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.