Rosenblum Vintners Cuvee XXXI Zinfandel $7.99 ***

I have a cold.  Which means that my taste buds are suboptimal. What to do when your head wants to cede from your body?  Make chicken soup and drink wine (in-between book edits for a friend).

First sip of the Rosenblum, I like it.  Lush, berry-like, with a nice, slightly dry finish.  Like I said, my taste buds are off, I am sure that I am missing some nuance, but all in all, I like this wine.  It is a big taste for $7.99.

Wow, this wine has a tech sheet.... That is impressive marketing for a $7.99 bottle of wine.  (I'd pay $15 for it - but don't tell Trader Joe's that)

Now for a run through the vinturi....  even better.  My suggestion, invite some friends over for a nice rich, meaty dinner.  (Or really good crackers and cheese) pop the cork on the Rosenblum and decant it, then have a great meal.

Or, if you are like me, warm up some home made chicken noodle soup, drink a glass or two, keep a box of Puffs next to you, curl up on the sofa of sloth and watch The Colony (a great Discovery Channel staged reality show about post pandemic survival in a decimated Los Angeles...)

Indaba Shiraz ` 08 $6.99 ***

It is a red wine Friday night.

My initial thought on my first sip, was shudder....  But I was wrong.  First impressions are sometimes wrong.  Yeah, if you unscrew the top and pour a glass to drink, you will be disappointed.... But, if you open the bottle and cook a rich meal:

Mixed Green Salad w/Italian dressing
Grilled Hangar Steak
Butternut Squash Risotto w/crispy butter fried sage...

this wine is a good lush peppery dinner wine, it is much better when served w/ food - and after a run through the vinturi AND some time breathing - it is a fruity, peppery wine.  Think sour cherries and blackberries with a bite.

Now my cold & I are snuggling up on the sofa of sloth and perusing what is on my TIVO for the evening.  Next week is Thanksgiving - a culinary dream.  I'll be cooking kosher - which is kinda cool for a goy (translation - non-jew) from Maine!

Zarafa Pinotage `09 (2nd review) $3.99 **(*)

This is the second time around for the Zarafa...  People commented that this is a wine they really liked, so I decided to re review... for me, again, this is NOT a sipping wine.  Also not a wine to be decanted (shudder).  I stand by my first review.  BUT...  When I reviewed it in `08, it was May.  Now, it is November `09, and rather than continue drinking the wine after the first few tastes, I decided to mull it.  My first mulled wine of the season.  IT IS A VERY GOOD MULLING WINE. 

I poured the bottle into a pan, set it over low heat, threw in a sliced orange and it's juice, some cloves, cinnamon, sugar and Madeira, and poof - a good mug of mulled wine.

Supper is light tonight, just some spinach, caramelized onions with cheddar cheese toasted on knäckebröd (Swedish crisp bread).  My grandfather was Swedish, and I grew up with a package of knäckebröd on top of the fridge - it is a great staple to have in the pantry for nights like tonight.  In the summer, it is really good with fresh tomatoes and Farmer's Cheese.

The Zarafa is really getting me in the Holiday spirit.  A month from now, the Christmas Tree will be up, and, well, I am excited about the holidays.  For $3.99, the Zarafa can't be beat for a good cheap mulling wine.  I wouldn't serve it as a wine with dinner though...

Graff Riesling Kabinett Mosel `07 (Not TJ's) $12.99 ***(* )

I took a wine tasting class. This wine was my favorite of the night and it was the cheapest! (I am weirdly thrilled by having cheap taste - hmmmm)

One thing I learned, was that this sweetish wine pairs well with spicy food (like Thai) - I am always wondering when I go out to eat, what wine should I pair with ethnic foods - especially Thai - we usually cop out and order Thai beer, next time I'll be daring.

For today -  a cool, rainy November Saturday, I am making:
Grilled chicken thighs in Stubbs chicken marinade;
Rice-a-Roni Rice Pilaf (gotta love the San Francisco Treat!);
and Broccoli.
No dessert...well, maybe a glass of Broadbent Madeira.

In the class, we talked a lot about this wine, the paleness in the glass, the initial bouquet, a subtle smell of gasoline!?! Still with a distinct pear smell. Then came the initial taste - which in a class you spent a lot of time looking smelling and anticipating.  I guess that would be called savoring... but for me at home, I swish the glass, take a deep breath, then dive right in... the wine class was a lesson in restraint.  I will show very little restraint today.

HAH - it's a screw top.  I like screw tops - very efficient - yes, it detracts form the "Experience" but practical trumps.  First smell - mmm pears.  I get it.  hmmm gasoline.  Yeah, a subtle petroleum scent - not gross, but weird - that isn't a good descriptor, because it is so off-putting.  The wine is good, my vocabulary is bad.

Taste - well chilled, YUMMY.  I like it.  Crisp, pear like, subtle sharpness (that would be the ah hem gasoline? - how can such an unappetizing smell actually taste good? I was so off put by writing the word gasoline, I googled wine smells and got this:  How to Taste Wine - Smelling the wine.  I have to work at learning to properly describe what I am smelling....

Now back to the Graff:

This is a good, slightly acidic yet sweet fruity wine.  It goes GREAT with the slight spice of the marinated chicken thighs, the salty creaminess of the rice (I used home made chicken stock, butter and deglazed w/ the Riesling) and the broccoli.

Good, it would have been four stars if it were a bit cheaper - it is expensive for me $11.69 (I got a 10% discount off the $12.99 price @ Bacchus).

Learning about wine..... $75.00 ****

Tonight, I sat in the basement cave of Bacchus Wines and I took a Wane Tasting Course.  You know, $75.00 is expensive - yes, BUT I had a great time.  There were 9 of us at two stone top bars.  We had the fun bar, a French Canadian man, me, a SoHo hipster with a shag haircut and horn rimmed glasses, a shaved head Brit, and a buttoned down married couple, he in the requisite Brooks Brothers suit, and she was a fun blonde.  All of us had paid our money because we like wine and wanted to know more about it.

To start, the wineshop on Broadway between 70th and 71st bears the motto "Wine Made Simple".  There are no pretensions, no dinner jackets, no Niles Crane types waffling on and on about appellations and vintage.  It was a straightforward tasting of nine wines, starting light and white and ending with a rich dessert wine.  You get two Riedel multipurpose wineglasses (to keep), a big plate of cheese and crackers to munch on as you work your way through the wines, and a powerpoint presentation with commentary about the basics of wine taste:

Color and Clarity; Aroma & Bouquet; Body; Taste Components & Flavor Concentration.

And the group participation of the class was smelling essential oils and identifying them.  That is when our Bar started having fun, we sniffed, and guessed, then sniffed again, and then passed the bottle to the next person.  It really broke the ice.  We joked around, debated smells and had fun.

Then we sipped our way through the wines.  I was cuffed at the end of the evening to find out that my favorite for the whole night was also the cheapest bottle!  $12.99 Graff Riesling.  I bought a bottle, and my next review will be of the Graff.  Will this make my reviews any better - well, I hope so.

Carol, our teacher, also turned me on to a new in bottle aerator to try in place of the Vinturi, the Soiree.  I bought one and I will test it head to head against the Vinturi on my next bottle of red.  Both Carol & I agreed that decanting makes a HUGE difference, so I will stick to my guns and say that an aerator can make your cheap Trader Joe's bottle of red wine much much better!

I was chatting with the sales clerk as she was ringing up my purchases, and she was talking about cooking - well, with a few glasses of wine in me, some great cheese and good company... I was all about talking food.  She was talking about reading magazines to get ideas, and well, my advice was cook what you love and then expand on it.  Find flavors that make you smile, develop a signature meal, serve it to people you love, and grow from that satisfaction. Food and wine always taste so much better when you are sharing it with people you like.

I'll try to incorporate some of what I learned in my future reviews.  It wouldn't be fair for me to transcribe the whole class.