Wannabe Wino

I know this isn't a food blog, but sometimes I can't resist sharing what goes on in the Wannabe Wino kitchen. I think Matt wanted to compete, or at least show that he can do cool things too, with my delicious Thanksgiving meal...





so on the morning after Thanksgiving, he pulled out this.



And his drill (new drill bit that we sterilized for those who are concerned about that sort of thing!).





And he made a spectacle in the kitchen to impress our guests, serving them Ostrich Egg! He was inspired by "Battle Egg" on the Iron Chef and decided this was something we had to try. So he opened it and I cooked up a huge batch of scrambled eggs for our guests!

I suggest serving at your next brunch with Mimosas or perhaps a nice Moscato d'Asti.

15 pounds of turkey (with all but a drumstick gone as of lunch today!)
10 pounds of potatoes
8 guests
6 bottles of wine
3 pounds of green beans
1 pounds of cranberries
1 package of burnt rolls (oops)
1 burn and 1 accidental grating of my thumb
=5 pounds heavier and one exhausted wine blogger.

Another Thanksgiving under my belt, my second, but my first in our new house!

Back to work and regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow, I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and didn't have to loosen their belts too much!

I am in full prep for Thanksgiving. Hosting for Matt's family, 8 of us total. That's the most people I've ever cooked a meal for, so I'm a wee bit nervous!

I'm not big on the whole "here's my ultimate Thanksgiving pairings" post thing, but as an fyi, we are having an Austrian Riesling provided by Matt's Aunt and Uncle, two lovely Roses, one from domaine547 and the other from WineQ, and a raspberry Merlot from a local vineyard for dessert. I've also got a few bottles of Pinot Noir stuck off to the side in case anyone wants some red with dinner!

I wish you and your's a happy and safe Thanksgiving and I hope your turkeys cook perfectly! I'll likely be off the posting while my house is full of relatives, but I'll attempt to pop on.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Apparently this is the week where I revisit wines I tasted in November. Tonight it was a 2005 Felta Creek Summer White (De la Montanya). I first tasted the Summer White over Thanksgiving, but we had company and I didn't exactly write the best notes, really just a general overview with perhaps one specific reference to the flavors. For some reason at the time I felt awkard sitting there writing detailed notes in front of company. Have since gotten over that though and now I explain what I'm doing since many of our friends don't know I write a wine blog and I've certainly gotten confused looks when I whip out a note pad and bury my nose in the wine!

And again, since I tasted this wine quite a while ago I find myself wondering if I'm getting better at picking out flavors and aromas or if it was simply the lack of notes I took last time?

Anywho, the wine had a real cork closure and cost us $15.20 in a wine club shipment. I can't find anything about the alcohol level and the bottle is long gone. I served it with ravioli topped with fresh parmesan and butter. And actually, I think my belief back in November that this would be a good Thanksgiving wine was spot on, as the buttery cheesy flavors in the ravioli were easily cut through by the crisp and acidic structure of this wine.

On the nose I found pineapple, papaya, citrus and an overall sense of tropical fruit. In the mouth I found citrs, green apple, pear and just the slightest tinge of honey. The wine was crisp and light and the tropical fruits made me want to be sitting in a hammock on a beach somwhere with crystal clear water. And sun, lots of sun. Perhaps I'm projecting my desire for better weather as it has once again turned cold and I think I heard a report of a "wintery mix" on the radio. Thankfully we are off to sunny shiny CA for a week and a bit, so I will miss some of the delightful ups and downs of Spring on the East Coast.

I believe that is the question that many a wine lover (or blogger) has been asking him or herself over the past few weeks. This was the plate of food that was served to everyone at my house. Sweet potatoes with marshmellows, candied carrots, mashed potatoes with cheese, turkey, etc. Is there really a perfect wine to serve with this disharmonious collection of food that somehow all tastes good together?

I think the answer I have arrived at is that no, there is no perfect wine to serve. But that's okay. Since nothing will go fantastically well, why not just serve what you like and add it into the mix of all the other random foods put together on a plate?

With that in mind, 4 bottles fell at our house on Thanksgiving. I was little off in my predictions. I thought we would drink 2 white, a red and a dessert. It ended up being 2 white, a dessert and a Champagne. As noted before, we let our guests choose off our pre-prepared list. My husband's brother and his wife chose the first bottle, a 2005 Ferrari-Carano Sauvignon Blanc. My brother in law said it was because it had Ferrari in the name. Everyone seemed to like it, though I think most were more concerned with tasting all the food at the table than with the wine! It's a slightly sweet sauvignon blanc with a good bit of citrus rounding out the flavor. I remember really enjoying this the day we tasted it and we do have another bottle hanging around for later. Cork closure, $15.

Next we moved on to a dessert wine, which was the choice my husband's Aunt and Uncle. Being slightly wary of the VA dessert wines on the list, they chose a 2005 Bella Late Harvest Zinfandel. This was also a cork closure and cost $20.50. At 15% residual sugar, I expected this to be a very sweet wine, but it really reminded of a very young port. I thought it had a great finish, a lot of blackberry flavor and I probably should have served it with an assortment of chocolate, but, chocolate would not seem the dessert of choice for Thanksgiving.

Up third for the evening was a bottle of Preston Vineyards 2005 Dry Creek Valley Viognier. Cork closure, $22 after a case discount. If you ever have a chance, try Preston's olive oils. They are superb and I only wish we had taken home a few bottles. This was a good choice for a wine to drink as we did, sitting around playing Trivial Pursuit. It was light and easy to drink, but surprisingly full in the mouth and very smooth going down. It had a bit of spice that I can't place and maybe a hint of tropical fruit. This was my choice as I realized we were hunkering for a long battle of the wits.

Finally, to finish the evening, we opened the bottle of champagne that our Aunt and Uncle were so kind to bring. It was a G.H. Mumm & Cie. Cordon Rouge Brut. I gather it runs around $37 for the bottle and sadly the cork was thrown away before I could see what year it was. I thought this was a very tasty bottle and a great way to finish our evening. I tasted a lot of apple, and thought it was slightly sweet for a brut champagne. A good finish, with just a bit of yeasty undertone. I'd definetly get this bottle again.

At last count, since Wednesday afternoon, we have consumed 9 bottles of wine. Phew. I haven't had a chance to post about any of them yet, but I have my notes all assembled and ready to go. Our company leaves tonight, so hopefully tomorrow I will get the time to write about everything we drank this week (which will probably be added to tonight!).

Thanksgiving went incredibly well. My first bird came out perfectly and I managed to get all the dishes prepared and out of the oven at the right time. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I ignored my friends who encouraged me to make a bad meal in order to escape from further Thanksgiving responsibilities. And I was really pleased with how everything tasted and turned out. The homemade cranberry sauce was a big hit as was the homemade ice cream.

We're off to lunch with our company now, so more later on the massive amount of wine we drank.

Leftovers again last night. I'm still not feeling so great, so I haven't been cooking. Thankfully there were lots of leftovers from last week.

Anyway. The wine for last night was a 2005 Felta Creek Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc from De La Montanya. And the title says it all. This wine was tart and tangy. Crisp, with lots of citrus on the nose (continuing in the theme of Weekend 'o Citrus).

I'm offering this wine as an option for Thanksgiving and I'm glad I tasted it again. I still think it's a good bottle, but I think it will do really well with Thanksgiving dinner. It's so crisp and acidic that I think it will be a good match with all the creamy potatoes, yams, casseroles, etc. It should be a great palate cleanser. We shall see if anyone selects this as one of the wines for the meal. Pretty good deal for the price.

Clearly much more important than what is actually on the food menu, right?

Since we have so many bottles from our trip, and the collection is a bit eclectic, I thought I would give our guests a choice of wines. I'm preparing the whole Thanksgiving feast this year and it is my first time making a turkey. Hopefully if our guests get into the wine a bit they will be sufficiently tipsy by the time I put out the bird in case it doesn't come out as planned...

I know not all of these are traditional matches with turkey, but I'm going to print up a little menu with some tasting notes and let the guests select the bottles. It's me, my husband, his brother and our sister-in-law and my husband's aunt and uncle.

White Wine Choices:
De La Montanya 2005 Felta Creek Sauvignon Blanc $11
De La Montanya 2005 Sonoma Coast Fume Blanc $16
Hop Kiln 2005 Chardonnay $16.50
Preston Vineyards 2005 Viognier $22
Roshambo 2004 Chardonnay $15
Ferrari Carano 2005 Sauvignon Blanc $15

Red Wine Choices
Hop Kiln 2004 Old Windmill Zinfandel $20
Wilson Winery 2004 Estate Zinfandel $22
Alexander Valley Vineyards 2003 Estate Sangiovese $20
Tarara 2005 Pinot Noir $22 (This is from our visiting Virginia vineyards day-trip)
Quivira 2004 Steelhead Red $15
Roshambo 2004 Merlot $10

Dessert Wines
Bella Vineyards Late Harvest Zinfandel $20
Williamsburg Winery Late Harvest Vidal $24 (Picked this up a few years back when living in the burg)
Raspberry Infusion (From somewhere in Vermont, I can't put my finger on the name of the vineyard) $?? (We picked this up last fall while at a wedding of a cousin)
Fritz Late Harvest Zinfandel $27

Sparkler
Korbel Blanc de Noirs $9

So we shall see what we get through and I will report back on how I liked the match. I imagine that we'll probably drink 2 bottles of white, 1 red and a dessert wine over the course of the day.

Oh, and I'll probably be imbibing all day as I'm a touch nervous to be in charge of such a big holiday meal. ;)