Happy Monday, everyone!  Over the weekend, I did a good bit of reflecting.  You know, I realized that don’t really buy that many domestic wines.  Not that I have anything against the good ‘ole US of A, but I guess I am more attracted to the Spanish and Italian aisles of most stores.  This recent revelation upset me a bit, I felt not at all patriotic, and I made a plan to look for more home-grown domestic wines.  When I saw this bottle of Seaglass Sauvignon Blanc from Santa Barbera, I decided to give it a go.  And ladies & gentlemen – I am so glad i did!  This was a lovely, balanced Sauv Blanc, the sort you drink so easily that you go for a second glass and realize that you’ve already polished off the bottle!  Not by yourself mind you, this is assuming that you have someone to share with, I don’t want to inadvertently start any rumors about myself now…  Not too lemony, not too dry, just pleasant!  I paid $11 for this wine and would definitely do so again.  Try it out and let me know what you think!  Salud!

(photo credit: winediva.ca)

The other day I was looking for a photo to use in one of my blog posts and I came across a Canadian wine blog called WineDiva.ca.  Naturally I loved the name of the blog, and have been taking a look around ever since.  I really like the Wine  Diva’s style!  She shares articles in other wine-related forums such as VinesMag.com, where I found a great little post on the wines of Argentina.  I thought I’d share a little weekend reading with you, so here’s the link!  Hope you find it useful, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

VinesMag.com – High Society

Ok, so as you may or may not know, my fiancee and I are headed to FABULOUS Buenos Aires for our honeymoon in December! We just booked the flights and to celebrate we promtply went to Fresh Market and bought a variety of their finest Argentine Wines. I grabbed a bottle of Gaucho Club malbec because seruously, how could you not buy a wine with that name? Let me tell you folks, I will buy that wine again, and not for the name or fancy artwork this time. Gaucho Club was GOOD! One of my favorite malbecs in a good long while in fact.  Rich plum, smooth & spicy palate, this was a solid Argentine wine and was perfect with the grilled meat we served for dinner.  I found the bottle for $10.99.  But again, this was at Fresh Market and they tend to be a bit higher than the normal store, so you should be able to find it if not below then right at the $10 mark.  Oh my goodness I’m getting more and more excited about this trip, I plan to eat so much meat and drink so much red wine…  Hurrah for los Gauchos!

(photo credit: prestigewinegroup.com)

Know what’s annoying? When you have a great bottle of Riesling and then want to blog about it only to Google image search and find no relevant pictures of the bottle because the name of the wine is “Stone Fruit Riesling.” Plenty of pictures of Rieslings in general, and lots of images of plums, nectarines and the like, but no dice on a bottle shot. So today you’ll have to use your imaginations! Now on to the wine itself… I picked up this German Riesling the other day and found it to be a nice, simple wine. The type of Riesling that I would recommend to someone who thinks they don’t care for Reisling because Stone Fruit is not overly sweet and can be paired with a variety of dishes. We enjoyed it with a lemony fish dish, it balanced the acidity well. After a full glass however I did switch to a more dry Sauv Blanc, I was kind of getting that fuzzy-teeth feeling and was not really feeling seconds. But the wine was $7.99, so if you find it I would say it’s worth picking it up and giving it a try! The Sauv Blanc I had was also a new wine, and THAT was pretty amazing. But I’ll save that for another day. Gotta leave you wanting more! Until the next glass, cheers!

Any bottle of wine featuring a massive chocolate layer cake is going to get my attention.  Add to the fact that this Layer Cake wine is a Primitivo (which is a varietal that often catches my eye for a number of reasons) and I knew I would buy it before the darling little wine guy even started talking it up.  Rich, surprisingly fruity, and even a teensy bit sweet, Layer Cake Primitivo really delivers.  You’ll notice on the bottle that the wine varietal is listed as “Primitivo, aka Zinfandel.”  Primitivo is a derivative grape of the zinfandel family, so you will notice many similarities in its flavor profile.  I’m not a huge fan of promoting the wine this way as Primitivo is its own varietal and deserves its own acknowledgment, I suppose it is useful in raising awareness of lesser-known varietals so I won’t complain…  I paired this with a cheese plate consisting of maytag blue, salted almonds, fig jam, and home made crostini.  It was perfect!  You could definitely enjoy this wine on its own as it isn’t too dry so you won’t need snacks to take the edge off.  Not that I have any problem with snacks  :)  I bought this bottle at the new Fresh Market that opened up around the block, it ran me about $14 but since grocery stores often have higher prices than a regular packy I bet you could find this closer to the $10 range.  They were also sampling the new 2009 Shiraz which was also good.  Give it another month or so and it will really balance out and loose some of its current “jammy-ness,” and in 6 months I bet it will be to die for!  Clearly I only sampled the bottle at the time and did not buy it, my ability to store wine for future consumption is somewhat nonexistent.  So if you see one of the many varieties of Layer Cake wines you should try one out, and as always report back and let me know what you think!  Cheers!

(photo credit: layercakewine.com)

TGIF, everyone!  I haven’t been so thankful for a Friday in a long time.  Gardening, cleaning, and cooking a delightful Mother’s Day Brunch are on my to-do list for the weekend and I am pleased as punch about it…

Mother’s Day is a fabulous holiday when you’re a bit older, isn’t it?  I feel I have a much deeper appreciation for my mother and all that she’s done for my family now that I’m a bit more mature and understand the pressures of adulthood, and I finally have the time, money & space to throw her the wonderful Mother’s Day celebration she deserves!  What is on the menu you ask?  That’s a secret for now, as my mom is an avid reader of MoreThanMerlot.com and I don’t want to ruin the surprise.  But I can tell you a bit about the wine i’m pairing with the meal!

I recently posted about a wonderful little zinfandel from Axis.  (Ha, side note – Chrome spell check suggests the appropriate spelling for the word zinfandel is “infanticide.”  Interesting correlation…)  I was very impressed with the quality of this wine and decided to pick up a bottle of Axis Sauvignon Blanc to pair with dinner last night.  I prepared a delicious chili-rubbed tilapia with asparagus and lemon from Eating Well magazine for dinner.  Quite a combination for a wine pairing.  Tilapia on its own can be a bit boring, but caked in chili powered and garlic it definitely packs a punch.  Then you have the asparagus with a rich, lemon flavor.  I thought a Sauv Blanc would be a good fit, and Axis completely delivered.   The mellow straw notes took the edge of the chili and the lemon flavor complimented the asparagus well.  This is absolutely a wine that you could drink on its own as well, or pair it with a peppery arugula salad or herbed goat cheese.  Now what does this have to do with my Mother’s Day menu?  One of the dishes I’m preparing on Sunday involves mixed greens, egg, and a delicious Bucheron so I though Axis would be a perfect pairing.  Pick up a bottle for your mother this weekend, I promise it won’t disappoint!

On another note, our fabulous Swedish friend is in town for a visit and made it in to Boston this afternoon for a reunion lunch with my fiancée and a few old colleagues.  Since I no longer work downtown I was sadly unable to attend, especially painful seeing as they went to one of my favorite old dive bars.  My fiancée felt badly that I would miss out on the fun and offered to buy me a few nice bottles of vino to make up for it.  I look forward to sharing the new material with you next week!  Until then, happy weekend!!

(photo credit: prestigewineimports.com)

Who doesn’t love a good margarita?  I don’t.  Not when I’m trying to watch my caloric intake that is.  After a week on the road for business followed by a 5 day wedding extravaganza, the last thing I need is an excuse to consume massive amounts of fried food and tequila.  But Cinco de Mayo is my favorite fake holiday of all time and celebrating in high style is a must.  So I hit the web in search of recipes that would satisfy my cravings without undoing my dieting efforts.  Where did I end up?  Well, Hungry Girl of course!  What?  Not familiar with the site?  Let me clue you in.  Hungry Girl is an amazing website full of great tips for eating well on a diet.  Especially handy if you’re on the Weight Watchers system as all of the recipes on the site are listed by points as well as general nutrition facts.  I found a Hungry Girl article on health margaritas – and let me tell you, they were GREAT!  Frozen raspberry ritas, Fruitylicious ritas, and a great classic lemon-line margarita.  I paired these treats with the traditional WW 7 layer dip and baked tortilla chips, and Hungry Girl fajitas.   All in all, a super filling and quite extravagant meal came to just 14 points!  (Including 2 margaritas, huge portion of dip and two massive fajitas)  Now it’s not wine, but who doesn’t love some healthy food & beverage pairings?  How did you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  Off to the gym for me, I need to earn a few activity points so I can have some wine with dinner tonight.  Ah, priorities…

Check out the recipes at Hungry Girl’s website!  You’ll be glad you did…

(photo credit:  hungry-girl.com)

Feliz Cinco de Mayo everyone!

Sorry for another extended absence, after my Chicago trip (which, if you know my friend Kim, you will understand why I wasn’t able to post again that week) I returned home only to turn right back around to the airport for my darling sister’s wedding in Savannah!  First off, if you’ve never been to Savannah, you MUST go.  Such a charming little city, and a great social scene!  I almost resent Savannah for developing all these amazing new wine bars, roof deck lounges, trendy tapas bars and such – I don’t want any more excuses for my sister to delay moving home with her new husband!  But I digress…

SO, as we all know, I am kinda into wine.  And champagne.  ESPECIALLY at weddings.  When else do you have an excuse to drink as much bubbly as you want?  And the champagne at this wedding was really good.  Not too dry, not too sweet.  Could I tell you, for the life of me, what exactly it was that I was drinking?  Nope.  Could I even assure you that it was champagne, as opposed to prosecco, or cava, or the like?  No way.  So my question is this – we brides stress over every little detail of a wedding, but how much attention to the guests really pay?  Is it worth spending the extra dough to get Veuve for my big day, or will a discrete sparkler do?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Oh, and by the way, how GORGEOUS is this bride?  Congrats again to the happy couple on a fantastic event!