Farewell to Winter

With Spring now upon us, I decided to have a farewell to Winter today. One of my favorite winter-time lunches is grilled cheese with tomato soup. I pulled out a Michigan white to go with it, and came up with what I consider to be a "perfect pairing".

Wine: Leelanau Cellars Winter White
Meal: Grilled 3-Cheese Sandwich with Tomato Bisque

Tasting notes on the wine:
Color: 5/5
Pale yellow, like rays of sunshine that pour down through clouds. Excellent clarity, and there's no clear meniscus on this - the color bleeds all the way to the glass.

Nose: 10/15
Honeysuckle is the main scent I pull out of this, along with daisies. It's a very pretty, floral nose, but somewhat simple.

Taste: 7/10
For a "semi-sweet" wine, it tastes extremely sweet, almost cloying, but it's nice. It has a velvety smooth mouthfeel. The main flavor components are honey, nectar, and apricot.

Finish: 5/10
Almost non-existent. It's there, then it's not, making it very difficult to pick up on notes here. It's pleasant though.

Aging: 2/5
While this will probably hold up well in the fridge once opened, and will probably hold up in the cellar for a while, I would not recommend trying to age this one. It is a non-vintage wine, which means each year they make it, it's going to taste similar. If you want it, go out and buy it a day or two before you plan to have it. No point in keeping it around.

Overall: 3/5
It's a little too sweet for me, but is tasty. It definitely needs food to go with it to balance out the sweetness. The acidity in the soup really cut through the sweet and made it pretty awesome to have with the meal, and the fattiness of the cheese also helped. Dipping the sandwich into the soup and taking a bite, then having a sip of the wine is just perfect. Fatty semi-soft cheese, tomatoes, white chocolate - all would be wonderful pairings with this. Caprese salad - I'm lookin' at you.

Total: 82pts

Want to make this meal?

Grilled 3-Cheese Sandwich
Melt some butter on a skillet or griddle and place a flat wrap or tortilla on it. On one side of the wrap, place a slice each of your three favorite cheeses - I used colby jack, mozzarella, and parmesan. When the cheese just starts to melt, fold over the wrap. After a minute, flip the entire sandwich. Once the cheese has melted and the wrap has become toasted, cut in half and plate. Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on top of it.

Tomato Bisque
2 14oz cans diced tomatoes, one drained
1 12oz can evaporated milk
2 Tbsp sugar or sweetener equivalent
1 Tbsp dried chives
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp salt

Drain one can of tomatoes, then pour both cans into a pot over medium-high heat. Add chives, basil, salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil and allow the liquid to reduce by about a third.

Add in the milk and stir to combine. Return just to a boil, and remove from heat. Blend together using either a stick or a stand blender, until smooth.

Serve in a bowl, garnished with a sprinkling of dried chives. Refrigerate leftovers.

Enjoy!

Usual Dinner, Unusual Wine

Being lazy tonight and having ended up going out for lunch during the day, I ended up making the lunch I had brought to work, dinner. Spruced up a little. It was a very simple baked chicken Lean Cuisine. I plated it and drizzled a little balsamic vinegar over the chicken and added a side of cheesy broccoli, and went for the most unusual bottle of wine that I could think of in my cellar, to give dinner a special twist.

Wine: 2005 Airlie Winery Müller-Thurgau Estate
Meal: Lean Cuisine Baked Chicken with cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cheesy broccoli

Tasting notes on the wine:

Color: 5/5
Very pale yellow, almost clear. Perfect clarity, with just the slightest bit of a clear meniscus.

Nose: 12/15
Complex nose, combining elements of herbal greens and minerals, with a touch of floral. Very much like a Gewurtztraminer or a Riesling. The herbal component comes out in the form of fresh cut grass after a spring rain, and the mineral component reminds me of well water. Lavender is the chief floral scent.

Taste: 8/10
Tart and acidic on the attack, mellowing out to fresh, crisp, bright fruit on the mid-palate. There are tones of citrus and apple with a shock of pear. There's a little bit of a bite to it - not alcohol heat... I can't quite describe it, might just be the tartness causing me to pucker my cheeks a little. If summer had a taste, this would be it. The balance is really nice on this - even though this wine is semi-sweet with a residual sugar of 2%, there's enough acidity to round it out.

Finish: 7/10
A good finish on this one - the flavors linger for quite a while. There's a lot of granny smith apple, very prominent, with ginger ale. The feel is a little oily, but it's smooth and clean.

Aging: 3/5
From what I can find of the little there is out there about the Müller-Thurgau grape, it's not meant to age much. I think no one has given this grape a chance to. Clearly it's still holding up strong 4 years after the vintage, and I don't sense any deterioration going on. Perhaps this is a white that requires a little time in the bottle to fully develop into what this wine has obviously become, and I think it will continue to age for at least a few more years. Not too shabby for what seems to be the "reject" grape of Germany.

Overall: 4/5
I had no idea what to expect going into this wine, and I've got to say, I'm pretty impressed by it. It came from a bin end, let's-get-rid-of-it sale, and it was a grape I'd never heard of before so I thought to give it a shot. I'm really glad I did. I don't generally go for sweet wines, so it's really nice that the acidity of this balances out the sweetness and makes it just enjoyable. It's well crafted, and a good solid effort. With only 10% ABV, it's pretty easy to sit and sip on this one. If you're into Rieslings, you'll probably really like this one. Go find it and try it out!

Total: 89pts

This is somewhat of an elegant offering - pair this with elegant meals. The mashed potatoes and cornbread stuffing were a little heavy with it, but the chicken tenderloins and broccoli were perfect. This would go really well with seafood as well, and salads with a light dressing on it. This would also make a lovely brunch wine, seated outside with the sun shining, a light breeze blowing, good friends and fabulous brunch food!

Enjoy!

I'm Blind! Sort of...

Tonight I decided it was time to give Michigan another shot at red wine. We haven't done so well so far in the reds area, even though the Rieslings are fantastic. So I had a 2005 St. Julian Merlot and a 2005 Beaulieu Vineyards Merlot, both of which are in the < $10 category, neither of which are known for being show stoppers, so I figured it'd be a fair fight. I tasted them semi-blind; I have a horrible memory and while I did the labeling of "A" and "B" for the bottles and the glasses they were going into, by the time I finished making dinner and got around to tasting them, I'd completely forgotten which was which.

Wine A: 2005 St. Julian Merlot
Wine B: 2005 Beaulieu Vineyard Coastal Estates Merlot
Meal: Salmon Foccacia

Tasting notes on the wine:
Wine A:
Color: 4/5
Palish rusty... I can see my fingers through it. Good clarity, but paler than I expected.

Nose: 5/15
Lacking. Not really getting anything from it. Really have to dig my nose in there and breathe deeply to get anything, and what I'm getting is kind of like rusty iron with just the barest hints of some kind of indistinct fruit on it.

Flavor: 5/10
Mild flavor, again difficult to really pull anything out of it. Not unpleasant, but nothing remarkable about it. Toasty, with soft tannins and some plum.

Finish: 5/10
Finally something distinct on it, but not exactly what I think of for merlot. There was definitely a pink bubble gum taste, layered with twigs.

Aging: 2/5
Maybe needs more bottle time, or maybe this is as "good" as it gets. Don't think it'll last more than another year or two, but I'd drink it sooner rather than later, if at all.

Overall: 2/5
Not impressed. Drinkable, but just barely, and there's absolutely nothing special about it.

Total: 70pts

Wine B:
Color: 5/5
Darker, much more in line with what it should be. Plum in color. Good saturation and clarity.

Nose: 6/15
Floral, but still lacking, and still very difficult to discern anything out of it. Some fruit, but nothing distinctive.

Taste: 6/10
A little hot. Soft tannins. Plum and cherry predominant, a little tart. Pleasant though, and the heat blows off in time.

Finish: 4/10
Dry. Very dry and short. There's just nothing to it. It's there for a moment, then gone.

Aging: 2/5
There's not really a backbone on this to age. Drink it if you've got it, probably won't hold up more than 2 or 3 more years.

Overall: 2/5
Like the previous, it's very forgettable. Not impressed. It's drinkable, and is the wine I have chosen to have with dinner.

Total: 75pts

No big shocker there. Mediocre wines, one just slightly better than the other, but the BV did work well with dinner, and all in all turned out to be a pleasant enough wine with food.

Want to make this meal?
I purchased a pre-made veggie foccacia from my local grocery store - freshly baked today and topped with onion, red & green pepper, cheese... really great stuff. I popped open a can of salmon and spread it on top, then sprinkled a healthy dose of shredded mozzarella on top and sprinkled some parsley over it. Baked at 350 for 20 minutes, then cut it up and served like pizza.

Enjoy!

St Patty's Day Fare

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! I'm not Irish, but I love green and all the things that go along with St. Patrick's Day (even if they're not, technically, "traditionally" Irish). So I figured tonight was going to be Corned Beef, boiled potatoes, and carrots. No, no cabbage. I find I don't like cabbage. Plus it doesn't go so well with wine. I have to be honest, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to go with for my wine pairing tonight, because even though it's technically beef, it's sweeter than most beef. Plus there's all those spices... but in the end, I just walked into the cellar and grabbed whatever my hand first landed on. Which turned out to be a pretty good idea!

Wine: 2001 Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz
Meal: Corned Beef, Boiled Potatoes, and Buttered Carrots

Tasting notes on the wine:
First off, decant this for at least a half hour. Not because of the heat or the tannins - those are barely present, but because it just needs that time for the fruit to come out and for it to really blossom. I did not, and remembered hearing some great things about it, but the first taste was really "meh". Please give it some air.

Color: 5/5
Dark brick red, with good clarity and the color extending just about to the glass, which is pretty impressive in an 8 year old wine. It's nice and saturated, but maybe not lustrous. Or maybe my glass just has fingerprints all over it.

Nose: 12/15
Powerful nose. I can smell it as it sits in the glass on the table, about a foot away from me. Nice, not super special, but nice. Earthy tones, a little musty at first, but after a while that fades away into a rich scent of dried figs, cracked peppercorns, and mulberries. Given a bit more time, chocolate pushes out with a vengeance.

Flavor: 8/10
Very earthy, leathery, followed shortly after by a snap of fresh fig, sour and black cherries. Tasting after having some of the beef helps to provide the "meat" flavor that is so typical of Syrah & Shiraz that I was just missing. Definitely improves with time and is now producing an intoxicating mix of white and dark chocolate as well. And the tannins, just this minute, showed themselves.

Finish: 8/10
At first this was a little twiggy on the finish, reminding me of much of the Pinot Noirs I've had (which isn't many, mind you) and it turned me off. But I pressed on, had some of the potatoes and sipped again, and that twigginess went away. Time also served to get rid of it. Quite smooth, and there's no heat. You'd never know this wine was 14.2% ABV. Except I just told you. The tannins are really announcing their presence now - I was missing them earlier and I'm so glad they showed up. I'm also beginning to get some dried meat on the finish as well.

Aging: 3/5
This is well balanced, and there's definitely enough tannin, structure, and fruit for it to continue drinking well for at least the next 5 years. Maybe more.

Overall: 4/5
I was not impressed at first sampling of this, but as it opens up and develops, I'm appreciating it more and more. I would have to say this truly is a great "dinner" wine, as the early stages of it go beautifully with food, and as it opens and progresses throughout the meal, comes to its own to become an enjoyable after-dinner conversation wine.

Total: 90pts

Want to make this meal?

I admit, I cheat when it comes to corned beef. I go out and pick up a pre-packaged Vienna Chicago Classic corned beef brisket, so that's what I suggest doing. All of the wonderful flavor of corned beef, less of the hassle of doing it right. Follow package instructions for cooking - mine was a 3.5 lb brisket and I boiled it for 2.5 hours.

The potatoes I like to cook up are fingerling potatoes, simply because of the colors that come out of them. Pretty simply, place potatoes in a pot with about 6 cups of water and a few pinches of Kosher salt, and bring to a boil. Boil 10-15 minutes or until desired tenderness is achieved.

Buttered carrots is a side dish from my youth, and no one made them quite like Mom. And so simple to make! Peel and slice as many carrots as you need, and place in a microwave safe dish with enough water to come just to the surface of the carrots. Microwave on high for about 5 minutes, until fork-tender. Drain, and stir in a pat of butter until the carrots are nicely coated.

All of these items reheat nicely, so you can make them all the day before and just reheat before serving. And if you have any leftover corned beef when it's all done, try making some corned beef hash the next morning for breakfast, or toss lightly with a mild, sweet BBQ sauce and serve on a bun for lunch.

Enjoy!