Chateau Ste Michelle 2005 Columbia Valley Merlot takes the prize

I bet you’re dying to know what I drank the other night with my New York Strip steak–which wine took the prize so to speak. Let me give you a hint:

Day 2 Itinerary: Food & Wine Pairing at Ste. Michelle–The first stop of the day will take place at Chateau Ste. Michelle, Washington’s original Chateau and founding winery. Following a guided tour, our guest bloggers will enjoy an informative food and wine pairing experience.

Yes, you guessed it, I went with the wine selection from Washington State to add to my collection of posts about Washington State wines to compete in the WBC-or-Bust contest. And like I said in the previous post, it’s the one Washington State merlot the grocery store had–a 2005 Chateau St. Michelle. Makes sense for my first WA wine to write about it the first stop on the bus, yes? Maybe this will be a trend–or a direction on where to go with this series of posts!

The 2005 Chateau St. Michelle merlot is soft, supple, smooth and easy to drink; in fact I drank most of the bottle last night save one large glass to enjoy today as I write this post! The alcohol is a reasonable 13.5 so it didn’t knock off my socks (or any other clothing items!)

The color of the merlot is a deep concentrated plummy red while the nose is cherry and cola with some berry, plum, and licorice: typical, not surprising. It’s got lots of nice friendly fruit flavor, mostly cherry and other dark fruits; again, to be expected. At first I thought it too flabby, lacking structure, but the wine grew on me and it nicely complemented my steak with stilton crumbled on top. It did NOT go with the leftover potatoes from Wednesdays corned beef (ohh, but with the black and tan I enjoyed on Wednesday they were scrumptiously delectably matched!)

According to the Chateau St. Michelle website, food styles that match well with Merlot include

Mild to Intensely Flavored: Grilled salmon, roasted lamb, wild game, and balsamic or tomato-based sauces work well with the jammy flavors of Merlot.

Chinese: Merlot has a softer taste that lends itself to the flavors of Chinese food. Peking duck, mu shu pork, braised soy pork.

I can totally see this pairing nicely with the plum sauce and flavors in mu shu whether it be chicken, pork, duck, tofu or beef! They of course suggest one of their cabs to go with the steak!

The following day I had it with some crackers and cheeses included aged gouda and an aged goat cheese gouda. The merlot paired well with both and was a terrific way to celebrate what my grandma Gwenn called “Wine-Thirty.”

Overall, while merlot isn’t my favorite varietal, I’m not one to turn up my nose just because it’s merlot; I’m willing to give it a go and I’ve had some good ones. This 2005 Chateau St. Michelle is a great value on sale at $10. Bring it to a party and everyone will enjoy it. It’s a terrific, mild, juicy red wine for the white wine drinker.

Now to find another Washington Merlot to taste by Thursday! And guess what we’ll be having for dinner? That’s right–I’m going for Chinese take-out of Mu shu pork!

(This post clocks in at over 550 words–nearly 4 posts for the price of wine! Ummn, one! I’m thinking instead of number of posts, the contest should go with number of words!)

Twitter Tasting Event Picks Washington Merlot Thursday March 25

Thursday, March 25,  I will join in on the third Twitter Tasting event: Washington Merlot. The first one focused on California Cabernets and I tweeted enthusiastically about Old Creek Ranch’s Napa Valley Cabernet. For number two, my friend Tim Cabrera and I went to Summerland Winery where we tasted and he bought a bottle of their sauvignon blanc which is one of his favorite summertime wines (and I could sure see why!)

And since I am going on a Washington Wine tasting and blogging binge in order to compete in the WBC-or-Bust contest, it’s a no brainer that I will be participating in Thursday’s live Twitter Tasting for Washington Merlot.

Trouble is, I live in California, in a town some of us call “Ventucky.” It doesn’t boast much in the way of wine stores–although some people here do boast about our wine BARS. Granted, Nick’s Cave and the Ventura Wine Store is a wonderful place; however, he specializes in California wines, particularly local ones, and especially those that the distributor will give him marked down lower than some wineries are comfortable going.

So I went to Vons. We have five Vons in our small town, and fortunately for me, two of them have a decent wine selection. One of them, on Seaward by the beach, sells the most wine out of all the stores in California I’ve been told and makes the most money per square foot out of the whole chain. Probably because they carry and sell a LOT of pricey wine. CALIFORNIA wine.

I went to the Vons on Borchard. On their clearance shelf I got lucky and found one of my favorite inexpensive pinot noirs, Wild Rock, for 50% so I picked up two bottles for the price of one ($15)  plus a 2006 Babich unoaked chard for $5 and a Napa Valley White Oak Syrah for $13.

Unfortunately I could only find one Washington merlot, a 2005 by Chateau Ste. Michelle on sale for $10.

Since I bought six bottles, they took another 10% off. In addition, the other day I picked up two bottles of Ravenswood 2007 Vintners Blend at 50% off (two at $12), and I walked out of Vons with a 2008 St. Francis Chardonnay for $9!

This state of affairs is going to make it very very difficult for me to write much about Washington wines in the next month in order to be competitive in the WBC-or-Bust contest. I just bought nine bottles of wine and even at discounted prices, I spent some money, and I only ended up with one from Washington! And my Twisted Few wine club shipment just came in to my cellar up at my mom’s house!

If I get desperate enough, and move quickly enough, possible I could order wine for the event here: http://wine-beer-washington.com/announcements/washington-merlot-deals-discounts-and-doings/

One last dilemna: what to drink with the beautiful New York steak I bought for tonight? Do I drink the Chateau St. Michelle Washington merlot and get started on my challenge and prep my tastebuds for Thursday? Or do I drink one of these other fabulous wines I bought in the past 72 hours? I hope the suspense doesn’t get to you!

Want to join in the fun? Register for the Washington Merlot Twitter Tasting here; it’s free and you don’t even have to register to participate. Just get on twitter and let the tweets flow with the Washington merlot!

Word count: this one clocks in at nearly 600 words! I definitely should have turned this one into three posts!

WBC-or-Bust: Wine Predator Throws Hat Into Ring for Trip to WA Wine Country!

I’m signed up.

Signed up to what?

Compete in the WBC-or-BUST contest.

The what?

The WBC-or-Bust Contest!

Yeah, right!

No –Write! Write about Washington wines! Live it up! Be driven around to various top-notch wineries from Seattle to Walla Walla! Be wined AND dined! Stay in a way cool B&B along the way!

See the badge there on the sidebar? That means I’m official!

Well, can I go?

Only if you sign up and follow these “Rules & Guidelines”!

TO ENTER If you don’t already have one, create a free WineCHATr.com blogger account. Choose a “WBC-or-BUST” badge/banner from your WineCHATr.com account manager. Add the badge source code to your blog website, so that it is visible from any page.

Warning: This is a pain in the neck. But if I can do it, you can do it. They have a few badges to choose from. I like this one the best.

TO QUALIFY Once the WBC-or-BUST badge has been properly added to your blog website, simply blog about Washington wine throughout the span of the contest. No less than one Washington wine post must be published to remain eligible.

I don’t think this one will count, do you?

TO WIN 12 winning bloggers will be named at the conclusion of the campaign. Four (4) winners will be selected at random out of all qualifying participants. Two (2) winners will be chosen for posting the most Washington wine related blog entries (minimum of 150 words required for each post). Six (6) additional winners will be chosen for the best category based posting:

  • Top 2 Best Washington winery posts
  • Top 2 Best Washington wine or tasting note posts
  • Best Washington growing region post
  • Best Washington vineyard post

The huh? The final four winners will be selected at random out of all qualifying participants? Random? Can you see me scratching my head? Maybe 2 random and 2 because the writing overall was good or the person showed lots of potential or had proven her worth by blogging like a mad dog at other conferences?

Oh and FYI This post has 700 words if we count the title, well over the required number of 150 words per post. Since I tend to write posts of 750-1000 words, do you think I should break them into parts in order to be more competitive? Or add lots of extra words to my sentences?

A few more words in the fine print:

* Your blog has to have been started before the end of October 2009 (no problem there–I started this blog August 2008 and started psoting regularly October 2008; my main blog, Art Predator, I started November 2007).
* Washington bloggers/residents can’t compete (I’m definitely a Californian!)
* You have to have a ticket to WBC 10 (and those are selling out fast! I’m applying for a scholarship, but if that doesn’t come through, Reno is saving me a spot.)
* You have to make a 1 minute video and post it to you-tube and leave a link in your blog Just kidding! But here’s mine anyway! Just insert Washington Wine whenever I say M-G. I’m an equal opportunity blogger (within reason!)

Below are more details about this amazing opportunity. Check it out and you’ll see why I want to be on that bus or bust!

ROAD TO WALLA WALLA: June 23rd – 25th

DAY 1: Seattle & Woodinville Wine Country
WBC-or-BUST Preview - Day 1 Experience some of the best Washington has to offer from one of the premier food & wine destinations in the Northwest. {view itinerary}

DAY 2: Yakima Valley & Walla Walla
WBC-or-BUST Preview - Day 1 Travel across the Cascade Mountain Range to visit Washington’s premier growing regions and taste through a selection of premium wines. {view itinerary}

DAY 3: Start of the Wine Bloggers Conference
Arrive to Walla Walla in style just in time for the WBC with a deeper understanding of Washington and its thriving wine industry.

So here goes! Until this contest ends at the end of April, there will definitely be a Washington Wine slant to this blog. It’s gonna be a blast! And maybe I’ll get to blast off in June to my next wine adventure–in Washington!

Now to find my notes from the WA wines I tasted at WBC…they’re here somewhere!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #67 asks us to pair a red wine with a white wine drinker

What’s up for Wine Blogging Wednesday for March?

Joe, at 1WineDude.com, hosts Wine Blogging Wednesday #67 with a theme of Seeing Red For the First Time. Here’s the link to his blog to read his complete announcement.

Joe’s prompts us to “pick a red wine that you would use to introduce a white wine drinker to red wines for the first time.  Think of a person that only ever drinks white wine, and answer the question: What Red Wine would I use to convince that white-wine-only person that they should also drink reds?

“You can go as crazy as you like in your choices,” writes Joe.  “ANY still red wine is eligible.”

Participate by posting a comment to 1WineDude.com on or before March 24. Include the link to your review.

Joe’s prompt riled up reader Kevin who commented:

Dude, Pouring more red down the throats of white wine drinkers is like throwing a match on a forest fire, what’s the point and who will notice? I get sooo many knee jerk “I don’t drink white wine” whinges at tastings there is a greater good to be served. Expand consumers exposure to quality whites and the whole wine experience will be better for it. Tougher row to hoe but sooo much more satisfying. Saying that, very cool picture though.

I have no idea yet what I’m going to write about but I certainly don’t think it’s a lost cause to offer the right red wine to a white wine drinker. Maybe something from a tasting last Sunday up in Santa Barbara County? Something from the NZ tasting last week? Maybe inspiration will come from the bottling at Old Creek Ranch Winery this Sunday? Maybe this weekend I’ll spend a little time in the cellar or rummage through the empty bottles and notes I’ve been saving to write about?

What I should do, obviously, is choose a Washington red wine so I’ll have one more post up for the WBC-or-Bust competition. But that’s hard to do when I don’t know their wines very well.

Because what I really think this takes is knowing the white wine drinker. What kind of white wines a person likes will tip us off to what reds he or she might like…That’s what I’m going to be contemplating over the next week.

PS Happy St Patrick’s Day! I may have wine with my corned beef but what I’m really looking forward to is a black and tan and something Irish that starts with a “w”!

Portugal: bike paths lined with poetry & wine so good it rarely leaves the country

“The river of my village doesn’t make you think about anything.
When you’re at its bank you’re only at its bank.”

“The Tejo has big boats
And there navigates in it still,
For those who see what’s not there in everything,
The memory of fleets.”

Lines from “O Guardador de Rebanhos” by Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa (written under his pseudonym, Alberto Caeiro) Image of the Tejo And Lisbon Aquarium by Gwendolyn Alley.

Last fall, I wrote an essay for a contest to travel to Portugal to taste wine in the Alentejo Region and to write about it. I came in as runner-up but when winner Sonadora of the blog Wannabe Wino canceled a few days before, trip sponsor Enoforum Wines invited me to go in her stead and accompany their publicist Jo Diaz of Wine Blog fame; Sonadora went in January 2010 and posted extensively while there.

(In addition to traveling and tasting in the Alentejo Region,  I was also able to attend the European Wine Bloggers Conference. Read more about the contest and my entry: October 26, 2009 I’m a WINNER! Wine Predator to Attend European Wine Bloggers Conference & Enoforum Oct 30-Nov. 5!.)

Traveling in Portugal–exploring the scenic castles, discovering the delicious, flavorful cuisine, tasting the nicely balanced wines–was delightful and I jotted down as many of those experiences as possible and posted them as quickly as possible on my blog: I just didn’t sleep since my days were filled from dawn to well after dark! (I kept telling Jo, “we can sleep when we’re dead!”) Read about our whirlwind travels here.

I thought it would be easy to write about Portugal when I came home. I had lots of ideas for blog posts. But writing more deeply about Portugal and my experiences there proved problematic.

Writing about how and why Portugal impacted me and changed me is hard because my brief time in Portugal had a profound impact on me–and that surprised me. There are a number of reasons but one is that I had no idea that the Portuguese had such a reverence for two of the most important aspects of life to me: the land and literature. A bonus is they love to walk and ride bikes!

To write about Portugal is to try to express the importance of taking care of the land and expressing a love of life through the written word, through literature. Literature lives in the hearts of the Portuguese people–lit is not just a class they have to get through, literature and writers truly are revered by the Portuguese. Poets, playwrights, writers of all stripes are respected in a way I had never seen before–certainly not how we’re treated here in the US!

Likewise, living “green” and practicing sustainability is the way of life in Portugal. People who live and thrive in one place for so many generations learn this in order to survive there and not run out of natural resources. According to my host Delfim Costa of Enoforum Wines, unlike other European countries, Portugal’s priority was not colonizing. Instead they established a series of ports so they could keep exploring–and then return home again (and drink wine!)

Writing about Portugal in a way that honors it and really shows people why it is special is more difficult than I thought.

After our adventures in Alentejo, where we stayed in a castle with this view of the Roman Aquaduct, saw how closely people live to the land,  and enjoyed numerous meals of Portuguese cuisine paired with fabulous, affordable wines (most are under $20 US, around $10 in Portugal), Delfim drove us to Lisboa. We had a little time on our hands to explore and since our hotel was located on the waterfront near the Aquarium  that’s where we walked.

Inside the spacious aquarium, the best one I’ve ever seen or could imagine, instead of only interpretive text, the Portuguese chose to post on the walls marine-oriented poetry in English and in Portuguese.

Outside the Aquarium, we enjoyed walking along by the shore, the site of the 1990 Europian Exposition. Stalls which housed exhibits about various countries now were home to different restaurants featuring ethnic cuisines. The evening weather was mild and we saw plenty of people strolling and riding bicycles.

Our last very full day in Portugal was spent in Lisboa and the Palace at Sintra; our last dinner was in a restaurant featuring fado singers (Delfim interpreted the lyrics)  and incredible food. I would have enjoyed several days in each and I lapped up every moment: we even convinced the guard at Sintra to let us in after closing. I would have raced up the stone steps to the top if I wasn’t so concerned that Delfim and Jo would be worried.

We walked along the shores of the Tejo which greets the Atlantic near Lisboa and we saw under construction broad bike and pedestrian paths displaying roadways. As a cyclist, I was thrilled to see that Lisboa was making this move; I also knew that Lisboa recently hosted an Aeolian Ride (more Lisbon Aeolian ride photos here by Jessica Findley; I also plan to do a post about the Aeolian Ride there and in Santa Barbara in October). What better way to know a place than by traveling the countryside tasting wine and eating traditional meals or by getting out of a car to walk or cycle?

While I never did get a chance to go for a bike ride, the importance tot he Portuguese of language, of poetry, and of staying connected to the land resonated within me.

On our last morning, we went  to the Jeronimos Monastery and saw the tomb of the famed Portuguese poet Luis de Camoes (1525-1580) who led quite an adventurous life, traveled to India and China by ship, and more which enriches his epic poem The Lusiads about Vasco de Gama on the voyage that ultimately connected Europe to India. He is such an important figure to the Portuguese that his birthday is Portugal Day and quotes from his work are commonly and prominently placed on decorative edifices in Portugal. Read one of Luis Camoes poems here.

Because Enoforum Wines recognizes that a wine is more than the grapes, that it includes the poetry of the people who make the wine and live on the land, Delfim bought me a copy of the epic poem The Lusiads as well as a collection by Fernando Pessoa.

The following words by Pessoa grace the now open pedestrian and bicycle path. Watch a video of Portugal’s Poetic Paths here:

“The river of my village doesn’t make you think about anything.
When you’re at its bank you’re only at its bank.”

“Through the Tejo you go to the World.
Beyond the Tejo is America
And the fortune you encounter there.
Nobody ever thinks about what’s beyond
The river of my village.”

“The Tejo runs down from Spain
And the Tejo goes into the sea in Portugal.
Everybody knows that.
But not many people know the river of my village
And where it comes from
And where it’s going.
And so, because it belongs to less people,
The river of my village is freer and greater.”

“The Tejo has big boats
And there navigates in it still,
For those who see what’s not there in everything,
The memory of fleets.”

“The Tejo is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village,
But the Tejo isn’t more beautiful than the river that flows through my village,
Because the Tejo isn’t the river that flows through my village.”

Read more about Portugal’s poetry lined paths http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/portugals-new-bike-paths-are-filled-with-poetry-video.php.

Portugal offers so much more than port! Beautiful landscapes, an extensive literary tradition, stunning castles, amazing food, bicycle paths lined with poetry, and more! Yes, more Portugal posts coming up!

How To Bag Wine Drinking Millenials: Crazy Bear’s Approach vs Randall Grahm’s

Above is the back label copy for Crazy Bear’s Charbono-Nay wine which is trying to bag the Millenial Market.

Below is how Bonny Doon’s Randall Grahm responded to Mutineer Magazine’s question:  “What do you want millennials to know about your wine?”

“A lot,” answered Grahm.

One, wine is alive. Wine has an intelligence. Wine changes. Wine needs time to develop and you need time to understand it. Don’t make the judgment in a second.  Don’t think you understand the wine in a second. Be patient. Spend time. Invest time. The average person doesn’t grasp the distinction, doesn’t understand that there are wines that are made through industrial process, that are very dependable, very standardized. You’re not going to have this variation from year to year, but they’re confections, and then there are other wines that are more artisanal, maybe they’re flawed, but there’s something more authentic and real about them…honest.

Read more at Mutineer Magazine:
http://www.mutineermagazine.com/blog/randall-grahm/

(Confections! What a wonderful word to describe that process. I knew exactly what he meant.)

Learn about Crazy Bear Wine’s approach to bagging Millenials here. The writing here is a marvel as well. In a different way.

PS And instead of sandals, I’ll be sure to wear my Ugg boots with my Patagucci skirt this summer should I get a chance to bag me some #crazybear.

Sauvignon Blanc Live Twitter Tasting Thursday March 4

Rick Bakas from St. Supery is at it again! A few weeks ago, he organized a live twitter tasting about California Cabernets. Tomorrow, March 4 from 5-7pm, he’s hosting a Sauvignon Blanc tasting. All you need to do to participate is taste and tweet about Sauvignon Blanc wine. If you use the hashtag, #sauvblanc, then other participants will be able to track what you’re saying along with everyone else using, for example, tweetdeck.

He also suggest you get a few friends together and a few bottles of wine and tweet, taste, and talk your way through them. Sounds fun!

Last month, I knew exactly what I was going to be drinking: a Napa Valley Cabernet from Old Creek Ranch Winery. This time, I’m not sure–I need to rummage around and see what I have or make a run up the hill to my mom’s where I keep my wine in the cellar my grandfather built.

Maybe next live twitter tasting I’ll see if John Whitman of Old Creek Ranch or winemaker Michael Meagher would host a group of us tweeters…

If only the #sauvblanc tasting was next Thursday! I’d have so much more to write about because I am going to a HUGE New Zealand tasting with lots of great Sauv Blancs at Nobu in LA on Tuesday March 9! I hope to get a post up about some of the highlights of the tasting on Wednesday March 10.

And be on the lookout for a post about #calicabs as well as one on the two Petite Sirahs I enjoyed for my remote Dark and Delicious tasting!