when food ruins wine.

I know I've written about garlic blowing my palate out of the water, it happened again. Garlic and I have a precarious relationship, one marred when a certain beautiful liquid enters the room. I've tried and tried to make them friends. It hasn't worked. This means that I'll henceforth shun my friend garlic for my bestie: wine.

Cyril's Cuvee. Chappellet. 2006. A nose that made me shiver, and taste that made me purr.

Enter gyro dinner. So first, let me announce, it's not really the best pairing...uh. Not at all. But I didn't think I'd kill my palate after eating some tzatziki with it. Needless to say. I was grumpy for the rest of a few minutes until I got over myself.

Advice to you all. Don't do it.

truffle salt: shi shi foo foo or the next best wine pairing?

Backtrack to California, Valentine's weekend: I was subjected to pairing wine with a slice of Dubliner cheese with a sprinkling of truffle salt. It was an interesting way to pair an overpriced salt...or so I thought. The pairing (okay, this was at the 12th or 13th winery of the day) was genius, price point aside.

You ever have an "obsessive dream" where you dream about well, a type of food, wine, clothing, haircut and you wake up and you know you have to have it? Maybe it's the woman in me talking, but 3 months later, I was dreaming of truffle salt. I had to have it. Cringing when I saw the amazon.com price, I closed my eyes, bought some tennis balls to get the shipping free and voila, I now have truffle salt at hand.

Let me tell you - truffle salt smells like dirty feet. Don't listen to ANYONE try to tell you anything different. Actually, the stink is closer to feet that were perhaps unwashed after a jaunt in a swamp combined with a trek through the amazon in construction boots. Yes. It's that bad. You have a sensitive nose, you'll agree, it's just plain devastating how disgusting it is. I don't know how I missed that point when we were tasting (recall, 12 or 13 wineries came before) but I did. If you are faint of nose, maybe pinch it when you crack open a jar but don't let the smell deter you. It is a WONDERFUL pairing with cheese and almost any red wine. I'm not drinking anything special at the moment, actually it's Black Box Shiraz (until the husband comes home and we can share something spectacular), but the little jar of stinkiness opens the palate (it's salt recall) and the truffle comes through, holding hands with even the cheapest of wine.

Cheers!

steak and shake...

1. what is red
2. shaken
3. and 91 points on the wine spectator list?!?






MOLLYDOOKER BOXER SHIRAZ 2008!!!!


Well done you.



Tonight we're doing steak and shake....the real way.

Cheers!

is it strange that i...

...am making my kitchen theme "vineyard"?

I wish I had a camera to take a picture of my newly bought decos and post it here but sadly, we have 2 cameras in the house and they're both broken. :(
The reason I bring it up is because there was an enormous lottery that just went by yesterday. With it being mother's day and all, we all (the mother, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and husband and I) went in on buying some tickets to try our luck.

No luck.
We lost.

But (of course) the question was raised (in my head) of what we would do if we won the money. My first love, and usually the first thing to pop into my head is: I'd buy a Ferrari. As I've aged, maybe my taste has gotten more refined but I've moved from the ever so masculine "let me show off my chisled cheekbones and power hungry engine" of the body of the Italia (latest=458 Italia)


To a less hormonally driven, visually demanding, 612 Scaglietti


But this round of lotto dreams led me to say, well shoot, I'd buy a vineyard/winery. And so, to remind myself of future dreams, I'm changing the appearance of my little kitchen to resemble a haven for grapes and wine lovers.

Cheers!

flown the coop?....

I think not!
I've been absent because, sadly, there hasn't been much good handy wine drinking going on. I mean, of course there's been wine, but it hasn't been Wine. Instead, let me air some beef about drinking wine.

As of recently, my husband, and co-lover of wine, has taken to drinking wine like this:
Swirl (to open up smell)
Sniff
Oggle colour
Sniff
Sip-areating by sucking in some air at the same time (reverse whistle)
Swallow

None of that bothers me...not one bit.
BUT THEN. Oh then...

2nd sip, he areates again by doing the 'reverse whistle'but DOES NOT swallow
immediately (I hear all the 'that's what she said' giggles out there, don't think I didn't chuckle even though I'm on a rant), instead, he sloshes the wine all over the inside of his mouth, stripping it (and himself) of any dignity by likening it to mouth wash.


Don't yell at me, I get it. Let it coat all of your tastebuds and whodawha. We have an expert here who expounds on the way he likes to taste. It makes sense...http://www.viddler.com/explore/winelibrarytv/videos/889/
But it's the 3rd sip that puts me over the edge though...it's mouthwash motion again before swallowing. I mean. COME ON.

There's tasting and then there's drinking.
Here's to drinking!

Salut!

Batman: "Not you, Robin. They have strict licensing laws in this country. A boy of your age is not allowed in a drinking tavern."

I was in Canada this weekend, and guess what we drank...that's right. Yellowtail. I opted for the Chardonnay and to keep myself afloat, mixed in some Perrier water. On the Eastern European block we call this handy mix: gemist (geh-misht).

Not much to rave about there.

BUT. Batman and Robin came to mind when I felt my tastebuds sigh in relief and then cringe in despair tonight. I don't mind Zinfandels (hereafter known as zins), and my appreciation for them grew while we were trouncing around the California wine regions this past February. For a non-zin drinker, the abundance of zin was definitely a surprise (who knew that almost every blimey winery in the north coast (sonoma county) including russian-river, alexander valley, dry creek valley etc grows the zin grape? Not this girl).

Anyways, so I made a "hearty tuscan bean stew" for dinner tonight (v. tasty) but before I took a taste of the stew, I sipped a bit of #10 of the top 100 of 2008, Wine spectator's Seghesio Sonoma county Zinfandel (2007).

Strange nose (mind you, I've been chopping onions and mashing garlic all day-my significant other gave me a description of a chocolate berry mix with a dash of pepper, but I just didn't get that) but the flavour. Oh the flavour. It carries a flavour that soothes the palate. No other way to describe it. I hummed in pleasure and then turned back to re-read the label. It's a zin alright-but it doesn't matter that I'm prejudiced a wee bit against them. This is just one good bottle of vino.

AND THEN.
BAM!!!!!!!!!!
WHAP!!!!!!
POW!!!!!
(Think Adam West Batman theme....)

I took a bite of the bean stew, chewed on a crushed piece of garlic, and had my teeth cry out in agony. My eyes widened as I realized my mistake (stupid stupid Juli). My tastebuds had been blown to bits and I could really do nothing to soothe them...or so I thought. How to revive my tastebuds...good ol' yahoo answers has provided me with some options.

Well, I don't have time (just wait it out they all say) or ginger lying around. Oh but coffee, I have coffee. So here is my female mind at it's best most amazing problem solving moment: Laura Secord Espresso Dark Chocolate. (Laura's a chocolatier from Canada..I think). TA DA!

And so I sit writing and munching, sipping and waiting for the flavour of the wine to impress me once again.

Cheers!

Surprises are wonderful!!!

So generally, I don't like surprises. I mean, random flowers are lovely, chocolate even better but I draw the line at surprise parties.








but even that can be remedied with a surprise pinata...I mean, who DOESN'T like having an excuse to hit something AND get rewarded for it!?


The surprise this weekend came in the form of a bottle I've never heard of: 2004 Crauford Wine Company, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tattoo Maroon Vineyard.

SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh boy, I purred like a kitten when it invaded my mouth. Reading some cellar tracker reviews (http://www.cellartracker.com/intro.asp), most note that it is quite drinkable after an hour, but doesn't change much if you leave it to aerate over a few days, or decant for a bit longer.
I couldn't have cared less. Talk about a great wine that didn't need pairing to get two flaming thumbs up.

If you're having a ladies night, this is an excellent bottle to start with...have dinner with...end with. Yes. I was that impressed.

Ziv!