Good Morning!

I have totally sucked as a wine blogger recently. I have sucked as a blogger in general. I have been inconsistent and not focused. If I were in the normal work world, my boss would have pulled me in the office and said something like this…What’s up with missing deadlines, not hitting your goals, not giving people information they need to enjoy wine, why are you late, if you are not a regular with your blogs, you have followers, they will leave you and forget about your fun insight to trying and making wine. They want to hear about your business launching, they will some day try your wines…they are going to forget you! Then my boss would say…You are on an ACTION plan to get you back on track.

I only know how this plays out because I managed people and myself for years. I have had this conversation with others and myself several times. I was in sales and recruiting for years and I had to make a certain amount of calls per day, close a pre-set amount of deals, bring in XX amount of cash and that was how I was judged and that was how the folks I managed were judged. After all the years I lived that life, that feeling of slacking off never leaves.

I will just apologize, I have been on vacation and now I have a house full of company….I promise with all my heart that next Monday July 18th I will become consistent and every Monday – Friday I will be a constant flow of wine fun again, until harvest and I will then be buried in manual labor for 12-14 hours a day!

I do have piles of tasting notes and will be blogging about the wines I found to be the most interesting and fun again very soon.

But during my blogging siesta I have been reading some really fun wine information and thought I would share something that really struck me. The article was by Master Sommelier Fred Dexheimer and he discusses “matching” food and wines by color.

He talks about Green food should pair with pale white wines, like Sauvignon Blanc, Gruner Veltliner, Riesling and Albarino with things like leafy green vegetables and salad kinda stuff, cilantro, basil, mint, limes, lemons, green apples etc. Well, I am constantly ask what wines to pair with salads and I thought this would be good to share with you. Try this, next time your making a salad at home….stop trying to have the salad with Chardonnay…chill a bottle of Gruner or Albarino and see it that is a better fit. We did a little poolside tasting and cookout and I severed Sauvignon Blanc and the crisp salad was great. Most of the time, I stop drinking wine during the salad course because the salad and wines always fight each other. Try this for yourself and let me know what you think!

Next he discusses Yellow Food with Yellow-White wines..says think about comparing biting a granny smith apple and then think about biting a golden delicious apple….now think about the mellow, richness of the golden apple. Think about all foods yellow, like butter, roasted pears, eggs, cream then join those foods with the Chardonnays or Viogniers you have liked in the past. He also says if a food can be “browned” they will pair well with the yellow-white wines. I have not tried this experiment out yet, but I plan on it, since I love Chardonnay I am sure potatoes and quiches will work beautifully.

Pink Food? Ham, Hot Dogs, Lobster and Shrimp with Rose’….Heck ya…this is a beautiful rule of thumb….I love Rose’ with shrimp and lobster but Hot Dogs? Ok, so I fired up the grill and told the boys we will have some hot dogs by the pool…The Rose’ was AWESOME with the foot long dogs minus the chili sauce I made for my guys….the dog and the Rose’ are BFF’s for sure…if you add the Chili and cheese, the rose just does not work at all…I will try the ham in the near future, but I did find this hot dog tip to rock!

Orange-Red and Brown-Red foods like chicken, mushrooms and tomatoes He suggests Pinot Noir, Grenache and Sangiovese (Chianti). I have always loved Pinot Noir and mushrooms and any tomato sauce pasta with Chianti, But I have not yet tried the Grenache with either so when I do I will keep you posted!

Purple-Red and Blackened foods, the meats like lamb, beef and BBQ, he pairs with Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Malbec. I think that is an easy one for me, I have had all these meats with all these grape varietals and they work really nicely. I really love BBQ with Zinfandel any day of the week.

Then he discusses Rainbow, which he calls Ice cream, Strawberries, Lemon meringue pie and he has a list of all kinds of wines by their color, Asti is white, Icewine is yellow, Sauternes is gold, Port is purple….I will give this a try once I finish my vacation and get back to my wine education.

Thanks for following and learning about wine with me! I have such a long way to go, but blogging about my journey is really fun for me.

Much LOVE and wine!

Tammi