Archive for January, 2010
Varietal: Sanviovese
Region: Italy
Cost: $10
Violets, berries, spices and leather on the nose of this garnet colored wine with flavors of ripe fruit that pair with pizza, pasta, and grilled meats.
Recommendations: I grabbed this bottle of wine at a local store because, quite frankly, the price point was too good to pass on for a Sangiovese that had been highly rated by The Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator in previous years. Also, as Chianti is my first love of red wine, I have a hard time walking away from any Sangiovese.
Paired with a meal of pasta with red sauce and ground Italian sausage, the dryness of this wine was a perfect compliment. A bit of ripe fruit on the palate does take the edge off the wine, making it enjoyable well after the meal is gone (my mark of a good wine), and the price means you can pick this wine up in bulk to keep around for any occasion.
If you’re not a fan of dry wines, you might want to pass on this one, but if you are a fan of Chianti or any dry wine, or are looking to get into them, this is absolutely one you should pick up – easily one of the best values I’ve found for any red wine.
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Region: Chile
Cost: $10
Garnet color with flavors of cherry and bold tannins. Pair this wine with red meat or a boldly flavored meal.
Recommendations: For a dinner alone, I swung by my local Fresh Market (which if you have one you should visit often) and picked up a steak and this bottle of wine, partially for the price, and partly because the card with the wine recommended it for steaks.
I opened up the wine while my steak cooked on the grill and let it breathe a bit, finally pouring some as my steak came off the grill. Paired with the steak, the wine was excellent. Bold tannins and some flavors of red fruit came through, and the high alcohol content (14%) was balanced well by the juiciness of the steak. Read the rest of this entry »
Varietal: Blended Red Wine (50% Nero d’Avola; 50% Merlot)
Region: Italy – Sicily
Cost: $14
Intense red colors with hints of purple featuring aromas of cherry, sweet spices and tobacco with balanced tannins on the palate. Pairs well with pasta with meat sauce, braised beef, juicy steak.
Recommendations: When this wine showed up for me I instantly started thinking of what to pair it with. The bottle itself recommends pasta with meat sauce, and given my love of Italian-style food, I was quick to agree. More purple than red in the glass, with a good tannic structure, the high alcohol content (14%) does demand that you pair the wine with something to help take the edge off.
That being said, allowing the wine to open up (either by decanting or just letting the bottle sit for a bit) takes the edge off the wine and makes it a very enjoyable sipping wine, especially with the flavors of crushed fruit that came through for me after it opened up. Read the rest of this entry »
Varietal: Blended Red (Sangiovese, Syrah, Carignan, Barbera, Zinfandel, Mourvedre, Montepulciano, Petit Verdot, Tannat, Aglianico, Petite Sirah, Nero d’Avola, Grenache)
Region: California – USA
Cost: $7 – $10
Cherry, raspberry, blueberry, cassis, and chocolate flavors all blend together. Pair this wine with chicken, ground beef, pizza.
Recommendations: I’ll be the first to admit, my wife and I first paid attention to this wine because of the bottle. We thought, if nothing else, it would look good over our cabinets (see my previous post if you haven’t already). Having looked over the list of what was in the wine, we decided that the wine would go better with pizza, and so when we ordered a pizza one evening, we opened the bottle.
I wanted to like this wine, I really did. I’m a fan of most of the varietals that they used to blend it, and I’m a firm believer in table wines that aren’t impressive, but aren’t bad. Unfortunately, the Big House Red just left me shrugging. It wasn’t terrible in a pour the bottle out kind of way, but it just didn’t do anything to make me pay attention – good or bad. Read the rest of this entry »
Now I know the title of this blog post might be a little misleading, but I’m not talking about putting your empty wine bottles in your recycling bin (which you should do if you’re getting rid of them though). I’m talking about ways you can use your wine bottles after you’ve already emptied them of all the good stuff.
First, there are wine cork trivets. My wife and I have a lot of corks lying around our house, and given as we do a lot of cooking at home, we figured a great way to use those wine corks was to turn them into trivets for placing hot pots, pans, and baking sheets.
To make, simply use a glue gun to connect the corks to each other, making a square, rectangle, or whatever shape you happen to prefer. You can use a mold like the image above, or just glue them together without one. Read the rest of this entry »
Varietal: Sangiovese
Region: California – Sonoma Valley – USA
Cost: $22
Bright raspberry, cherry, and pepper flavors with a deep red color. Light and smooth on the palate, pairs well with grilled chicken, red meat, seasoned pork.
Recommendations: Sangiovese will always hold a special place in my heart as Chianti was the first red wine that I ever truly got in to. Because of that, when my wife and I were in California back in October, I immediately was drawn to the Sangiovese at Jacuzzi Family Vineyards.
Light on the palate and smooth throughout with just a hint of tannin on the finish, it was a great pairing with a dinner of chicken caesar salad. My only real complaint with this wine was that it wasn’t a bigger bottle. While I’ve yet to find this wine back home on the east coast, if you’re a fan of Sangiovese or Chianti and do come across this wine, or you’re at Jacuzzi Family Vineyards in Sonoma, I do recommend picking up a bottle of this wine. It’s well worth it.
