The bottle came wrapped in tissue paper. A little package to unwrap, adding to the anticipation of finally tasting the wine. Pete pulled the cork and we gave it a quick sniff. We looked at each other and smiled. He poured a small glass for us to sample before pouring the remainder of the bottle into a decanter. It would be an hour before our friends arrived for dinner.
November was the most enjoyable month of wine tastings I have experienced in some time. I spent Tuesday evenings participating in Protocol Wine Studio’s #winestudio Twitter chats and sampling extraordinary sparkling wine made in the mountains of northeastern Italy. In all, we received four sparkling wines as tasting samples produced by Cantine Ferrari. Each Tuesday evening special guests joined the conversation to explain Ferrari’s history, farming practices, production methods and we sipped a different Ferrari wine as we learned about Ferrari. It’s a genius way to learn about wine.
Sparkling Wine and Festive Holiday Dishes is the theme for our December Wine Pairing Weekend thanks to this month’s host Cindy Rynning whose blog is cleverly called Grape Experiences. What a delicious pairing idea!
Sparkling wines are among my very favorite wines. I love the variety of flavors, variable degree of sweetness and the large number of grape varieties that are used to make sparkling wine. And, they’re generally so food friendly.
Today’s the day. December 4, 2015. The first #CabFrancDay. The tasty variety finally has a day of its own. The tasty variety finally has its own day. Cabernet Franc is one of the first varietal wines I learned to love, thanks to weekly wine tasting at a local wine shop.
It was a beautiful fall morning in San Francisco, warm enough to enjoy an iced coffee at an outdoor table in Union Square. I was taking in the sights and sipping my coffee when I heard a woman ask, “Do you mind if we share this table?” I looked up and replied, “Not at all, please do!”
These days, Carmenere is a varietal wine most closely associated with Chile. But, that is a relatively recent development — within the last 20 years. Lucky for those of us who enjoy Carmenere, viticulturists brought cuttings to Chile from France before the phylloxera epidemic of the 1860s all but destroyed the variety in its native Bordeaux region. Because Carmenere can be difficult to grow and fully ripen in Bordeaux, after the phylloxera epidemic it was not widely replanted. As a result, Chile is home to the vast majority of Carmenere plantings world wide.
Wines from Portugal? Yes, please! With more than 200 indigenous grape varieties and a wide variety of growing conditions, Portugal has plenty to offer the adventurous wine drinker. We recently had the opportunity to sample four wines from the Tejo (pronounced te-zhoo) wine region of Portugal. Until 2009 this region was know as Ribatejo.
The monthly call for bloggers to participate in Wine Pairing Weekend for November came from David, who blogs at Cooking Chat. David is the founder and major organizer of the monthly food and wine pairing event. This month, our task was to come up with Creative Thanksgiving Pairings.
Lodi “Outside the Box” Thanksgiving is the title of a recent online tasting hosted by LoCA, the Lodi Winegrape Commission. We were invited to participate in the tasting and in addition to sending us four wines as tasting samples, LoCA also sent along recipes to accompany each wine. The recipes were created by Chef Tony Lawrence, who is a sommelier and certified wine and food pairing specialist (among many other talents.)
As with many Italian families, wine is an important part of Scotto family life. For at least five generations, Scotto family members have been making and selling wine, first in their native Italy, then in New York after the first family members immigrated to the U.S. in 1883.
Even before leaving Brooklyn for California, the family purchased grapes from Lodi, California growers to make their table wine. That connection between the Scotto family and Lodi growers continued after they moved to California in 1963.
We enjoy wine, food and travel. Pull That Cork is a chronicle of our wine adventures, the food and wine pairings we create and our travels which are increasingly organized around wine.
