Good Morning!

I am freshly back from the beautiful state of Colorado and I worked pretty hard but I also had a chance to play and explore. I normally go to CO several times a year but the last 2 years I have not been able to fit it into my schedule, so it was great to go back. When I think of a Colorado vacation I always think of rafting and skiing. But I have volunteered at several wineries in the past and I normally I am in the Rocky Mountain state in the fall, but this trip was to Salida, CO to take care of some business with family. The weather was warm and dare I say hot, but since I left Texas to go to Salida, Texas is really hot, so I will just say it was great leaving the humidity. Salida is known for the ski resorts and the town is filled with art galleries and fun loving folks.

When we landed in Denver it was 7:30 AM and we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us through the mountains, some still had a little snow on the peaks. It is such a pretty place, God might have done some of his best work on their landscape. As we drove to my Aunts’ home I see a building that says Vino Salida and I said you guys have a winery? We have two! I knew I would make time for a visit to each while I was there, I could not possibly be stuck with lawyers and realtors all day. My Aunt said they make only Colorado wines and I don’t know if they are any good.

When my Aunt was young and in good health she was a wine rep in Ann Arbor, MI. She stopped doing that type of work at least 30 years ago. She is really kind of a wine snob and only drinks the big Napa Cabs and once in a great while she will have Pinot Noir from Oregon. I knew if I wanted to really have an unbiased opinion, I would have to check it out for myself.

One afternoon I pulled into the place and when I walked in, it was my Utopia! The place was a long metal structure building and on one end is a car repair business and several other service businesses were also in the strip of this building. The outside was painted a bold color of pinkish and in big letters said Vino Salida and they had a bright red door. When I stepped inside, you could have been anywhere in the wine making world. I looked around the wall and saw they were manually filling wine bottles and the energy was buzzing and a tall, young bearded man stepped out and said Hi and we started talking and pouring and his name is Steve Flynn, the winemaker. The place is probably about as big as a 4 car garage and everyone helping had volunteered and before we knew it we were all barrel sampling and getting to know each other.

Steve has worked for several other winemakers and this is his first vintage released! The really great story Steve told was about how Colorado wines are trying to stay true to the areas, you know, eat local, drink local and make wine from grapes from the state. I know the Texas winemakers feel the same way! Steve makes some awesome wines! I loved his labels, loved his Syrah and the Merlot straight from the barrel. I found Steve’s wines to be true to the fruits of the area and he is not over oaking (at least in my opinion) and the place was neat as a pin. He is using all new barrels and I am sure the more he makes the more he will tweak his processes and really become a destination stop for skiers and travelers. I have to head back to CO in a few months and I am hoping to bring home more Merlot for my personal enjoyment. Steve makes about 1000 cases per year.

Steve has an ecletic tasting area and just a couple of steps away from the bar, you are standing in the production area and surrounded by barrels. Nothing too fancy, just good winemaking and surrounded by friends! The wines rocked and the experience of watching another winemaker kick off his career gave me goosebumps! I am so thrilled I stopped to see the operation and taste the wines. I bought a bottle of the Vino Blanc and Vino Rosso….They are both young, fun and pretty wines, the white is unfiltered and the Chardonnay in the blend has spent some time in oak, so I liked it with some tangy goat cheese and Wheat Thins….yes, I know that is not a very extravagant pairing, but it’s what I had and the Vino Rosso, has not been consumed yet, so I will keep you posted.

A few days later I was walking the streets of Salida and they had a Friday night art walk going on and in one of the shops I see people tasting wine and loving it and I looked up and Steve was standing there, pouring wines and having a ball. People love his wines and love his love for Salida, I am super excited for his success and I hope I create fun wine experiences for my friends, family and soon to be clients!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

I was reading another blog and found this article and it is so easy to understand, I thought I would share it with you. This article is about when your wine smells off or just plain stinky!

Check it out and you might learn something just like I did!

These are the notes from a article written by Mary Orlin. She gave a run down on how to spot tainted, corked or just plain bad wine. I’ve distilled down her article to reveal the six chemical signatures that tell you your wine stinks:
Oxidized – The wine will smell stale, burnt marshmallows, nutty, sherry-like or of stewed fruit. The ethanol in the wine has probably been exposed to air for a prolonged period and is heading towards ethanoic (acetic) acid, better known as vinegar.
Volatile acidity – If your wine’s bouquet smells of nail-polish remover (acetone) or vinegar it has “volatile acidity” caused by bacterial spoilage. It’s off. Spit it out.
Sulfur – Wine makers often use sulfites as preservatives (which can be irritating to asthma sufferers and others) but if your wine smells of rotten eggs, there’s hydrogen sulfide in there, or dimethyl sulfide, and that’s bad. The wine is literally rotten.
Brettanomyces — If your quaffing reminds you of taking cherry cough syrup, sticking plasters or the farmyard, then it’s got brett – a yeast infection caused by Brettanomyces. Some old world wines have a tiny whiff of brett, which some connoisseurs enjoy, but if your wine reminds you of a wet horse blanket, probably best to get another bottle.
Cork taint – Many people don’t know when their wine is corked, but if you know the smell of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, TCA, then you will recognize corked wine. It’s a moldy, musty, wet newspaper, dank basement, smell, a bit like brie cheese or a wet shaggy dog. Send it back.
Sulfates – Sulfates prevent bacterial contamination, but they do give a sulfurousness to the aroma and taste of wine, ans like I said, can be problematic for some people. Best avoided, but not a real problem unless you react or cannot get past the smell/taste.

I bet you will never sniff your wine the same way..will you?

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

Everyday I try to learn something new about wine. Sometimes I get my information from a book, the internet, from tasting or from reading blogs written by folks who have spent their entire careers in the wine industry. I started really late but I am open to learning from anyone who has info I should know.

Yesterday, I was at one of my fav wine shops and a wine rep had a little table set up and he was serving up Italian wines. The rep was dressed in a tweed jacket and a bow tie. He had stories of his travels and all the winemakers he met in Italy and honestly the wines were ok, nothing unique until he poured a Rispasso Valpolicella. I have had Valpolicella before and this wine tasted, fuller, fruitier and I felt like it was sweeter (but it is not a “sweet” wine). So I ask my new pal the wine rep about the wine and he launched into a sermon about ripasso.

I came home to read up about what ripasso means and I found tons of information and thought I would share it with you. The ripasso process is used in producing some Valpolicella wines to give them richness and body. After the Valpolicella wine is fermented in the normal way, it’s placed in casks containing the Lees (the dead yeast cells), from a prior batch of Recioto or Recioto Amarone, a concentrated wine made from Passito grapes. This process, which can last 2-3 weeks, adds color, tannins, and complex flavors.

I ended up buying a bottle of the wine and checked out the other Ripasso Valpolicella’s in the store. I noticed the valpolicella’s that I found were a few bucks cheaper, but the valpolicella that had undergone the ripasso process were a wee bit more, that makes sense, more processes, more costs and time are involved.

I like Italian wine, I love the lightness in many of the wines I have tried. I love how they work with tomatoes and sauces. They pair nicely with salty cheeses and one of my favorite things to make in the world is pizza, I hand make the dough and sometimes I make mozzarella cheese and I grow my own basil, so these wines are great and they are budget friendly. I can not open a $25.00 bottle every night, but I can spend $10-15 a night and most of the wines I have tried are in that ballpark.

I wanted to share what I found out about Ripasso Valpoilcella with you!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Good Morning!

Every morning I wake up around 5 AM and pray and brush my teeth and plan my day. I have been doing this for years and today was no different. I ask for direction and I think I listen for answers. There have been points in my life that have been crystal clear and there have been times of total confusion. I find I am most happy when I am working towards a goal and I am sure that is true for most folks.

Today, was just like most mornings but I felt myself ask with more assertiveness “Help me do everything I approach with great pleasure and full gusto”. I thought to myself, I have felt a bit flat about life and I don’t ever want to take anything for granted…so I wanted to make sure I am staying connected to life and living with that fire in the belly feeling.

After my morning routine, I head out to the gym or to hike or just a long heart rate raising walk. I decided to hike today in a new area and as I walked a coyote was dead ahead. We both stopped and he looked at me for a second and I think I scared him as much as he scared me and he took off running. My heart rate was all over the place. Man, did I ever feel alive! I started walking again and after a bit I was refocused on my path and moving along I see something on the ground and leaned over to pick it up and it was a cork from a wine bottle. I am in the middle of nowhere Texas and I find a wine cork? This is funny to me for a number of reasons, but I see it has some words on it and I wiped the dirt off and it is a Robert Mondavi Private Selection cork and on the side it says “Whatever you do, pour yourself into it” Robert Mondavi.

Well, as always life can be full of mystery and sometimes it can be very clear with it’s message. Today I had these two reminders, one being a coyote and the other being of all things a wine cork….I heard this message loud and clear…Be aware and excited by all new things in life and whatever I do in life I need to pour myself into it without a fear.

Good have an awesome day and tomorrow I will gab about wine again…today I got side tracked!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Since everyone has been asking about this recipe…I had these avocado egg rolls at Kona Grill in San Antonio, TX and became obsessed. I am not a chef and most know me for my grilling skills not cooking, but I was determined to recreate this dish at home. I think I have done it! (Feel free to disagree, I am happy with the results).

Items to pick up at store

Ripe avocado
lime
sun dried tomatoes in oil
red onion
egg roll wrappers (refrig section)
1 egg
1 bunch of cilantro
honey
olive oil
Vegetable oil or whatever you want to fry these guys in

Prep time 10 mins…eat time….2 minutes!

I lay all my stuff out like an assembly line (I am an engineer, do not laugh).

Slice the avocado in long slices first, then mince up the red onion (you will only use about 1/4 of the onion, don’t go crazy). Next, I pat down two of the sun dried tomatoes…just get the majority of the oil off of them and dice them up (your not going to use the whole jar so don’t stress).

Then I take an egg in a mini sized bowl and beat it up. The egg will be used to close up the egg rolls tightly. Then I zest the lime and have a little pile of the zest to sprinkle into the egg roll (it adds a freshness I love). Then I chop up the cilantro I make two piles, one that is finely chopped for inside the egg rolls and the big pile of cilantro left over…save that for the dipping sauce, I will get to the dipping sauce in just a minute!

Take out the wrapper and in the middle of it place 3 slices of avocado and sprinkle some onions, cilantro, lime and sun dried tomatoes. Be mindful not to over stuff and you want to fold in the sides and then take one end of the wrapper and start rolling up when you just have a inch to roll up take your fingers dip in the beaten egg and smear the entire end of the wrapper with the egg and finish rolling.

It should look like a mini burrito. Now take a bit more of the egg and rub it on the outside seam of the egg roll. Sit it on a plate and keep going until you use up all your ingredients. (should make about 8). Making sure you do not over fill or have loose seams will be the key to the overall look of this dish. If you overfill and the egg roll “leaks”…it will taste find, but look like hell…think of the first pancake in every batch.

OK get about 4 cups of your oil on the stove top and get it to med high heat…6-7 on my stove. as it is getting hot, here is how to make the dipping sauce.

I use my food processor, put in the rest of the cilantro and I throw in any left over lime zest and then squeeze the lime in with the cilantro. I start it up and slowly add olive oil…I might use 3-4 tablespoons and it will be thick…then I hit it with the honey about 2-3 tablespoons.

The oil will be hot at this point….start with one egg roll…they get brown on each side quickly, just keep an eye on it…total cook time 3-4 minutes, they like to float so you might have to use your spider web scoop thing to keep it in the oil. Make sure you give them a little salt right out of the oil, it’s the only time the seasoning will stick to them.

OK…now for pairings with wine…It is a rich and creamy flavor so I have tried 10 or so wines with this but what I have found for my palate that works well is….Cava, Vinho Verde, Unoaked Chardonnay and Riesling. I suggest you make them and go crazy with the fillings in the egg rolls and pair them with your favorites and let me know what you liked with them! My friends’ kids loved them with Hidden Valley ranch dressing, so don’t limit yourself in what you might try!

I did try an idea with cream cheese and some fake crab meat in the egg rolls…My neighbors went crazy for these…I could not make them fast enough! Have some fun with it and let me know how it turned out! Thanks, Tammi