#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.