Holiday Wine Sharing

The holidays are an excellent time to share a bottle(s).  After years of crashing friends and family, it was time for us to host our first Thanksgiving Dinner. With family in all week, we shared quite a few bottles and they all paired very nicely with the food currently up for grabs. 

Thanksgiving Day was all Cuvaison ~ an appropriate choice as we are very thankful for all the great wines they produce.  We started the afternoon with the 2010 Vin Gris and washed down our Thanksgiving dinner with the 2009 Bald Mountain Zinfandel. 

2010 Vin Gris of Pinot Noir

We are not normally fans of rose’ wines. And, I will admit, when the Vin Gris arrived as part of a club shipment I mentally put it on the ‘gift it’ list.  We later visited Cuvaison in Carneros and it was on the tasting menu. At first sip, we realized this was not a typical rose’ ~ a great surprise ~ and it quickly moved from the ‘gift it’ to the ‘it’s a keeper’ list! 

The wine has bright, fresh fruit without being overly sweet.  Like its parent wine, Pinot Noir, it has a very elegant, smooth structure. The biggest hit of the day was pairing it with the prosciutto wrapped melon. Quite enjoyable, and all were bummed when the bottle went empty!

Check out this short video from the winemaker, Steve, where he describes the wine in more detail. 

2009 Bald Mountain Zinfandel

We tasted a lot of Zinfandel on our California wine adventure earlier this year.  The ’09 Bald Mountain Zin really stood out ~ hands down the best we tasted on the trip.  It has a nice berry fruit nose, smooth but jammy on the palate, with a light peppery finish.  This full-body, fruit forward zin was a perfect pairing with our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. 

While it will probably age very well over the next 5-7 years, it is so darn good now I know our few remaining bottles won’t last that long. Only 685 cases were produced.  If you happen to come across a bottle, snag it.  It is a special treat!

What wine did you enjoy with your Thanksgiving feast?   

Perfect Thanksgiving wines under $20

Thanksgiving is a great time of year to enjoy the three Fs: family, food, and football! The tricky part is picking the right wine to go with your Thanksgiving feast. Some of your guests will appreciate a pairing that goes well with the meal while others will gulp down anything you put in front of them. 

Here are our suggestions for great Thanksgiving wines that are all under $20. They all go well with turkey, ham, and a wide range of fixins. Even better, you'll probably find them in your local liquor store, wine shop, or supermarket no matter what part of the country you are in.

Riesling
An off-dry Riesling can be a refreshing compliment to a heavy Thanksgiving feast. Our choice is the 2010 Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Riesling. It earned a 91 point rating from Wilfred Wong and retails at BevMo for $7.99.

Chardonnay
This is a good choice if your guests want a white wine but don't want the sweetness of a Riesling. Stick with lighter Chardonnays and avoid anything that is too oaky or buttery. Our pick is the 2008 Simi Sonoma County Chardonnay, a nicely balanced Chardonnay that has a light apple taste without a lot of citrus. It retails at BevMo for $18.99.

Pinot Noir
This is a terrific choice for a red wine that won't overwhelm the food. Stick with more fruit forward, light-bodied California Pinot Noirs. Our selection is the 2010 Chalone Monterey County Pinot Noir, which always tastes like a more expensive Pinot. Little known fact about Chalone - Julia Child was a part owner. This wine retails for $18.99 at BevMo.

Zinfandel
This varietal is a terrific choice if you are looking for a medium-bodied red wine that pairs well with your menu. You can't go wrong with the 2008 Lake Sonoma Zinfandel. The last time I shared a bottle with friends it quickly disappeared and I was glad I had a second bottle in reserve! It normally retails for $19.99, but the current club price at BevMo is only $9.99!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Aia Red Wine by Miner Family Vineyards

There are a number of winemakers of well known, widely distributed wines that craft specialty production side projects.  Under these alternate labels, winemakers have more flexibility to experiment ~ sometimes mixing different varietals than what you may typically find. They can be fun, and quite enjoyable discoveries! Some of our favorites are Days Off  (Andrew Murray), Conundrum (Caymus), and Small Block Series (Hess). 

We recently discovered another special production wine while dining at Lahaina Grill in Maui, HI (highly recommend!).  One of the Sommelier’s picks was Aia Red Wine by Miner Family.  With the mark-ups they have at restaurants these days, we typically don’t order wines we’ve never tried before. (Yes, we are spoiled by the freedom of corkage fees in California).  We haven’t tasted a Miner Family wine we haven’t liked…so, we threw caution to the wind and gave it a go ~  

The 2007 Aia Red is a blend of 35% Cabernet Franc, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Petit Verdot, and 15% Malbec.  Individually, the grapes are some of my favorites.  I was excited to see how they would taste blended as one.  The wine is very rich in color, and we both noted the pleasant floral aromas.  It was light and very smooth on the palate, with taste of plum fruits, and a little jammy on the finish. The balance in flavors and well-integrated tannins made it a great pairing with my mouth watering braised short ribs, and Jeff’s equally impressive veal chop.   

The fruit for this wine is sourced from a low-yielding vineyard in Napa Valley.  It is aged 20 months, 50% New French Oak.  They produced 2,730 cases ~ keep your eye out for it on restaurant wine lists, online, and in specialty wine stores.  It retails at about $27. 

Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir – no tricks, all treat!

It is always a treat when you discover a good wine at a reasonable price.  It is even better when it is super delicious and around 10 bucks!  We first discovered Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir while out with our friends Gaby & Steve at the Wine Vault & Bistro in San Diego.  It has now become one of our most shared bottles.  And yes, it is another screw cap wine!

As with most California pinots, this one is a delicate, fruiter wine, with not a lot of earthy tones. It has aromas of red fruit with a hint of spice.  Upon tasting, flavors of pomegranate develop, finishing with a little splash of vanilla.  The diverse characteristics make it enjoyable with a wide variety of foods. This is a great wine to select when dining out with a group as it pairs well with lean beef, chicken, pork or fish.  

It’s getting harder to find good value pinot noir.  Fortunately, this 100% pinot is fairly available. You can find it at BevMo and Specs. Or, check out the where to buy feature on their website to locate a distributor near you.

How to drink wine in public

It's illegal to drink alcohol in public parks and on beaches in San Diego. As far as you know, Sally and I never violate the law by bringing wine to a park or beach. However, we thought you might like to know how to get away with it just in case you have a certain disregard for the law. 

There are only three things you need to know to get away with drinking wine in public.

Step 1: Choose the right containers
Always keep the evidence out of sight! A wine bottle is a dead giveaway, so you should pour your wine into a water bottle or other container before leaving home. Clear plastic bottles are OK for whites, but you may want something opaque for red wine. If we were to do it ourselves, we'd probably go with a 750 ml steel canteen. Glass is banned from most parks and beaches, so you'll have to leave the wine glasses at home. Go ahead and drink the wine from standard 16 oz Solo cups since they don't impact the flavor too negatively and are pretty generic.

Step 2: Don't look like you are drinking
We see plenty of people get busted for booze in public because they look like they are there to party hearty. If we were to enjoy some wine in the park, hypothetically, we would pack a nice picnic. This would make us look like a couple of responsible adults enjoying a nice picnic rather than two degenerate scofflaws who ought to be investigated.

Step 3: Don't talk about drinking
Some people give themselves away by simply talking too loudly about their illicit activities. Here are a few sample phrases that might get you in trouble if you are illegally drinking in a park or at the beach:

• Damn this wine is good!
• Should we open some more wine?
• I don't know if I should have any more wine since I'm already drunk.

Sally enjoying an unknown beverage