Good Morning!

While I was away on vacation my very favorite edition of the Wine Spectator arrived, The List. It is comprised of the top 3,700 places that wine lovers, love to dine. Along with that list it also has the best places to find the best wine lists in the world. I am a HUGE dreamer and love to travel, I love to eat and I LOVE to eat, so I open the magazine and start looking at the places I travel often and see how many places I have visited and then make a list of places I have to try as soon as possible.

I noticed many of the solid places I have enjoyed for years all over the country like Truluck’s, Sullivan’s, Eddie V’s, Del Frisco’s, Fleming’s, Morton’s and Ruth’s Chris Steak house. I also noticed in the past two years places like Fogo De Chao and the Melting Pot shows up in most every big city too.

I love to look for places that are not part of a giant luxury chain to try foods and wines with tons of local interest. These Chefs and Sommelier’s work so hard to put the best local foods and wines from all over the world and create not just a great meal but an experience for you and your guests. I know I love going out to eat but I am actually a great cook and if I could have made dinner at home better, I am always disapointed in the meal. So, I use these lists anytime I travel. I am lucky I spend most of my time in some of the best foodie cities in the US. Most of my time is spent in San Francisco, Austin, Indianapolis, Napa, Sonoma, Chicago, Denver and of course San Antonio.

My love of going out to dinner started when I was little at a place called The Red Lion in Muncie, IN. As a kid my grandparents would take us all to The Red Lion when it was our birthday. It was a fancy place inside of the hotel in downtown. We had to dress up and we got to drink a cocktail with the adults, (it was 7-up with a shot of grenedene), it looked like booze and had a cherry in. The place had red velvet wallpaper and the seats were black leather and my feet did not reach the floor. We were treated like royalty, my grandfather was a VP of a company and he took all his clients to The Red Lion so he was a high roller. I remember we could order whatever we wanted and there was a band that played there on the weekends. After each meal the chef would come out and chat and then take myself and my brothers into the kitchen and we watched them make our desserts.

So, I now have my food and wine map for any upcoming travels I have and I look forward to trying places and sharing the experiences with you. I am all about drinking in life and I hope when you try a place you love and would recommend, you will share it with me too!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

I am tanned, downloading photos and I doubt I am well rested and I need to restock my savings account! I was on vacation for the past 3 plus weeks. We went to Denver, San Antonio, TX and then to Austin and Dallas. Part of the vacation I was visiting family and then the last week we had family traveling with us. We had days by the pool, cookouts, sunburns and lots of laughs, a few days we were in the mountains hiking, walking in streams and fine dining. Some days we got a late start, other days we were up and running early.

We covered a lot of ground and saw new sites and tried a few new activities and honestly, I need a week of drinking water, eating salads and working out like crazy. I did have a few new wines but mostly we had Margaritas, I think they are the official drink of Texas (besides Lone Star beer). We ate tons of BBQ, mostly tri-tip and ribs and when we had the boys (ages 20 and 14) with us, we had tons of burgers and tex-mex food. If you cut me open today I would bleed salsa and I am sure my cholesterol is at a all time high.

We hit the World’s Best Water park, Schitterban in New Branfuls, TX, We toured the Rangers and Cowboys stadium, totally cool to be in the dugout and in the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders locker room. We had our picture taken on the 50 yard line and I bet it will show up as our Christmas card later this year.

We went to the movies and I read 2 wine books Wine Secrets by Marnie Old and Reading Between the Wines by Terry Theise. Both books are AWESOME! I learned so much in the Wine Secrets book, from simply pairing foods and wine to Acidity levels in wine and how they interact with foods and how to “judge” a wine. Then I started to read Terry Theise’s book and I had seen many reviews of the book for the past several months and could not wait to start reading it. It lays out why wine is important to him and mostly wines’ importance in our world. It is a really interesting read. I will say, he is a great writer and I loved the way it is written and to be honest, I had to look up several words to expand my limited vocabulary to fully understand a few of this stories. But, I learned a ton about Terry and his love and understanding of wine.

I loved his story about first hating wine and how Rod Stewart and being a rockstar shaped his imagine of wine. We all have a story about our first connection to wine. Every afternoon my grandmother would have 4-5 women who would drop by for a cocktail. All their husbands were corporate executes and lawyers and around 3-4 each afternoon, the wine and vodka would flow and for an hour or so they would discuss neighbors, recipes, travel and social events. When I was a small girl, I wanted to grow up and have drinks with my friends every afternoon (funny, how that has worked out). One woman was named Madge, she drove a Cadillac and she was always “put together”. Her clothes so sharp and her jewelry was so glamorous and she would drink red wine and seemed to enjoy herself. Madge was the most popular and when she came in everyone would take notice and she seemed to be the most interesting one of the bunch. I wanted to be Madge. I must have been 6-7 years old and my mind said, Madge is cool and she drinks wine, so I want to be like her.

Anyway, Reading Between the Wines is really a great book for wine drinkers or for anyone who might ask, what’s the big deal about wine? My view point of this book is you can educate yourself until you are blue in the face about wine, but until you understand wine, all you know are facts.

I looked at it like this, you can read books all about raising a baby and then the moment they place your newborn in your hands…well then you know everything you need to know.

I am back from vacation and cleaning out my inbox and going through tasting notes and will be a consistent blogger again….thank you for indulging me in this unfocused look at my vacation and the fun I had. Tomorrow, I promise to talk about more wine stuff and less Tammi stuff!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

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

Good Morning!

On my recent trip, I noticed all the folks in Colorado were really into the eat local and drink local mindset. I loved the Falling Rock Tap House in downtown Denver and they had 100’s of beers but many were from the local brewers. While I was in Salida, CO all the restaurants used produce from the local farmers and while I was in the state, I noticed how “active” most residents were. People eat healthy and exercise and take full advantage of the seasons by skiing in the winter and rafting, hiking and biking during the warmer months.

I was really struck by this mindset. I have experienced many places where this attitude is prevalent: Chile, France, California and when in Texas, folks drink Texas wine. I noticed in the small towns Wal-Mart style Big Box stores are kinda frowned upon. People go for their morning latte at small mom and pop coffee shops and local bakeries have folks lined to buy their pastries.

Before the trip I found a highly rated wine bar in Downtown Denver called the Wine Loft and I make a point to hit up a few places when I travel and have the luxury of time for fun. We walked into the wine bar on a Saturday night early, 6 PM and the inside of this place was beautiful. All the furniture was chocolate brown and the pop of acid green was stark and and really modern. The place is really spacious and cozy while feeling very upscale.

Steve was our server and we each ordered a glass of Brut while we crusied the wine list. My biggest surprise was how many french wines where on the list. Then I was surprised there are no Colorado wines at all on the list. To top it off only one Chilean wine was on the list, but I was really happy it was Lapostolle! The food on the menu was delicious and the dessert of chocolate molten cake and vanilla ice cream was FANTASTIC!

But no Colorado wines. I ask about where they were and they all responded, they do not sell well. I understand in business you have to make your profit and keep the doors open, I understand (Cash is King, Thanks Bill Ritchie!)….but even in small towns I have visited with really crappy local wines, I can always find a glass on those lists. I really enjoyed the wines in Colorado and I hope if you get the chance you will give them a try. I had a blast in The Wine Loft and the wines we ended up trying were great, but I fell into a old habit of ordering something I have had before….I want to always try new things, I let myself down in this department.

My entire trip was great, I witnessed the worlds largest Jenga game and The Wine Loft had great energy, great service, fun and interactive people. I was just surprised that they did not feature Colorado wines!

Have an awesome 4th of July and celebrate with something American!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

Last week while in Salida, CO, I was with my Aunts and their friends and we were in the town of 5000 for dinner. My aunt called made reservations and the 6 of us headed to eat. We went to a place called The Laughing Lady. It was adorable and if you have never been to Salida, it is a small artist and skiing destination. Little galleries located on the Arkansas river about 3 hours from Denver. The restaurant had a broad wine list and the food is very high end.

The problem with being the wine “expert” (which if you read my blog often you and I both know, I am learning, I am not expert), but when others hand you the wine list and say find us a great bottle, the pressure is always on. Everyone had ordered something different and I want everyone to be happy and have a perfect wine and food pairing. I ordered Seabass, 2 others ordered Lamb, 1 ordered Fried Chicken, 1 Meatloaf and 1 Salmon. I looked over the list and while I was heading in another direction towards a white wine, the guy with the fried chicken says, I only drink red.

I took a deep breath and remember the television show “Pairings with Andrea” which featured Andrea Immer Robinson the super Master Sommelier and she said if ordering wine by the bottle the two easiest wines to work with most foods are Pinot Noir if you go red and Riesling if you are thinking white. She said they are the most broad “food friendly” wines. I also kept in mind some of the folks at the table were not wanting to break the bank when it comes to price on the wine, so I saw a Pinot Noir from one of my favorite area Willamette Valley in Oregon and said let’s try the Plowbuster!

It was a light bodied, very complex and rich tasting wine. Everyone was very happy with the wine, but we did not have our meals yet, so I was happy with myself but I was interested to see how the wine worked with the food. I knew it should work with the lamb, salmon and but you never know what kinda sauces they add to the dish and that can really be the key factor in pairing the wine. The Pinot worked very nicely with the Seabass and then I tried the meatloaf, it had a very earthy mushroom gravy and it was a great match and the fried chicken might have been the only dish that I wish I would have had a more sharp white wine pairing like Sauvignon Blanc, they made a delicious white gravy, but it was not a perfect paring, it was not bad, it was just not perfect but everyone was really happy!

Here is what I learned this past week..If your in Salida, CO eat at The Laughing Lady and if you are ordering wine for a large group, Think about Pinot Noir for a go to red choice and if you want to go to a white wine try a dry Riesling and you can thank Andrea Immer Robinson for the tip!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi