Take it away C & C!       

It’s hard not to wonder how “the other half” lives.  Being enthusiasts of the finer things (wine and fashion, respectively) that tend to comprise the more expensive, less necessary things in life, we are well aware where each dollar goes, and enjoy these material things to the fullest, albeit, for what they are—little pleasures.  And when it comes to wine, it’s all about the experience—the indulgence—with full appreciation for what went into it.

“The other half” does things like order astonishing bottles of wine, have a glass each, then sign the bill and leave the bottle on the table.  Our friend, Meg, author of blog The Maker’s Table, sent out a tweet describing this scene a few weeks ago:  “Two tables over, they order a Ridge Monte Bello, 2000. They drink a glass each, pay, and go.  Next table gets the bottle.  Lucky dogs.”  Sigh.  The other half.

Photo Courtesy of Corks and Caftans

There was one night, however, where we found ourselves sandwiched right between both halves.  For our first anniversary, we journeyed back to Nantucket, the place of our nuptials.  We were huddled inside Black Eyed Susan’s on a blustery, cold Grey Lady night.  We’d brought a bottle we bought in Napa during our honeymoon from Rubicon, Edizione Pennino.  The couple at the table next to us were astonishingly good-looking, well-dressed, and wrapping up a meal with two open bottles. (BES’s is a BYOB joint, and a fun place to keep your eyes out for what others are bringing in.)

Photo Courtesy of Corks and Caftans

We were talking about the wine and taking notes for a post, and this caught their attention.  As they got up to leave, they offered us the rest of their (very expensive, very lovely) bottles to enjoy—a white and a red.  He mentioned he was a wine distributor, and she was in fashion.  We swooned.

Photo Courtesy of Corks and Caftans

You know that thing—and don’t try to say you haven’t done it!—when something really fantastic happens, and you wait until you’ve got a moment alone, and you do the happy dance.  The victory shake.  The jump’n’clap.  We totally did.  And with more wine than we knew what to do with, we dove into a fabulous meal.

When we broke to lift our heads, we noticed we were the only ones left in the restaurant.  The kitchen—which is completely open and basically inside the dining room—was closing up shop. The chef and sous chef were behind the bar chatting.  We looked at one another, then stood up with the bottles in hand.

We spent the next hour sharing the bottles with the remaining staff, talking shop, talking wine, and talking island life.  It was so incredible to get to share this gift from complete strangers with those who had slaved away to create such an amazing meal for us.  The upper echelon of the wine world, the culinary magicians working behind the scenes to earn their keep, and the two that fall somewhere in between.

See, that’s the thing about wine lovers—and it doesn’t matter where you fall in the mix.  It’s about passion and sharing.  It was a perfect anniversary dinner we’ll never forget.

Thanks Carey and Rob for sharing your WineLife experience with us!

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Tell us about it Meghan…

On my very first trip to Northern California this past September (there have been 3 since, I guess I kinda liked it!), the very first winery that we visited was Gundlach Bundschu.  We were actually staying in San Francisco and decided to drive up to Sonoma last minute, so we had no plan in mind at all.  A guidebook lent to me by a coworker had Gundlach Bundschu, or GunBun as one of the best and oldest wineries to visit, and since it was close by we decided to visit.

GunBun was a lucky first choice, and between the delicious wines that we tasted and the very friendly tasting room staff, we were wine club members by the time we left.  One of my favorite things about the wine clubs that we belong to (currently GunBun, Castello di Amorosa, and Travessia) is the element of surprise. I often forget when wine is coming, and it is always a treat to come back from a meeting to an unexpected box of wine in my office!  I tend to open the box of wine right away and enjoy reading the labels and any correspondence included from the winery, in addition to looking up the wines online so I can know what to expect.

Photo Courtesy of Travel Eat Love

One of our most recent wine club “surprises” was a bottle of 2007 Estate Grown Tempranillo.  Here’s a little information about the 2007 Tempranillo from the GunBun website:

Vineyard Rhinefarm Estate Vineyard
Estate grown, produced and bottled
Huichica clay-loam topsoil with light stream gravel deposits
One 4.6-acre vineyard block of Tempranillo
Clone UC Davis 2
Yield 2.4 tons/acre
Winemaking
Harvest Date: September 2007
Brix at Harvest: 24.5°
Vinification: Harvested by hand in the cool morning hours
Yeast strain EC1118
Concurrent primary and malolactic fermentation
Fermented 14 days with twice-daily, gentle pump-overs
Lightly filtered to bottle
Oak Regimen: 14 months in 100% American oak (35% new)

Photo Courtesy of Travel Eat Love

We opened this wine on a recent weekend evening and immediately noticed the pop of juiciness and the dark berry red color.  Like all of the Gundlach Bundschu wines I have tasted, the Tempranillo was full of concentrated flavor.  This wine offers smooth but noticeable tannins and a little bit of smokiness along with the dark berry flavors that give it a lovely lingering finish.  It was remarkably MORE delicious about 24 hours after opening, a great sipping wine and one that would also likely go well with grilled meats at a summer barbeque.

If you have the chance to try Gundlach Bundschu wines, I am also a huge fan of their Gewurztraminer, Rosé, Pinot Noir, and their Mountain Cuvée.

Happy wine drinking! 

For more of Meghan’s wine and food adventures, visit Travel Eat Love.  Just don’t go there too hungry!

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Photo Courtesy of Gonzo Gastronomy

My favorite blogging pal, Katie Pizzuto from Gonzo Gastronomy, recently experienced one of these wine glass moments and was kind enough to share it.  Here’s Katie’s story!

There is a pain to be felt in this life unlike any other.  It is pain that is colorblind, that does not discriminate sexually, and that will cut you down at the knees whether you are 40 or 80. In fact, I have given drug-free childbirth, have had teeth extracted and have even gotten 18 stitches across my thigh with nothing but a little poorly-distributed anesthesia from a pimple-faced, fucknut anesthesiologist to abate the pain, and still I describe those memories with less recollection of pain than I do…say…a broken wine glass. Not just any wine glass, but a $35 wine glass. And not just a $35 wine glass, but a $35 wine glass I was given. The sound of that glass hitting a glass table…hitting a wood floor…hell, hitting just about everything other than the ceiling…is enough to make a grown woman cry (and inevitably console herself with freshly poured wine, in a $3 glass).

I have…ugh, I mean had…only 2 expensive wine glasses in my home, both samples sent to me from the manufacturers for experimentation/review. My home has never seen the likes of $10 glasses much less $35 glasses because the people residing in said home are not merely accident prone, but accident friendly—one of them an 11-year-old boy who has already seen the inside of an emergency room 3 times. Throw into the mix 2 cats with a penchant for jumping up into your lap at the least opportune moment and you have what I lovingly call a cluster fuck of chaos. Welcoming not one, but two expensive glasses into the home was done with a whole lot of trepidation and distant early warning like, “please don’t ever wash these glasses, I’ll take care of it…please don’t ever try to put these glasses away in their boxes, I’ll do that…please don’t ever sneeze, belch or fart near them, I’ll…oh, that’s enough I guess.” I looked at these as delicate flowers, to be taken out only when a moment really called for them, never left at the mercy of even a strong breeze.

So there it sat, a lovely Eisch breathable glass, gracing my living room table with its belly full of syrah. The lights had been dimmed, it was 9:30 and the boy was saying good night. But “saying good night” is relative in my house. It comes with several verses of an Eminem or Iron Maiden song, a few righteous “kills” with his laser tag machine gun, and usually, if dinner was good, a giggle-accompanied fart while he kisses his dad. As he kisses me goodnight, he turns so quickly with his machine gun that he comes within centimeters of knocking over the glass. “Jesus!” I scream. “Would you please watch where you are going?! You nearly knocked over my glass! Do you have $35 to spare if you break it? No, I didn’t think so.” There, I thought, I let him have it! He bounds up the stairs to brush his teeth, the hubby heads outside for a cigarette and I decide, with my program paused, that I’ve gotta see a man about a horse. I never got that expression, but whatever. I gently move the blanket off of me, get off the couch, take two steps towards the bathroom, and CRASH. I froze. The kid came bounding back down the steps. The husband came back wincing. The cats began lapping up the syrah, getting their buzz on despite the chards of glass in their tongues. OK, I made that last part up. I carefully remove my bare feet from ground zero and stare at the disaster I’ve left in my wake. And what does the kid do? That kid that I just chided to be more careful? That kid that had maybe $3 in his piggy bank? In that golden-moment opportunity, where he could’ve thrown everything I had just said back in my face, he chose, instead, to wrap his arms around my waist and console his grieving mother. “I’m sorry, mom,” he said, and then farted one more time for good measure as he bound back up the stairs.

Thanks Katie! 

Eisch, if you happen to be reading this tragically beautiful story – could you please help my friend out and send her some new glasses?

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My personal goal for this website was and still is to share the good, the bad, and sometimes ugly wine encounters that I’ve experienced, and to share them with you in a manner that is enjoyable and relatable to you in your own “WineLife”, so to speak.  For this reason, I wanted to create a place on this website for people just like you to exchange and share your own memorable wine experiences for others to read about.

Earlier this past year, I had a very special wine experience that will forever remain in my memories.

While attending the Jersey Fresh Wine & Food Festival, I had the pleasure of meeting and swapping wine tasting notes with best-selling author Mr. George M. Taber.  You might remember, he was “that American guy” living in France as a reporter and editor for Time Magazine who was asked to cover this silly little wine tasting challenge that was going to take place in Paris between France and a newcomer called California.  The rest, as they say, is history.  He went on to write a best-seller about this monumental day in California wine history called ”Judgement of Paris“.  He’s also written “To Cork or Not to Cork” and most recently released a book entitled “In Search of Bacchus“.

I recently caught up with Mr. Taber to wish him happy holidays and congratulate him on the release of “In Search of Bacchus”.  All that I can tell you about this man is that he’s very down-to–earth and easy to talk to, just like any other wine buddy that you might have, and he’s got a lot of great stories to share.  With that in mind, I asked him if he would kindly share one of his own personal wine-related experiences for the BYOB section of WineLife365.  He graciously agreed and took time out of his schedule to share this wonderful wine moment in his life that I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading just as much as I did.

Without further adieu, the following was written for WineLife365 by Mr. George M. Taber!

While I was researching my book “In Search of Bacchus,” I had a lot of interesting wine/life experiences. But the one I remember most vividly took place more than 30 years ago. It remains burned white hot into my memory.

 

It was sometime between May 1973 and September 1976, when I was working for Time magazine in Paris. Sorry, but I can’t zero in on it closer than that. I had been sent down from Paris to Provence to report on a story the subject of which I can’t even remember. But I can still vividly recall that I wasn’t happy to be there. I don’t know whether I wanted to be back in Paris doing something else or if it was a dull story, which can sometimes happen.

 

Anyway, I dutifully reported on the story in the morning and then had a couple of hours to kill before getting back on the train and returning to Paris. So I decided to have lunch at an outdoor café in the center of the town of Tavel, which is located near the spot where Provence and Languedoc meet. It’s not too far from Avignon, where the Popes who gave their name to Châteauneuf-du-Pape used to reside.

 

Little did I know at the time that Tavel is famous for producing perhaps the best rosé wine in France. It was an early summer day and not too hot, as can often happen in that area at that time of year. So I went to the center of town, picked out a café at random, and plopped myself down at an outside table. I still remember ordering a salad and then asking the waiter what wine he recommended. He naturally and immediately replied that I should order the local Tavel. I doubt I had ever had a bottle of that before, and I can’t remember the exact producer he suggested. But I took his recommendation and then because I was in such a foul mood, I ordered a full bottle, rather than the half that I usually had when I ate alone.

 

When the waiter brought me the bottle, I tasted a sample to make sure it wasn’t corked and found it surprisingly good. Along with a lot of other wine fans, I had always had a prejudice against rosé because it seemed like a waste of a good red wine and ended up as a pudding without a theme, as Winston Churchill once said about another topic. Then the waiter poured me a glass, and I leaned back, looked around at the beautiful little village square, and savored a first glass while waiting for the salad. The sun was gentle and sweet, and it reminded me of the description of the sun in that area in François Sagan’s novel Bonjour Tristesse.

 

The Tavel was a wonderful surprise. It was fresh, fruity, and vibrant. I hate wine descriptions that talk about hints of mint and gobs of cherry, so I won’t bore you with that. It was simply a well-made, well-served, exquisite example of Midi winemaking.

 

In only a few minutes, my anger at being there on an assignment that I didn’t want evaporated under the Provençal sun. The world was again beautiful, and life was once more exciting. When the waiter brought the salad, it was a perfect match for the Tavel.

 

Today I sometimes order a Tavel, if I happen to see it on a menu. Although I always enjoy the wine, I have never been able to repeat the experience of that day in Provence. The memory of that day always remains fresh and returns when I first sip the Tavel.

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By: P. Collins

If you’ve ever uttered anything like - “I can’t cook”, “Cooking takes so long”, “Cooking is so hard”, then I’ve got an easy recipe for you to try at home.  This meal idea takes less than 15 minutes to prepare – tastes GREAT and is healthy too!  That’s right – Less than 15 minutes from start to your plate… tastes great …and…and…and – it’s good for you! 

Yep, this “you can have it all meal” from Health.com is called Garlic Ginger Shrimp, and it left everyone begging for more.

Here are the ingredients that you’ll need:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (use olive oil, bit better for you)
• 2 tablespoons grated or minced peeled fresh ginger  (the dry stuff is fine, find it in the spice aisle)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (buy the already chopped stuff in the produce area)
• 1 pound medium shrimp, thawed, peeled, and deveined (buy a bag of frozen, COOKED shrimp) 
• 1/4 cup rice wine or dry white wine
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions
• 2 cups hot cooked brown rice (use Success boil in bag brown rice – throw in the microwave, takes 10 minutes)

Okay, pay close attention now, this is where it gets really tricky… – first, throw the first 6 ingredients listed above into a warm/heated pan and cook them up.  Next, cook rice in microwave.  Third, put a cup of cooked rice onto a plate.  Lastly, spoon shrimp mixture over top of cooked rice and Eat.

“Teachable moments”

1) Start the cooking when you are ready to eat – if having salad or something, eat that first then do the cooking – this meal is best served up as soon as its done, reheating or keeping it warm isn’t so great. 

2) Notice that ingredient #5 is rice wine…not rice wine vinegar which I somehow got in my head.  My version turned out great, but I lost sleep imagining just how AWESOME it could have been had I read that ingredient right.

3) Recipe calls for medium shrimp (might be labeled as 41/50 in your store), but my shrimps were scrimps (i.e. – tiny runt shrimps) – so you might want to go for medium large (labeled as 36/40) or maybe even large (labeled as 31/35).

In summary, if you try to cook this recipe and can’t: A). you fall into the category “moronic human”; B). all eating privileges should be taken from you.

What’s a good wine pairing to go with this dish?   I paired it with a white blend from California’s Clayhouse Wines, called “Adobe White”.  This 2008 Central Coast White wine packs an interesting blend of 22% Viognier, 18% Sauvignon Blanc, 17% Grenache Blanc, 16% Roussanne, 6% Chardonnay and 5% Chenin Blanc – Shew, what a mouthful!  But, trust me – this perfectly allocated white wine will do right by this tasty shrimp dish.  For another take on this very different California white wine, here’s what the folks at Clayhouse have to say:

“The Adobe White is a blend created for that passionate, adventurous white wine lover inside you, elemental like the adobe but elegant with exotic floral and fruit aroma and flavors”.

There you have it, an easy, affordable and healthy supper with a rather usual California white wine to boot. 

Bon Appetite!

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