This is going to be a brief post. It’s Wine Blogging Wednesday, and the theme from Lenn Thompson is a good one: to choose a wine that gets you back to your roots as a wine drinker and wine lover. Sort of ‘the wine that changed your life,’ if you will. Read more…
We have a knack for picking Italian wines that score really horribly in the press. This one gets an 82 from the Wine Spectator — but we love it nonetheless. It’s a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Syrah that hails from a biodynamic estate outside of Lucca. It couldn’t be from anywhere else, unlike the 98 point yielding Super Tuscan blends that we’ve on occsasion mistaken for California iterations of Bordeaux varieties. This will probably end up in our six-pack prize of wines that will not make the Spectator top 100…$37 for 82 points (how’s that for transparency?)
OK, don’t screw the WS top 100! This came in at #42 and it deserves at least that. It’s the only reasonably priced domestic cab on their list, and we love it. It’s deep and rich and generous with the oaky vanilla — but not cloyingly so. Yay for #42 - just $28.
Screw the Wine Spectator Top Ten! This is our top pick for November wine. It’s perfect for the Thanksgiving table, and we don’t care of Beaujolais for the holiday is somewhat of a cliché. This is so balanced, great acidity and a fantastic bright color and red fruit core to it. It screams cranberries! And did we mention it’s just $19? Buy some Beaujolais!
We stocked this long before it received the #8 spot on the Spectator Top Ten Wines of the Year rankings. Beaucastel is among our favorite Rhone producers, and its sister winery, Tablas Creek in Paso Robles, is a domestic favorite. Buy some Beaucastel
I have a running tally below from the first part of this week. Here are more wine-related Thanksgiving posts from around the web. I particularly like the Tofurky post, so thanks to John Witherspoon for that one! Oh, and the San Francisco Chronicle apparently thinks as highly of the Pierre-Marie Chermette Domaine du Vissoux Vieilles Vignes Beaujolais as I do. Yay!
Merlot as a match for Thanskgiving fare? Lynne Char Bennett of the San Francisco Chronicle thinks so…
The San Francisco Chronicle’s “Can’t Fail Guide to Thanksgiving Wines”
Drink Cru Beaujolais with your holiday meal, says Jon Bonné of the SF Chronicle.
Perfect pairings for Tofurky from John Witherspoon’s Anything Wine.
Catie’s “Obligatory Wine Pairing” post, a companion piece to our “Obligatory Thanksgiving Wine Post” of earlier this week!
What conclusions can we draw from these Thanksgiving posts? Well, Beaujolais tends to be somewhat of a theme, but as much for the rejection of it as the embracing of it. And the San Francisco Chronicle seems to like Thanksgiving…a lot!
Please comment with any posts we may have missed. I’m sure there are plenty more.
Frizzante
From Wikipedia: Frizzante is an Italian wine term term for semi-sparkling wine (as opposed to Spumante, which is generally used for fully sparkling wines). Frizzante wines generally owe their bubbles to a partial secondary fermentation in tank. You might notice a light fizz or tingly sensation on the tongue with a Frizzante wine, compared to the more carbonated sensation that more fully sparkling wines yield.
Scorekage
Okay, so we made up this word yesterday after a great restaurant experience. We brought a bottle of wine with us, expecting to pay a corkage fee. But the restaurant either forgot to charge us the $15, or decided to be nice to us. We scored! Hence, “scorekage” has entered our lexicon. This can also refer to BYO friendly restaurants that don’t charge for corkage under any circumstances.
Fabulous & Frugal!
Our friends launched a new site and domaine547 is a featured wine columnist in their premiere edition! Go check out Fabulous & Frugal for some fantastic lifestyle tips for living the good life during what, for most of us, is an economically challenging time. There’s much more than wine there, and we’re thrilled to be a small part of the start of what will surely be a successful venture. Congrats to Brandi & Steph for their achievement!
domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
Check out this blog post where they actually refer to somebody from d547 as a “wine expert.” Shocking! In any case, the Imbibe blog offers a nice recipe to go along with one of our wine recommendations. Enjoy!
