Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Monday nights in Portland

Every Monday night at La Merde, the lounge at Montage restaurant hosts bingo night. The kicker? Half-priced bottles of wine! I discovered it through a friend who goes there with his coworkers practically every week and I've tagged along a few times myself. The number caller (bingoer?) dances, sings along with the music, gets crazy, has a few drinks and will probably freak you good. Good times to be had by all...

A good number of restaurants will host half-priced wine nights on some of their slowest nights. Others have a no corkage fee, which is great if you have a bottle sitting around at home but don't want to pay the premium of enjoying that wine with dinner. Maybe I'll do a little research on what restaurants got this going on...

Sunday, October 21, 2007

A recent wine pairing

The last few dinners this week have consisted of my new favorite wine/food pairing. Brats and red wine. When I first read on the back of a label that suggested said pairing I was at first a bit skeptical. I always thought of brats and brew. The end. Well, I suppose it makes sense in hindsight. Brats = awesomeness. Wine = awesomeness. Add them together for potent kick of double awesome. And let's face it, I'm certainly not breaking new ground with this post. So why the mention? Here's why (the reason behind):

When you think about pairing a food with a wine a good rule of thumb is red meat with red wine. That is partly because of the fat content of red meat. So when you bite into a juicy steak, brat or prime rib your mouth gets all happy. Then, you take a drink of the red wine and low and behold, the wine helps clean your palate. The tannins in the wine (compound that makes your mouth dry out in red wine) counteracts the fat. The end result is each sip of wine and each bite of your meat stays as good as the first (and hopefully even better!).

In other wine related news, I'll be going to a tasting of Iberian wines tomorrow and hope to share some insights on these hard to pronounce and sometimes even harder to find wines.

What I'm drinking right now (I hope to include this on all posts from here on out, because I'm inevitably always drinking something while posting):

Geyser Peak Winery, 2004 Cabernet, Alexander Valley
- Opened last night. Initial impressions of blackberries on the nose. A bit of oakiness noted. Medium bodied, fairly soft with a decent-good finish. Went great with the brat. Still holding up after 24 hours. Retails around ~$14 on sale. Not bad for the buck. Nothing super great about it, but not offending in any way.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Calimochas

My last post made me think of the last time I had Yellow Tail. I had got a free bottle from a wine training seminar. It was the Shiraz-Grenache blend (which, like the pinot noir, actually isn't half bad). I used it to make Calimochas. Now, as I understand it, calimochas are a popular drink in Spain with students. It's like a super poor mans sangria. You mix equal parts red wine and coca-cola. That's it. It's pretty nice on a hotter day when you want a chilled beverage but don't want white wine/beer/booze. Great use for cheap wine and would be pretty good for lubricating the masses at your next Spanish party. Because you know you want to throw one. Give in...

Tonight's Wine Steward Adventure!

Tonight I ventured out into territory you might not expect me too, being a wine professional and all (now that sounds weird, but I suppose it's true). Yellow Tail Land.

That's right, Yellow Tail, the monster of an Australian brand was brought back home for the lovely price of $6.99. I've tried the other members of the Yellow Tail lineup. Let's say they are not really my style, kinda sweet/Kool-Aid-ish. However, tonight's bottle was a new member to their lineup and I think it definitely has some potential. Yellow Tail now has a Pinot Noir.

I was intrigued just at the thought of a YT Pinot Noir. I didn't know what to expect for $7. I mean, finding an Oregon pinot for under $10 is hard enough no matter how terrible it might be. So here's what I found out...

It was very drinkable. Light, but not as light as other pinots I've had before, a bit darker in color. The nose made me think of cola and raspberries, maybe, just maybe, a bit of coffee/cocoa (although quite debatable). On the palate it followed up on the light raspberry flavors with a shorter finish. Of course, not a lot of depth here. But who are we kidding! It was seven-freakin-dollars! Really not bad at all. If you want a cheapo-pinot, this is probably your best bet at the supermarket. Besides, who can afford Oregon pinots every night? That starts hurting the wallet pretty fast.

In a final word, I'm giving the Yellow Tail Pinot Noir a thumbs up.