Category Archives: review

Pretty in Pink–Salmon & Pinot Noir: Father’s Day for Our Super Heroes

Since the Alaskan Copper River Salmon we found for Father’s Day was out of our budget at $33 pound, we made do with some fresh King salmon, simply prepared and lightly grilled with lemon, olive oil, pepper, and kosher salt.

And it was lovely, served with asparagus and basmati rice, for my husband, son and 90 year old father-in-law. The wine I chose was a 2006 Michel-Schlumberger pinot noir “Le Fou” and for dessert, I made a fresh strawberry and blueberry gallette with vanilla quark and vanilla ice cream which we enjoyed with a Penfold’s port. Yummy!

A little more about the wine: at the end of the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference, I went with a group to Michel-Schlumberger for a vineyard walk and wine tasting.  M-S is located in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma, a region most famous for its zinfandels, but M-S specializes in Bordeaux blends as well as a rhone blend and a small amount of pinot noir–a grape that very few people grow in Dry Creek, hence the name of the wine “Le Fou” or “The Fool.” Very generously, M-S gave us a 50% discount on any wine we chose to purchase that day. I invested in a case, most of which is gone, save a bottle or two of The Fool –since I bought 6 that day! (I think it retails around $30 so we got it for $15).

“Le Fou” grows on a steep slope in the most western portion of Dry Creek Valley,  on an eastern facing slope, a spot where the coastal fog creeps in and cools the vines making it possible to grow this “prickly” grape. The alcohol levels are still a bit high for a pinot (14.6% it says on the bottle) but the wine is nicely balanced–it doesn’t come across as too hot.

Be sure to serve this red wine (like all reds)  at cellar temp, not room temp. (That means in the low 60s not the 80s!)

What I like most is how complex it is: this pinot noir is not one of those simple one note strawberry pinots; it has a lot of bramble berries–raspberry, certainly, and blackberry, even a hit of blueberry (ok, not a bramble but a bush…) and some solid fresh cherry. There’s a bit of earth but it’s not very “truffley” –it’s actually more minerally.  The finish is long and rich.  It has nice body but it’s still a pinot, not a pinot passing as a full bodied wine.

What I also like about the Michel-Schlumberger is the care they take of the land: they have sheep, a pond, nesting birds, a “kitchen” garden, bees, and more. While they are not certified anything, they are sustainable by practice and by heart. I am looking forward to visiting the vineyard again this July with my 7 year old son!

I last tasted the 2006 M-S pinot noir in December during the pinot noir tweet up. I brought a bottle to a fundrasier for WEV (Women’s Economic Ventures), a holiday fair where I helped pour wine. This wine was clearly a favorite and I actually had to set the bottle aside to make sure I got some! I also brought this wine to a tasting at Burning Man; there were some amazing wines there and this one held its own. People were pleasantly surprised to discover it was a pinot noir from Dry Creek!

Not surprisingly, the color isn’t as pretty as it was years ago–it’s going a bit coral around the edges–but it is still pretty in pink.

Read on for our 2009 Father’s Day salmon dinner and wine!

Pretty in Pink Father's Day Celebration for Our Super Hero In the Pink Drink for Pre-Dad’s Day Celebration: Here’s MY SuperHero, sneaking in a nap between chapters of Melvin Beederman, Super Hero, one of their favorite chapter books to read and reread. And reread again. We couldn’t recommend Melvin more. The Dad comes highly recommended too. For the Big Monkey, aka Dad to the Small Boy, catching some extra shut-eye is a favorite weekend pastime. So is putting some sockeye salmon on the grill! Thank goodne … Read More

via Wine Predator

All Hail Caesar & an Infamous Goose

When I opened the Wild Rock Infamous Goose, the grapefruit aromas first knocked my socks off and then a thought crossed my mind and made me put my socks and shoes back on: I had to have this wine with my favorite caesar salad, made by Cafe Zack, and with or without anchovies, I didn’t care.

I mean, I really liked the wine. I did. But you see, I knew that my favorite salad would bring out the best in the wine and the wine would bring out the salad as well. And so I had to put my shoes and coat back on and go get one.

And I was soo right! It was so worth it!

What I love about Cafe Zack’s caesar salad is that it doesn’t taste like most: it’s light and fresh and lemony with just the perfect amount of garlic. Too many caesar salads are drenched in dressing: they’re greasy to me, oily, ugh. I can’t tell you the number of caesar salads that have disappointed me. I don’t even know why I bother–except that a well made one is so wonderful that I keep trying them…

And what to pair with salad can certainly be a challenge.

The pairing of the Infamous Goose with the Cafe Zack caesar made the salad creamier, richer while the wine’s grapefruit notes became more complex. According to the winery, Infamous Goose Sauvignon Blanc grapes grow in the river bed of the Wairau River in Marlborough. In the Winery, the juice was fermented in stainless steel and spent two months on the lees before fining and filtration. Tasting Notes: Fresh, crisp lime, grapefruit and cut grass aromas and flavors with lively acidity and a refreshing finish (and I’d agree!)

Of course you don’t have to run out and track down a caesar for your Goose. It would make a great afternoon summer wine and certainly go well with fresh seafood or grilled chicken. I bet it would be tasty with lox and bagels. Personally, I’m looking forward to having it with pesto made from arugula, rosemary and basil.

But if you can, discover its pleasures with a salad or two, caesar or otherwise, this spring or summer. It’s widely available for around $12.

PS Thanks to the folks who sent this to me as a sample–even if it meant I had to go back outside!

And if you’re a locavore looking for a locapour, or if you’re at Cafe Zack enjoying your salad, try Cantara Cellars Sauvignon Blanc. Zack’s tries to keep it on their list but I know both the winery and the restaurant are out until the new vintage is released.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #70: Celebrate with Spanish Sherry, Garnacha & Cava!

For over five years, each month wine bloggers gathered around a virtual fire to discuss a wine related theme or prompt. For a number of reasons, about a year ago Wine Blogging Wednesday waned and fell by the virtual wayside.

But some of us blew on the embers (by some tweets, blog posts, and other social media means), and lo and behold,  Lenn Thompson of the New York Cork Report got the fire going once again!

This month Wine Blogging Wednesday #70 comes to you from Ryan and Gabriella Opaz of the award winning blog catavino.net. Their prompt, not surprisingly from bloggers who specialize in wines from Iberia, is to blog about a Spanish wine today, Wednesday February 16 and to let them know about it!

They suggest we

Seek out Spanish wines that you’ve never had before! Get creative! Hunt for unique styles such as a Sherry, Cava, Fondillon or Mistella; an unheard of region like Arribes, Txakoli de Alava or Extremadura; or a unique native grape like Prieto Picudo or Treixadura

On Monday February 7, I  wrote about a Spanish Amontillado sherry for the Secret Sherry Society which I paired with Belgian chocolates and which was hard enough to find!  I found it equally difficult to find any obscure Spanish varietals that would allow me to an obvious way to get creative.

For this post, trying to find some unusual angle, I considered visiting a local wine bar, The Wine Rack, which sells Spanish wines made from familiar varietals  like cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay that taste familiar to American palates and are under $20. Owner Seana even offered to open any wines I wanted for me to taste (and write about!)

Instead, I went to the Ventura Wine Company, which, while lacking much of a selection of unusual Spanish varietals, did offer a few of one of my favorites.  I settled with choosing a varietal  I love grenache, or, as it’s known in Spain, garnacha, and tried two versions of it, a Vina Borgia Campo de Borja 2009 which retails between $6-10 and a Tres Picos Borsao 2008 which can be found from $15-20. Continue reading →

Which wines to serve for a Happy Thanksgiving?

For weeks now, the wine bloggosphere has been dizzy with recommendations for wines to pair with Thanksgiving meals, especially how to find wines that will work with everything from appetizers to turkey to pecan pie!

The answer is: bring a bunch of different wines!

As you can imagine, I am the wine person in our gatherings. I usually bring Continue reading →

Part 2: Global #Zinfandel Day–AUS Glaymond & Paso Robles Bianchi

To celebrate Global #Zinfandel Day, I decided to open something special, something unusual–something from Australia to toast the 47th birthday of my Australian friend and fellow blogger Paul Squires who had a heart attack and died July 28, two days before my mother died of heart failure.

Paul was one of my strongest supporters as a blogger, as a writer, and as a poet. He was my online buddy with whom I could plot and scheme and strategize. We shared links and ideas and gave each other feedback on many elements of social media and writing.

So when I realized that Global #Zinfandel was his birthday, I knew I’d be drinking one of the two Australian zinfandels in the cellar my grandfather built, wines that Grateful Palate founder Dan Phillips selected for me at one of his warehouse sales.

It was a toss-up between Continue reading →

Part 1: Global #Zinfandel Day = Zin-tastic!

So how did I spend the 24 hours of Global #Zinfandel Day?

Reveling in Zin of course! I tasted 4 zins: The Big Green Box Old Vine Zin, Four Vines Old Vine Cuvee 2007, Glaymond Barossa Valley 2003, and Bianchi Zen Ranch 2007. This post discusses the first two wines, and in a second post I’ll write about Bianchi and Glaymond.

To celebrate Global #Zinfandel Day Friday Nov. 19,  I started in on zin on Thursday with a Four Vines 2007 Old Vine Cuvee which I picked up at The Ventura Wine Company for $11.

I admit, the Old Vine Zin Cuvee wasn’t the wine I wanted from Four Vines. Last year, I’d gone in to buy  another bottle of the Biker ($20 at VWC, $28 from the Winery) which Wine Spectator placed in the Top 100 of last year’s releases. The Biker was a fantastic example of zinfandel, Continue reading →

Lucky me–I won a copy of Corked!

My pal Jo Diaz ran another contest, and yes, I won! Her granddaughter pulled my name out of the hat, the last name of six winners of a copy of a book that Jo recently reviewed on her site, WineBlog.Org. So what’s the book and why do I want to read it?
According to Jo’s post which reviews the book, Kathryn Borel is an important new author, who recounts a road trip in France with her dad in Corked, a memoir “that’s filled with love, pain, and emotional growth through pushing the envelope.”

Jo says, “Her style of writing is very easy, raw, and revealing as she and her father Phillipe Borel ~ a retired hotelier and former chef ~ drive themselves through Alsace, Burgundy, Cotes du Rhone, and the Languedoc.” She continues later in her review that, “The book is filled with little revelations, and we’re all included in their journey, from solving all of the things that can, and sometimes do, go wrong between a daughter and a father.”

Sounds good to me!

Thanks to Jo and Hatchet Book Group for the new book!