Hurray for Thursday!  So last night, as I mentioned previously, we went to my parents’ house for a lovely dinner.  Of course I called dibs on picking out the wine.  On the menu was a baked shrimp, artichoke, garlic and lemon bake served over angel hair pasta.  A white for sure, but I also wanted to pick up a red to tide us over until dinner was ready.  We started the evening with Tutto Bene Toscana Rosso, 1996, primarily a Sangiovese varietal wine from the Tuscany region of Italy.  My father is partial to Italian reds and I thought this looked like something he would enjoy.  Delicious blackberry, hints of chocolate and spice, this was a phenomenal sipping wine and went great with the fromage forte I picked up to nibble on before dinner.  Moving on, for dinner I discovered the delightful Saint-Peyre, a white wine made from the obscure Picpoul grape in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in France.

Since Languedoc-Roussillon is less well known than its neighbors Bordeaux and Burgundy, you can get really incredible wine for a lot less money.  Get this – the wine was even a TWIST-OFF!  Yes, a French twist-off!  A good sign indeed…  Fabulous lemon & grapefruit and well-balanced acidity – the perfect wine for a seafood dish!  I bought both wines at Whole Foods, the Tutto Bene for $11.99 and the Saint-Peyre for $8.99.  Excellent deals on two excellent wines!  Keep an eye out and let me know what you think!  Cheers!

(photo credits: wine.com & secondglass.com)

Ok, so it is a few days before the ACTUAL one-year anniversary of the first post on MoreThanMerlot.com, but today marks the 1st annual renewal of the site!  This is kind of a big deal for me, there have been ups and downs during my first foray into the blogosphere but managing to keep it up AND getting enough traffic to the site to warrant paying to keep it going is quite exciting!  And what better way to celebrate than with dinner tonight at the house of my lovely parents, who happen to be the biggest advocates of the site as well  :)  In honor of this special occasion I am going to pick out some brand new wines to try at dinner which I can then blog about later in the week.  So until tomorrow, thanks for sticking with me, it’s been a great year!

(photo credit via)

Happy Friday, everyone!  I am SO excited for this weekend – it is the wedding weekend of my darling friends and it is going to be just the most perfect day, hurrah!  I very much look forward to the drive from Maine, finally free of weekend “camp” goers and long lines at the NH State Liquor Store.  It truly is a beautiful state, the ideal setting for a fall wedding, or even a summer, winter or spring wedding really!!  And the wedding itself, what can I say?  I’ve been anticipating it all year, perhaps even longer, for I was relatively sure even before these two got engaged that they were so beyond perfect for each other that they were destined to tie the knot eventually.  I am SO lucky this year, I get to see my sister, my cousin and so many friends marry their perfect other halves - and of course we’re rounding out the wedding season with our own little wedding celebration!  So much fun, I just adore it.

But anyway, I digress…  So last night was a mini-celebration in it’s own – REAL FOOD!  Yes, that’s right, I had solid food for the first time since getting my wisdom teeth pulled last week and it was divine.  Well, to be honest it was a kind of mediocre pizza that we ordered from a place that we used to like but has recently been taken over by new owners who changed the recipes, but I still loved it.  I purchased this fabulous Pinot Nero, an Italian Pinto Noir (Noir=Black in French, Nero=Black in Italy, same grape just grown in different regions).  It was only $9.99, had a fabulous blackberry flavor, adorable little artsy bottle, and for the life of me I can’t remember what it was called.  I know I bought it at fresh market, and I even took a picture of the wine section of the store because it is so adorable, but no picture of the actual bottle, no website, nothing.  So why do I bother writing about the wine that shall not be named?  I guess to emphasis the point that good wine comes from everywhere!  If you like Pinot Noir, try Pinot Nero!  Same grape, same basic flavor profile, but with some fun, subtle differences imparted from unique terriors.  So go ahead, try something new!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, we’ll be traveling back from Maine on Monday so if you don’t hear from me I promise I’ll tell you all about the fabulous wedding later in the week…  Cheers!!

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(photo credit via)

Ah, the fall.  I would love to celebrate with my first pumpkin spice latte but it is going to get into the 80′s here today so that may not be a good idea…  But I will indeed be cooking up some warm, hearty soups seeing as I still can’t eat solid food.  EatingWell.com recently did a great feature on eating well on a budget, including 4 super easy soup recipes that take under an hour to whip up.   I have broccoli soup for lunch, and I am momentarily afraid of peas seeing as I had frozen bags of them strapped to my head all weekend, so I think I will try the potato and carrot recipes tonight.  I am thinking a nice Merlot to pair with the carrot, the fruity plum flavor should compliment the sweetness nicely.  As far as the potato, I’m not quite sure.  By itself I think a simple Pinot Noir might be best, or even an unaged Chardonnay.  But let’s face it – who can eat potato soup without sour cream, cheese, and maybe some delicious bacon?  That changes the flavor profile completely and I’d maybe go for a more bold syrah to hold up to the stronger flavors.  Guess I should pick up a few bottles for the sake of research…  I’ll let you know the results!  And please send me any fun soup recipes you may have lying around, I’m going to need them…

(photo credit via)

My weekend post wisdom teeth = not fun.  This clever wine stopper = the opposite.

(photo credit: shopatmoxie.com)

Relaxing at the bar at Alba, sipping a nice glass of red, enjoying a delicious antipasto platter…  These are my memories of last night, my last happy hour for some time.  This morning I underwent wisdom tooth extraction and will be off wine, solid food, and general happiness for some time… I’m not sure how long it will take to make a full recovery but I am hoping to at least be off pain killers and back on spirits by mid week so that I won’t be a total light weight at the wedding of my dear friends on Sunday!! So soon, so exciting! Thank goodness I have do much to look forward to  But in the meantime, at least last night I was able to send myself off with an old friend - Dehesa la Granja 2003, a wine I came to love years ago when managing a restaurant in Las Vegas. I have always had a soft spot for Spanish wines, but Dehesa is a particular favorite and I’ve had trouble finding it around here – until now of course!   Dehesa is a rich tempranillo full of blackberry and chocolate notes with a hint of coffee.  And the great news is that I purchased the bottle at the bar for only $33!  Excellent deal for dining out.  Ok, back to frozen peas and melted ice cream for me, enjoy your weekend!!

Ah ha!  I thought this one looked familiar…  Last night I picked up a bottle of Line 39 Sauvignon Blanc, and although I had a hint of déjà vu I swore that I had not actually tried the wine before.  Low and behold, when I looked it up online I discovered that it is produced by Cecchetti, the same company as Redtree wines, so I must have seen it on their website earlier…  Well, like Redtree before it, Line 39 turned out to be a solid, affordable treat.  Line 39 Sauv Blanc (Lake County, CA) had the citrus you expect (mostly lemon with some grapefruit), a hint of hay, and was very smooth to drink.  I paired it with baked haddock and lemony asparagus and it held its own without being overpowering.  Delightful!  I also picked up a bottle of Line 39 Petit Syrah as well as an old favorite Agua de Piedras to round out a 3 for $25 deal making the bottles average out to just $8 each.  I’d still pay the retail $10.99 for this though, it was great quality and easy to drink.  Grab one and let me know what you think!  Cheers!

(photo credit: www.line39wines.com)

Check this out – new Wine Chill Drops by Skybar.  Never again will we have to dilute our wine with ice cubes or tempt fate by sticking a bottle of bubbly in the freezer to cool for quick consumption!  I am very excited about this product…

(photo credit: williams-sonoma.com)