Good Morning!

Last weekend a group of us got together for a birthday party for my friend Sara and her fav wines are the big ass cabs from Napa. Since it was her birthday we built the whole weekend around the best foods and wines that she loved.

First wine was Decoy, second was Chimney Rock and 3rd bottle was Crocker & Starr. The least expensive was $39.99 the most was $215 (at the restaurant). We had a total of 17 bottles of wine over the weekend, most was Moet’s White Star by the pool and they were awesome, but I want to focus on these reds and what we ate with them.

It really was a foodie and wino weekend. The first night we fired up the big ass grill and had a seafood extravaganza, lobster, shrimp, crab legs and clams we started out drinking bubbles but busted out a bottle of Truchard Chardonnay to pair with the buttery rich lobster and seafood. But after dinner someone said, I’d love a big red wine and sit outside by the fire place…..it was by the way her birthday so I opened the Decoy, made by the folks at Duckhorn, we paired this with laughter, old stories, new stories and as girls do a little catching up.

Decoy, was very balanced, not overly fruity or too hot from the alcohol, which can be found in a lot of the Napa area Cabernet Sauvignon. That wrapped up our first night and after the dishes were done we slept like babies. (Maybe from the wine or long travel day).

Next day was bike riding and then the pool with margaritas in the afternoon. For dinner we headed to Ruth’s Chris steakhouse for a birthday celebration and the amounts of NY Strip and lamb chops would have stopped the heart of most NFL teams but with the wine we ordered Chimney Rock Cab from Napa. We had all had this wine before and actually we all visited the winery in Napa together a few years ago and we thought it would be great to share the wine again. It was a perfect pairing with the screaming hot grilled steaks and chops. The boldness of this wine, really can handle the fatty, wonderfulness and richness of the meats. This wine is smooth, rich and lush. It is so full of berries and smokiness and so velvety on the mouth. It was also a perfect pairing with cheesecake!

Last great red wine was the Crocker & Starr on the patio of the last afternoon we were all still together. I have written about this wine and winemaker before and I hope someday to make a wine as amazing as the Cab Franc 2009 that Pam Starr made. I decided to open a bottle and let everyone enjoy the wine. All these women are red wine lovers and they went crazy for this and I had to bust out the laptop and show them the pictures I took from the winery and the Casili House when we were in Napa a few months back. I told them I joined the wine club, I love this wine so much.

My friends are from Indiana, California and Texas and they all fell in love with this wine. I just know when I drink this Cabernet Franc, I want to slow everything down and concentrate on this wine and really savor it. I want to remember the moment, the taste, who I am with, what we talked about and just soak it all in. This is my 6th bottle of this wine since January and I react to it the same every single time. I am thinking I want to order a few cases to have in my cellar for occasions I want to create something special, anniversary, birthdays, Tuesdays, just got a new dog, son gets good news, company just left, found my keys….

You get what I am saying about this wine. We had an awesome weekend and these are the 3 wines I really wanted you to experience sometime. But then I am thinking, was the wine good or was the company great….the answer is yes to both!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

I was gone for a few days on an amazing girl’s getaway and received an email asking about the difference between Bottle sickness and a wine being Corked.

Great question and the answer is pretty easy for me to answer for once. While I am making wine I taste my wines from the time they are grapes all the way through bottling so I know this flavor profile so well, I bet I could find it blindfolded…kinda like you will always know your mama’s cooking from anyone’s cooking. Bottle sickness or sometimes called bottle shock is believed to happen when a wine is bottled and the agitation and movement of the wine and oxygen kinda mix during the bottling process. It will only last a few days, maybe up to a week, but the wine will return to what the taste and aroma when made. It would be rare to taste a wine in bottle shock unless you tried it right away and the wines are normally “rested” after bottling for a bit before being sold or shipped. A bottle sick wine would not have any real aroma or much taste, it tastes lifeless and bland.

Corked wine is something that once you have had a “Corked” bottle you will always know it. Corked means that a bacteria in the cork cells reacts to the wine or the residue in the bottle. Corked wine will have a musty, wet dog aroma and though they wine might taste ok, the aroma will be stinky. There is no way to tell if a bottle is corked except to open it and it can happen to value wine as well as a very expensive bottle. Many of the wines use other closures to avoid any Corked wines. I think I have ran into about 15-20 bottles in all my years of enjoying wine. Of course for many years of my “drinking” career, I am not sure I was aware of the wine enough to recognize a corked bottle, I kinda doubt it, but many people in the wine biz says it happens to about 7-10% of all wines using natural corks.

If you are unsure if your wine is corked, here is one way to check, pour two glasses of the suspect wine. Then inspect the cork itself, sometimes you can actually see something is a little off, perhaps a little moldy, funkiness. (Smelling the cork is LAME, don’t do…I know we all do it at least once to see what it smells like, but it will not really tell you much). Now back to the two glasses, sniff glass one and sit it down. Swirl the second glass a few times and then take a sniff, see if they both smell the same. Sometimes when you open a bottle, it is quite possible to have some off aromas and a little air will “clear” the aromas. If the second glass is not the smell of wet dog, musty or wet cardboard, it’s not corked. If they both smell like the wet dog/cardboard/musty thing, it is corked.

Once you smell a corked bottle you will ALWAYS know this aroma!

I hope this answers your question!

Tomorrow, I will tell you about 2 wines we had this girls week, that I am sure will make it on my top 100 list of wines for 2012.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

This week has turned into a week of Spanish wines. I have no idea why or how, but I am immersed in the wines and have 3 books open on my desk right now about Spain. What I think caused this whole Spanish wine thing was the buying of a case of Albarino. While I was picking up my case I was standing the wine store and a dude mistakenly thought I worked there and started peppering me with questions. I wanted to help the guy, but my knowledge was lacking, so I have been reading like a crazy woman ever since.

I think I would like to work in a high end wine shop but without the snobbery. I think it would be great fun to work there and when someone said what’s this taste like, we could just open a bottle and do a little “research”. Anyway, the man ask me what does Ribera del Duero mean and what kinda taste was that grape.

I said Ribera del Duero was a place, not a grape and it’s in Spain and it’s known for it’s rugged landscape and red wines. That was the extent of my knowledge. He said thanks and waited for the real clerk to come back and help him. I came home and hit a few websites and books and of course went and bought some Ribera del Duero so I had a taste history and some notes from the wine.

The first thing I learned about wines from Ribera del Duero is no white wines of any real importance are produced there. It is located north of Madrid by about 80 miles and many castles are located there and it is super rocky dramatic land. (I kinda knew this stuff already). Next, I found out these grapes are grown on really old vines and produce 3 major red grapes; Cabernet Sauvignon, Garnacha, and Tinto Fino (a generic version of Tempranillo). And most wines are aged in oak for extended periods.There are about 100 wine estates in the Ribera del Duero. These are known to be some of the most expensive Spanish wines produced.

This region has really cold winters and brutally hot summers. If you want to try a white from this area, the neighbor to Ribera del Duero is Rueda and they have had some nice success with the Verdejo grape. It is a crisp, fresh and fruity white wine. I was reading that there are sheep all over Ribera del Duero and one of the best pairings ever is roasted lamb and a beautiful glass of their red. I will have to try this for myself and report back.

So, I am ready to start my tasting research…I will let you know what my mouth thinks!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

It’s starting to get warm and I am in full white wine mode. Not to say, I give up reds in the spring with my winter warerobe, but it we have already seen some 80 degree weather and I like to read on the patio and in the evenings when I break out my Nook or my book of choice, I regularly bust out some chilled white or rose’ wine.

Last summer, I was on a Vinho Verde and or unoaked Chardonnay kick and I told myself, this summer I am going to make myself drink more varieties of whites and rose’. Honestly, most of the wines I drink are leftover from my tastings, after all I am thrifty if I am nothing else. Most of the winemakers I network with, we all send each other samples for feedback and many of my pals make Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc so I get many of those to sample but this season I am making an effort to try more and stretch my knowledge and palate.

A few years ago, my buddy JP served me up a glas of Albarino from Spain and I really enjoyed it and decided last week to pick up a case of the wine, but I made myself buy 12 bottles of the varitial all from different producers. I started doing a little self education and here are some interesting facts about Rias Baixas (REE-ez BUY-shez) this area of Spain is tiny and only makes white wine and they are meant to be drunk young. This wine started to become popular when the invent of stainless steel tanks become popular in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

They grow 3 major white grapes in Rias Baixas:

Albarino, this is the most produced white grape and extremely aromatic and flavorful.

Loureira, this is a not a very popular grape it is sometimes added for aroma.

Treixadura, this is also a minor grape, it is used to blend and it adds body and aroma.

Rias Baixas is a region in Spain and it is located on the Atlanic Ocean and just above Portugal. Many people say they detect a hint aroma of kiwi when they think of Albarino and that might be because kiwi orchards are also planted in the region. The people of this area eat more seafood than any other region in the world. This might be why seafood pairs so nicely with this wine. I was reading about the seafood empanadas from the region and I can not wait to travel there and taste it all for myself.

I find this grape variety to be clean, crisp, so aromatic and really affordable. I love this wine alone, with seafood, and chicken and the match of this wine with veggies or salad works well, if you stay balanced with the vinegar from dressings and marinates. I will keep you posted on which producers I enjoy the most, but I thought I’d share with you what I have learned so far!

Happy Monday!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

I love listening to older music, I am a nut for 70’s rock and 80’s dance music and when I hear something from that time it takes me back to the place or what I was doing when I listened to the song before and I am flooded with memories. I think all your senses can be stimulated the same way, certain smells can take me back, baking snickerdoodles puts me right in my Grandma Edie’s kitchen and the holidays. The smell of walking into the lumber department at Lowe’s takes me back to the first house I built. The smell of baby oil reminds me of laying out in the sun before Prom in High School. (Being pink for the prom was HOT at Yorktown High School).

Sometimes I taste and then drink wines that remind me of songs. I even met a sommelier who says he pairs wine with genre’s of music more than food. I always think of Michael Buble’s I Just Haven’t Met You Yet, when I drink Sparkling wine. I think of Lady Antebellum’s I Need You Now when I drink Zinfandel. I think of M People’s Movin’ on Up, when I drink Rose. I love to think of Alice Di’s Better off Alone, when I am drinking Sauvignon Blanc by the poo and I always think about Miles Davis when I drink Cabernet. ( I know I have a wide variety of music that I enjoy).

Last night we went to our favorite pizza place in the world Dough in San Antonio, Texas, when I am in Texas, I eat here at least once a week..the hand made burrata and pizza is insane…seriously, insane. I always check out the wine list and sometimes I do am awesome job pairing and sometimes I miss the mark pairing the wine with the food. (If you go there order the Winter Burrata, the special salad and Pork Love Pizza with garlic) My wine selection last night was Petroni 2005 Poggio Alla Pietra Brunello di Sonoma Estate Grown. This wine alone made the evening amazing, but when I took the first sniff…The Eagles song Hotel California, just started playing in my head…you know the melody played by the guitar at the beginning. Every sip as this wine was opening up really rocked my world and it paired so nicely with every single course of our meal. I wanted to buy another bottle and sit on their patio and just spend the night.

The wine was rich and lush but for some reason I felt a real freedom while drinking it. It drank like it was “lighter” in my mouth instead of a big “heavy” wine. It was a 2005 and had some real sediment in the bottom of the bottle which was no biggie to me, but it did freak out my dining partner and server. The wine and the song Hotel California are now stuck in my head and I have already called my local wine shop to see if they stock the Petroni.

I am in luck the wine shop carries the Petroni and I have them holding a case of it for me and I am heading over to pick it up in a bit. I plan on trying many wines this weekend and I will share the ones I love with you next week!

If you try anything I should know about, let me know! I would hate to miss out on a great wine!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi