Wine Blogging Wednesday #51 - Baked Goods

Let's get baked. Interesting challenge. Not being a girl who seeks out the port or madeiras, I was thrilled when Xandria found the perfect place to sample by the glass, Tha Alameda WIne Company in nearby Alameda, CA. I think of madeira as being old school and not necessarily in a good way. However the folks at the Alameda Wine Company have a great selection. Karen steered us toward the Rare Wine Company's Historic Series Madeiras flight. Partnering with R.D.V. Freitas, who owns Vinhos Barbeitos, they highlighted the connection between timeless US cities known for lapping up the Madeira throughout the 1700's and 1800's and the varietal they would love. Of the five possible varietals; Sercial, Verdelho, Bual, Malvasia and the elusive Terrantez, we were able to try three.
Charleston Special Reserve Sercial: The lightest in color and the driest of the three, this wine smelled exotic, like apple scented tobacco, rum raisin and something not quite vanilla. It was not sweet at all and had a sharp alcohol fueled kick. We had been given walnuts which rounded out the flavors and made a pleasing combination. By itself, well let's just say we made no plans to invite it to the St. Cecelia's Ball.
Boston Bual Special Reserve: Baked beans? Ha! Baked Bual! The Boston was much smoother and compared to my expections, had a restrained sweetness. It reminded me of a concotion I make by long term soaking of figs and vanilla beans in vodka. This wine showed excellent balance and a chocolatey finish.
New York Malmsy: I heart New York Malmsy! This had much more fruit in the nose and a choco-caramel aroma that was delightful. Sweetest and most viscous of the bunch, the Malmsy looked like Coca-Cola, but tasted complex and delicious. I could tell it wanted creme brulee!

We also ordered a Blandys Malmsy for comparison. It was simple and pretty and I think had I tried it alone, I would have liked it, but compared to the dazzle of the others, it ended up feeling more ordinary.

Completely not ordinary were the cheeses we ordered. Truffle Tremor made me shudder with delight! I selected a French triple creem cow's milk based Pierre Robert. Voluptously creamy with the butteriness of venial sin, this might get addictive. The chacuterie was tasty too and the portions stunned me as QPR off the chart! All in all a fun evening trying new things and finding a great new place! The Alameda Wine Bar offered a great experience combining easy parking, tasty snacks, great wine and expert guidance, I know I will be back and hope to see you there! http://www.alamedawineco.com/

Silver Pass Saturday! Exploring the Silverado Trail

Few group activities are as seriously fun as girls gone wine weekends in the Wine country. Thanks to the generosity of Luscious Lush, Thea, I was invited to go on last weekend's Silverado Trail Silver Pass weekend. Good booze! Good company! Good Wine! Here are the highlights:

We started at Judds Hill and soon moved on to Titus Vineyards. The delicious Zin, Cab Franc and Petite Sirah paired with property harvested walnuts and gorgonzola based canapes. Yum! Rain schmain. Good times. You have to try this!
http://www.titusvineyards.com/titus/index.jsp

The next place we tried was Midsummer Cellars, where they had beautifully decanted two lovely Cab Sauv's. Extra special, they had masterfully paired these wines with both a Greek beef stew and a grill ed pork-mole tostada of surpassing delight. Delicious!

From there, we caravanned it to Conn Creek, whose wines had a restrained, but decidely European flair. However, they made it to my highlight reel with their focus on education. They provided guided component tasting from Barrel samples that surveyed most of the AVA. It was so fun to compare Mount Veeder to Howell Mountain to Atlas Peak and see the different flavors and characters. So fun!
http://www.conncreek.com/Main_Wines.cfm

Sadly, I was not able to participate in Day 2 as I had a previous committment to support a fundraiser. However, since I was pouring all you can drink Jordan '03 Alexander Valley Cab, '04 Freeman Sonoma Coast Pinot and a seletion of Chardos that included '04 Jayson, The Cutrer and a lovely Talley, it capped off a wonderful wine (and rain!) soaked weekend

Levendi! Review of 2005 Sweetwater Ranch Cabernet

Yassou! Is a toast I learned on my recent trip to Greece. But aside from being dazzled by the scenery and entrepreneurial spirit, the Greek wine didn't really inspire me...except for one place where they specialized in jewelry AND wine and if not for the sobering effects of the dollar:Euro exchange rate, well, let's just say I'm glad I didn't sign up for any wine clubs or layaway jewelry. There's respecting the entrepreneur and there's plain old tipsy-crazy shopping.

However, recently, thanks to the awesome Wine Spies, I got the the chance to sample some made-by-Greeks http://www.levendiwinery.com/story.html) Napa Cab that is definitely something to write home about. The Levendi Estate 2005 Sweetwater Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, is an opaque dark ruby color. The aromas bounded out of the bottle the second I pulled the cork with that enticing Napa Cab scent of summer in the cellar---perfect for a rainy Monday. The first sip was intensely oaky, so I decanted for an hour before settling in for serious tasting. After an hour, the puckery tannins had dissipated somewhat, and I got lots of black cherry flavors with a hint of muted cassis and something extra, I couldn't identify (later looking at the notes on the bottle, it hit me: blueberry!), with a long black cherry finish. I do like a big, oaky wine. This wine definitely fell in the category of "food slutty". A good thing really. Some wines like to be around food, but can take it or leave it. Then there are the Food Slutty wines that just "gotta have it". This was such a wine. I found it was nice with pasta and bolognese, very nice with dark, bittersweet chocolate and particularly nice with a brie. The boldness of the tannins worked best with the creamy cheese. After about 2 hours of decanting, I got a lot more cherry vanilla aromas and softer tannins that allowed some of the other flavors--chocolate, leather---to come forward. After 5 hours of decanting, my patience was rewarded with the promised dark chocolate finish. Decanting made all the difference. When I picked up my sample, another meaning of the phrase "Levendi" was explained to me, which I can't translate easily into English, but in Spanish it would be "Que mango!" meaning an attractive guy full of life and spirit. So this wine would definitely be Levendi---yummy, social and full of fun. If you're looking to track it down. try the Wine Spies http://thewinespies.com/. Despite the cloak-and-dagger name, they really do make discovering wines easy and fun!