Simply Wine!

We love the 1/2 bottle and when we find a store that carries a nice 1/2 bottle selection, we make sure we frequent them....... Often :)

Sure, you can open a full bottle, but sometimes, during the work week, you just want a (one) nice glass of wine to accompany your meal!

Also, tonight for example, we were having a nice cheese appetizer, which we wanted to have with Pinot Noir. For dinner we were having tenderloin steaks with truffle butter and grilled asparagus, which MUST be paired with a good California cab! Viola, two half bottles, one nice full glass of each wine, nothing left over and not too drunk ;)

Yet another advantage, you could try a much better wine then you ever might purchase in a full bottle. Going back to tonight's example; We had a Barnett Pinot Noir(California), that we picked up for $19 ($9.50 a glass, avg for what you pay in a restaurant). The 750ml bottle was $45/bottle, which would classify as the "special occasion" range for us. We followed this up with a Galante Vineyards (Carmel, Ca) cab at the same price point as the Pinot. Now we know what both these wines are like (excellent, by the way!) and would be more likely to pick up the full bottle for that next "special" occasion!

So, don't be afraid to give 1/2 bottles a try, you might find something so good, you'll have to go back for the full bottle :)

-Rich-

Yes, it's true! We found this Maine Shore Dinner kit at Costco for $53.99. It is a bit pricey, but you get 2 lobster tails, 12 mussels, 8 shrimp, 8 scallops and two pieces of corn! The kit is from the Hancock Gourmet Lobster Company.

We had the opportunity to have the Lobster Pot pies from the Lobster Company earlier this year. We received, as a gift, a gift certificate from Hancock and we ordered the pot pies. They were wonderful, came in their own ceramic ramikens and decorated with puff pastry lobsters on top.

When we saw that the Shore dinner was from the same company, we knew we couldn't go wrong! We cooked it on the grill. The directions called for 35-40 minutes. We pulled it off at 30 minutes and found the scallops still slightly opaque in the center, perfect! We think if you went the full 40 minutes, the scallops would be rubbery(just our opinion, of course)

What ever you do, DO NOT look at the nutritional label on the box. Trust us on this one.....Just remember, enjoy it now....Work it off the next day :)


We decided to pair the dinner with a Trader Joe's special. Napa River chardonnay is from the guy who brought you "2 buck chuck", but better! It's buttery, aged in oak and priced at $4.99. Call this one "5 buck Chuck ;)

With the butter, Old Bay and lemon in the dinner, this one was perfect!

Get it while it last, it was a limited production wine and when it's gone, it's gone.

We have a case, in storage!

By the way, pick up this one while it's still in stock! Costco is notorious for having items for a short time, then... poof...No more. Here's what the box looks like so you can pick it up too(in the frozen meat section):

-Rich & Laura-

Thanksgiving is a special time, requiring a special wine. So, for our holiday wine picks we'll do away with our typical under $25 rule(We use the term "rule" really loosely ).

We would recommend earthy, spicy, peppery flavors to go with a traditional Thanksgiving feast. You could do white(white with poultry, right?), Chardonnay or a good Washington Pinot Gris would work well for you. However, we prefer to pair our wines with the flavors and sauces, rather then the protein! Gravy, stuffing, potatoes, yams, cranberries and salads; earthy flavors scream for an earthy, spicy wine. Steer away from cabs and other "heavy" or tannic wines, they'll just over power all of those great flavors.

Here are a few wines we've had in the past that would go great with your turkey:

Matthews Claret is a 60% merlot, 40% cab blend that just borders on to powerful for turkey, but this one is soft on the tannins and just a wonderful wine! The only downfall to this one is trying to find it! Woodinville, WA around $40.






DeLille Cellars Doyenne Syrah(not the correct label on the left, but that what it looks like) Directly from the website tasting notes, "Concentrated chocolate and raspberries are combined with espresso, white pepper and a floral nose." With a description like that, how can it not go with Thanksgiving dinner? Washington around $45








A legendary Washington syrah. Unfortunately, another one almost impossible to find.....But worth the search! Around $75






Most of you already know, our absolute favorite pinot noir of all time! This is what we would be serving (if we were doing dinner). For a budget, stick with the premier cuvee at $35. We highly recommend the Arcus or Red Hills single vineyards at $70, words just can't describe it; you just have to try it :) McMinnville, OR








Our second favorite pinot from Oregon, Patricia Green Cellars. Her "Oregon pinot noir" is an awesome deal at $22. But, like Archery summit, spring for the single vineyards priced from $32-$40. For a really special treat, go for the "Notorious" which is a blend of her best barrels, $70!





Ciel du Cheval Vineyard syrah. An unbelievable single vineyard Syria. I don't think we've ever had a poor wine that came out of the Ciel du cheval vineyard :) Multiple producers use grapes from this vineyard, but McCrea seems to do an exceptional job!












Andrew Will Champoux. An interesting blend of 44% cab, 25% cab franc, 22% merlot and 9% petit verdot. Pushing the limits of "bigness" for a turkey dinner, but oh so wonderful! Maybe a better choice if you are having prime rib :) Washington, around $65

Alright, enough dreaming! Now for a few recommendations in a normal "everyday" price range:)


Hogue is a Washington Syrah you can find just about anywhere, around $10. If you really want a white with your meal, check out their fine fume blanc, chenin blanc or pinot grigio, all around $10.







chateau St Michelle cab Franc, $12. Cab franc is traditionally a blending grape. However, we think it drinks very well, completely on its own. Give this one a try or many of the other producers that produce a cabernet Franc (McIllroy is our FAVORITE cab franc, and only $14!)








We spent quite a bit of time at King Estate winery when we were "stuck" in Eugene, OR for 3 weeks for motorhome repair. We got to know their wines quite well :) Their pinot noir is a great value at $20. Again, if you want to treat yourself, go with their single vineyard pinots, bargains at $25-$28!

Whew! There you have it, our picks for Thanksgiving wine. Did you notice a trend? All of the wines are from Washington and Oregon! This area has become our new favorite wine region. We like earthy and spicy vs. Fruit forward that California seems to do so well.

Hopefully, you'll give one of these wines a try (maybe you'll get lucky and find one of the "hard to finds" listed above). Remember, taste is totally subjective, what we like might not work for you. This is our opinion and you asked for it :)

......... Miranda Golden Botrytis (Austrialia).

More to follow, wanted to get the picture up before we drank the bottle ;)





















-Rich-

Nothing goes better with BBQ then a good peppery, jamy, smoky zinfandel! I'm not talking about that "white" zinfandel either (is that stuff even wine?!?)! There a tons of great zins out there under $20 as well!

We went to a free wine tasting at Pastiche, here is Tucson and found one of our favorite Russian River producers! The McIlroy zinfandel pictured above was $14.99 and I'd put it up against zins costing 2 or 3 times as much. The bad part, good luck finding McIlroy wines unless you are in the Russian River valley or Tucson :(

McIlroy Winery is a small family producer of some really extraordinary wines. Most of the wines in their catalog are under $20 too! Their flagship is probably their Cab Franc which is absolutely amazing! They also do a classic buttery/oaky chardonnay, a honey like Late harvest desert wine, a cab based blended called Interplay which is a wonderful alternative to overpriced California Cabernets and a wonderful Syrah.

The story of how we found McIlroy wines is interesting. A couple of years ago, we where on a mountain biking vacation in Sedona, AZ. We went to wine tasting at a fun little place in uptown Sedona called the Wine Basket. That night, Will McIlroy himself was in town and doing the tasting of his wines. We really enjoyed the wines and arranged to have bottles shipped back to Michigan. We struck up conversation with Will, who didn't have any distribution in Michigan at all. He gave us his cell number and suggested we give him a call anytime we wanted to restock. Needless to say, we called Will a couple of times since then! We always seem to catch him out in the vineyard, yet he always personally filled and shipped out our orders. Gotta love the personal attention and service!

In our year of traveling the country we had not found his wine anywhere. We could not really place an order while we where on the road, rules for shipping wine vary from state to state and we were moving every couple of weeks. It goes without saying we were very excited to find a store near our winter home that stocks these wines on a regular basis!

Ask your local wine store if they can get these wines through their distributors, you will not be disappointed!

Some of our other favorite inexpensive zins:

• Cline Old Vine Zin, $12.99
  
• Bogle zin $9.99
  
• 7 Deadly Zins $12.99
  
• Turley Zin, $60 (For that special occasion!!)
  

-Rich-

We've heard and read some great things about Paul Hobbs wines. However, they are pretty pricey, $45 and up, so we've not taken the opportunity to try them.

We found this Russian River blend at 58 Degrees, here in Tucson. At $46, the least expensive Paul Hobbs we have seen, we decided to see if it lived up to the hype!

We decided to team this up with Roasted duck breast, which just simply cries out to be paired with a good Pinot.

The wine lived up to the expectation and paired perfectly with the duck. The wine was fruity without being overly "jammy". We would have liked to experience a little more "earthiness" as you tend to get with Oregon Pinots (our favorites!)but with duck, fruit forward is exactly what was needed. This wine was also nice and balanced to drink all by itself.

A winner for sure, but definitely save it for a "special" occasion.

-Rich-

Rich and I were at Trader Joe's earlier this week and saw that they were selling Napa River wines, which is brought to you by the Two buck Chuck people. Since it was only $5, we decided to try it. It's great! It's even better than I expected it to be. We only bought the chardonnay. I don't remember if there are others. The label on the chard recommended having it with fish, chicken, or a creamy pasta dish. Since I was having trout for dinner, along with leftover pasta from lunch the day before, I put it to the test. Success! This is definately a "must buy".

-Laura

P.S. I'll fix the pic later when I have a faster internet connection.