 |
| Wines of Northern California and Europe |
| Living in San Francisco, one is always surrounded by "wine snobs". So in an effort to keep up with the Jones', I took a fabulous class as my intro to the world of wine through UC Berkeley with instructor Ray Johnson. It was a fun and interactive way to learn about wine. We drank and laughed and ate all sorts of cheese for 10 great weeks. Following are some of my favorite wines and cheeses that I tried and fell in love with in class... First let's begin with the fact that I love RED wine. There are very few whites I will drink and would not order a white if given the option. Second, my wine class consisted of blind tastings, so we never new which varietal we were tasting. What I found...I love cabernets!I tried really hard in class to keep an open mind and ignore the grape and go for the taste, but I found that really LOVE cabernets! Wines I love and what they cost... One of my favorites also happens to be the least expensive too (lucky me!) For a tasty cabernet I recommend the '99 Pepperwood Grove from Napa, CA. Price is a whopping $5.99 Pepperwood Grove is a division of Sebastiani and the '99 is a great cab! Great cherry flavor, high in tannins, but very balanced. An easy drink that can stand alone or hold up to a strong meal. A great mid-range buy is from (oddly enough) Lebanon. Who knew they had vineyards in Lebanon??? '93 Chateau Musar $28.89. Hints of cognac and orange, really mellow and delicious. On the other end of the spectrum, if you're in tyhe mood for a splurge, 1979 Chateau Cos D'Estournel from Saint Estephe, France. Priced at $89.00 It tastes like pure honey. Oh my gosh, this is gooooooood stuff!!! While drinking in Sonoma, I found a great local cab from Gundlach-Bundschu. It was a 1998, not usually a good year for cab, but a really good glass of wine! Around $22 a bottle. '98 Merlot from Shafer in Napa (goes great with anything chocolate!) Ca' del Solo (from Bonny Doon Vineyards) makes a great red blend called big house red which is aroun $9 and also a fun strawberry fizzy beverage called Frizzante. Fun for a summer poolside bevy. Priced around $14. And the only white that I truly enjoyed and will surely purchase this summeris a reisling (which I generally hate)by Dr. F. Weins-Prum, from Germany. It bubbly and sweet, but not in a champagne way. You can find this from www.germanwine.net. CHEESE-we tried some cheese that took me outside of my realm (GOuda is alway very gouda!) The 2 best were Broschetto de Tartufo (black truffle cheese) This cheese is, without a doubt, the BEST cheese i have ever had. another tasty treat that goes really well with red or white wines is called Ubraco Briscole. It's made in wine barrels after the wine is removed so the rind is purple and it has a hint of wine flavor. Also dry aged Monterey Jack is delicious! So now I know a little about wine and I am well on my way to becoming a wine snob like the rest of them. I'll update this page as I find other recommendations that I think you'd all enjoy. |
|