I have now decided that, since our travels also always include wine tasting somewhere along the line, I would also blog about our travels. And, we are also starting to talking about moving to the Hill Country (the area in Texas roughly between and around San Antonio and Austin, I will add to this stories about the codgers moving.
Since I have no followers at the moment, I don't know how important it is to mention by "codgers," I am talking about TR and I--he being 73 (nearly) and me being 68. We met only six year ago (when I was 62 and he nearly 67), but already our relationship has lasted longer than either of my other two relationships. We haven't lasted as long as three of his four, however. They all lasted about ten years each.
We will be going down to the hill country in a couple weeks to look at houses and see if there is anything down there we like in our price range. An initial glance at the Internet tells me there is, but all my friends say, "Oh, it is soooo expensive down there." So, we will see.
We went to "Blanc Out" at iFratelli on July 25 (Thursday) and met our friend Maureen (from swimming) there. They served Las Perdices Fume Blanc from Argentina with their usual cheese and fruit plate--their cheeses are really nice high quality cheeses that include at least one soft white (muenster or Havarti), a smoky (Gouda or Gorgonzola), and always a blue and a brie.
Second they served Domaine de Couron Village Blanc (Ronin) from France. I am not remembering all the appetizers and in what order, but I think this was with a shrimp and pineapple glaze--surprising and good.
Next we had a Domaine Grand Roche Bourgongne-Saint Bris (Ronin) also from France. With it they served what they called a ceviche, but the salmon in it was cooked. I don't usually like cooked salmon, but, with the wine, it was excellent.
Then there was a Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc from California. I'm not sure when there were served, but there were two chicken crustina, one a kind of marinated chicken and the other a chicken Alfredo. The Alfredo won my vote and was very nice. The bread under the marinated chicken was not toasted (how is that a crustina?) and Maureen complained that it was soggy.
The last wine was a Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc and was from Sonoma, California (where TR's family lives, but we have not been to this winery.) This was served with a small square of veal (overcooked and too salty for my taste and served too late--kind of as an afterthought--to be coupled with the wine.)
I learned two things this evening--"Fume" is another name for the Sauvingon grape, and that this grape tends to be very minerally. The wines varied from a light mineral flavor to a heavy one.
We had a very good time comparing notes about the wine and the food and the pairing. I love sharing these evenings with new people, because I get to hear their experience.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Wine Dinner at iFratelli
I stopped working with this blog because I thought it was really boring. I don't know if I will avoid that now, but, I will not be posting very often...just when something quite nice (or quite strange) has happened in our wine-ing world.
This time we went to a special (and quite expensive) wine dinner at iFratelli, a very popular pizza place, of all things. However, this was held at the original restaurant where wine tastings are a weekly feature. I think they do these special wine dinners about twice a year.
This dinner featured the wines of Oyster Bay Winery in New Zealand. There were six courses with five wines. Now, only four of the wines are exported to the US, so our first one, the Brut, which was our very favorite of the wines, can be found only in NZ. Let's hope they export it to us sometime soon.
It was served with green-lipped mussels (also a NZ import) in a Gorgonzola and bacon sauce (delicious.) This was our favorite course. These mussels are about twice as large as our mussels, and are more tender. The shell really does have a green lip and the rest of the interior is pearlescent--like an oyster or abalone...pretty enough to be made into jewelry.
The "fish & chips" course with yellow curry sauce was loved by TR who enjoys spice a lot, but hated by me--I hate curry. The reasoning behind the course was the New Zealand theme they were using for the dinner. I let TR have mine. The Sauvignon Blanc was also quite nice, but this was the least successful course for me.
A lightly oaked Chardonnay was served with butter-poached lobster ravioli. Lobster--what's not to like? They decided to use Canadian lobster rather than importing NZ's warm water lobster, since the Canadian is sweeter and more tender...good choice. This was my second favorite course. Normally, I don't like oak in any wine, but this was lightly done enough to be quite good--especially with the lobster.
What they called "lamb roast" turned out to be two over-cooked and over-salted lamb chops. To be fair, I like my lamb rare and I hate salt on anything. It couldn't have been too bad, though, because I gnawed the bones bare (in the end, I can't resist lamb in any form). It was served with a very heavy Pinot Noir. I think red wine lovers would have loved this wine. To me, it was quite palatable with the lamb...not sure I'd have liked it with anything else.
A quite light off-dry Merlot was our last wine and was served with a roasted Portobello mushroom stack. The food might have failed for me if it hadn't been for the Gouda which was generously melted into the stack. By this time, I was slowing down and was unable to finish the course--I left about half of the mushroom on the plate--a shame because it was delicious. The wine complemented it perfectly, but I was going slowly and had some left to have with dessert.
Which was a mistake. Dessert was about the best vanilla ice cream made in Texas and was served with a melting honey candy. It was so sweet it totally drowned out the flavor of the wine which tasted like water with the sweet flavor of the dessert in my mouth. That said, that was about the best vanilla ice cream I have ever tasted.
We are looking forward to the next wine dinner at this unlikely restaurant.
This time we went to a special (and quite expensive) wine dinner at iFratelli, a very popular pizza place, of all things. However, this was held at the original restaurant where wine tastings are a weekly feature. I think they do these special wine dinners about twice a year.
This dinner featured the wines of Oyster Bay Winery in New Zealand. There were six courses with five wines. Now, only four of the wines are exported to the US, so our first one, the Brut, which was our very favorite of the wines, can be found only in NZ. Let's hope they export it to us sometime soon.
It was served with green-lipped mussels (also a NZ import) in a Gorgonzola and bacon sauce (delicious.) This was our favorite course. These mussels are about twice as large as our mussels, and are more tender. The shell really does have a green lip and the rest of the interior is pearlescent--like an oyster or abalone...pretty enough to be made into jewelry.
The "fish & chips" course with yellow curry sauce was loved by TR who enjoys spice a lot, but hated by me--I hate curry. The reasoning behind the course was the New Zealand theme they were using for the dinner. I let TR have mine. The Sauvignon Blanc was also quite nice, but this was the least successful course for me.
A lightly oaked Chardonnay was served with butter-poached lobster ravioli. Lobster--what's not to like? They decided to use Canadian lobster rather than importing NZ's warm water lobster, since the Canadian is sweeter and more tender...good choice. This was my second favorite course. Normally, I don't like oak in any wine, but this was lightly done enough to be quite good--especially with the lobster.
What they called "lamb roast" turned out to be two over-cooked and over-salted lamb chops. To be fair, I like my lamb rare and I hate salt on anything. It couldn't have been too bad, though, because I gnawed the bones bare (in the end, I can't resist lamb in any form). It was served with a very heavy Pinot Noir. I think red wine lovers would have loved this wine. To me, it was quite palatable with the lamb...not sure I'd have liked it with anything else.
A quite light off-dry Merlot was our last wine and was served with a roasted Portobello mushroom stack. The food might have failed for me if it hadn't been for the Gouda which was generously melted into the stack. By this time, I was slowing down and was unable to finish the course--I left about half of the mushroom on the plate--a shame because it was delicious. The wine complemented it perfectly, but I was going slowly and had some left to have with dessert.
Which was a mistake. Dessert was about the best vanilla ice cream made in Texas and was served with a melting honey candy. It was so sweet it totally drowned out the flavor of the wine which tasted like water with the sweet flavor of the dessert in my mouth. That said, that was about the best vanilla ice cream I have ever tasted.
We are looking forward to the next wine dinner at this unlikely restaurant.
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