefers the Whitman tapes, 1960, the original audition tapes.  (I may have to do a search to see who they are, but she was passionate about them, so I imagine that they’re pretty good too.)

Vic:  Vic’s into wine — and his wine of choice, after much thought,  is from Caymus – yellow label preferably.  His music – The White Album, a classic.

Christy:  Chisty’s  choices includes Billecart Salmon 1998 white label brut with anything from the Beatles

Shipwreck Bob:  Bob’s into photography and diving, and apparently he was able to marry the both and turn it into a carreer (nice!) — Bob’s wine comes from Paso Robles with Midnight Cellars 2005 Petite Sirah.  His choice in music is going to be Gordon Lightfoot’s Golden Album with The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald.  I just read the lyrics, talk about intense!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then there’s me — Because it’s been so elusive, I originally chose Seasmoke Southing Pinot Noir, but then decided upon something even MORE elusive in the 2005 1667 Army of Geese along with some of my favorite  country music Garth Brooks – the box set.  Army of Geese + Garth Brooks, to me, is a fantastic way to spend the day!!!

General, Wine

Today was test day.

I got out of bed early and made my way over to class for the Wine & Spirits Educational Trust (WSET) Level 2 certification test — but not before the obligatory stop at Starbucks for some liquid comfort to get the day start right.  I arrived an hour early and sat in the car re-reading my course notes while sipping my Chai Latte.  Thank goodness that I did that!  I found that the majority of the test questions were from my course notes — something that I didn’t look at while preparing for my study group sessions — but at least now I know — Read the notes!

I walked in and took my seat and waited for the test to begin as I was really planning on relying on my short term memory from everything I just read.  I opened my test — 50 questions.  The first one threw me for a loop and then admit to becoming just a little intimidated.  But then, I decided to read all of the questions and answer the ones I was certain of.. which was actually a little more than 1/2 of them – <insert sigh of relief>.  Then I went back and read the remaining questions.  Questions included things like understanding the characteristics of a LBV Port along with knowing what wines were made of Gamay and the bases of a spirit that I didn’t remember even reading about.  In the end, I do think I did alright.    The hardest part now will be the waiting period for test results and I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

General, Wine Education, WSET

Next week I’m set to take the WSET Level 2 certification test and today I’m spending the day studying everything from flavor characteristics to wine producing regions, the effects of the climate up through the production of Spirits. It’s a lot.

One of the areas that I admit to be struggling with is the wine regions themselves. Sure I know the basics, like hot climates tend to produce more tannins and cool climates tend to produce more acidity. And this alone would be a HUGE help if I actually knew the climates of the parts of the world residing between the 30th and 50th parallels. Unfortunately geography wasn’t something that I really take an interest in unless I’m about to board a plane – and even then the interest may be limited to a glance on the final pages of the in-flight magazine.

So I find myself today looking up climate maps and writing study questions. The questions are for use in tomorrow’s study group session – the maps are for me so that I can get a better idea of where exactly Stellenbosch, Coonawarra and Vin de Pays d’Oc are located. (In case you’re wondering, it’s South Africa, Australia and France respectively.)

Wine, WSET

I’m so excited!  I took the plunge and signed up to take the WSET Level 2 course.  For those of you that don’t know (cause I didn’t!), it’s the Wine & Spirits Education Trust Level 2 course which ends in a test for level 2 certification. What does this mean?  Or what will this do for my career, as my mom wanted to know when I told her I was taking the course, um, I don’t know, I’m not taking it for my career, I’m taking it because I want to!   If you didn’t know, I love love love wine.  I love everything about it.  A lot of people drink wine, but I admire it and I want to learn as much as I can about it.  That’s what you do when you admire something — it’s kind of stalker-ish like — guess I’m guilty!

Our materials (hope Eve doesn't mind me borrowing her image! evewine101.blogspot.com

Anyways, I started looking over the materials this week — it’s a lot.  It’s funny because much of what I read, I remember having learned it at some point. But when it’s all located in a single book, that’s very “to the point”, it appears a bit overwhelming.  There’s a lot of vocabulary that I’ve heard and that I haven’t heard before — like “out of condition” and “cork taint”.   Whereas I know what cork taint is, I hadn’t heard out of condition before.  Basically out of condition means that the wine has been damaged by the air – I had always described it by stating “um, it’s bad”.

Then there are all of these wine pairing rules that we need to be familiar with.  Again, it’s nothing really new, but I had never seen it listed, all on 2 pages none-the-less.  Place the rules on a couple of tablets, ask Moses to reveal them in Sinai and we’d have 12 wine-pairing commandments:

1. Thou shall match weight and richness of food with a wine’s weight and body.
2. Thou shall match flavor intensity of the food with that of the wine
3. Thou shall match acidic foods with wines high in acidity
4. Thou shall match sweet foods with sweet wines
5. Thou shall not pair oily or salty foods with high-tannin wines
6. Thou shall pair chewy meats with tannic wines
7. Thou shall pair salty foods with sweet or acidic wines
8. Thou shall pair fatty and oily foods with highly acidic wines
9. Thou shall match flavor characteristics of the food with that of the wine
10. Thou shall pair smoked foods with oaked wines – the greater the smoke, the greater the oak
11. Thou shall pair spicy foods with wines that are made of ripe, juicy fruit with little to no oak
12. Thou shall pair fruity flavors with fruity and floral wines.

The rules, there we have them.  That brings me to page 9.  Yup, you read it right, page 9!  only 91 pages to go!  Thank goodness for Monday’s Study Group!

Wine, WSET

As you know, wine is something that is really important to me.  I enjoy tasting it, I enjoy learning about it, I enjoy speaking about it and I enjoy discovering it.  Next month a local wine shop is hosting the WSET course – a 2 day course that prepares you to take the WSET certification exam.  Now I’m really not sure what I would do with that certification, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I REALLY want to take these classes.  So what’s holding me up? $$ Money $$.  Keep your fingers crossed that I can come up with the money – and if you have any ideas on how to subsidize the costs, then I’m all ears.  In the meantime, the next month will definitely coin me a homebody because every extra penny I have is going into the WSET fund.  Wish me luck!

Wine