What do we call this day? Super Bowl Day or Game Day. What do you call it and what do you drink on this day? Beer, wine, tequila?
I am opting for wine today. Just a me and my wife party and we will be grazing on interesting food. Wings, must have wings.
Yesterday, I was feeling down and my wife reminded me that the NJ fishguy from the Summit Farmers market is in Montclair on Saturdays. I have been having fish withdrawal symptoms lately as the farmers market ended around Thanksgiving. So I went off to Montclair, about 8 miles away and lo and behold they actually have a small outdoor farmers market on Saturday mornings. The fishguy was there, and the pickleguy and a couple of meatguys. They had ostrich eggs and all kinds of meat. It was around 25 degrees so all the meat was out and still frozen. To sell meat a farmers market, it must be frozen.
There was also a farmer with fruit and some vegetables and apple cider.
I ended up buying tuna, scallops, flounder, apples, pears, pickles, garlic, apple cider and kale. It is very hard to find good pickles and this pickleguy has good stuff. I bought new pickles, crisp and delicious. $5 for a pint. When I was a kid we found a local pickleguy who sold them from his house. Great stuff. I guess the secret is in the pickling spices.
I then went a few blocks away and found 2 very good bakeries. Montclair Bread and Ginas. I bought apricot oat bread and ancient grains bread at Montclair Bread. Both were good. I also bought a chocolate cupcake with Mexican spices including some hot spiced. The cupcake was so-so. It did not do much for me. I think I need to go to Montclair on Saturday mornings more often.
BTW the Wall Street Journal this weekend had a recipe for what they claimed to be an amazing chocolate cake. The cake called for 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter, the butter cream called for 3 sticks of butter and the chocolate on top of the buttercream called for another 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter. OMG. Why not eat chocolate flavored butter.
I made the flounder and the kale last night. The kale was remarkable. Apparently frost makes kale sweet and this kale had the most remarkable flavor. It was great raw although I sauteed it with olive oil, salt and some chicken stock. The flounder was excellent and I simply breaded and fried it. I like flounder this way. I also made cous cous with raisins and pomegranate seeds.
We had a bottle of Anne Amie Pinot Blanc 2010. This was the last bottle that I had brought home from Oregon this summer. I had more shipped from Domaine Drouhin. The wine was a surprise. It had great flavor and mouth feel. It was not a light wine. 14% alcohol. There was good oak that did not overpower the wine. The color was beautiful. Oregon produces lots of Pinot Gris which is lighter and not much to it. The Pinot Blancs are harder to find but I like them more. I bought this one at the winery and it was around $15. Anne Amie is a good sized winery but I have never seen their wines in wine shop.
We have been drinking lots of white wine lately.
2011 Badenhorst Family Wines Chenin Blanc Swartland A good wine, at first taste needed to adjust to a chenin blanc. As we drank it the wine opened and our palettes adjusted. Not my favorite wine but a good white wine. A touch unbalanced
2010 Guilhem et Jean-Hughes Goisot Bourgogne-Aligoté Light white wine with a clean taste and nice balance. Enjoyed. Aligote is an interesting grape used in Burgundy.
2011 Bodegas La Cana Albariño Rías Baixas Good balance. Drank with pasta with white clam sauce. I have had this wine in other vintages and 2011 is OK. Would try again.
The Anne Amie Pinot Blanc 2010 see above .
| NV Scharffenberger Brut Mendocino County $17 Drank this with lobster.It was very good. This wine got a great review from the WS |
Other wines I have tasted lately include
2007 Tenuta Serradenari Barolo La Morra Nebbiolo Drank at a restaurant. Decent value at $75. We had 3 bottles with good consistency. The wine is approachable now with good fruit showing and nice balance. Our group really enjoyed the wine. Not the most complex Barolo but a good wine
2006 Terlato Vineyards Cardinals' Peak --Decent Bordeaux blend from California. Mouth feel was watery, wine had a sour fruit taste but all in all the wine drank well and we enjoyed. Not a fav but OK.
Hall 09 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Drank at a restaurant. It was $78. Good balance. Nice Napa cab. Decent structure. We drank after a Cote du Rhone Bila Haut and the Hall made the Rhone dull and boring. I am not a Napa cab fan but this wine was good.
Bila Haut 2010 -Drank in a restaurant for $48. The wine was dull and had no flavor. The table agreed that the wine was not very good, not bad but not good. I have enjoyed this wine on other occasions. Is this another case of bottle inconsistency. I find that this is an issue not often discussed. Or is my palette inconsistent.
06 Allegrini Palazzo Della Torre Good reliable red. Fruity with some tannin. The 06 held up well. Enjoyed the bottle but not a complex wine. Still a very good value.
2011 Jean Ernest Descombes Morgon $13 OK Beaujolais, good mouth feel as it is not a light wine,tannic with some fruit, enjoyed the bottle.
Chalone 2006 Pinot Noir again. Love this wine.
Back to the menu today. The wings grilled, scallops lightly seared, interesting cheeses, chips, guacamole, kiwi, fingerling potatoes and other miscellaneous food. Will see how it all comes together. Planning to drink Andrew Rich Pinot Noir Prelude Oregon Willamette Valley $20. Just bought it and I had a glass in Oregon. The WS just gave it a 91, wow.
BTW I just read an article in the WS about the wines they reviewed in 2012. 88% of the wines they reviewed in 2012 received a score of 85 or higher and 37% of wines reviewed received a score of 90 or above. I find this remarkable. They reviewed over 17,000 wines. I think that the scores may be biased because they may not print reviews of bad wines but still talk about grade inflation. What do you think?
Anyway go Ravens and Ray Rice.
Enjoy.
