Happy Monday, everyone!  I don’t know about you, but my house is Christmas-tastic already!  I love this time of year, and this year is especially wonderful because for the past year I’ve been associating the holidays with the wedding so putting up the holiday decorations was sort of the official “sign” that the wedding is truly just around the corner!  So fun.  And also so busy, but you’ll excuse me I’m sure.  We’ll be laying low this week but we are attending the annual Rodman Ride for Kids Celebration Gala on Saturday and with 60+ restaurants and wineries participating I’m sure to have lots to share.  In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying the holiday season so far and singing LOTS of carols!

What do you know?  Not 5 minutes after writing about Italian wine yesterday, my coworker who recently returned from a trip to Italy came by my desk to return the maps and books I lent her (her friends made fun of the laminated map at first, but when it started to rain and the GPS on their phones did not work they were QUITE glad for it!), and presented me with the most adorable little bottle of limoncello as a thank-you gift!  Do you not love this?  Yeah limoncello and YEAH WEEKEND!!

(Nina’s Mexican Rice)

(Black Bean Soup)

(Bootleg Red + Wine Chill Drops)

Ah, so I cracked open my interesting looking red last night after all…  I also whipped up a couple of fantastic Eating Well recipes, Black Bean Soup & Nina’s Mexican Rice (not my Nina’s rice, some random Nina, but it was good all the same!), click on the links above for the recipes, they were super yummy and quick, too!  The wine, however, was a bit of a disappointment.  I picked up the bottle of Bootleg red because I thought the sleek, faux-leather wrapping was clever.  Als because it was a blend, and I love blends!  The wine consisted of even parts of Primitivo, Montepulciano, Negroamaro, and Uva di Troia.  Like the first two, unfamiliar with the last two.  So at first I was hoping that the rather acidic taste would soften as the wine opened up over time, but not so much.  It was good we were trying the wine with food because this is definitely not a sipping wine.   It got a little better by the second glass, overall I didn’t hate it, but I don’t know if I would buy it again.  Oh well, my streak of loving bottles I buy for the label couldn’t last forever I suppose!  Today has been a rough day, I have a sneaking suspicion that more wine will be had this evening, so hopefully I’ll have more reviews to kick off Friday and a much needed weekend!  Until the next time, ciao, bella!!

Goodness, has it really been a week since my last post?  My, my.  But be fair, between now and then I had a hair trial, a make-up trial, a final dress fitting, a surprise visit from my sister, a family brunch extravaganza, the deadline for wedding RSVPs, the beginnings of seating arrangements, the sending of the rehearsal invites, I could go on by who wants me to?  In other words, I have been legitimately busy and spending most nights at the gym instead of decanting some good fall reds.  So you’ll have to forgive me, but at least I have been crafting along the wine theme and will have some really fun pictures to show you soon!  Plus we have an interesting bottle of red waiting at home that I’d like to review soon.  My dress was a “tad” tight at the fitting this weekend so I’m trying to work out every night and pass on the vino this week, but I may budge if someone out there REALLY needs a new wine review…  We’ll see…

Good Wednesday, all!  I recently received a question on how to tell if a wine is “corked” or not, so I thought I’d share a little bit of insight with you all…  The cork is possibly the most important component in a bottle of wine – if the cork is messed up and allows air inside the bottle, your wine is destroyed!  So how can you tell if your wine is “corked?”  First of all, if a wine seeps high up the side of the cork that does NOT necessarily mean the wine is bad.  Unless the wine reaches all the way up to the top of the cork, like you can see wine on the cork before you even take it out of the bottle, your wine likely hasn’t been exposed to the air and is still ok.  If you DO see wine on the cork before pulling it out, bring the bottle right back to the store and exchange it.  Likewise, if you see any discoloration on the cork before or after you remove it, this is not a good sign.  Green glass on the bottle is ok, but green mold however – you’ve been corked.  If the cork splits when you pull it out, this could just be a result of the angle at which you attempted to extract it.  However, if it splits and you see any black inside this is not good.  If you fear your wine has been corked you should be able to confirm or deny by smelling alone.  If it smells like mold or vinegar, bring it back.  Resting a corked wine will not make it any smoother, trust me, it’s a lost cause!  Now I’ll tell you this – wine professionals will know when a wine is corked.  If you order a bottle at a restaurant and you think it is corked you should ask your waiter or sommelier.  If it is indeed corked they will replace right away.  Sending a rotten bottle of wine back is no big deal, make sure to confirm that it is actually rotten and not that you just don’t care for the taste.  Sending a bottle back because you don’t like the taste is not cool if there is nothing wrong with the bottle.  It’s really on the consumer to know what he or she is ordering before popping something open.  So again, use your waiter or sommelier as a resource to make sure  you know what you’re getting to avoid any wine faux pas.  Hope this helps clear some things up!

(photo credit: dreamstime.com)

Homemade walnut shortbread rounds

Freshly brewed pot of English Breakfast Tea

Adorable Spanish creamer cow + honeymoon research

Using our china tea cups for the first time!

Sometimes the best end to a hectic week involves no wine at all  :)

If I can’t fit into my wedding dress, you can blame my cat.  As a shower gift, my cat Taz surprised me with a lovely fondue pot and it has been causing trouble with my waist line ever since.  I know I should have kept it in its box and put it in the cellar until after our big day, but that sort of self restraint rarely happens.  We already whipped it out for an amazing traditional Swiss cheese fondue a couple of weeks ago, and this weekend we are hosting a dinner featuring Chocolate and Coconut Cream Fondue for dessert.  Yeah, we’re going there.  We are still in the process of flushing out the rest of the menu and wine pairings so I will update you when we have more details, but I just HAD to share this Chocolate Coconut recipe with you today because I am seriously so excited about it…  We’re thinking steak for the main so if you have any new wines to recommend please let me know!

(photo via)

Ok, so it’s “Crab cakes and football,” but yesterday we went to a favorite local hang out, Fat Cat Restaurant, and when the bartender read our order of “Crab cakes and merlot,” back to us it made me think of the “Wedding Crashers” line…  ANYWAY, so yes, last night on our way to our final flower appointment we stopped for a much needed glass of wine and a little snack.  The crab cakes were awesome, as is pretty much everything I have ever has at Fat Cat in ever (seriously, their fries are outstanding, lobster mac and cheese to die for, and the best pulled pork sandwich I’ve ever had not at a BBQ joint).  And the merlot was a great compliment!

I love Fat Cat’s wine program, affordable house wines at $7 a pop along with a good selection of interesting bottles and a GREAT beer list as well.  I tried the Gerard Bertrand 2008 Merlot and it was just what I was hoping for.  Smooth, the right balance of spice and fruit, a great wine to sip on solo or pair with the mild crab cake starter.  Plus, Gerard is pretty darn cute, isn’t he?  A successful snack break and a successful flower appointment, hurrah Tuesday!  Now if we can just have a successful end to the work week – and by that I mean a QUICK one…

(photo via)

When you were younger, I bet you knew all 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, right?  Or you could recite the Greek alphabet?  Something like that?  And you were SO excited when you stood up in front of the class and rattled the list off without one single mistake, weren’t you?  Bet most of you couldn’t do it now without hoping on Wikipedia though.  We seem to loose information when we don’t prioritize it, really such a shame but who has the time or mental capacity for things that in our professional life would be considered irrelevant?  Well, when I was studying for my Sommelier Exam I was the only one in my prep class who got (and spelled) all 5 Premier Gran Cru houses correct on our Bordeaux quiz.  It was a big freaking deal.  I was so proud.  The other day I tried to recall the names of the wine greats and only got as far as three.  I got to four a few hours later, totally one of those moments when I should have been focusing on something else yet randomly yelled out, “Latour!” to no one in particular.  I was crushed.  I mean come on, I was a bit peeved when I got stuck at the Pyramids, Colossus of Rhodes and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but I consider wine to be much more relevant in my life than some massive statue of Zeus that may or may not have even existed in the first place!  So without any further ado, here are the Five Premier Gran Cru (or First Growths) of Bordeaux, in case you were wondering…

1. Chateaux Margot (Médoc)
2. Chateaux Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac)
3. Chateaux Latour(Pauillac)
4. Chateaux Mouton Rothschild – the one I totally forgot, and it’s so close to Lafite, the one PGC I have actually consumed! (Pauillac)
5. Chateaux Haut-Brion (Pessac-Leognan)

Now, you will notice that these are all left-bank Bordeaux appellations.  I guess the French just feel that Cab-heavy blends make for a finer wine!  Some feel that the well-known right-bank wine house, Chateaux Petrus (Pomerol) should be considered among the top wines from the region, but these 5 are the only official Premeir Gran Crus.  Why is this important?  Well, for starters, it means these wine houses can charge a HECK of a lot more for their wine than anyone else on the block.  Worth it?  Well, yes and no.  As I said, I have actually tried a bottle of 1996 Chateaux Lafite Rothschild when I was in the wine biz in Las Vegas, and it was pretty stellar.  Would I have paid the $1,000+ out of pocket for the wine?  If I was ridiculously wealthy, sure!  Otherwise no.  It is one of those conundrums I feel I will never really figure out – but I am glad that I passed that quiz with flying colors  :)

(photo via)

My major accomplishment for the weekend, Skull & Bones Orange Creme Whoopie Pies.  Pretty spooktacular, don’t you agree?  Pair the whoopie pies with a liter of Roundhill on sale for $9.99 (which is what I paid for the regular bottle when I reviewed it initially!) and a Patriot’s win and I’d call that a successful Halloween!  We tried out the Roundhill Merlot this time around, it was great!  Along with the whoopie pies, we paired the wine with an amazing ribeye that Mr. Fiancé cooked up.  He also used some of the wine in the sauteed onion and mushroom steak topping he put together, delicious!  Did you do anything fun for Halloween?  Now that the ghosts and goblins have come and gone, we get to look forward to my favorite holiday of all time – THANKSGIVING.  Oh man, I’m hungry already…