Robert Mondavi Private Selection Sauvignon Blanc

Nights when Treasa gets home from work later than usual give me time to try things in the kitchen. This, while not crazily adventurous, was fun to make. I had marinated a few chicken breasts in Italian dressing for two days, and sliced them in order to open up a pocket in each cutlet. I stuffed them with seasoned Japanese panko breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, fresh parsley, onion, garlic and various spices. The fresh parsley is key. It gives it a sharp parsley-ey flavor that works really well.

As a side, I made one of my favorites and corn. One box of orzo cooked in chicken broth with chopped spinach. I used the frozen spinach. You can find Green Giant plain spinach on sale for little more than a dollar and it’s easy. I nuke it to thaw, then sauté lightly with garlic and onion (and various spices) to perk it up a little.

As you can see in the mightily bad cell phone picture, we had the fire ablaze. We were being stubborn and had not yet turned the heat on. The house was chilly. A hot meal on the living room table, fire and wine were sure to fix that.

Oh, the wine. The Robert Mondavi Private Selection Sauvignon Blanc was pretty good. Maybe al the flavor from the meal over powered it slightly, but it was refreshing. We only had a few sips with the meal as we were both so hungry we ate without chewing, let alone enjoying wine.
The fire got the living room up to a nice toasty temperature. So much that we cracked the screen door to the balcony, which, in our post wine state, we forgot to shut before retiring for the evening. When we awoke to a house that was 56 degrees the following morning, combined with the season’s first frost, there was little I could do but acquiesce to the wife and turn the heat on.

Fat Bastard Cabernet Sauvignon, Five Rivers Pinot Noir, Domaine Ste Michelle

This whole life thing keeps getting in the way of my ability to blog about our wine adventures. My boss got a new boss, which means that my job changed, which means that all the work that I’ve been working on is irrelevant, which means that I have a whole new laundry list to focus on, which means that I work later than normal, which means that, today for example, I estimate that I wrote about 4,000 lines of code. This will drive one to drink. It has.
Accordingly, Treasa’s new job, while going very well, takes up more than a few minutes of her day. Add in the hour each way commute, and I’m (still) left (sometimes) doing most of the household chores. Please note the half made bed in the background of the picture.

It was all I could to do prevent Treasa from throwing away these bottles before I could take a picture of them. Now, while my meatballs are marinating (Yes, I marinate my meatballs), I have the ability to finally blog. Ta, da!

Fat Bastard cabernet sauvignon: If I remember correctly, we had this with a good pair of steaks. Treasa and I fought over the last half glass. This obviously isn’t the best glass of wine ever, but for ~$10, it’s one that, like a Bob Seger album, should be experienced more than it is.

Five Rivers Winery California pinor noir: I liked this more than Treasa did. It was above average without food. We paired it with a hearty pasta dish which over matched it a bit.

Domaine Ste Michelle champagne: By this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they sent us a holiday card. I had left over bratwurst, which was all sorts of amazing. Treasa thought to pair it with champagne. Somewhat weird. But that’s the story.

North Mountain Vineyard Tom’s Brook Red

Treasa and I went to Miranda and Larz’s house for dinner Friday night. They made the lasagna, I brought the garlic bread and, knowing me, a bottle of wine. The night was impromptu. The lasagna was Stouffers and the garlic bread was whatever was on sale in the frozen aisle of the grocery store. Factory processed marginally ok to eat consistency, but never a bad, inedible meal.

So for the wine, it wasn’t the focus of the night, so why open something I expected to be good? For the last few months, I’ve had this bottle of red hanging out in the wine rack. I knew nothing about it, other than it said ‘table red.’ It was part of a wine centric gift package from Treasa’s aunt for her bridal shower. Without stirring up much family dirt, I didn’t have high hopes for it (which is why it’s been sitting around for the last few months), so it found it’s way over into a lasagna pairing.

Actual text message to Miranda during the evening’s planning process:
Treasa’s aunt gave us a shitty bottle of red. I’ll share it with you guys. :-)

Well, the wine, which after finally reading the label ended up being a North Mountain Vineyard Tom’s Brook Red didn’t resemble fecal matter after all. In fact, it was pretty good. Here’s the website’s description:
A lightly sweet Cabernet Franc. Enjoy the fruitiness and full structure, along with a lightly sweet finish. Try with barbecued venison, or a honey glazed ham.

Good thing we opened it 30 minutes before the lasagna came out of the oven. It gave us a chance to enjoy it before we paired it with food, which, from the blurb above, just didn’t work well.

Moral of the story: You can’t judge a wine by it’s label, or more pertinent, you can’t judge a wine by the sanity of the person who gave it to you as a gift. Treasa and I are more of dry red type of folk, but if a good, slightly sweet finishing red is up your alley, I’d recommend buying Tom’s Brook Red.

Message In A Bottle

My literary absence should not be taken as a sign that we’ve given up drinking wine. That, honestly, would be preposterous. The reality is that, well, I’ve been busy. Not to busy to drink wine, but too busy to devote time to chronicling the events surrounding the experience in an I’m-probably-the-only-one-that-thinks-my-writing-is-funny sort of way.

Treasa got a big fancy promotion that requires a ninety mile round trip commute. My four minute trip, in heavy traffic, relegates many time consuming domestic duties to yours truly. While they’re a big, giant, ghastly PITA, it has provided me with additional appreciation for all the work she does. So in keeping marital bliss at the forefront, this wasn’t all bad.

The previous paragraph was apparently written by a serial optimist, who, in reality, really hates folding laundry, putting things away and general house chores. However, he does think the Dyson is pretty freakin’ cool, once he gets nagged enough to stop watching baseball and get the thing from upstairs. Peaches.

Here are the wines I can remember drinking since I last posted. Remembrance not for their quality or anything, but more so just because I’m bad at remembering wine labels. That’s half the reason I started writing this blog as a hobby; hopefully my previous exploits will help me build up a decent wine knowledge and potentially prevent me from uncorking a dud twice. Anyways, the list of what I remember:
Dynamite Cabernet Sauvignon
Cellar No 8 Pinot Noir
Cellar No 8 Cabernet Sauvignon
Domaine Ste Michelle Champagne

The one’s I don’t:
A pretty blah bottle of sauvignon blanc
A bottle of sauvignon blanc that was heavier than most I’ve had
A bottle of syrah with a cocoa encrusted antelope tenderloin
A sip of the sauvignon blanc Treasa had at that dinner
I think another pinot noir.

I sampled the Dynamite Cab before my antelope entrée. It was pretty good. Considering what the restaurant was charging per glass, I was surprised to see it for under $10 a bottle. I bought it. The Cellar No 8 Pinot Noir was recommended by a friend. It was very tasty, however I over matched it by with a bacon wrapped filet mignon pairing. I’d definitely buy it again. For that reason, I tried the Cellar No 8 Cabernet Sauvignon. Treasa and I drank it last night over bowls of spaghetti and meatballs. It was really good, and even gooder that it cost under $10. We shared the bottle of DSM with a friend who Treasa helped with her pre-wedding hair and makeup trial. We had a fun night, though I never did get around to asking her why she did the trials when here wedding isn’t until next summer.

The wine fridge is stocked and the rack is over flowing. It’s quite a good situation to contend with. And hopefully I’ll be around here more often to write about how I handle making more room.

7 Deadly Zins

Treasa started her new job yesterday, so we celebrated with some filet mignons topped with whole roasted garlic and my fantastic roasted potatoes. Perusing through our wine stock, I found various bottles of pinot noir and not much else. Yearning for something heartier to match the steak, I picked up a bottle of 7 Deadly Zins that we’ve had for probably, almost, must be, just about two years now.

For the first time out of the last several tries, I finished the meat at medium rare, and the garlic spread was as good as you can imagine. The new addition of diced jalapenos to the potatoes was great. The wine was very pleasant while the meal was cooking and was equally as good, if not more so, as an accompaniment. I’d definitely buy it again. Right after I knock off a few pinot noirs.

Gnarled Vine Sauvignon Blanc 2009

This Friday The 13th installment of Old Wine Tales is brought to you by that freaky looking stuffed bear in the picture below. Treasa had a sales/corporate propaganda meeting at a bowling alley two days ago, where upon she thought it a good idea to drop a few quarters into that machine you never see anyone use with the grappling hook claw thingy to clutch, though normally initially pick up, then drop, toys worth less than the quarters it took to operate the machine in the first place. She was lucky, so to speak, to have been able to get a satanic bear with either backwards feet or a backwards head. Depending on what makes you sleep better at night.

Dinner consisted of chicken tenderloins marinated for thirty minutes in a concatenation of spices from the cupboard, Jim Beam Lemon and Herb marinade and the last sip of my Pilsner Urquell, sautéed onion and a quarter jalapeno in EVOO, Green Giant frozen veggies in a low fat butter sauce on top of whole wheat angel hair pasta.

Treasa picked the 2009 Gnarled Vine Sauvignon Blanc from the wine fridge downstairs, and neither the food nor the wine lasted long. The wine was a little softer and rounder than many of the Sauv Blancs we’ve had previously, but it was good. It finished clean with a nice lemony flavor. It complimented the pasta dish nicely.

Running With Scissors Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

So Treasa had a pretty terrible day at work on eight-nine-ten day. Her boss has made a mistake, for each of the previous six quarters, that might cost her, and all of her coworkers, their employment. So what can I do? Steaks and wine, obviously.

I went to the grocery store and got two top loins and a zucchini. I’ve never grilled zucchini before, but after a soak in EVOO, Six Point Spice Blend and a little garlic powder, it came out ok. According to me. Not Treasa. I also over cooked the steaks to med-well. But, the cuts were decent enough to compensate for the temperature oops. That wasn’t the point though. After a bottle of 2007 Running With Scissors Cabernet Sauvignon, the job worries melted away to the periphery, and a mixed drink and a recorded episode of True Blood took the focal point of the evening. Which is why I’m upstairs writing this entry and she’s downstairs relaxing. So, I’d say I’ve earned an A++ on husbandry duties this evening.

Barone Fini Valdadige Pinot Grigio

Considering I gained, what feels and weighs like, ten pounds on the honey moon, I’m on a diet this week. I bought chicken and bagged salad and I’m ready to lose the spare tire. Specifically, I bought whole romaine. I’ve had chicken tenderloins from Costco marinating in fat free Italian dressing since Saturday. And I found two ears of white corn for $.80 from the grocery store on the way home from work. And for a $2 risk, I bought frozen shrimp shish-ka-bobs.

I marinated the shrimp skewers in warm salt-Old Bay water with apple cider vinegar to thaw. Soaked the corn on the cob in a warm sugar water bath for half an hour. Drizzled the halved romaine lettuce with extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper and reduced fat parmesan cheese. I gave the corn a hearty head start on the grill, then added the chicken, romaine halves, chicken and shrimp skewers. I plated everything upon a nice bed of mixed greens and ate.

It should be noted that from the beginning of the second paragraph, I’d been drinking a Barone Fini Valdadige Pinot Grigio. Treasa wasn’t feeling well, so the bottle was probably 85% mine. It’s an easy drinking bottle of wine, with some green apple flavors being most prominent among its round taste. When the last half glass was paired with the salad and light Caesar vinaigrette, the wine perked up a bit and was pretty good. The meal, cheap frozen shrimp and all, came together nicely.

Chiapperelli's in Baltimore

Treasa and I met her mother, aunt, uncle, cousins, boyfriend and cousin’s coworker at Chipparelli’s in Baltimore’s Little Italy Saturday night to celebrate the aunt’s and ‘baby cousin’s’ birthdays. From the menu, I ordered the Pescatore Christopher, with Shrimp, clams, mussels, & calamari, marinara, linguine for $25. Treasa had the Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken for $19. I’d tell you exactly what wines we had to accompany, but Chipparelli’s website doesn’t list their featured wines, and neither of us took notes. Our fault.

My taste in Italian food tends to incorporate a few spices, i.e. flavors into the food. Both of our meals did not feature much of either. Both of the wines were above average for the price, maybe. It should be noted that the Calamari Fritti appetizer, however, was pretty good. I added a little crushed red pepper to the marinara gravy, Treasa did not. The guys working the valet parking definitely deserved their gratuity.

Paradocx Touriga and Domaine Ste Michelle Champagne

Last night, July 26th, was our one month wedding anniversary, so we celebrated with a filet mignon, roasted potato, roasted sweet potato and corn dinner. And, obviously, a bottle wine. This celebration, mind you was different from the fourth Saturday of married life celebration we had two days prior we had with friends. I swear, if Treasa ever got a job at Hallmark, she’d make them a fortune with her ability to invent holidays that husbands are legally, at least by the law that counts, obligated to celebrate.

I did the usual burnt herb roasted potato side, but also got frisky and tried something with sweet potatoes too. To contrast the burnt, savory herb flavor of the former, I did the latter with more of a Persian flair with a hint of cinnamon sugar. Treasa nuked the frozen corn, added a stick of butter for each week of our marriage, the steaks came off the grill, and we sat down to eat.

We had a Paradocx Touriga left over from the wedding. Not only was this sentimental and thoughtful, but practical as the wine goes well with red meats. It also gave us an excuse to try our new Vinturi wine aerator, which was a wedding present from Treasa’s aunt and uncle. I’ll be honest, I really can’t tell you if it works because we didn’t aerate one glass and just uncork and pour the second one to have a taste test. (I’ll try to remember to do it next time though). However, the aerator is really easy to use, dishwasher safe and makes a really cool sound when you pour wine through it. So even if it is a gimmick, which I doubt, the sound effects are worth any incremental effort.

And partially because we still have most of a case left over from the wedding and because it’s really good for twelve-ish dollars, we relaxed after cleaning up the kitchen with a bottle of Domaine Ste Michelle.

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This post is a continuation from the previous, where we are about to head down for dinner at the Waterford Castle in Waterford, Ireland.

I can’t find my notes which captured our wine selections for the evening. I’m going to use their disappearance as an excuse for not updating here in a few days. So, if I find the page, on which I distinctly remember writing the wines down on a piece of paper separate from my trip journal, I’ll come back and update the following:

The chef provided a non menu special to get us started. I’m sure the official name was something tastily extravagant, but I remember a grilled pita chip, cheese and a spicy roasted pepper spread with fresh parsley. It was a fantastic one bite course.

Treasa had the lobster bisque for an appetizer while I enjoyed seared scallops in a bisque-esque sauce over a red onion salsa.

Treasa had a meat trifecta, not the Castle’s wording, for her entrée consisting of pork loin, pork shoulder and lamb. I had a filet mignon with a mushroom black peppercorn sauce. While mine was certainly good, her pork won the most attention. As a side note, this was the second time we had ordered a filet, both time medium rare, on the trip. Each piece was cooked to what I would consider just a hair past medium. Being as both places were definitely fine dining, I’m starting to wonder if there is a disparity between the US and Ireland meat temperature scale.

Pierre Darcy’s Brut Champagne

I’ve fallen a little behind getting the honey moon exploits in blog format. This entry relates to our 5th day in Ireland, Sunday, July 3rd. We spend the day in Waterford. We arrived late morning and were taken aback by the ghost town likeness of the city. We stopped into a pub for lunch. After we finished, we were astounded at how the city had come to life. Apparently, either you go to church on Sunday mornings in Waterford, or you don’t show your face in public if you didn’t.

Prior to arriving at Waterford Castle, we stopped and got a bottle of Champagne for the night (along with a few other bottles, but those are for another post). Funny how you can get booze in a town on Sunday where people are afraid to show their face if they aren’t in church, but in Pennsylvania you’re SOL.

We found a E38 bottle of Pierre Darcy’s Brut Champagne for 50% off. We didn’t notice this until after we paid, but it’s a blend of Chardonnay, Pinor Noir and Pinor Meunier.

We arrived at the Castle, unloaded the luggage and I parked the turbo diesel. Somehow in the course of checking in, the fact that we were on our honeymoon emerged as a focal point of the conversation. Almost on cue, the concierge told us that we were upgraded to the Presidential Suite.


This. Was. The. Best. Hotel. Room I. Could. Possibly. Imagine. Our suite had its own foyer. Our bathroom was about the size of the first floor of our home in Delaware. It had a living room with a flat screen, two couches, a desk, dining table and three or four bookcases. (If you go to the link above and wait for the page to scroll through the photos, you’ll see a few of the room we stayed in). The master bedroom was probably a third of an acre. We decided that we could manage in these accommodations, and uncorked the champagne. Lemon and apple flavors were apparent. It was good, and we certainly didn’t complain, though Treasa and I prefer the bubbly a tad drier.

Huia Sauvignon Blanc & Ontanan Crianza Rioja

…continued from previous post…

After finishing the bottle of Henriot Souverain, taking pictures of the empty bottle, and ironing our fancy clothes, we headed down for dinner. The wine list was fairly extensive, and considering we were already lubed up with a few Guinni (plural for ‘Guinness’) and a bottle of bubbly, we decided to let the sommelier match wine to our food in half bottle increments.

Treasa selected a roast duck breast appetizer while I went with the Atlantic sea bass and tiger prawn. The sommelier, who was excellent though I didn’t note his name in our daily log, paired us with half a bottle of an ’08 Huia Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough New Zealand for E26. We each really liked it. It was much fuller and rounder than a lot of the Sauv Blancs we typically drink in the $10-$14.99 range. While it wasn’t a perfect match to either of our dishes, it was very good with both.

Treasa went with lamb chops with a side of shepherd’s pie while I had a filet mignon with a sweet onion puree for entrees. We were paired with a E22 half bottle of Ontanon Crianza, which I absolutely fell in love with. It was very similar to one of my favorite wines, Bogle’s Phantom, in so far that it was bold and robust, yet it was also a smidge smoother and lighter.

After a fantastic day and a wonderful meal, we retreated to our suite to combat the forces of jet lag.

Henriot Souverain Brut

This post refers to Tuesday, June 29th, our first night in Ireland. Treasa and I flew into Shannon and proceeded to the car rental counter to pick up our Hyundai i30 turbo diesel. This car was really fun to drive. Except for the fact that everything was on ‘the wrong side.’ The driver’s seat was on the right, you drove on the left side of the road and I had to shift with my left hand. Luckily, the pedals were oriented normally, with the clutch on the left, brake in the middle and gas to the right.

And if that wasn’t nerve wracking enough, a combination of narrow, seemingly medieval roads and psychotic Irish drivers was sufficient to make me wholeheartedly appreciate my first Guinness. But I’ll get to that. In so far as the roads were concerned, picture this: all of the various and frequent corners are blind because the road serface is below field level with grasses and shrubbery lining the pavement. One road was so narrow that the aforementioned grass was hitting each of the side mirrors and the speed limit was 80 km/hr. And for the cherry on top, the road is a two way street!


After driving north to see the Cliffs of Moher, we head back down near Limerick to the Adare Manor. If you follow golf, you’ll recognize Adare Manor from the JP McMannus ProAm Tiger Woods played in the weekend following our stay. Because of the upcoming event, we saw the Manor’s grounds in a state of absolute perfection.

We went into the clubhouse for the golf course, watched some Gaelic football, and had our first Irish Guinness. It really does taste better there. Then had our second.


By this time it was getting close to dinner, so we had a bottle champagne sent up to our room while we were getting ready. The staff selected the cheapest champagne on the wine list…for E78 (I’m going to use a capital ‘E’ to denote Euro’s) which after the American Express currency conversion, leaves me with a $106 line item on this month’s credit card statement. And this is how we were introduced to Henriot Souverain Brut. By no means was this a bad bottle of champagne, but I feel comfortable putting a ‘nothing special’ label on it. And considering Domaine Ste Michelle can be had for about $95 less, well, we’ll chalk this one up to first night on the honeymoon indulgences.

Paradocx Left Overs

Treasa and I just got back from our honeymoon in Ireland. I’ll be updating with posts about the wines we drank abroad, along with a daily recap of our doings, over the next few days.

This post refers to Sunday, June 27th, which was the day after our wedding. We had a few open bottles of wine left over from the reception, and considering they’d go sour while we were abroad, I decided to do a little wine tasting while I cooked dinner. Despite the caterer’s leftovers in the fridge, Treasa wanted spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Combining the desire to cook and the motto, ‘If she ain’t happy, you ain’t happy,’ I made sauce from scratch to go along with beef-pork meatballs.

Paradocx packages some of their wine in paint cans, as shown in the picture. It’s pretty unique, and a pinch classier than a box. Of course, the incremental classyness aspect of it isn’t something I particularly care about much. If you like it, drink it. But, it’s touted to keep the wine fresh for 2-3 weeks, and, well, it’s pretty darn cool.

Wines I re-sampled were the Touriga, Leverage, Merlot and Barn Red. I’ve listed them in the order of my preference. I didn’t have any of the leftover whites. The opened bottles went to Miranda and the Whitewash paint can still resides in my refrigerator.

Dry Creek Fume Blanc

Yesterday was Father’s Day. My two dogs are spoiled like kids, that counts, so I can celebrate too. It was sunny and in the mid 90’s. It’s not like I need an excuse, but even if I had to play the Father’s Day card, I would have. Nothing was going to keep me from the grill.

I’ve been on Mission: Clean Out The Freezer lately. Partially because the frozen food is already paid for and doesn’t require a current cash outlay with the wedding coming up, and secondarily because I have a deep sea fishing trip planned for early August. I plan to restock with tuna and dolphin. No, not Flipper. Mahi-mahi.

I found two boneless chicken breasts. Thawed them and gave them a good soak in fat free Italian dressing before grilling. When they were just shy of done, I topped them with a few slices of deli ham and Swiss cheese. They went onto grilled rolls with a fat free ranch dressing (70%) and spicy honey mustard (30%) sauce. Voila! Grilled chicken cordon bleu.

I’d saw I paired the sandwich, with my bestest roasted potatoes, with the Dry Creek Fume Blanc, but that would seemingly imply that there was some thought behind it. There wasn’t. I grabbed something near the Riesling section of my fridge, and this came out.

I remember buying this bottle for two reasons. First, it was about $10. Low risk. Secondly, perhaps more importantly, it had a picture of a sailboat on the front. And I want to but a sailboat. Both are totally rational.

The wine smelled sweeter than it tasted and finished clean. It had a pretty round flavor though the crispness of grapefruit came through. The back of the bottle says it was fermented in stainless steel, and it isn’t oak aged. The wine didn’t add to the food, nor did it take away. Which, considering the price point and the fact that I didn’t put too much thought to pairing, the ‘taking away’ was my main concern. Overall, I liked it.

Fish Eye Pinot Grigio

I was in the mood to cook tonight. Not to reheat leftovers, but actually put together a meal that I’d enjoy. Treasa was out at the mall with Miranda shopping for something that will be ‘crucial for the wedding.’ That line is like an impenetrable defense. No matter what my argument is, she wins.

But, despite the credit card flesh wound, I had the ability to cook for myself, irregardless of my any other taste recommendations. I decided on fish stew. I have tilapia filets in the freezer from Costco, so I Googled a few recipes. I sort of stole from most of the ones I viewed, so I won’t give any particular one credit, but if you search for ‘fish stew’ and find the one that errs towards Mediterranean, doesn’t use bacon and calls for Tabasco, well, you’ll get pretty close.

The recipe called for a bottle of dry white wine, pinot grigio in particular. I saw a bottle of Fish Eye pinot grigio for $6.99 at the corner store. Considering I was making fish stew, I thought it was a match made in heav—an enameled cast iron dutch oven.

To go along with the tilapia, I ordered a handful of shrimp and scallops from the grocery store. I got a fresh tomato and some tomato paste. A little bit if culinary magic, and holy schiznit, the recipe called for a 1/3 cup of white wine and I’ve drank the rest…

The wine exceeded all expectations, especially considering its price. It was palatable by itself and didn’t detract from the seafood party in my deep bowl of flavor. For something to cook with, or to enjoy without trying to impress yourself or guests, this won’t hurt your wallet. Unlike white designer flip flops at the mall.

Cooking note: I bought smaller scallops thinking they’d cook at the same pace as the thawed fish and the shrimp. Eh, slight miscalculation there. Give those buggers a head start before you add the rest of your seafood assortment. I’m not sure if it was a faux pas to add a little reduced fat parmesan cheese to the fish stew, but after a bottle wine minus what I used for cooking, it seemed like a good idea. And at my reduced cognitive ability, I’d still say it was.

Pat Me On The Back

So the handful of page viewers we’ve had so far are probably wondering, ‘What’s up with the Domaine Ste Michelle? It’s all over this corner of the internet.’ Well, you’re right. It is. And it is.

Here’s a little independent validation.

Results were compiled, analyzed and reviewed by a team that included statisticians, neuroscientists and economists.
Among the surprises: More than two-thirds of tasters preferred a $12 Domaine St. Michelle Brut, a Washington state sparkling wine, to a $150 Dom Pérignon Champagne.

And if our wine qualifications ever come into question, just look at the background of the picture in the previous post. Yep, that’s about it. We drink a lot of wine.

Francois Montand Extra Dry

Today marks ten days to our wedding. So I went to the liquor store to find something to celebrate with, partially due to Treasa’s suggestion and mostly because our champagne cache was null.

The knowledgeable, though overly eyeshadowed, woman at Toys R Us for grownups suggested a Francois Montand Blanc de Blancs champagne. Given that she also said that Prosecco was dry—which potentially conflicts with the first sentence of this paragraph—I went for the drier bottle: Francois Montand Extra Dry.

This bottle was a little less dry than the Domaine Ste Michelle, but carried a rounder presentation with a more flavorful finish. I can’t really say which one I prefer between the two, regardless of the extra dollar necessary to take home a little piece of Mr. Montand.

Domaine Ste Michelle Extra Brut

Yesterday was three weeks until the wedding. We celebrated with another bottle of Domaine Ste Michelle champagne. Being the romantic that I am, I put on The Bourne Identity and we stayed in for the night.

The champagne, as usual, was enjoyable. My picture of the bottle, on the other hand, was not.

Steel Creek White Riesling

Treasa and I went through the closet in the guest room tonight and sorted through clothes we haven’t worn in awhile, clothes that were given to us and clothes that just ended up there for some reason. There was a lot of trying on, mirroring, and refolding/rehanging or refolding and placing in the donation bag. Given how much fun I was having, I hinted that a bottle of anything might be a good idea. Treasa said ‘A bottle of white,’ and I descended the flight of stairs in .2 seconds and was in the wine fridge picking something out before she finished with, ‘might be nice.’

I decided on the Steel Creek White Riesling 2009, from Monterey County. The back of the bottle says:

The aromas of honeysuckle and hyacinth complemented by rich flavors of apples and peaches set Steel Creek Riesling apart. Try it before dinner with fruit and soft cheeses, or with light chicken and pork dishes.

Okay. Maybe I can see that, but the first sentence should read, ‘The aromas of honeysuckle and hyacinth complemented by rich flavors of apples, peaches and about a metric ton of Sweet and Low set Steel Creek Riesling apart from anything you would consider pleasant to drink.’

‘So, where was that pair of hand-me-down dress pants you thought I should try on again, sweetie?’

Little Black Dress Pinot Noir 2008

A week ago, when my parental units came to visit for Treasa’s bridal shower, they brought two frozen t-bones. By the way, our dining room has more boxes from Crate and Barrel than the Crate and Barrel warehouse. I did get in ‘trouble’ this morning for using my
Lodge grill press to make a whole wheat pita burger for breakfast. Apparently, you’re only supposed to use shower presents after you get married. But, eff those rules. My grandmother gave the grill press to Treasa for the shower because she knew that it was really a gift for me anyway…so therefore, no infraction took place. Well, today being Saturday, mid-80’s, sunny, on Memorial Day weekend, it seemed like a good time to thaw the steaks out and char them over the grill.

I put the meat cubes into a worchesterershireerier sauce, beer, salt and garlic power marinade to thaw out. A few hours later, when the roasted potatoes were almost finished on the grill, with jalapeno peppers as the new ingredient to the skillet, and the steaks were tossed to the propane fueled inferno.

We didn’t really have a good robust steak-ready wine on hand, so Treasa played Russian Roulette with the pinot noirs. She chose the Little Black Dress pinot noir. Shoot. Wrong link. She chose the Little Black Dress pinot noir. It was light on the palette and easy to drink and was great while the meat was finishing. We thought that it would pick up a little bit of flavor once the steak was served, but it didn’t. By no means did it turn like other wines do when you introduce (the wrong) food, instead it just remained happy to play a supporting role to the meal without calling attention to itself whatsoever. I’m going to tag it in the sub-$10 range, but it could have been a dollar or so more. I don’t quite remember.

If you notice the glasses in the picture, we tried non-breakable stemware we got from the local grocery store for $2.99 each. They’re not so bulbous to completely capture the aroma of a good red, but considering their durability and lack of dog foot impaling power should I happen to break one with a grilling utensil, they seemed like a good buy. No flavor imparted into the wine. Sold. We’ll reuse these often.

And Treasa recognized the sacrifice I made when plating meals. I gave her the t-bone with the larger serving of filet mignon. Her's was also closer to the heavenly medium rare while mine was mundane medium-plus. My grillmanship was rewarded with a few choice forkfuls of her steak and, well, we just won’t go into the others…

Oak Grove Voignier

We opened a bottle of 2007 Oak Grove Voignier tonight. Treasa wanted a bottle of white. She wanted something to cool her down, as I’ve yet to turn on the A/C. As shown in the picture, I had a Micholob Ultra with my Cajun seasoned catfish filets with sausage and cheese stuffed jalapeños. The wine, according to the back label, is

Rich and full bodied, this excellent white wine has the body and flavor to stand up to full flavored dishes. Pair with tortellini in a light cheese sauce for a memorable experience.

So, while it was a good bottle, I wasn’t about to pair it with my fish. I figured a light beer would be less risky. The beer worked well as did the wine by itself.

Ci Platino

Tonight’s adventure started with food, with wine as an after thought. I have these frozen salmon steaks from Costco and figured that tonight would be a good night to have one. I did a bit of searching before I left work for a recipe that wouldn’t make me stop at the grocery store before I went home. I found this recipe from Cooks for salmon. I didn’t have crackers but I figured panko crumbs would suffice. And those leftover limes from Mardi Gras are still good, right?

As expected, this blog as turned into an excuse to uncork a bottle. I’ll let the remaining Corona Light stragglers chill for a tad longer. But, being as I didn’t design the meal around wine, I wasn’t sure what I’d open.

I found a bottle of Ci Platnio from Pisano on my wine rack. It’s a 2007 bottle from Uruguay, a blend of 60% tannat and 40% merlot. I bought it at least six months ago from a Friday wine tasting at Deerfield Wines. I remember someone saying that the wine would be good with fish. Although, maybe the red fish on the bottle made me think that…? Either way, seemed like something good for tonight.

The wine is light bodied, yet flavorful. It almost reminds me of a sangiovese. And for this reason, it went great with the whole wheat pita bread pizza I made for Treasa’s dinner. With my salmon? Well, not so much. The lime juice in the meal reacted with the wine and made it sour. With that being said, I very much liked the wine. Just not with that meal. It’s handling itself very well as I’m finishing up with this entry. I think it was around $11 or so, but I won’t testify to it.

And about the cell phone pics again…Treasa left the camera in her desk drawer at work. I don’t even want to know how it ended up there in the first place.

Chilensis Reserva Chardonnay – 2008

Last Saturday, Treasa and I met our friends, Larz and Miranda, at the marina to spend the day on their boat. Larz’s mother and aunt were going to be there, and knowing that they were wine drinkers, I figured I’d pick up a bottle of white and put it in the cooler with the beer.

This wasn’t a premeditated plan per se, it was more so waiting in line to buy beer and seeing a Chardonnay with a handwritten, highlighted sign saying ‘$9.99’ that made me think to myself, ‘It’s probably not that good. But, it’s the thought that counts, and if his relatives don’t want to drink beer, so-so wine is better than no wine.’ And that’s how I found the Chilensis Reserva Chardonnay .

Well, they came stocked with wine. Apparently just enough so that they didn’t have to open my offering. So, tonight I grilled a romaine chicken caesar salad for dinner and figured what the heck, let’s try the chard.’

The dinner was good. The wine, not so much. Perhaps, caesar dressing doesn’t match with chardonnay, or perhaps the wine just isn’t good. Truth be told, I don’t usually drink chardonnay anyway, but regardless, the likelihood of another Chilensis Reserva Chardonnay posting here is slim at best. Well, unless I find a good recipe to cook with it…but I think that tells you all you need to know.

PS: So the camera is back in action, but this picture is worse than the PDX one I took with my BlackBerry. I would have done something to cut down on the reflections, but I was hungry and I decided eating was more important than uploading a crappy picture.

Paradocx Touriga

A nice added bonus to the wine tasting was that we were able to bring home a bottle of our choosing. Despite my inability to get mental images of mid sized imported SUV’s out of my head, the Paradocx Touriga surpassed every expectation I had for the wine. As such, a bottle found its way home with us.

The Paradocx wine description lists it as:
Intensely colored Touriga Nacional has lots of black cherry and raspberry flavors along with notes of chocolate, smoke and peppery spice, all of which are framed nicely by a refreshing acidity and supple tannins. It will make a great match for roasted game, a rare steak or rich mature cheeses.

Today, May 3rd, is the one year anniversary of when Treasa and I got engaged. Please note that ‘got engaged’ is slightly euphemistic for ‘she beat the ring out of me after she found out I had bought it but was waiting for the right time to propose.’ Either way, today marks three hundred sixty five and one quarter days since her left ring finger became significantly burdened with a beautiful assortment of platinum and neutral carbon.

Ironic note of the day: The word 'diamond' derives from Greek adamao, meaning 'I tame' or 'I subdue.'

Ironic note of the day’s curtain call: Understanding the chemistry of a diamond requires a basic knowledge of the element carbon. A neutral carbon atom has 6 protons and 6 neutrons in its nucleus, balanced by 6 electrons. And to think a wide variety of Christian religions consider the wedding band a symbol of a holy sacrament…

So, with one year down and T-8 weeks minus 2 days until marriage, we decided we’d heed the advice of the above referenced wine description and cook us some rare steak. Filet mignon, to be exact. Topped with grilled shrimp seasoned with sea salt and garlic powder. These were accompanied by a brand new recipe of mine: sliced potatoes, diced onion, garlic, bacon, jalapeno discs and horseradish infused sharp cheddar cheese, all baked together until it reached a state of yummy goodness. Add a few pieces of French bread, and the Touriga became even more enjoyable.

Paradocx Vineyard

Treasa and I are getting married at Paradocx Vineyard, in Landenberg, Pennsylvania.

Paradocx Vineyard is owned and operated by the Hoffman and Harris Families. The name of the winery is a play on words, as the four principles are practicing physicians (Pair of Docs).

Part of the contract was a complimentary, well, you know, besides the piles of money we’re paying to rent the site, wine tasting so we could decide what wines we wanted to feature at our event. This, if one was on the fence regarding future marriage plans, is certainly a reason to take the plunge. Certainly, I’m not in that category, as I’m looking forward to married life with or without a wine tasting, but if you view things in terms of: A) ‘it doesn’t kill you’ B) ‘it makes you stronger,’ feel free to check C) ‘all of the above’ as far as complimentary wine tastings are concerned.

Here’s the rundown of what we sampled (I’d relay my thoughts on each specific variety, though, for reasons you may be able to surmise, my retrospective recollection abilities have suddenly become slightly foggy), more so give, than take:

Whites:
Whitewash in a Chic Can
Yield – 2006
PDX Pinot Grigio – 2006
PDX Voignier – 2007
PDX Reserve Chardonnay – 2007
PDX Vidal Blanc – 2009
Old Stone Chardonnay

Reds:
Barn Red in a Chic Can
PDX Sangiovese – 2006
PDX Merlot – 2006
PDX Touriga – 2008
PDX Leverage – 2006
PDX Chambourcin – 2008
And a Port, of which the exact name escapes me.

We did make a final selection. We’ll be featuring a diverse spectrum bottles during our tasting, as well as a very nice offering of wines to compliment John Serock’s talents. For those readers who will be invited to the wedding, you’ll have to wait to see the menu. For those readers who will not be invited, feel free to send gifts/cash anyway.

#1: Canaletto pinot grigio #2: Trapiche malbec

Treasa and I had a friend of ours over last night to grill. She brought the pinot grigio for the appetizers: homemade guacamole and grilled roasted garlic artesian bread. The wine was decent. Fairly tart and refreshing, but I think it could have used a bit more body. It did match pretty well to the food though. The guac’ recipe needs some improvement. The grilled bread, as usual, was great.

For the entrée, I went with some skirt steak fajitas from Doc’s Meat Market in Hockessin. Not cheap, but it came out great with a little fresh cilantro and a dusting of my personal/proprietary/confidential/amazing/spectacular spice blend. Last, but not least, the Malbec. I liked it. I thought it was good by itself, and picked up a bit of spice when paired with the food. Everyone else, not so enthusiastic, if that’s a fair assessment from this comment, ‘It kind of tastes like lead poisoning.’

PS: sorry about the cell phone pictures. The digital camera is on the DL, but hopes to be back in the lineup soon.

Domaine Ste Michelle

Seems fitting that we start our journey with something we drink fairly often. To enjoy a bottle of bubbly, you have to shell out for a bottle of Dom, right? Hardly. Treasa and I enjoy champagne that, on the sweet-to-dry scale, falls pretty far towards the latter. And if we could find something that doesn’t cost us an arm and a leg, perfect. (Or else how would we walk to the wine fridge and pop the cork?) Domaine Ste Michelle fits the palatable-affordable description perfectly.

I usually pick up a bottle or two of DSM – I/we don’t actually call it that…it just seemed appropriate to type at the time – normally for about $11-$12. Does it taste like a really good bottle of champagne? No. But you could do a whole lot worse at this price point.

Typically champagne is called on for a celebration of sorts. Today was no different. Treasa and I are getting married at the end of June. Today, give or take a day or so, marks 9 weeks to go. Plus the cake, and champagne seemed appropriate. The cakes you see pictured were, past tense at this point as they didn’t last long, the wedding cake samples from Liz Marden. The heart shaped champagne flutes were complimentary from when we registered at Crate and Barrel.