2007 Gnarly Head Zinfandel

We tasted the 2006 Gnarly Head Zinfandel a while back and thought it to be just okay.  The 2007 was better, but still not our favorite.

On the nose were notes of dried plums and wet grass.  The wet grass was completely unexpected in a zinfandel.  Not unpleasant, just different.  On the palate, the plum carried over along with some earthiness and a touch of smoke on the finish.

This was neither overly spicy nor fruity; it struck a pretty good balance between the two.  Unfortunately, we prefer more spicy so this is not going down as great in our book but rather just good.  If you want a easy drinking, moderate zinfandel that will likely not offend anyone this might be a decent choice.  It is only $9.49 a bottle at Publix, so definitely not a bad price.

Cheers!

2006 Vina Chilcaya Sauvignon Blanc

Yuck!  That is the best description that I can offer for this one.  I am adamant that wine does not have to be expensive to be good, but frankly I keep getting burned on the $5-6 bottles and will definitely be trying them first for now on.  This was $5.99 a bottle at Publix.

The nose reeked of spoiled milk... that is about the best that I can describe it.  There was also some undertone of burnt petrol.  It tasted as bad as it smelled.  Sour grape with harsh acidity washed over the palate from start to finish.

I gave this one some time in the glass hoping it would improve but no dice.  My recommendation is not to waste your money on this one.

Cheers!

Lakewood Ranch Wine Club - October 23

Author's note: this is a fairly long post but hopefully worth the read.  I put the pictures at the bottom, as I had to use my Blackberry to snap them and they did not turn out well enough to shrink down.  I also did not get a picture of the Donna Anita Arneis.

Last night was the regular meeting of the Lakewood Ranch Wine Club.  Our first two exposures to the club were unique -- the last meeting of the season back in May was held in a residence rather than the normal venue as no one picked up the keys and then the kick-off for this season was held at Apron's Cooking School at Publix.  It was good to finally see the modius operandi in action... or at least, mostly in action.

From what we have gathered, normally one of the members chooses the wines and then presents them to the club.  Last night we had a guest presenter, Michelle Christopher who is the wine manager at Total Wine & More here in Sarasota.  Michelle presented 6 Italian wines - a sparkling, white and 4 reds.

First up was the Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco.  Prosecco, which is the grape as well as the style of wine, is typically produced from wines which have undergone the secondary fermentation, which creates the bubbles, in bulk tanks and then bottled under pressure as opposed to the traditional methode champenoise where the secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle.  Because the secondary fermentation is done in tanks, you wind up with a sparkling wine that is lighter and crisper than a sparkling wine made in the traditional way which will have more yeasty notes.

The Nino Franco Rustico was very light-bodied, with crisp acidity and hints of apple and citrus.  We were not terribly impressed one way or the other --- as it has been in other tastings where we have had it, it was good but not great.  It is priced at $17.99 at Total Wine, which is a touch higher than I remember it being elsewhere but it has been a while since I have paid any attention to it.

Next was the 2005 Montresor Castellie Valpolicella Ripasso.  Ripasso is the style of wine that is made by the repeating passing of Valpolicella juice over the skins and lees left over from Amarone.  This gives it more weight and body that just Valpolicella but not as heavy and raisiny as Amarone.  The 3 principal grapes used for Valpolicella, Valpolicella Ripasso and Amarone are corvina, rondinella and molinara.  Other, lesser grapes can be included, but these are the big ones.

This ripasso was very good, with a lot of black fruit, some touches of raisin and undertones of mocha.  Pretty full-bodied, but not quite as much as I would have expected.  The tannins were also just a touch on the harsh side.  This one was $39.99 a bottle.  We thought it was pretty good, but not good enough to command that price.

The third wine was a 2004 Chianti Classico Riserva from Casalino.  Chianti Classico is a sub-region within Chianti.  Some people think that it is Chianti made in the classical style.  Don't be confused by this!  Chianti Classico must have at least 75% Sangiovese (and can be 100% for that matter) and can be blended with up to 10% Canaiolo and up to 20% of any of the other approved grapes - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Syrah.  A Chianti Classico must be aged for 7 months in oak with a minimum alcohol level of 12%.  To be a Riserva, the minimum aging time is 27 months at the winery (presumably with the same 7 month in oak requirement, but I'm not positive about this) and must be at least 12.5% AbV.

With all of the aging requirements, you would expect this to be pretty full-bodied but most are actually more medium weight and this one in particular was actually fairly light, and even ended with a light, watery finish.  This would be a decent pizza wine.  Notes of black cherry and some earthiness.  $15.99 a bottle.

The fourth wine was 2003 Vasco Sassetti Brunello di Montalcino.  100% Nebbiolo from Tuscany, this was described by Michelle as a good Brunello to be drinking now while waiting on the 2001's to mature some more.  I think that there is probably 10-15 years of life left in these.

This was full-bodied, with a lot going on: some tobacco, leather and herbs intermingled with blackberry, currant and some hints of spice all held together with firm tannins.  Very, very tasty and at $29.99 this is a steal!  This was our favorite wine of the evening by far.

The next wine was the 2008 Donna Anita Arneis.  Arneis is literally translated as little rascal, probably because it is somewhat difficult to grow well.  Typically more full-bodied and possessing less acidity than other grapes can easily cause them to overrippen on the vines.  Traditionally it was used to soften Nebbiolo but is more prone to be varietally produced nowadays.

The nose hinted at bright fruit and melon, with nunances of apricot.  The finish was very long, lingering easily for a minute or more.  This was very good, but I wish that it had followed the prosecco and not a ripasso, chianti and brunello!  $14.99 a bottle seems reasonable for this one.

The sixth and final wine was 2005 Villa Lanata Baccanera Langhe.  Made in the Super Tuscan style from 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Barbera, this was a very nice finish to this tasting.  Notes of currant, blueberry and plum with firm, almost gritty, tannins on the finish but yet smoother than the sharp nose would have lead you to believe. This one was $21.99 a bottle.

Michelle did a great job of covering 3 different regions of Italy - Veneto, Tuscany and Piedmont - with an interesting mix of wines.

Cheers!

Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco

2005 Montresor Castellie Valpolicella Rispasso

2004 casalino Chianti Classico Riserva

2003 Vasco Sassetti Brunello di Montalcino

2005 Villa Lanata Baccanera Langhe

2004 Paul Zinck Gewurztraminer

I make a pretty mean shrimp etoufee, with lots of spice to it.  Now, a light shiraz or zinfandel can work with this but a gewurztraminer sometimes is a better choice.  I would certainly drink it more often, but Allison doesn't seem to care for them.

Gewurztraminers will have some sweetness to them but not as much as a riesling will.  They also are generally much higher in alcohol, and this one is a full 13% AbV.  The unique spicy edge to gewurztraminer is what really sets it apart though.

This gewurztraminer was good, but not great.  There seemed to be more sweetness that you might have expected and the spice, while present and accounted for, was not a pronounced as I would have liked.  Lots of white floral notes on the front palate, with some peppercorn on this finish with just a slight trace of petrol.

Gewurztraminer is also a good white wine to put some age on, though I think that this one was at, or perhaps just beyond, its peak.  At $14.99 I got my monies worth, but probably would not pick it up again.

Cheers!

2005 Sonoma-Cutrer Pinor Noir

For many years, although I am not a big chardonnay fan, I have loved Sonoma-Cutrer chardonnays.  For a long time all they produced was chardonnay but have since started producing some Pinot Noir as well.  Unfortunately, until recently I had never even seen a bottle of the pinot noir much less tasted it.  Which is a shame, because it is quite tasty.

The nose showed a lot of fruit - red cherry, blackberry and some plum.  The palate echoed this plus added dimension of smoke and just a hint of spice on the finish.  A long, lingering finish completed the package.  This was not quite as heavy as some that we have had, but it was still pretty full-bodied.

I think that it was priced pretty well, coming in at $31.99.  If this were under $25 it would absolutely be a steal; it could probably also command $45-50 as well so maybe I should just be happy with it as is :-)

Cheers!

2007 Rene Lequin-Colin Bourgogne Chardonnay

The other day while browsing for some wines, this one was recommended by our local wine consultant as a good value white Burgundy.  We do not drink a lot of Burgundy, primarily because the ones that we have liked in the past have been fairly pricey.  This one being a basic Grand Vin de Bourgogne (basic classification only) was very reasonable at $14.99.

The nose was fairly closed down and did not give away much at all.  Initially on the palate it was fairly shutdown, but I think we were just drinking it too cold.  As it opened up we found vanilla, ripe melon and some oaky nuances.  This was a fat wine, which really coated the mouth and lingered a long, long time.  The oak was balanced with the fruit, as opposed to a lot of chardonnay which is like gnawing on a limb.

We enjoyed this one pretty well, and would definitely drink it again.

Cheers!

2006 Trevor Jones Boots Shiraz

This was a very tasty Aussie Shiraz although it did not quite make the "inky and brooding" category.  Very full-bodied, with lots of licorice and black pepper on the nose and front palate. There were notes of bell pepper, blueberry, plum and some whiffs of mineral as well.

The only detraction from this one was that the tannins were somewhat gritty on the finish.  Not a big deal to me, but if you like silky smooth tannins this one might not be for you.

I picked this one up for $15.99 at the ABC Fine Wine & Spirits which I thought was a pretty reasonable price for this caliber.

Cheers!

Pei Wei Asian Diner

As a general rule we are not fans of chain restaurants.  However, there are a couple of exceptions - notably Roy's Hawaiin Fusion (which we recently visited) and P.F. Chang's China Bistro.

Recently we were pleased to note that a Pei Wei Asian Diner was opening up the street from us.  Pei Wei is actually owned by P.F. Chang's, so we were quite excited to see this.  And, we did not realize that they were related until we started doing a little bit of research.

Assuming, like with any new restaurant, they would need a couple of weeks to get things ironed out in the kitchen we held off visiting until today.  But, needing some chow and not wanting to venture too far from home we decided to get it a shot.

First, you can definitely tell that this is a subset of P.F. Chang's.  The decor, ambience and even portions of the menu scream out at you.  But there are definitely some differences between the two.  Pei Wei is intended to be a lighter, faster style -- almost like Asian fast food.  It was definitely faster than P.F. Chang's would be, but still not super quick.  I will talk about the food in a minute.

When you first walk in, you place your order and get a number - very similar to a lot of delis.  Once this is done, you get your own drinks (nothing alcoholic; not sure how that works but we did see bottle of wine) and, in our case anyway, the floor manager pointed out a two-top for us.  After a wait of about 10-12 minutes our appetizers came out.  And about 15 minutes after that, my entree came up followed a couple of minutes later by Allison's.  Definitely not speedy, but it was lunch time on a Sunday with a lot of folks just out of church so that may account for some of the delay - the place was at its full capacity of 105.

Now for the food.  P.F. Chang's focuses on Chinese food, albeit at a much higher quality than your typical Chinese restaurant and does it very well.  Pei Wei on the other hand tries to integrate a range of Asian cuisines, including Chinese, Japanese and Thai into one menu.  It just doesn't work.  Sort of like all of this fusion of suhsi bars into other Asian restuarants (particularly Thai)... it is just wrong.  But I digress...

For starters we had an order of spring rolls and the lettuce wraps.  These were lifted directly from the P.F. Chang's menu.  And very, very good here as well.

For entrees I went with Mongolian Shrimp which had white mushrooms, shrimp, scallions and a brown sauce over rice.  Not bad, but definitely not great.  This reminded me of mediocre Chinese take out.  Allison went with Thai Coconut Curry with Chicken.  This was a fusion of long beans, basil, ginger, red bell pepper, onion in a green curry infused coconut milk sauce.  She actually thought it was pretty good, and brought her left overs home for lunch tomorrow.

If you've ever been to a P.F. Chang's you know how loud it can be in there.  Now take that, and multiply by a factor of two.  We could barely hear each other when we talked.  The kitchen is literally right there, and they must have had 12 or 14 cooks on the line whipping out dishes like crazy.  Add to that 105 people sitting literally inches from one another and another 10 or 12 wait staff running around and you get some idea of why the noise factor is out there.

The bottom line is that the food was decent, but not great.  I would put this in the same category as an Applebees or Chili's, and the food is definitely a step up from that.  However, the ambience, particularly the noise, was a big detractor for us.

Cheers!

2005 Sbragia "Andolsen Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon

Ed Sbragia was the winemaker at Beringer Vineyards for 32 years and during that time was responsible for many great wines.  For some time he split his attention between Beringer and his family owned winery, but in 2008 decided to devote 100% of his time to his winery and the results have been outstanding.

The 2005 Andolsen Vineyard Cabernet is produced using grapes grown in the western foothills of Dry Creek Valley.  Dry Creek Valley is part of Sonoma.  I have generally found that the Sonoma Cabernets are more seductive that the full-throttle style of many Napa Valley cabernets (not to say that this is an absolute).  This cabernet to me is a perfect example of what I mean.

The nose was rich with cedar, black fruit and touches of sage.  The palate initially started out soft, with floral undertones mixed with blackberry, cherry and toasty oak but as it opened become more pronounced with some cassis and chocolate.  The tannins were incredibly silky but very evident.  The finish lingered forever.

This one was $32.99 at the ABC Fine Wine & Spirits and has to be one of the best cabernets that we have had in a long time, and quite possibly the best under $40 cabernet that we've ever had.  If we ever win the lottery, this would be our house wine.

Cheers!

2008 Crios Torrontes

We have had just marginal luck with Torrontes.  Some that we've had have been very good, and others have not been so much.  This definitely falls into the very good category.

Torrontes at its best exhibits floral, citrus aromas similar to Viognier but with the crispness of Sauvignon Blanc.  The most notable profile is that of green apples.

This one had plenty of the green apple profile, balanced by firm acidity and notes of honeysuckle.  It ended with a moderate finish that was refreshing and light.

Definitely worth trying if you are not familiar with the varietal.

Cheers!

Linger Lodge Restaurant - You have to see it to believe it

So on Sunday Allison told me that she knew where she wanted to have lunch.  This of course is quite unusual as we normally play our version of twenty questions: "Where would you like to eat?" "I don't know, where would you like to eat?" etc.  She printed out directions but that was about all of the detail that I was given.

After spending about 20 minutes trying to find the place (Google Maps missed this one by about 1.5 miles) we pulled into the parking lot of an RV park.  I'm immediately wary, and the laminated menu posted out front offers little comfort.  Compounding my concern was the fact that we were the only people eating here at noon on a Sunday.

This place has been named one of the most unusual restaurants in the world by several noted sources including Al Roker and Forbes.com.  There are stuffed animals adorning most, if not all, of the available wall space.  You can check out their website for more details.

Fortunately, my fears were completely unfounded.  We sat out back on the covered patio, overlooking the Braden river (not a particularly spectacular view but nonetheless...)  Allison ordered the fried green tomatoes for an appetizer plus the blackened alligator basket for her meal.  I had the Island Basket, which is really just a fried clam basket with all the fixings.

The fried green tomatoes were delightful.  Very lightly breaded, perfectly cooked and served very hot - like right out of the fryer hot - with a side of remolaude sauce.  This was definitely a positive development.  Allison thought that her alligator was very good and even proclaimed that it was not tough at all which was a touch surprising.  The only negative she had was that it was rather fatty in places, which is another surprise.  Served with fries, hush puppies and coleslaw this was a full meal for her.

The Island Basket was equally impressive.  The clam strips were some of the largest I've ever seen.  Some of the clams were as thick as my index finger and nearly twice as long.  Again, perfectly cooked with not too much breading.  This basket also came with the same sides - fries, hush puppies and coleslaw.

As we were leaving, we noticed that there were several tables inside now being utilized and more people coming in the door.  Apparently it just gets off to a slow start on Sundays, or else others had the same problem finding it that we did.

Our only real complaint was that the service was pretty slow.  So slow that we had to go find the waitress to settle our tab when we were done, and after we waited for about 10 minutes for her to bring it to us.

So, once again I'm reminded that you cannot judge a restaurant by where is located or by how it looks.  Had it not been a destination for us, we would have kept on going - and missed out on some pretty tasty food.

Cheers!

2005 Grand Pacific Starliner Red

We love to go to wine tastings because we have the opportunity to try something before we commit to the whole bottle.  Unfortunately, there are times when we have to pick up a bottle to go with dinner, and in those cases it is very easy to just grab a bottle of something we know.  As I stood in the wine section of Publix yesterday afternoon I found myself thinking about this, and as a result went with a complete unknown - never even heard of this one until I saw it yesterday.  And I am darned glad that I did.

Now, this is not going to be something that we stock the cellar with but it served its role perfectly - a good quality, easy to drink, not overpowering red wine to go with a grilled burger.  What sold me was the description of "Rhone style blend" on the label.

Of course, the bottle doesn't list the grapes used and a Google search came up with differing opinions so I guess we'll just leave it at that.  The only consistency seemed to be the inclusion of Pinot Noir, which is not a Rhone grape varietal so that only adds to the confusion.  In the long run, it does not really matter what the grapes are as long as it tastes good... right?

The palate was rather unremarkable, hinting only at mile spice and a hint of vanilla and oak. However, on the palate it exploded with black pepper spice, raspberry and touches of blackberry and cocoa on the finish.  The finish was moderate, with touches of tannin that were in no way dominant.

This is borderline being called an everyday wine, mainly because I have only seen it this one time.  If we start running into more frequently it may get promoted to that status.  At $12.49 it was definitely a great bargin.

Cheers!

2007 Pio Cesare Cortese di Gavi

Here is a fantastic white wine from the Alessandria region of Piedmont.  The wine is 100% Cortese, which is a white wine grape dating back to the 1600's.  The Alessandria region's central town is Gavi, hence the name - literally, Cortese from Gavi.

Cortese wines tend to be medium bodied, with citrus notes and good acidity.  They are particularly well suited to fresh shellfish dishes.

We opened this 2007 vintage from Pio Cesare last night and were very favorably impressed, although it is hard not to be when talking abot Pio Cesare wines in general.  The nose was rich with ultra-ripe fruit - notably peach and honeydew melon - with a hint of moss.  The palate was full of the melon notes plus some jasmine and wet stone.  The acidity was more subdued that I expected but it was definitely medium-bodied, almost heavy on the back of the palate.

Allison summed it up best when she said that it was "very tasty!"

Cheers!

1989 Krug Brut Champagne

Last week, after 18 months, we finally sold our house in Birmingham.  Whew!  To celebrate no longer having to pay double everything, we decided that we should open a really good Champagne.  20 year old Krug seemed like just the thing...

We have had this one in the cellar for at least 5 years, maybe a bit longer even.  I could not find my purchase notes on it, but am certain that we paid in the neighborhood of $100 for it back then.  A quick Google search shows that it is going for $175 on average now.  This is definitely not an everyday Champagne for us (or for very many at all I suspect) but this was not an everyday occasion either.

We have had several tastings of Krug over the years, both vintage and non-vintage (or multi-vintage as they call it) and we have always been favorably impressed.  Krug also tends to get very favorable ratings from the major review magazines such as Wine Spectator or Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate.  You know by now that we are not big proponents of the 100-point rating scales, but generally respect the opinions of Parker and several of the senior editors at Wine Spectator.  Interestingly, Parker didn't rate the 1989 citing 3 bad bottles that he got, whereas Wine Spectator rated it 94 points with a life up to about 2015.

So what did we think about it?  Well, it was darker in color than a lot of Champagne but I tend to think that this was the aging.  Certainly any older Champagne that I have ever had has been this way, just not quite so much perhaps.  There was still a lot of carbonation and the cork would have given a satisfactory "pop" had I not opened it properly.  The nose was of burnt almond, over-ripe melon and a touch of bread.  On the palate the yeast was very pronounced along with honey and apricot flavors.

All of the flavors, except for the yeast, seemed tired and faded making us believe that this was a bit over the hill.  It wasn't bad in the sense of being corked or cooked, just not at its prime.  I wish that we had drunk it sooner.

I think that we will open up one of the 1990 vintages shortly to compare it.  Hopefully that vintage, which was a much better vintage in my opinion, will be holding up better.  Watch for a review shortly.

Cheers!

Dinner @ Roy's Hawaiian Cuisine

When we first moved to Sarasota, we were excited to see that there was a Roy's here.  Previously we both had dined at one in Orlando and I had a wonderful experience at the one in Newport Beach, CA.  All of our previous experiences have been very positive and we were really looking forward to our dinner this past Friday night.

Unfortunately, the expectations didn't live up to the experience.  Now, it was not completely bad; but it certainly was not what we were hoping for.

The service was absolutely perfect - from the minute we walked through the door until the minute we left.  Everybody went out of their way to be courteous, and as appropriate, helpful.  A lot of other restaurants could take a lesson or two on customer service from this.  Heck, a lot of customer service people in a lot of businesses could learn from them.

We arrived about 30 minutes early, having completed a couple of errands quicker than expected and traffic not being as bad as we thought it might.  We planned on sitting at the bar but as they were not overly busy, they went ahead and seated us.  Nice.

The menu offers a variety of options, including a summer prix fixe menu.  Allison went with this while I ordered from the regular menu.  It was a nice touch to allow a table the option to order like this, when normally an entire table has to go prix fixe or not at all (to keep the timing in synch I suppose).

For appetizers, Allison had the Beef Carpaccio and I went with a Lobster California Roll.  The Carpaccio was fantastic - nice, tender pieces of beef served with arugula, shaved cheese and several sauces (I can't remember the exact sauces, and the menu on the website is out of date).  I was disappointed with the Lobster California Roll.  I know that in one of my previous experiences when I had this it had solid chunks of lobster meat.  Not this one; it was shredded up meat and there was very little of it in there.  For me, there was too much rice on the roll and not enough filling - either lobster or avocado.

For our entree, I went with a Smoked Paprika U-10 Day Boat Scallop while Allison went with Grilled Shrimp served with Butternut Squash Risotto.  The server indicated that the scallop was normally served medium but I asked for a touch more done than that.  Unfortunately, that request got lost in translation - and the scallop was actually a touch less than medium.  It was very tasty, just a touch too rare for my palate.  It was served with a saffron risotto "paella", field peas and pulled duck confit.  Individually, all of these were very tasty but in this combination I did not really understand what the chef was trying to do.  All of the flavors were unique and actually I thought that they clashed rather than melded together.  The shrimp were very nicely grilled and the risotto was tasty.  This was a nice dish.

For dessert we split a molten chocolate souffle.  This was the best course that we had all evening.  Served with a nice helping of vanilla ice cream, the cake was crispy on the outside while retaining the molten center.

One thing that I think is absolutely inexcusable in this day of everything on the internet is to have an outdated menu online.  If you are going to put a menu out there for people to be able to view, make sure that it is current!  The menu that is online as I write this does not match the menu that we had Friday night -- namely the prix fixe portion.

I think that we are undecided on whether to give it another try or not.  I'm leaning towards another shot in future, while I think Allison is ready to write it off.  We'll see.

Cheers!

Wine Dinner @ Apron's Cooking School

The Lakewood Ranch Wine Club kicked off the 2009-2010 season with a wine dinner at Apron's Cooking School in Sarasota.  Apron's is part of the Publix Supermarket chain and offers quick weeknight recipes to classes with renowned chefs.  This program is dedicated to the preparation and enjoyment of wonderful food.

The dinner was held in their demonstration kitchen, which had tight seating for about 60 people and it was full.  There were 3 chefs working and they were an absolute blast!  The menu was picked by one of the regular members who chose a variety of dishes that they have enjoyed over the past year or so.  In addition, he picked wines to go along with each one.

Appetizer

The appetizer dish was a Bay Scallop Pan Roast with Mushrooms and Brioche Crumbs.  The dish was very tasty, with a nice contrast between the sweetness of the scallops, the earthiness of the mushrooms (they used baby portabello or porcini) and the buttery bread crumbs.  While it was very tasty, the bread crumbs were not baked on top like you might have expected, but rather were just mixed in with the scallops and mushrooms.  Personally, I think it might have been a touch better to have a baked crust but that's just me.

With the appetizer we tasted the 2007 Columbia Crest "Grand Estate" Chardonnay.  Now, you know that we're not big chardonnay fans here and this didn't change our minds.  While it was not as oaky as many California ones are, there was still a good bit of it.  There also was a fair amout of buttery undertones, which did work well with the dish.

Second

Next up were Grilled Shrimp with Corn Risotto.  I was absolutely shocked at how much cheese was put into the risotto!  (Of course, they prepared mine sans chesse that you very much)  The corn was roasted and then the kernals removed.  The corn cobs went into the chicken stock which was used with the risotto and brought it together nicely.  The shrimp were very good, thought a touch overcooked.

The shrimp and corn risotto was paired with the 2007 Mark West Pinot Noir.  I am not a big fan of Mark West wines.  To me they are simply another average bottle of wine being produced with purchased juice, and there seems to be a lot of these wines popping up all the time.  By itself, this did nothing to change my mind about them.  However, paired with the shrimp and risotto I thought that it was a decent choice -- it brought out more earthy, rustic notes that were not present by itself.

Third

For the main course we had a Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Grilled Mushroom Salad.  The steak was rubbed with cocoa, which I know is a big thing but something that I've never particularly cared for.  However, this was fantastic!  The cocoa played a very supporting role in the background, giving the steak just a slight "umph!"  The salad was very good, being torn watercress and arugula with a mix of grilled portabella, shitake and cremini mushrooms tossed in and served with a red wine vinaigrette.

With the steak we tasted the 2006 Rodney Strong Cabernet Sauvignon.  Rodney Strong produces a wide range of wines, and they all seem to be consistently very good.  This was no exception.  Black currant, cherry fruit and a touch of oakiness gave this a good amount of body without being overpowering.

Dessert

Finally for dessert was a Raspberry Creme Frache Tart with Lavender Honey.  I didn't try the dessert, but Allison and the couple we sat with seemed to enjoy it although no one would have ever thought to use the lavender this way.  Interesting to say the least.

The dessert was paired with Sandeman Tawny Port.  We love tawny ports, particularly the aged.  The 20 year old tawny from Sandeman is one of our favorites.  This was very good, but certainly much lighter than what we were used to.  I expect that it paired pretty well with the tart.

Overall I think that we were pretty pleased with our evening.  Certainly from our standpoint, while the wines were good they are not ones that we would have necessarily chosen.  But hey, if we all drank the same thing then there wouldn't be as many wines on the shelves!  It is all about the adventure of trying new things.

If anyone is interested in any of the recipes, I have them and will be happy to share -- just leave a comment or shoot us an e-mail.

Cheers!


Disclaimer:  I worked for Publix for a number of years, and am very partial to them.  Apron's didn't exist back then, nor did they offer a custom cut counter in the meat department, the variety of exotic vegtables in produce, a sushi counter, etc.  They also appear to have, in many stores, improved the overall selection of wine but they still are lacking a dedicated wine expert like you might find in a Bruno's or Western (Birmingham, AL) Supermarket.  Maybe one day!