Mmmm… vino! Last night Lisa and I headed down to Philly to meet up with some of my family for dinner at my sister Suzanne’s house. She, Alex (her husband) and their kids moved in there quite a bit ago and I have yet to actually see the place. When you have a large family you tend to all meet centrally (at, say, your parents’ house) rather than each others’ houses. It was great to see them and dinner was of course wonderful, but afterward was the real treat. My mom, sister Kathleen, Lisa, and I all headed out to the Chaddsford Winery for a tasting of the lastest vintage (and some older award winners).
It was my first real wine tasting and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now Lisa and I will be planning to hit more when we have the opportunity (perhaps at The Goldhawk in May). There were some magnificent hot hors d’oeuvres as well as cheese and crackers to help out our palates as we sampled various wines. It is a great experience to talk to people truly knowledgeable regarding wines and how they are made. I picked up some more information on a topic I love, as well as more bottles of those darned fermented grapes. But these are just the beginning as Kathleen and I plan to split at least one more case depending on what styles we like best.
I want to talk more about the wines I tasted, but I don’t have the time right now. Actually, my plan is to create a whole section on the wines currently in my “cellar” and any other that I get a chance to sample. We’ll see when I have the opportunity for that.
Speaking of which… there should be a green bottle of Luna di Luna at your place, that I just realized I left there when Kristen and I stopped by on Saturday. Feel free to crack it open and try some, I’ll drop by sometime this week to pick it up (on whatever day you guys aren’t all working till late :))
Like that’s gonna happen anytime soon 😛 . I’m really trying to get into work earlier these days so that I can be back before 6. There’ll be a bigger push now that the weather is getting nicer because I don’t want to miss out on all of the fun! I should be getting several bottles of the lovely Spring Wine from Chaddsford in the next month and that’s just made for sipping outdoors in the early evening.
And as far as the green Luna di Luna goes, I believe that’s the Chardonnay/Pinot Grigio blend that Mike and Lisa drank at Joseph’s b’day party. In that case it might be gone sooner than you think 🙂
Mmm…. wine…. Mike and I split a wonderful bottle of Italian red table wine this weekend. I don’t remember what it is, but if you like sharp, biting reds I can get the name for you. I don’t drink nearly as much wine as I like to, unfortunately. I still have 4 or 5 bottles that I brought back from France that we need to drink!
Oh of course I want the name. I’m always up for new wines to try out. And I loves me some dry, crunchy reds.
One of the coolest parts of the wine tasting (aside from a lengthy conversation with Eric Miller, the winemaker) was the barrel tasting of a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon with and without egg white fining. The EWF made the wine far more palatable to a delicate tongue, however it took out a lot of the character the Cabernet had. While I would easily have drunk the later, the sample of the non-treated barrel was much more along the dry taste that I generally desire.
After that station Eric poured us some of their award-winning 2001 Vintage Cabernet Sauvignon. It was interesting to taste a similar wine two year later in the process, especially considering my two sisters there had also been at that year’s tasting and had partaken in the barrel of that vintage.
I think the green is either the merlot or the cabernet sauvignon. It’s the dark blue bottle that’s the grigio. I have a bottle of that here in the apt as we speak.
Hmm…methinks it’s drinky time 😛
Can’t wait to try the Chaddsford as well. Sounds nice 🙂
The blue is pinot grigio chardonnay (my personal favorite) – the red is merlot/cabernet and the purple is sangiovese/merlot. Green is pinot bianco/sauvignon. Here’s an easy way to keep track 🙂
The merlot/cabernet is pretty damn good. Thom, how’s the sangiovese/merlot? Want me to bring the red bottle over this week? We could try a bit of all three.