Sunday Wine Down Summer Tasting Party

Sunday is a day for rest, relaxation and WINE... We hosted our Sunday Wine Down Summer tasting party last weekend and it was fantastic. Along with some great wines from Wine Shop At Home we also enjoyed some tasty bites including crab cakes from "The Little Onion". We welcomed our guests with a sparkling wine called Petit Cadeau Semi Seco. Petit Cadeau is french for "little or small gift". This wine was lightly sweet with a delicate balance and the perfect amount of bubbles. It is an ideal partner for celebrating life's simple pleasures and special occasions. This delicious sparkling California wine is a blend of French Columbard, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Muscat, Viognier, PinotBlanc and Sauvignon Blanc. With flavors and
aromas of green apple and pear with hints of orange and anise. It was one of the favorites of the evening. At only $19.50 a bottle this is a perfect gift as this wine can be ordered with your own customized label for weddings, corporate gifts or holiday gift giving!

Our second wine of the evening was the Frisch 2010 Riesling. I am becoming a huge Riesling fan and this wine was a good one but the third wine was a surprising favorite, the 2010 Nouveau Muse Rosato. I don't normally care for Rose's but this wine is far better than most I have tasted. It is a delightful pink color and tastes light and smooth with hints of strawberry, raspberry, cherry and aromas of spice. This central coast Rosato is a blend of 80% Pinot Noir, 10% Syrah, 10% Chardonnay and only $18.00 a bottle. Next in line was the 2008 Milano Barbera which we have talked about in a previous post. As of today the Barbera is sold out so that tells you just how good it was. On to our next red which was the EVO 2009 Mendocino Merlot. This is a special bottle with each label showing a beautiful tiger in half-profile, with one side of the face barely visible, communicating that a species, without our help, will fade quickly from view.
A dollar from every bottle purchased goes directly to the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative with a guaranteed contribution of $25,000.00, now that feels and tastes good! Our last red was the Fog Vineyards 2009 Valley Mist Blend. This weekend wine is a blend of 60% Syrah and 40% Petit Sirah. This wine has aromas of blueberry, chocolate and raspberry with hints of leather and spice. This is a big bold wine with a long fruit driven finish. Last but not least was the 2010 Fleur Blu Muscat which was paired with dark chocolate mini brownies. We also shared some fun summer cocktail recipes like the Dirty Rose: 1 part Rosato, 3 parts grapefruit soda. Or the one we call Dusty's wine cocktail: 1 part Barbera, 3 parts lemonade. Our dog Dusty was kissing everyone on Sunday so we thought it only fair to name a drink after him. We finished all the bottles and enjoyed every drop. You can check out all the wines from Wine Shop at Home on my website: www.wineshopathome/dominiquesimon.
Cheers!

Discoveries of French Wine from an Intrepid Gourmand

Guest Post By:
Augustine Blaisdell

French wine—never has there been a more daunting subject. Sure they’ve got some staple names: Merlot, Pinot Noir, Bordeaux, but the amount of others, the list could go on for miles. One of the keys to understanding French wine is that the name derives from the region in France where the grape is grown. Sounds simple enough, the next key is to determine what you like, the hard part is of course learning to describe that in French.

The first time I fell in love with a French wine was with a glass of St. Emilion, of which is was so good that I may have had another at a café called Le Luctrece, near the very touristy area of the St. Michel fountain. What made this wine so special, I can barely say, perfectly smooth on the palate perhaps, but like all first times you strive for that same exhilaration again and again to match that first discovery.

St. Emilion is nothing new. It’s a grand name and the makers of such know that it is, as it is usually, unfortunately, one of the more expensive bottles of wine on a wine list as well as in the stores. To have the illustrious title of a St. Emilion, it must be from the region of Bordeaux. It is blended from different grape varieties, the three main ones being Merlot (60% of the blend), Cabernet Franc (nearly 30%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (around 10%).

I cannot begin to be the sommelier that I would like to be but it’s okay because I know what I like. And what I like is another wine called a Pic St. Loup. This was another joyous discovery made at one of my absolute favorite wine bars in Paris, Le Comptoir du Relais. The comptoir, French word for counter, is exactly that, a small wine bar, with no chairs, writing on the walls of how much everyone adores the place, and laminated pictures of the tapas menu items hanging from the ceiling. It’s a place that if you go to enough, you can discover the joys of being considered a regular.

The last time I went in late May the Pic St. Loup was not available as apparently that wine has a season, which is winter and not spring into summer, so instead we were recommended a St. Chinian, a combination of Syrah and Mourvedre coming from the Mediterranean coast. It went perfectly with the quick grilled foie gras with red peppers and equally as well with the large hunk of ahi tuna with onions. This wine was a bio wine, which has become increasingly more and more popular as France starts to accept the trend of organically grown food and wine. To have the stamp of approval for a bio wine, the vineyard must be certified, and a long list of other requirements- while one may rejoice in drinking an organic wine, sometimes the taste can be slightly more earthy, which is not necessarily a good thing, luckily this was not the case with this wine. And with your Cheers like status where the men behind the bar know your name, they are happy to let you help yourself to another half bottle gratuit, which is to say for free, and that tastes pretty good as well!

Casa Dumetz & Triunfo Wine Dinner At The Old Place

A meal will always be more enjoyable when paired with a good wine! Last night Marc and I enjoyed a wine dinner hosted by Sonja Magdevski of Casa Dumetz Winery and Tim Skogstrom at the Old Place in Agoura.

The dinner menu consisted of a 1st course of bouquet of greens with a cambozola dressing paired with a 2010 Casa Dumetz Syrah Rose, the second course was a pan seared scallop with infused olive oil atop a creamy risotto paired with the 2010 Casa Dumetz Viognier. The third course was a mushroom cassoulet with a scotch egg paired with the 2009 Casa Dumetz Syrah Noir, followed by the main course of oak grilled short rib with Triunfo Bordeaux blend and last but not least, dessert, an entire skillet of Mixed Berry Cobbler paired with the Enchanto White Rhone Blend. I am having a hard time deciding what course was my favorite but I am going to have to go with the pan seared scallop with creamy risotto. As for the wine, I have tasted Casa Dumetz several times before and this time around I would have to say it was a toss up. Tonight, I enjoyed both the Syrah Noir and the Triunfo Bordeaux blend. The Syrah Noir is a specific Syrah clone, not a cross between Syrah and Pinot Noir although I think that would be rather interesting. The grapes are from the Tierra Alta Vineyard located in the Santa Ynez valley. One third of the harvest was bled off to ferment as Rose and the remaining skins were added to the primary fermentation. In the end the lots were combined to give them a final product that is pleasing and fragrant. The Viognier was also tasty especially with the creaminess of the risotto. Casa Dumetz is yet another local winery that is beginning to make a name for itself and not only because of it's celebrity owner Emilio Estevez. Emilio's fiancee and winemaker Sonja Magdevski is truly in a class by herself. I have not heard a lot about female winemakers so I was immediately interested in her story. Having moved to Malibu in 2002 while working on a Master's degree in journalism she took a part time job at a local florist. It was here that she met Emilio but that was not the beginning of her wine making journey. In 2003 Sonja made a trip home to the Republic of Macedonia. While on a tour of the village with her father they happened on some very old and untended grapevines which set in motion a plan to rejuvenate the village by replanting all of the old fields. Flash forward to Malibu where Sonja began helping Emilio with his grapevines and the love story of Casa Dumetz is written. Magdevski is on her way to making a name for herself at Casa Dumetz as well as being the winemaker for Tim Skogstrom and partner's new Triunfo Bordeaux blend and Enchanto White. Other projects are on the horizon including Sonja's Suds, a small production of sparkling Syrah Rose set to be released just in time for the holidays.

You can purchase Casa Dumetz wines at the Cornell Tasting Room as well as several locations in Malibu, Ventura, Santa Monica and Los Angeles. Check out their website for locations:

http://www.casadumetzwines.com/Locations.html

Photos courtesy of Glenn.

CHEERS!

Food & Wine Fun

You have heard the old term June Gloom around L.A. for as long as you can remember but the forecast for June wine lovers is bright this month. Check out some of the fun wine events around L.A.!

LA Wine Fest 2011, June 11-12th
http://www.lawinefest.com/wordpress/

KCET Uncorked at Bouchon Restaurant, June 12th
http://www.kcet.org/events/2011/05/kcet-uncorked.html

25th Annual Ojai Wine Festival, June 12th
http://www.ojaiwinefestival.com/

Calabasas Malibu Food & Wine Festival, June 18th
http://valleywinefestival.com/

Wine Around By The Lake(Santa Ynez), June19th
http://www.visitthesantaynezvalley.com/wine-around-by-the-lake

Learn About Wine Stars of California, June 23rd
http://www.learnaboutwine.com/Stars-of-California

Santa Barbara Wine Festival, June 25th
http://www.sbnature.org/about/495.html

Cheers!