Wino Wednesday

This week I treated our whole work team to a Wino Wednesday. (And no they are not toasting, I had them hold the glasses up so I could get this shot)

Why? Because...
1. We need a break
2. I like to give
3. I wanted to hear what they would say about the wine.

The wine this week is the following:
Hamilton-Steven's
2009 Pinot Noir
Russian river valley

First smell:  Dark juicy plums
First taste:  Plumy richness, chocolate, cherries
Here are some group observations from us novices:
"Fruity"
"earthy" (said with pinky up)

"very drinkable...i'll drink to that"
Where I bought this?  Trader Joes, of course, for $8.99

What we ate with this wine?
French bread, cheese (dubliner sharp chedder, triple cream brie with bleu cheese) dried apricots, almonds, grapes and dried salami, way in the back dark chocolate covered pretzels.  Uh YUM!

What the bottle said?
Deep garnet red with spicy sweet aromas of dark plum, cedar, and anise. Rich, complex flavors of cherry pie, spice, and bittersweet and chocolate finish silky smooth.

Cellared and bottled by our cellars in Healdsburg, California

First Wino Wednesday

Kona - A wine from New Zealand, Marlbourough Sauvignon Blanc

So I'm a seasonal drinker.  I like white wines in hot weather, well I also like a gin and tonic, but this is a wine post. Sorry all you mid-westerners and east coasters, and British, it's sunny and warm in So. Cal.

Here's my observations
First smell:  apples
First taste:  pears and apples
After eating a bit and letting the wine breath then I tasted white peaches
It was crisp with a little tangy taste.

Here's a wine makers official notes: Marlborough's free-draining, alluvial loams over gravelly subsoils provide ideal growing conditions for our KONO Sauvignon Blanc. With the abundant sunshine, cool nights and a long growing season in this region, this wine is vibrant with intense citrus and gooseberry flavours and notes of capsicum and passionfruit.

Seriously who talks like this.  I have no idea what capsicum is, so I looked it up, and apparently it's like a bell pepper or chili pepper.  Honestly I would equate the tangy taste I noted with a mild bell pepper.

I drank this wine while I ate french bread and brie supreme super creamy cheese, followed by baked wild caught salmon and asparagus for dinner.  This also influenced my choice of a white wine.

I bought this wine at, where else, Trader Joe's.  I paid a wapping $7.99.  Not a bad wine for that cheap.

Next week I will address the whole ideas of box wine, screw top, corks, etc...

Superbowl

So what did you all eat while watching the superbowl?

I had two friends over, very casual, and I served Trader Joes concocted dishes.
The first one I had at my friend B's house.  It's not her usual fair, but I call this trailer trash cheesy goodness.  Please do not be offended, I have many lovely friends and family that live in trailers, love it and embrace it.  But this is a sharp cheddar pub cheese in a plastic container.  I heat it up with a vegetarian chili that I swear taste like it has meat in it.  Serve warm with nice sturdy corn chips, chips need to be strong as the cheesy goodness is thick.  

The other concoction is another demo at Trader Joes.  Beef and pork meatballs with bbq sauce.  At the store then were microwaving, I usually only use mine for warming up stuff.  So I baked mine for 30 minutes and warmed up the kansas bbq sauce, mix and serve with toothpicks.  Seriously was the best stuff.   We ate other good things too, this was just the start, but fun stuff to munch on.

And of course I made cosmo's for us girls and the boys drank beer, as usual. 
Cheesy goodness and meatballs, YUM.  BOO that the Steelers lost. 

I know I should talk about the ads, it is Superbowl, and I am in the ad business.  So here's my two cents, loved the car ads.  Chrylser with Eminem, epic, emotional, edgy, awesome.  Longest spot, 2 minutes, was riveted from the beginning.  For moms and anyone with kids, and all of us that grew up in the 70's, loved VW's Darth Vadar ad.  That kid was so expressive, and with a DV mask.  What does it tell me about the car? Well other than you can start the car with your key chain fob, not much else.  Who cares, love Star Wars, loved that the mimic the opening shot of that movie and love that kid.  There you go.

Sea Salt Carmels

So my friend Jessica who LOVES all the sweets possible always gives me great suggestions on Trader Joe sweets. This past winter season she introduced me to yet another goodie.

Dark Chocolate covered carmels with sea salt on top. Need I say more. This only is in stock during the Holiday season. Mark it down for next Nov/Dec and stock up.

Chocolate Almonds

New favorite snack again from Trader Joes. Thanks J for letting me scavenge around in the snack cabinet at your house. Seriously, this is like crack, well Ive never actually had crack, but this is what can easily become an addiction.

I love dark chocolate and almonds. The chocolate has bits of turbinado sugar, (for the one UK reader, it's called demerara over there), which is lighter than brown sugar. It's this crystallized sugar cane that is added into the dark chocolate and gives it sweetness with a little more crunch. But the best part is while your savoring the slightly sweet dark chocolate you'll get dab of sea salt on the tongue that just excites and enhances the whole experience.
Again, TJ's does it again. Pure indulgence and great with a nice cherry chocolate Cabernet or Port.