Exploring the Wine Glass January 20, 2016

Fàilte! Welcome to the next installment of Exploring the Wine Glass. Mike and I are big proponents of you should drink what you like and you are the only one who can taste like you. We advocate the fact that everyone experiences the wine differently, so in these posts we do not discuss our tasting notes. Instead we include basic information about each of the wineries, and/or a bit about what was happening in our lives while we were enjoying them. With that said, if you are interested in reading our tasting notes and our ratings head on over to Delectable and check us out. We tell it as we taste it over there. Click here to see the chart we use to describe the color or if you want to see the wines themselves as they are poured, visit our YouTube Channel and watch for yourself. As always, since as oenophiles we love to celebrate #WineWednesday, our week runs from one Wednesday to the next.

Week 1

It’s the first ##WineWednesday of the new year.  Hard to believe it is 2016.  We have been lucky with weather thus far. We really have only had two really cold days so far, but today was one of them.  The temp was below freezing and the wind was torture, but it is going to get warmer again on Friday! 

In our glass tonight, we had a 2012 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Chardonnay. From their website:

Every aspect of the winemaking process is carefully controlled during the production of Grand Estates. These uncompromising winemaking practices – while time-consuming and costly – are the only way to guarantee that every bottle of Grand Estates represents the varietal expression of the region.

It was a nice quiet evening at home. It felt good to just relax after the holiday rush. We paired it with fresh ravioli in a garlic and olive oil sauce, and caught up on Jimmy Fallon. Thrilled to announce we finally are up to date! (until he comes back from vacation)

It’s Thursday and it is a Girl’s Night Out. I chose a restaurant in Montclair. This is such a cute little town and it is filled with BYOB restaurants.  I don’t think you can walk more than one block without finding at least two.  Tonight I chose the Turtle and the Wolf. They are brand new and describe themselves as “local and seasonal.”  While we were at the restaurant, we tried to figure out why they named it this. Google to the rescue! We soon discovered that “The Turtle and the Wolf” is a fable. One in which a turtle is so clever that he talks the wolf out of eating him, by saying he was scared of the water. So the wolf through him in the river.  We were confused why you would name a restaurant after this not so famous fable, but we let it go.  UNTIL I was writing this post and found the real reason behind the name and that Google failed us! To say the least, we were a bit off!

The simple answer is that the turtle and wolf were two of the clan symbols for the Lenape Indians. As these were the indigenous people to the area that is now Montclair, I thought this was a cool way to give historical context to the restaurant and its location.

It seems that this is a Chardonnay themed week.  At dinner we had two more.  My friend brought a 2014 Rombauer Carneros Chardonnay.  This is one of my two friend favorite Chardonnays. I brought an 2012 Alta Maria Vineyards Chardonnay from the Santa Maria Valley.  Talk about two contrasting Chardonnay styles.  These two wines are on the opposite side of the spectrum. 

The Santa Maria Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) has a very interesting climate.  Due to the valley position between the Pacific Ocean and mountains, the mornings see a Pacific fog that moves through the valley and keep the mornings temperatures cool, but by mid-morning, the sun burns through the fog and the temperatures increase to 70s and 80s. Whereas the Carneros region, is where the San Pablo Bay meets the southern end of Napa and Sonoma valleys. The climate is consistently much cooler.

 

Happy Friday! I typically think that the week after a vacation lasts forever, but this one flew by. For dinner we had a fritatta and in our glass we pulled out the Big Guns and had a 2007 Cayuse Bionic Frog. I may not go as far as Jay Miller from the Wine Advocate who states, “Imagine having to choose between your ideal fantasy sexual partner and this wine—and you choose The Frog! That’s how good it is,” but I’m not that far away from it! If you can get your hands on it, grab it! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Saturday and oh what a day it is! It started off with our tweet up for #winePW in which the theme was “Something New.”  For this post, Mike and I tried a new wine region for us- South Africa. We really enjoyed the wine! After the chat, I went into the city with my girlfriend to see an off-Broadway play called Drunk Shakespeare. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time! As if that wasn’t enough to make today a great day, we received an email that our wine won a Silver medal in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Our first competition, and we took a Silver! You honestly can’t ask for a better day!

Meiomi Pinot Noir was in our glass and on our plate was a Mozzarella, Italian Plum Tomatoes, Romano Cheese, Basil and Olive Oil pizza from Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza.  The name Meiomi means “coast” in the Wappo and Yuki native American language. I know that Meiomi has recently gone through some media exposé, but in my opinion they achieve their goal to craft a vibrant, food-friendly wine that is approachable and ready to drink upon release. At a $20 price mark, I say more power to them! 

Week 2

It’s Wednesday and Mike is at a work dinner. That leaves me to my own vices.  Well, my number one vice is Sparkling Wine.  I love it and Mike isn’t that much of a fan, so when left on my own, a bottle of Sparkling wine just “accidentally” opened. Oops! 

With Mike gone, that means ‘real food’ is not happening. He does the cooking, so I was left only with options that I can pop into the oven or microwave.  The only thing I make is pizza and that wasn’t happening on a Wednesday night.. So what did I decide? Well, the bottle of Sparkling I pulled was a Brut from River Road Family Winery. On their website, they recommend Triple Crème cheeses [which I don’t have], Lemongrass Crab Cakes [which I am not ever eating since I don’t do crustaceans], or Tortilla Crusted Turkey Cutlets with Spicy Avocado Sauce [absolutely doable, but don’t have any avocados and I’m too lazy to go back out.] So I have to improvise. When Mike improvises the meals become better than the original recipe, when I improvise….. well, I pulled  Buffalo ranch blasted crust buffalo style chicken rolls. The best part, the pairing was awesome! The heat from the buffalo rolls was cooled with the crispness of the sparkling wine and I was in heaven.  Mike sent a text and said the restaurant they were at was a BYOB and nobody brought anything, so I should save some of the sparkling. Sorry! I don’t think that is going to happen Mike! 

Hope you have had some great wines and times these past two weeks. Remember, always Pursue Your Passion. We would love for you to leave a comment telling us what your favorite recent wine was.

~Sláinte