Was Albarino Day yesterday August 1 or today August 2? Or every day? Depends on who you ask!
With the “Sixth International Albariño Days” set for August 2-7, 2017, TAPAS invites you to celebrate the Albariño grape with the hashtag #AlbarinoFiesta or check out one of these TAPAS events.
Harney Lane Albarino paired with fish tacos with mango? YES!
Celebrating Albarino this week coincides with the Fiesta del Albariño held in the small coastal town of Cambados, Spain, a traditional home for Albarino in Rias Baixas, Galicia region of northwestern Spain known for producing crisp, acidic white wines ideal for seafood and other pairings.
The back of the Atlantis Albarino sports a handy map of the region of Spain.
By the midway point of 2017, I published 54 posts; add in July and I’m up to 61. Not too bad if I may say so myself. My goal is the lofty and auspicious number of 108 — an average of two a week– and I would say I am on track to achieve that goal as long as I publish 8-10 posts each month for the rest of the year… and since I average 1500 words per post, that’s another 150,000 words!
I could NOT do this without a strong team — thanks so much to Sue Hill who joined in the fun about five years ago, in 2012. She’s awesome in the kitchen and taking notes — plus she has a great palate.
Marshall grilling burgers with Sue a blur in the background
And a huge thank you to Marshall for all of his help in the kitchen and on the grill — he does almost all of the grilling and the meat as well as most of the dishes and I’ll tell you there are plenty used when we are staging photos!
So what went down in June and July of 2017 and what’s up for August?
the wine that inspired the party… which I thought was a Lodi zin…
And what can you do? Well, how about hosting a tie dye party? That’s what Sue and John did! With plenty of zinfandel and burgers too!
Because anyone can throw a backyard BBQ but why not mix it up by offering a craft or organizing a tasting? And make it easy by offering a burger bar with sides prepared in advance and shared potluck style!
We invited a bunch of people and we gathered a case or so of different bottles of Zinfandel– and one Tie Dye red blend. One person supplied the tasting note sheets, and we opened the bottles around a big table with some appetizers in the center. While the corn and turkey and beef burgers were cooking, we tasted the wines and wrote down our notes and votes. We encouraged folks to taste the white zin first but other than that, people tasted the wine that was closest to them and in general worked their way clockwise around the table. Then we converged on the burger bar, loaded up our plates, and tasted the wines with food. And at one point or another, people did some tie-dying!
Barry and Edie getting their tie dye on!
And this is what we came up with!
Note: We had everyone vote for their favorite #1, #2 and #3 by placing a raffle ticket in a jar with the number on it. We assigned first place votes 3 points, second place votes 2 points, and third place votes 1 point. If a wine received a #1 vote, I wrote the score down. Read on to see which one won!
July! You have slipped by so fast we almost missed out on our monthly edition of Taco Tuesday!
This month we are inspired by a fresh strawberries, lime, and shrimp recipe from the current issue of Edible Ventura County paired with three crisp, bright white Viura wines from Spain.
This simple menu let the wines shine– and brought out all of the various flavors in the food! MAGIC!
The crunch of the jicama with the bit of strawberry makes this taco a unique combination of flavor explosions. I loved the strawberry notes with these wines. This wine and food pairing for this evening was over the top, the food the wine, it all went perfectly. Bright acidity in wine, and bright acidity in the food.
Appetizer
Mexican shrimp cocktail with chips
Oysters from the Baja’s Jolly Oyster and Vons
Main course
Strawberry shrimp tacos with strawberry jicama salsa
WINES from Spain
All three wines wowed us — so good with the food! So refreshing for the price! All three $12 or under.
— Gwendolyn Alley, Art and Wine Predator (@ArtPredator) July 12, 2017
Sue and I learned the secret of “wine, cheese, wine” and more during a tasting of three wines from Niven Family along with a selection of cheese and pâté from Fromagerie Sophie, a lovely little cheese shop nestled in delightful downtown San Luis Obispo on tiny Garden Street that carries cheeses, meats, pâté, and other incredible imported goodies from around the globe. We love our cheese and wines so what a perfect stop on our recent SLO county adventure!
Sue and I creekside in San Luis Obispo NOT drinking wine but a signature whiskey cocktail from SLO Brew using their own whiskey which you can get in a drink OR you can buy if you stay in the Loft!
When Sue and I drove north on the 101 through a smoky Santa Barbara for our summer San Luis Obispo County getaway, we had appointments at wineries and a cheese shop plus one place to stay lined up for our three nights away. Little did we know what adventures awaited — including BEER and whiskey! In fact, we had a bit of a BEER-CATION!
Because it just so happened that SLO Brew Lofts had space for us to stay there our first night on the road!
We had visited SLO Brew when they first opened in their new creek side location and we knew we had to come back when it was more established– and to check out the Lofts which opened a few months later, and the Distillery which has its grand opening tomorrow, Sat. July 22.
A year later, the new SLO Brew location is a rockin’ spacious, hip, happening, and happy spot along the creek pedestrian path with live music most evenings until 2am. The new luxurious Lofts located above will make you feel like a rock star! And the Distillery? Well it literally ROCKS as you will see as you keep reading! And, being creekside, it’s a little bit country too! Continue reading →
This month’s French #Winophiles challenge is to find, taste, and write about wine from the Southwest region of France — or in French, Sud-Ouest. Like the name suggests, the region is located in the southwest of France: south of the more famous Bordeaux and west of the lesser known Languedoc.
We found several yummy cheeses from South West France at Fromagerie Sophie! Pictured: owners, educators, cheesemongers Paul and Sophie
According to Wikipedia, Romans cultivated wine grapes there long before Bordeaux!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 