Wine Clubiversary!

Greetings Boston Wine Clubbers! Katie here to bring you an update from our 1 year anniversary meeting at Lindsay's. We didn't quite have a quorum, but we did have a visitor from London and had a great time sipping bubbly.

Here's a nice group shot.


Here are the wines we drank. We liked most of them, particularly the two in the back with similar labels, and of course the real champagne with the blue label that several GnG women chipped in for.


I brought the desserty red one. A bit too sweet; I'd been hoping to bring the sparkling shiraz they always used to have at Best Cellars. Oh well.



Oh, and don't forget: Brad still sucks.



PS - the recipe for that guy is here, and it's fabulous. Laura, add information as you see fit.

Katie's Wines

The infamous boytoy was in town this week, and we enjoyed a couple of tasty tempranillos. The 2007 Ercavoio Tempranillo Roble is on the left, and the LaGranja 2006 is on the right, as you can clearly see. I recommend both -- the left one is available at the Wine Press on Beacon Street in Brookline, and you can pick up the other one at Trader Joe's, plus it has a twist cap, woo. I got it before the big snowstorm when I walked to Cambridge for some groceries, so it's definitely at that TJ's, but probably at the other ones, too.

Cheers and Happy Twenty-Ten, Boston oenophiles!

what is family?

The holidays have always been a tricky time for me. Part of me gets really upset that somehow no matter how hard you try, the season is full of stress and anxiety. This is the second year that I've tried to alleviate some of that stress and frustration by spending the holidays away from my "family".

The flaw in this plan: I was missing something important and special....

Lucky for me, there are people out there who know I'm an idiot and didn't let me actually spend Christmas alone :) I am an idiot because somehow I forgot that "family" is a bigger circle of people than just those with whom we share our DNA. I discovered that even hundreds of miles from my parents, my Boston family was here for the holidays.

All day I looked forward to Christmas evening, when I knew Patti and Michele were coming over for dinner, wine, and lots of fun girl-time. We started the night with the 2007 Dominique Brunet Pinot Noir. This wine is a little sharp but dynamic. The color was dark fuschia and the body is light with cherry and a little spice. As a cheap-ish Pinot Noir, this wine ain't half bad--as a table wine, it's darn good.

Our second bottle was a gift from Patti - the 2008 Cortijo Rioja. This wine was soft and typical of Rioja. It had some jammy-ness and pleasant ripe fruit with a well-balanced finish. It complemented our holiday dinner very very well.

Our holiday feast was delicious! Patti made a cranberry, blue cheese, and pecan salad, Michele brought over a fruit platter and some cookies from Chris's Cookies. For the main event, I made lasagna with bechamel sauce.

Somehow I ended up with all the leftovers... needless-to-say, I've been eating lasagna and cookies for dinner every day since Christmas.

Bye Lab Buddy!

So, yesterday my lab said good-bye to Kristen. She's off to become a smart, fun, knowledgeable, high-school science teacher. I'll miss her at work, my running buddy, gossip buddy, assay buddy, etc.

To say good-bye, our boss took us out to lunch at Elephant Walk (oh my $^&* so tasty!)... then I took the "kids" back to my apartment for some Karaoke and continued drinking...

Vasia brought some delicious Tawny Porto:



Let's just say that the evening ended earlier than any of us originally intended :)

I'll miss you Kristen!!!

Faux-hawks and Birthdays

My birthday party was kick-ass for a number of reasons: so many of my awesome friends showed up - keg-stands - horse races - karaoke - awesome sparkly & ruffled presents - and of course, a mohawk.

When your birthday falls so close to Christmas, it's easy to feel like you'd be more important if, and only if, you'd been conceived by a virgin.

Luckily, this year my friends went all out to make me feel special. For the purposes of this blog there are a few highlights to share with you:

Wine Aerator!

I took this on my recent ski-vacay for some testing. We poured 2 glasses of wine, one with and one without the aerator. You could totally tell the difference! It made our wines taste a little more smooth, richer, deeper, and more complex. Totally awesome gift! Thanks J!

And Now For The Wines!

My friends know me so well... I got so much tasty wine for my b-day! Woot!

2007 Frei Brothers Reserve: Chardonnay from Northern Sonoma, CA ~Thanks Hugh!

Herding Cats: Pinotage/Merlot from South Africa. ~Thanks Kristen!

Il Valore: Sangiovese from the Puglia region of Italy. ~ Thanks Trish & Ben!

Best of all... Reed went out of his way to find my favorite varietal - AMARONE

For Amarone, only the ripest recie ("ears") of the grape bunches are picked in late October, then dried under shelter in the open air in flat wood crates holding 7 kilos until January/February (appassimento method). Fermentation of the raisined, non-botrytis affected grapes is done in temperature-controlled, stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts and can last 20-30 days. Aged 1 year in stainless, 4-5 years in Slovenian oak botte (casks). Average production: 3000-3500 cases per vintage.

IN OTHER WORDS, its a very rare, and expensive, imported wine. AND DELICIOUS!!! I can't say enough about this wine. It is a powerful, intense red with concentrated black cherry and jammy-ness. It is dense, rich, dry and has firm tannins while also being incredibly well-balanced.

The second wine he gave me is another of Italy's prize wines, SFORZATO (which translates to withering or strained).

Sforzato is a very special wine obtained uniquely from Nebbiolo grapes that are left to ripen for a longer period than is required for the production of regular wines. Its quality depends not so much on technical matters as on climatic conditions and the quality of the grapes. It is thus an embodiment of the uniqueness of this Alpine territory.

My Sforzato was deep red with an intense bouquet, ethereal and very complex. Full-bodied, structured, and velvety. This was a great sipping wine, and we spent the evening enjoying it next to the fireplace in our Waterville Valley "chateau".

An internet search revealed that "Sforzato is the pride of Valtellina and one of the greatest wines of Italy. Its unrivaled complexity and elegance makes it a premium wine from Lombardy. It is a vintage wine only produced during propitious harvests and is truly a connoisseur’s delight."

Wow, thanks everyone for a WONDERFUL, JOYFUL, INCREDIBLY LOVING BIRTHDAY!!

Thanksgiving Wine Tasting at The Wine Gallery

Hey everybody! I think this wine tasting at The Wine Gallery could be a super-fun pre-Thanksgiving G&G event. You can sign up & pay online - I hope to see you there!

Details
Where: The Wine Gallery in Brookline
When: Nov. 23rd, 7pm
What: Pouring 5-6 wines, pairing with turkey
Cost: $10 + $1.25 fee

Happy Holidays!

Dear Wine Press, thank you for everything...

Hi lovely G&G's,
I thought it might be nice to keep you all updated on all our wine adventures, not just the ones that we taste at wine club.

It's been lonely at The Eustonian this week while K's been out in L.A. Obviously, I've had some (bottles of) wine to keep me company. I picked all of these up at The Wine Press in Brookline, mostly because they were on super-sale.


I started the week with a 2008 Tilia Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina. Tilia is sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards (bonus!) and had a spicy, fruity nose with heavy notes of black cherry and plum. It was easy to drink alone, and was soft enough to complement my dinner of baked acorn squash stuffed with spicy quinoa-pilaf.




Later in the week, I made tequila shrimp and black bean coriander cakes (R loves shrimp... I love tequila... how could it go wrong?). We opened a bottle that I had been holding onto for awhile for this special dinner - the 2004 Mira Salinas. This bottle was originally priced at $64.99... I got it for $19.99 (Thanks Wine Press!). The Salinas is 65% Monastrell, 25%Cabernet Sauvingnon, and 10% Garnacha, aged for 20 months in French oak. Wow, I loved this! It's a deep, garnet hue, with heavy aromas of black cherry, blackberry, plum, and minerals. It was bold and full-bodied on the palate, with excellent acidity and tannins. The finish was long and mouthstaining, with a nice balance of pure fruit and oak. I need to remember to head back over to the Press for a couple more bottles... what a steal!



Finally, I ended my week with the 2006 Concannon Petite Sirah Limited Release from California's Central Coast. R and I had this wine for the first time on our anniversary at The Fireplace in Washington Square. This time we had it with chicken scallopini and a creamy rosemary white bean puree. Concannon was the first winery in the USA to produce a Petite Sirah as it’s been around since 1883 in the Livermore Valley area. Petite Sirah, as its known in the U.S. and Israel, is actually the Durif grape – it came about from cross a cross pollenation from Syrah and a Peloursin plant. It shares a lot of similarites with Sirah (hence the name) - spicy, slightly jammy, with a decently smooth, silky finish. I got this on sale for $10.99, marked down from $17.

OK, that's it for now, its been a good wine-week and I can't wait until our next G&G meeting!