Virginia is for Lovahs

As you can tell from my previous posts, Hubster and I headed to Virginia for some good times with friends and family last weekend.  Between the Halloween festivities, wedding celebrations and Sunday supper with family, we squeezed in a little sight seeing and "us time" as well.  

[Side note: every time I glance up and see the title of this, I think it says something else is for lovahs.  Which is also true, but that belongs on a totally different site...]

It's funny how being in a new place together makes everything so much more date-like.  In Atlanta when we want to try something new or visit a special place we usually call around and see who's free to multi-task our explorations with some good friend catching up.  One of the things I'm definitely looking forward to about moving to Cincinnati is getting to discover everything together, brand new and for the first time.  A coffee shop, a tourist attraction or even a new friend will all be new and something we did together, the first time.

We visited Monticello to learn about Thomas Jefferson - so many crazy things that guy did that I either never knew or just didn't care to store in my head...  Funny how much I refused to remember from middle school and am now paying big bucks to get re-taught in adulthood (adulthood... ick).  Like the fact that old TJ was 6'2" and lived to be in his 80s!  That's crazy for back then!  And then he kicked the bucket on the 50th anniversary of the 4th of July!  Then Monroe kicked his own a couple of hours later!  What?!

He made his house look like a museum so when all the random people would stop by to shake his hand (pre secret service apparently) they'd learn something about the Native Americans and the local environment.  Pretty cool stuff!  My favorite was the dumbwaiter he had installed... for wine!  Straight down to the cellar and back again to keep the booze flowing.  Good man.

Catching some piano jazz in the Atlanta airport pre-departure 

As close to riding a bike as I've been this decade...

Monticello

A tree!

The nickel would be a much better form of currency if Patrick was on it too

The wine dumbwaiter!  Genius!

Stopped for a little wine and cheese at Jefferson Vineyard

Happy Fall!

Stock the Cellar!

Last weekend a few of our good friends in Atlanta threw us a gorgeous twist on the typical "Stock the Bar" shower - a Stock the Cellar!  I adore wine, and have transformed P into something of a snob as well, so this was right up our alley.  And everyone knows I really only abide by one food group - cheese.  Glorious cheese!  

Ali is always the perfect hostess, but I have to say she outdid herself on this one!

Go see photos on her precious blog: 
http://howtosurvive20.blogspot.com/2013/02/cheersa-wine-cheese-party.html

We had a blind wine tasting and a trivia game (ohmygosh was I terrible at both!  So much for my secret sommelier ambitions!!!), there were wines and cheeses galore gorgeously labeled on a chalkboard table runner (what?!) and she had all kinds of fun things for us to take home, including a beautiful wine cork wreath and monogrammed beer & wine coozies she made herself.  GORG!

She's also a budding photog, so go peek!!!

Wine-O Wednesday: Cune

P and I lucked out and got a surprise phone call and visit from a super good friend in Greenville who was in town for a conference.

She was staying in downtown (as in downtown, downtown since you have to specify in Atlanta) and we picked a great place to scoop her up and go to dinner in the area that is super gluten-free friendly, which is always difficult for her to find.  Luckily Alma Cocina is great about it and has an entire menu, almost the size of the regular, that she could choose from!  And it's Argentinian, which is where Jessica celebrated her honeymoon just over a year ago!

Jessica is a wine lover too, and we picked out a Rioja we hadn't had before, got a taste and two bottles later I think this may be a staple in our house!

Cune (C.V.N.E) was founded in 1879 by two brothers and is still run by their direct descendants in Northern Spain.  We sampled a 2009 Crianza, which is 80% tempranillo and totally velvetted (is that a word??) out by 10% granacha tinta and 10% manuelo (which I've never heard of).

From Winex.com: dark ruby/purple color, loads of fruit (black currants and cherries), licorice and forest floor notes, a supple texture, medium body, and considerable flavor authority as well as character.

I really did find it velvety and fruity, with almost no spice or tannins, which I love.

Wine-O Wednesday: Terra Valentine

In the theme of the week - this Wine-O is reserved for a delicious, yet ridiculously defined wine out of Napa.  Rated 92, this cheesily described bottle is full of deep chocolate tones and a dark, fruity finish.  This cab is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petite Verdot. The wines were bottled August 2011.

Perfect for a bad ass, juicy monster steakeroni and some good old potatoes and roasted veggies.

straight cheese-tasticness to the face

Wine-O Wednesday: Cesari Amarone

Last week I had the good fortune to head to Ocean in Birmingham for a fabulous meal.  Awesome seafood - which totally does not go with the wine we paired with it, but honestly when you order a really good wine... who the hell cares?

We were looking for a bottle of Zinfandel that was no longer available, and the waiter suggested we take a look at an Amarone.  My ears perked up!  Let's .be serious, they perk up with any mention of wine... but especially one I've only had a handful of times and first in Italy.

I was introduced to Amarone by my very wonderful bestest bestie of the best, Theresa, who lives in Italy and is all things fabulous.  [And just married a hottie local Italian Stallion who is the sweetest man ever, and makes some ridiculous ridic risotto... and drives a vespa...  Besides the point...] I visited her in Verona a little over a year ago and one of the fun things we did was go on an awesome winery tour of a local vineyard where they make all their wine in an underground cave,  Zýmē.  Ok, ok, that link is in Italian.  Voglio vino dio bon!  Literally my only Italian language take-away... Babblefish it. 

Zýmē in Verona, Italy

I too always forget monstrous bottles of vino in 
wall-nooks in my hobbit-home.

I smuggled back some of this amazing olive oil 
they make there too!

Enough wine for at least a week!
Side note: T is the middle hottie

One each, please!
I smuggled the mix of all their babies (graffiti Kairos one) and the second from the right- the Valpolicella Classica. Amarone was not in this gringo's price range after the damage I did to their meat and cheese industry.  And by "their," I mean Italy proper
Still waiting to drink the Kairos- occasions never seem special enough to toast to Theresa and her tour guide hubs, Andrea!

But back to this bottle: Cesari, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, Veneto ‘07

91 Points

If you don't know about this amazing style of wine, it's a super intense flavor similar to a Zinfandel, made from dried grapes in the Valpolicella region in Veneto, a north-Eastern part of Italy.  The grapes are dried between 3 weeks and 3 months, then pressed and aged in barrels for at least 2 years.  

I stole this from the website, obvi: "Amarone della Valpolicella Classico wines are rich, red amarone wines from the traditional classico viticultural zone of Valpolicella in Veneto, north-Eastern Italy.One of Veneto's most famous and prestigious wines, Amarone della Valpolicella has played a vital part in boosting the region's status in the wine world ... The early amorone wines were seen as mistakes – reciotos left to ferment for too long – but eventually the style gained recognition and respect.  Amorone comes from the Italian word amaro (bitter), completed with the –one suffix which denotes impressive size or volume.  When compared to the sweet recioto which the early amarones were supposed to be, it’s a logical translation."

It was just great.  It's so intense, so rich and fruity.  Some very earthy tones that the waiter described as tobacco leaves, but that seemed like a stretch - pretty sure it was just a Birminghamian southern addition.  Regardless, if you like big and bold with a lingering finish and a fully velvet mouth-feel (that will never seem appropriate), definitely give this bad boy a chance.

Or go visit my bestie Theresa in Verona; she'll give you the good stuff.  :)

Wine-O Wednesday: Ken Wright

Ken Wright Cellers offers a really great, reasonably priced Pinot noir.  Their 8 vineyards run throughout northern Oregon and all get consistently good reviews online.  I had the Canary Hill on this particularly lovely evening.

I tried this in Birmingham at Chez Fonfon, which is a great place with upscale French bistro-style cuisine.  Bombshell escargot (seriously, you can't go wrong with escargot... it's an unidentifiable chewy something drenched in butter and smothered in cheese...).  Their menu changes weekly (even online!) and is really playful for Birmingham.  Includes fun things like duck confit, southernized charcuterie, and great daily seafood specials.  I should save this for a Birmingham Bites session...  I last had grilled scallops with a blood orange, pistachio and fennel relish suggested by the waitress and I could've eaten a second one.  Movingggg on:

The website describes the Canary Hill as "Fruit focused (blueberries and cherries), with a modest structure, light tannins and bright acidity." 

I found it very light and fruity with almost no bite/spice to it.  Didn't quite go with my scallops, but that's what my French 75 was for :)  Oui oui!

Wine-o Wednesday: if you see kay

This is a weird wine to be blogging about as my first favorite.  There is nothing cutesy or sweet about it, but it is seriously damn good.

P and I got our first taste of this stuff at a little neighborhood gem called Baci in Brookhaven (which, side note, is totally under-acknowledged and has become our date night go-to).  The owner, Nellie, is a super cool girl with an awesome menu of worldly influences and Mediterranean cuisine.  The sea bass is just awesome, and this is literally the only, ONLY mac and cheese I have ever liked.  Loved, really.  It's got lobster and 3 kinds of fabulous cheese - no runny crap... The perfect ratio of lobster to cheese to noodles (70-25-5, in case you're counting).  So yummy!

But I digress.  The second or third time we went there we were perusing the menu for a glass of wine each and the waiter asked what we liked.  I described my usual: medium body, with some spice and fruit... more sweet than dry.  He suggested the most expensive glass, as they do, so of course we were suspicious.  But he promiseddd we would love it and even coerced us into trying a sip.  We bought the $50 bottle.  We have every time.  It is fabulous, and so worth the price.  Once you get over the bizarre labeling:

Sound it out slow: if you see kay.  That's right, just as classy as Miss Britney herself.  So strange.  And with a tatted up, braless hipster chick in a bizarre car throwing a Hawaiin shaka sign...  I cannot explain.  There's an even weirder description here about Kay being some ethereal open-throttle chick, named after the Odyssey. Yes, as in Homer's Odyssey classic.  

The owners describe the wine in a story form of bizarro (as in... "kay is a creature, she is an embodiment of a lifestyle... womp womp), but basically it's a super juicy, smooth Cab from the Lazio region of Italy (near Rome) with just one year to its name: 2010.

Even weirder was when I saw the brand for only the second time (outside of Baci)... in Birmingham at a total divey hipster college bar, on $1 liquor night.  Yes, I was the girl drinking $9 glasses of Cab on $1 liquor night (a phenomenon I  haven't see since college, appropriately nicknamed "Well, Hell" night, I'm told).  The real issue isn't me drinking wine in a clearly non-wine location, it's that this place had the bottle at all!  I'm guessing the owners went solely on the name/look, because I promise I was the first to crack a bottle there, ever.  Cartoonish comic book looking website for proof.  Well Hell night is Wednesday, by the way.  I should be there right now...

Go find kay.  The crazy bitch is my favorite and it's worth the quizzical looks.

Wine-O Wednesday: Antinori Vineyards

Considering my seemingly endless supply of material for this weekly idea, I figured it would be fun to discuss various wines as consistently as I consume them.  Hiccup...

I don't know a whole heck of a lot about wine, but my parents introduced me to the stuff at a relatively young age and taught me how to discern some of the more basic flavors.  I hated it.  A whole wine cellar full of delicious bottles and I didn't really want anything to do with them.

Until sophomore year of college when I discovered white zinfandel.  At Sam's club.  By the magnum.  Makes my lip curl thinking about it now...  My favorite brand: Sutter Home (ie, more fondly and accurately, Stutter Home).  Foul.  Just foul.

That excuse for wine opened up a whole world for me, eventually, as I made the typical female route from pink wine to Riesling then on to Pinot Grigio/ Sauvignon Blanc and finally moved to my now favorite neck of the woods, the big reds.  Zinfandels and Pinot Noirs are pretty much my go-to these days, but I still can't say no to a citrus-crisp glass of Sauv-Blanc on a sunshine drenched patio.  Oh Spring, I miss you.

On to the Wine

My first wine-o entry should be dedicated to this past weekend, when P and I went to a local wine tasting at the amazing Tuscan resty, Antica Posta in Buckhead (an under-acknowledged gem and definitely one of the best in Atlanta)

The event was hosted by an Antinori sommelier, a 26 generation strong vineyard in Tuscany.  They served some fabulous apps like sea bass puree on a biscuit (believe me), house made veal sausage, classic bruschette and mouth watering seared scallops.  Divine.  If you go for dinner, their gnocchi is seriously the best I've had in the states.

The whites line-up:

Vermentino Bolgheri 2011 - light table wine, nothing too special

Bramito Chardonnay 2011 - very light and fruity, the opposite of 

what you typically expect from a Chardonnay!

Cervaro della Sala 2010 - 93 points - smooth buttery flavor without 
oak notes, which I found unusual.  Loved the richness of this guy.

The red line-up:

Il Bruciato Bolgheri Rosso 2010 - apparently not memorable, literally

Chianti Classico Riserva villa Antinori 2010 - literally just came to the US last week!  
Quite spicy with a nice, short finish leaving you wanting more.

Chianti Classico Riserva Badia a Passignano 2006 - 89 points - deep, smooth

 flavors and a really, really long finish

Tignanello 2009 - holy bajeezus this was fabulous.  94 points.  

$100 bottle or I'd be after this daily.  Flavor punch to the faceroo.

Our favorite ended up being the very reasonably priced Chianti Villa Antinori at $29/bottle!  Spicy with a short finish and the coolest part is it's only been in the US for a week and a half!!    We scooped up half a case, for us and for a few friends as gifts :)  

Resolution Fail

Made it almost 48 hours into the New Year and already disobeying myself...  Oopses!  Wine, cheese and a not-so-early bedtime await...

But look what my awesome hotel in Birmingham delivered up for me in the New Year!  

While I desperately miss my puppy, my fiance and my home every night that I'm away, there is something really nice about lounging in my pajiminies, watching the Sugar Bowl and sipping on my mini bottle of wine in my big king bed (feather free!) with no one but my onesie to talk to.  Which I do.  I blame the cheese...

Pretty much the whole food pyramid, right?  That counts for something...