WWHBD January 21, 2015

Welcome to the next installment of WWHBD. As in previous posts, since we are true believers of “Drink what you like and everyone tastes differently,” rather than including our tasting notes, I have included basic information about each of the wines, or a bit about what was happening in our lives while we were enjoying them.  If you are interested in reading our tasting notes and our ratings head on over to Delectable and check us out @Dracaenawines.

2015 is upon us.  I think the scariest part is that this is the year that Marty McFly travels to in Back to the Future 2. Remember that movie? The hover boards, the self drying jackets, and of course the future Biff. Could you hate any kid more?  What about all the 80’s retro stores- ok, that one they got right.  I do believe there are shops around. Heck, even Nike is reveling in the bliss of 2015 creating a new sneaker that is a mock-up of the auto fit sneakers in the movie.  They do look pretty cool.  But, alas, I may be a bit too old to pull them off.

 

 

 

 

Now this has absolutely nothing to do with wine, I know, but it does kind of blow my mind that back in 1985, when the movie was made, 2015 seemed so far away and here we are!  I just had to get it off my chest. But now onto what this blog post is really about.  What We Have Been Drinking.

The first #WineWednesday, we decided to open a wine we had awhile ago.  We traveled back in time, not in a DeLorean, but in a bottle. (alright,I promise, no more Back to the Future references) This is why we stick to the adage of never buy a single bottle.  We learned early on that you will regret it!  We chose the 2012 Trivento Malbec.  We are big fans of Trivento.  We find that they provide a good value for a weekday wine.  It’s a wine I wouldn’t blink at when opening when company came over. A wine that I know people will enjoy.

I’m not saying it is the epiphany of all wines, just a solid wine that you can depend on.  But this night, the science of tasting was all amiss.  Both Mike and I were either in a funk, or the cheese we were having really threw us for a loop.  The wine was completely different from the first time.  I don’t mean slightly different. I mean wow, “Is this the same wine?” different.  The last time we had this wine was in August of 2014 where we said “full of plum and raspberry.”  On this night, however, we got blueberry, black cherry and tar.  How’s that for a significant difference? Maybe we both had a bout of dysgeusia. (Yes, that is a real word, and it means a sudden alteration in taste.)  It can come and go, and for some reason zinc helps it go away.  Maybe we need to pop a zinc pill before our next bottle.

On Monday, I received an email from my girlfriend, stating that she was in “dire need” of a girls night out. She was going to have it at her house on Thursday and all we needed to bring was an appetizer.  I am definitely not one to say no to a girls night, so I responded with a resounding Yes!  It has been a long week though, so I didn’t think I would stay late.  Well, last night, that got thrown to hell.  Once I was there, drinking and talking, the time just flew.  I made a goat cheese and red bell pepper tart, (recipe) which if I do say so myself was amazing.  Everybody brought an appetizer, so there was a lot of food to savor.  The wine of choice was a Prosecco.  This is not a typical drink for me.  I stick more to the California sparkling wines and an occasional Champagne.  Pliny the Elder raved about Prosecco’s medicinal qualities. He knew what he was talking about, because after a couple of glasses, I sure felt a lot better.

 

Ah, Saturday.  I wish it was a day of relaxation, but I spent today at the pool. Mike and I live in New Jersey and work at our “real jobs” that pay the winery bills.  I teach Physical Education, I officiate boys (spring) and girls (fall) volleyball, and I coach Strength and Conditioning (fall) and Boys Swimming (winter.) I wear a lot of hats during the school year.  Today, was our County Championships.  We were in the running, but sadly, we came in second.  It was a great meet.  One of my boys broke a county record and qualified for the Meet of Champions in March. I’m beyond proud of my boys, but I was up early and on the pool deck by 7:30am, so it makes for a long day.  When it came to dinner, Mike asked what wine I wanted.  I responded with  “I don’t know, I’m fried.”   Mike went downstairs and pulled a 2008 Star Lane Happy Canyon Merlot. Let me just say that  I love Merlot, and Mike isn’t a real fan.  I am a believer that it’s the little things that mean the most. Love is shown in your actions, and Mike pulling this wine is one of the little things that he does that shows he loves me.  He knows that although I’m proud of my boys, I’m majorly competitive and I always want to win.  As Ricky Bobby says “You are either first or you are last” and Mike knows that inside I’m upset. So Mike pulling a Merlot tonight is sweet and that’s one of the reasons why I love him! I don’t know if that makes sense to you, but to me, this Merlot means a lot.

What was in your glass this #WineWednesday? This has been a very long week. It all stemmed from the damn Oregon Ducks making me stay up late for the loss. Then I had a swim meet that started at 8:15pm! WTF?! Who starts swimming a meet that late.  We got back to school around 10:30 and of course there is that one kid whose parent isn’t there to pick him up!  UGH! How can you not be there for your kid at 10:30 when he called saying he was on his way home AND it is 14^odegrees outside?  I finally left school at about 10:50. Thank goodness I live near by, but two late nights in a row were torture!  So on Wednesday, I wanted soup and WINE! For wine we had 2011 Grand Estates Merlot from Columbia Crest.  One of our favorites.  For the soup, I made butternut squash soup and biscuits. Since I learned the life-hack of nuking the butternut squash for 45 seconds before peeling, we have been having it a lot more. It is so easy to peel after that and I absolutely love it! Have you ever followed a recipe and made a cooking mistake? Welcome to the biscuit .I found a recipe for homemade biscuits on Pinterest. In the description it stated that it called for more baking powder and salt than typical (the recipe said 4 tsp. of each) I thought that was A LOT, but hey, who am I to second guess Pinterest? So I made them- holy salt Batman! But I recovered quickly and solved the problem on the fly-  I just eliminated the salt from the soup. We would be dunking the biscuits in the soup anyway. And surprisingly, it all turned out well!  I will definitely make them again, just modifying the salt and baking powder content.

It has been a long week. Our freezer decided it was time to die yesterday.  I was planning on making a martini for myself and when I opened the freezer to get some ice, I found water! UGH!!! I wasn’t sure which I was more upset over, the fact that the freezer wasn’t working or that I had no ice for my martini! We got lucky and   the repair man came out  immediately.  He was able to fix it, so we are good to go. But MIke thought it was wise we choose something for dinner out of the freezer to save something in case it couldn’t be fixed.  Mike decided to grill some sausage.  Great idea, but didn’t really didn’t take into consideration that it is 14^o outside. After freezing to cook the sausage we settled down for dinner with the 2011 Tobin James Ballistic Zinfandel.  It’s a lighter Zin, but quite the value wine.

Although this has been a long week, all that really matters to me is the fact that I don’t have school on Monday, I am not having a practice for my swim team and we are going to Atlantic City this weekend. It’s a new year and I’m feeling lucky!!!  Wish me luck because the craps tables are calling my name!

 

Hope you had some great wines these past two weeks. Please leave a comment telling us what your favorite was.

~Slainte!