I was having wine with my favorite winemakers of Clos Apalta....Perfect day!

Good Morning!

I am not normally a technology person. It has to be easy for me to use and understand or I just will not try it or after being frustrated, I will say forget this and go back to using whatever worked before. But, recently I have found a few applications or apps that I really use often and enjoy…and I also learn something!

I have some apps that you have to spend some money to use, but mostly my apps are free. I have the most fun app in the world called the Wine Simulator. It is funny because it is a glass of red wine on the screen and if you move the phone around wine can splash around in the glass and if you tip the glass and pretend to drink the wine the wine actually looks like it is being drank and soon your glass is empty! Great fun to have a glass of wine anytime you want one!

I have several Wine Quiz apps. These are interesting because they will give you a question and you have 3 multiple choice answers to pick from. The questions are random and some are simple and some are quite difficult. It is fun to kill a little time and see what I know.

One of the apps is called Wine Genius, It lists out grape varietals and you can select the grape and then a huge amount of info pops up. It lists some of the facts about the grapes, where they might be grown, the characteristics of the wine, regions and the overall flavor profiles. Then once you select the wine you might want, it has a selection for foods you might serve with it to create a perfect pairing. It is a very helpful app and when I want to try something new I always go to this app to read up quickly.

Another app is called Wine Terms. This app is really packed with crazy amounts of information, it is a wine glossary from A. B. C. (Which is an acronym for “Anything but Chardonnay” to Zymology (the science of fermentation). Anything from technical terms to fun wine descriptors).
I use this more than I thought I would when I loaded this app on my phone.

I have an app that has all the United States A.V. A’s (American Viticultural Area). This is handy when I see a wine from an area I am not familiar with. I like the app called Vine2Wine, it is also a place to look up terms, vocabulary and grape varieties, this app is so easy to use.

I have an app called Napa Tour, which will walk you through taking a trip to all the vineyards and wineries in Napa. I need to find the app for other regions too! Wine Spectator has an app called Vintage Chart, it is really interesting…you can look up any bottle of wine you have and it will let you know if it is time to drink it! Since I don’t really cellar much wines for any real length of time, I don’t use that function so much but the app also gives you the Spectator score of the wine, which is normally a good indicator of quality.

My favorite app currently is Daily Grape. Daily Grape is kinda like wine TV….It is hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk (Crush It and The Thank You Economy)and he used to host a daily wine show that was 20-30 minutes long, but he has turned that format into a quick wine review and the info is fast paced and normally fun to watch…he is a big personality, so folks do not heart him like I do, just a heads up. You watch his episode and when he talks about a wine, you can select the wine and it will load into your shopping list and when you are at the wine shop you can find the wines quickly. Or if you are like me you can hunt down the guy at the wine shop and he can get you the bottles or order them for you. I like that Gary discusses his views on the wine and the approx costs. Sometimes he reviews high dollar wines, over $50, but mostly he keeps it real for those of us who are trying the $10-20 dollar bottle.

Each segment he does normally outlines 2-3 wines and many times he is in a location that is unique. You can create a “Wish List” for wines to buy in the future. There is a place within this app to rate the wines after you try them for future reference. It is a slick app and I use it constantly. I love the fact I can watch the videos on my phone too.

If you have any great apps that are wine or travel related, let me know what they are, I’d love to know more places to go for information and just some plain old wine fun.

I love to learn, I love to try new wines and I love my iPhone, I also love sharing with you where I get my information.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

The amazing grilled meats in Chile! Most are rubbed in Merken spices before being grilled.

Good Morning!

Today I am going to show you the foods, drinks and favors or Chile in photos!

Enjoy!

This is a custom made liquor, from little red berries that look like blueberries...You shoot it striaght back! Great after dinner!

Here are some labels of wines I really enjoyed in Chile too!

We had this with margarita pizza! YUM!

I loved the fresh fish with the unoaked Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs

The most flavorful and light cheviche EVER!!!!

More wine!

Made by Pilar Rodriguez, This might have been the best meal of my life up to this point!

This was one of the apps from when we had the winemakers luncheon!

The fresh foods of Chile, I will go back over and over!

Check out this lunch!

Medium rare steak for lunch, perfectly paired with Clos Apalta wine!

I was just checking out my photos and thought I would share!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Baby sheep and goats at the Casablanca vineyards of Lapostolle

Good Morning!

Today, I am just going post some interesting pictures I took during my trip to Chile.

Typical meal/snack in Chile was empandas, Pisco sour, the biscuits with ensalada mix, which is very similar to salsa without the cilantro...it is addictive!

Here is a picture of one of the biggest surprise stops on our trip in Casablanca, Chile at the El Cuadro winery and vineyards. It turns out the place is way off the regular roads but once we pulled in, it was like being in Disney World. The grounds were perfectly groomed, The food was perfectly executed and the experience really was once in a lifetime!

Overlooking the gardens of El Cuadro winery

Even the food at El Cuadro was beautiful!

Dessert at El Cuadro!

Another beautiful winery and vineyard in Casablanca was Indomita…check out these shots, the views are AWESOME!

View from the patio at Indomita....I could sit here all day!

This is the tasting room of Indomita..are you kidding about this view? It overlooks Casablanca!

View of Casablanca from the Indomita tasting room!

The wines of Indomita!

I will add more photos of the trip next week…have a great weekend!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

This is the wine I love taking to the ballgames! Lapostolle Sauv
Blanc

Good Morning!

I have a challenge and I am looking at how to solve it. I love wine, I drink wine all time and many of my friends are beer drinkers. That is really not the problem, unless we have enjoyed too much of either beverage. I love sports, mostly college sports and the events are all NCAA sanctioned so they serve no alcohol at any of the venues. Can I go without drinking wine, YES, but why?

When we go to football games we tailgate, that seems to be really acceptable in all parts of the US. I have tailgated at Indiana University, Purdue, Michigan, Texas, Ohio State, Tennessee, Cal, Stanford and UCLA. Everyone has these crazy cool tailgating traditions, massive grills, custom recreational vehicles, many have these pop up tents and most have the team names or at least in the color of their favorite school. I have seen chef level presentations on the food and kegs of beer and specialty drinks being served.

I rarely see anyone enjoying wine. Maybe it seems stuffy or maybe carrying around a stemmed glass seems to high end at that type of event. I bring all this up because, over the years I have been at games and just brought beer because of peer pressure. I can get away with bringing champagne if I wait to open it after the game, I really did not want to wait that long to enjoy the bubbles. This weekend I will be in Austin, TX for the Women’s NCAA regional softball tournament. I want to enjoy my wine without feeling like I am the odd man out. There will be around 8 games in 2 days and time in between the games I want to go to the car, pull out my tailgating kit (includes, cheeses, meats, fruits and all kinds of wines) and enjoy myself.

I can get on board with popcorn, hot dogs and cokes for a game or two but an entire weekend eating that crap will do nothing for my bathing suit self esteem. So, I am going to buck the normal tradition and take some great wines to relax with. I hope to start a wave of wine loving folks bringing out the Cabernet or Sauvignon Blanc to the games. I have found that there are a few plastic wine bottle producers and I have ordered a couple of cases of the screw top plastic bottles and I transfer my wines into the shatter resistant bottles and though I miss the process of getting out the corkscrew and opening the bottle, and at least I feel better about the wine not being bumped around and getting dropped on the ground.

Anyway, the softball world’s series starts in Oklahoma City on June 2nd and if one of my favorite teams makes it to the final 8, I will take a drive up for a few days and will pack my wines and hopefully find some new friends to hang out in between the games with. It will be 100 degrees in the shade and since I will be cheering and stressing during the games, I will need a glass of wine to relax with.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Inside the Clos Apalta Cellar

Good Morning!

After visiting 18 wineries in Chile and tasting so many wines I did have a favorite, Lapostolle, Clos Apalta. You are saying, gheez Tammi, you worked for them, of course you liked them the best. In my own defense, yes, you have a point but I took notes and videos and after all is compared I really had the best time at Lapostolle. Notice I said I had the best time. I have always said wine is more than taste, score, price etc… When all is said and done, if I loved or even really liked a wine, I can tell you who I was with, about the place we were, probably what I was wearing and I can remember what we talked and laughed about. Wine is an experience, best served with friends and family.

Why were the wines so memorable? Well, to give you the full experience, you need to know who I was with and how it all came together. After 2 plus weeks of working all aspects of the winery and vineyards of Clos Apalta, two sommeliers from Peru were coming for a private tour of the winery. I was ask if I would like to join in. I said yes and I was told the entire tour and tasting would be presented in Spanish and I felt like I could understand most of what was going on so I was ready. The two mean Martin and Armando arrived and the outside grounds tour started and information about biodynamic wines and winery started being discussed and these two guys had the biggest smiles the entire time. The young woman who was leading the tour is originally from France but her Spanish is perfect, her name is Aurelie Botton, she works out of New York City and covers the east coast of the USA as a Brand Expert for Moet Hennessy the parent company of Lapostolle.

Aurelie, is a sommelier and started out as a chef and her business expertise is mind blowing for a woman as young as she. I will say this again, every single person I met within the Moet family, is a ROCKSTAR! All of them are bi or trilingual, they are experts in the spirits they rep and they are just funny, engaging people with big hearts and bright minds.

Back to my point, yes, I do have one. Aurelie led the 3 of us through each of the 5 levels of the winery and we were given details about vintages, the business and the company. The setting and the winery is beyond beautiful and elegant and it is state of the art. By the time we were down in the 2 year barrel room you see a glass tasting table in the middle of the room and it is massive. It is sort of oval shaped and at one end Aurelie, switched on a light and from underneath and it exposed the private wine library of the Marnier’s….Madame Alexandra Marnier…of the Grand Marnier legacy! The end of the table was opened upward and it exposed the the stairs into the private cellar. I was under the impression that no one ever went down there. I walked down the stairs and it was AWESOME. Like I was in the Vatican or Thomas Jefferson’s cellars…or maybe someplace a bit less dramatic!

All you could see were rows of wines from back in the day and vintage bottles from when they first started making wine and also a private area where they keep the wines they are collecting. I saw bottles covered in dust and from all over the world. After seeing this I could not wait to see what we would be tasting. As we made our way to the Lapostolle residence we had a private room with 8 wines prepared for us and we started to sample. I took so many notes it was silly. The first 6 wines I had been working with during the harvest, but these were from the previous years harvests.

We had the Casa Sauvignon Blanc 2010, I have had this wine many times and I love this beautiful house wine. This wine has about 7% Semillion blended in to give it a slight finish of 2.1 residual sugar. (That is as geeky as I will go on this wine). Just know this…I have this $10-12 bottle of wine all the time. I love to make cheviche, I love the almost lemony, quick finish, almost bubbly and just so fresh. I love it with sushi too!

Next we tried Cuvee Alexandre Chardonnay 2008, it is 100% chardonnay. This tasted like warm pears. I would serve this with baked or grilled fish. It almost has an oily finish and it is beautiful and has a slight buttery popcorn nose.

Casa Merlot 2008, this is a $12-15 house Merlot but with some nice polish. I think about my grandfather’s Buick Electra, shined up and ready to go out for dinner. Big, classic, smooth, traditional and everyone knows it is a well made car…same for this wine, big, classic, blend of Merlot, petite verdot, malbec. Serve this up with anything you grill or slow roast.

Cuvee Alexandre Carmenere 2008, This is a Blend of 85% Carmenere and 15% Merlot. When I tried this wine the first thing I wrote done on my tasting notes…Freakin’ AWESOME, great balance, smooth, strong and high alcohol..Carmenere, always tastes high alcohol and bold to me, but it is a great mouthfeel and smoothness. I would grill lamb and normally serve Pinot Noir, I am going to start serving Carmenere!

Cuvee Alexandre Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, This is also a blend of 85% Cab and 15% Merlot. Smokey campfire and fruity. I wrote down a long, slow, french kiss, full, bright and strong…well, I doubt I will need to say how much I liked this wine.

Cuvee Alexandre Syrah 2008, 100% Syrah, to me it tasted mineraly and fresh, inky, spicy, balanced and powerful. This Syrah is the opposite of Syrah from Rhone. I find Syrah from Rhone is so restrained I feel like I am missing something…this is like a home schooled, only child…she becomes whatever her will and mind allows. Just an awesome big wine to pair with smoked meats or funky cheeses!

The next is the best wine made in all of Chile by any winemaker I have tried…Clos Apalta 2008, Just the most complex, rich, dry, full and sexy wine. It is lively, creamy and aged beautifully. It is smooth and balanced. My Spanish speaking sommeliers were on the other side of the tasting table going on and on about about this wine and all I could do was smile. I did something very untraditional…I poured myself a bit more of this wine and walked out to the patio and just looked at the vineyard and breathed…This wine makes memories. I have a son who is 20 years old, I plan on serving this at his wedding. I plan on serving this on my 50th birthday. I plan on opening a bottle of this next new years.

I might even open a bottle of Clos Apalta on the day we finally bottle TJR Select. It is such a special wine and special place.

I could tell you about the rest of the tour/tasting and our lunch by the chef and all these wines were paired beautifully with each course. I could tell you about how I laughed with my Spanish speaking friends for hours and never really understood what the heck they were saying but I did not care what they were talking about, they had such a fun energy all I could do was smile and laugh with them. We struggled to find vocabulary but a smile, laugh and a YUM can describe more than you might imagine.

Sorry this blog got so long…but it was a really special few hours of wine tasting and living well and I wanted to share it with you!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Clos Apalta this might be my favorite Chilean wine ever!

Madame Marnier luncheon at the Lapostolle Residence