Sorry guys, I will be tied up for the next week or so finishing up but I will post photos and stories as soon as I can!

You can follow my travels and photos on Facebook, just look for Tammi Ramsey

Much LOVE and lotsa wine!

Good Morning!

This weekend I might have met a crazy. I am not a doctor or even someone who should judge mental stability but I may or may not have met a crazy, but I am sure I met a drunk, that I can attest. I went to my current favorite wine location with some friends and we sat around the fire pit and listened to music. We like to visit Wine 101 because it is informal and the outdoors area is kinda like being at a friends house and you can be with a large group or alone and enjoy yourself. They have a nice wine list and NORMALLY very down to earth wine lovers who also like to listen to relaxing live music.

The music is normally 1 or 2 guys with guitars and a small speaker and you can spend the whole night chatting and enjoying the cool evening weather. There were probably about 25-35 folks all sitting around in different little social circles and normally we might all speak to each other but just kinda keep to groups. We had just sat down and over walks a guy who kept yelling out, play the Beatles to the musicians. No biggie but it was odd anyone was shouting out requests and it was odd to hear someone ask for the Beatles, we are in Texas, most folks here are not Beatles followers that I have met. These guys play more country and folk music, but everyone likes what they like, so I thought nothing about it.

This man says what are you drinking? Friends had ordered a Twoney Merlot and they told him about the wine, or at least said we had it here before and liked it and he just launched into an entire sermon about why people who love the Beatles really should only drink Chateauneuf-du-Pape. My curiosity got the best of me and said really? Why is that? Well..for the next 30-minutes he told me that the blend of 4 voices destined for greatness is just like the blend of grapes they use in France to make the blend of the popes, and I better do my research if I was ever going to be ready to try a wine of this caliber.

My wine loving buddies started to say something about my background and I quickly stopped them…he was one of those guys that no matter what you say he was going to battle you…also, he was clearly 4-5 glasses ahead of me and I was not loose enough to listen to him go on about his love of wine. His buddy finally came over and drug him back to their circle of friends and he said I hope he did not start in on you about the Beatles or wine…I said he was fine and highly enthusiastic about both.

We had a fun night, the band never played anything by the Beatles but the fun little drunk man got me thinking about Chateauneuf-du-Pape and though I have been trying more and more French wines, I wanted to know more, so I did a little research and wanted to share what I know about the area, wine and history.

So, I know a little bit about Chateauneuf-du-Pape is located in the southern part of Rhone France. It means “new castle of the pope” referring to the summer palace that was built in the 1300’s. The location is close to Avignon, France. There are very strict rules when comes to wines from Chateauneuf-du-Pape AC (appellation). A total of thriteen grapes can be used to make this blend and both red and white grapes are permitted.

It is highly unusal to have so many grapes permitted in French wines but the dominate grape for Chateauneuf-du-Pape is Grenache Noir and Grenache Blanc. Other reds used are Cinsault, Mourvedre, Syrah just to name a few and as for whites Roussanne, Clairette and Piquepoul to name a couple of them (white grapes are added to mellow the bold red wine and it is said that it helps in the long term bouquet of the nose). In this AC 97% of all grapes grown are red and the minumum alcohol must be 12.5%. This is really easy to attain, because this is a warm climate and the stony soil holds heat so these grapes get fully ripe, creating high sugar content so the high alcohol levels are reflected in the finished wines. Many of these Chateauneuf-du-Pape wines will be at 15.5% and higher in alcohol. These wines can age for years and years and still taste very young.

I can see why my buzzed friend wanted to share his love for this wine, they are amazing and really reflect the best of Southern France. I can see why he loves the Beatles and I guess I can see why he makes the connection. So from now on when I drink a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, I will think of the night in the Texas sunset and after each song, he would shout out…Play Hey Jude!

I hope you had some great wine adventure this weekend!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

As a very young girl, I loved to eat and hang out in the kitchen with my Grandma Edie and my mom. I remember even sitting on the counter and watching them can tomatoes, can apples, making sauces and freezing veggies. I remember baking cookies, cakes and slowly I elevated to real baking, none of that reading a back of a box and follow directions anymore. I started making breads and changed recipes and over the years I became famous for my cardamon cream cheese bread, that I was required to bring to every family function.

About 10 years ago, I weighed 267 pounds and I was looking for big changes in the way I cook, eat and how I sourced my ingredients. I had an issue with my thyroid and constantly felt tried and draggy…it that a real word or just a Tammi feeling? Anyway, I had been making wine for about 5-6 years and was really getting better at pairing foods and wines, so I thought, if I could cook better, I could maybe eat better tasting lower calorie foods.

I bought professional grade pots and pans and I bought pro level knives and told myself I would only eat 70% water based foods (fruits and veggies) and I would try to keep portions in check and that way I could still consume my wines. (BTW wine is about 110 calories a glass).

Today I weight about 160 and have for bounced between 175-160 for the past 10 years. I feel great and I eat well and drink as much wine as I like.

I thought I would share with you some of the dishes we made this last week. You will see many of them are not low calorie but they tasted great and with a little moderation we enjoyed each one of these with great wines.

Enjoy the pictures, enjoy your weekend and let me know what wines you enjoyed over the weekend!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

It is easy to love Jennifer Anniston, she is beautiful, classy and seems like the girl next door, who you might want to have brunch or martini’s with after work. It is easy to love puppies too, they are rowdy and sleepy and cute and you just smile as soon as you see them. Some things in life you do not love right away, they are flawed or maybe they are not what you were expecting. I always think it is fun to sometimes love the “flawed” things.

I think of Cindy Crawford, she is a raving beauty, but there was a time when her birth mark would have been considered a flaw. I think imperfections can some times make something more real. I also think at different times in your life somethings are better matched with your personal sense of beautiful. Here is an example that might seem crude, but you will get the picture…when I was young, I thought Johnny Depp was handsome but as I have “matured” I kinda get the whole “Bad boy” thing and now I love him.

With wines, I find it is great fun to try wines I have never heard of and look for beauty or for something new that is different or stands out. This past weekend with friends in town we really tried so many wines, from flights, to bottles, to recommendations to close your eyes and pick something off the menu. We even had one bartender pour us a taste of his fav wine and not tell us what we were having. We tried some real amazing and easy to love wines and then we had a few we had to work with to love them.

Last year we all traveled to South America together to tour Chile after I finished my apprenticeship at Lapostolle Wines and we tasted some great reds. But when in Chile I did not love the Malbec’s like I have expected I would. I know, I know.. Argentina and Chile are producing awesome Malbec’s what was up with that? But Saturday night we were blind tasting and I knew I was tasting a Malbec but I kept going back to this wine and the more I went back the more I loved it. We were having Conquista Argentina Malbec 2009 Reserve, once we took the bag off the bottle, the first thing I noticed was the weight of the bottle of wine…not the wine, but the bottle was hefty, like a champagne bottle.

Then I started getting serious about the tasting, the tannins, the balance, the fruit, the alcohol, the acid and weight of the wine it’s self. This wine was wonderful and I have no idea if when I was in Chile if I was tasting Malbec that was just too young for my taste or if because I was so spoiled to the Carmenere’s, Cab’s and Syrah’s that I never gave Malbec a chance. It’s easy to love some wines, but it is special to find wines that maybe before when I did not love it, but now I am in the hunt for all the Malbec I can find.

I must apologize to Malbec for not recognizing your beauty before, I will make up for lost time with you, I promise! I am sure there are many, many other wines I did not love at first but now I would be in love with them.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

This past weekend I had my best friend Cubby in town for a total of 5 days. We drank a lot of wine, we tasted a lot of wines and paired many wines with foods and cheeses. We cooked chef level food (or at least we cooked food from cookbooks chefs have written). There was not a time when we ever just sat around a had a glass of water. By the photos and tasting notes on my iPhone it seems we tried 34 wines in total.

I think I had 4 wines that I am looking forward to having again to re-try and make sure I was not blinded in a blaze of fun and gave it a better score than it might deserve without the excellent company. But this beautiful red we had with dinner on Sunday night was a real hit with 4 of us and I’d like to share it with you.

I rarely buy Italian wines, I love them, but for some reason I do not purchase them often. I found this wine Belnero 2007 at the wine shop and paid $29.99 for the bottle. We were grilling skirt steak and made very gourmet mac n cheese. This smooth, beautiful, well-balanced wine had it all. It was a big wine but without the booziness, without the fruit bomb flavor but it was like liquid velvet. It really tasted so polished, and restrained. I rarely ever find this level of balance from young reds.

My friends were here from Indiana fell in love with the wine immediately as well. They normally love big, young California Cabs that are a big, fat, smack in the taste buds. I can not wait to open the 2nd bottle I purchased of this wine and have it alone without food. If this wine performs the same way alone….I know this wine will make my year end list of great wines!

I hope you had some awesome wines this weekend and I look forward to your thoughts about Belnero 2007.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi