100 Wine Blogs, 100 Days Blog 40: Boston Seafood and Wine Pairing

Blog 40 Boston Seafood and Wine Pairing
Ye Olde Union Oyster House is the oldest restaurant in the United States with continuous service. It is also the oldest restaurant in Boston, MA. Open since 1826. I wanted to see what types of wines they offered on their menu, with them being the oldest continuous service restaurant.

By the glass, you can get Heidsieck Little Blue Top Champagne, which has a medium body, with fresh citrus notes, and nice toasty flavors. Frei Brothers Russian River and Redwood Creek Chardonnay both from California. Maso Canali and Bella Sera Pinot Grigio from Italy. Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Four Sisters Sauvignon Blanc, McWilliams Reisling, and McWilliams ‘Hanwood Estate’ Chardonnay and Shiraz from Australia. Canyon Road Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from California. Mac Murray Ranch ‘Sonoma Coast’ Pinot Noir from California. These are all offered by the glass but they have a more extensive list for those wanting to purchase a bottle at the table.

I also compared this with Skipjack’s Seafood Emporium’s wine menu. They served a few types of sparkling wines along with Chardonnay, Reisling, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and even Viognier. Their reds consisted of Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Malbec, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The majority of their selection consisted of light to medium bodied wines with only a few choices of heavy wines listed on the menu.

Boston is known for their seafood and most of the restaurants specialize in serving lobster, crab, oysters, mussels, scallops, clams and various types of fish. What I noticed when eating at many of the restaurants in the Boston area, is that the wine menu differed from wine menus that I was used to seeing in most other parts of the United States, where meat and not seafood is mostly served. The Boston restaurants had a larger variety of white wines and light or medium bodied red wines as well as sparklers, than the other areas of the country that do not serve seafood as their main dishes. Even in Florida where we have a lot of seafood, we still also serve a lot of meat and keep the heavier reds as a larger variety on our menus. What a refreshing selection of wines to be paired with Boston’s fresh seafood dishes!

You really didn’t think I was only going to drink beer while in Boston, did you?

Tell me what you would pair with your seafood dishes! I want to hear from you! Give me your thoughts!
Bon Vin!
Veronica

100 Wine Blogs, 100 Days Blog 38: How did America devastate the European wine industry?

Blog 38 How did America devastate the European wine industry?
In the Xplorador wine video, the 3 Wine Girls wanted to extend their apologies for something that happened way back in the late 1850’s. America caused an unintentional devastation to the wine industry in France and throughout Europe.

Phylloxera is a louse that lives on different parts of the vine. It will also live on the root system, and sucks the sap from the roots. Its waste is distributed back into the roots of the vine. This is poison, and causes the vine to die within a few years.

In the late 1850’s, vines from the United States were shipped to France with our insects on the vines. No one was aware that these insects were on a free voyage to a new land to spread their deadly blight onto the vines across Europe. They would devastate and destroy when placed in French soil.

Phylloxera had already run its course in America, and the vines in America eventually developed immunity to the insects. Many of the grape growers throughout Europe had to graft their vines onto the United States rootstock as a solution. This was a devastation that took years to get over.

The 3 Wine Girls would be more than happy to extend their apologies by being invited to any vineyard across the world. They would like to extend their deepest United States apology for the unintentional universal devastation caused by our lousy insects.

Tell me why you love wine? I want to hear from you! Give me your thoughts!
Bon Vin!
Veronica

100 Wine Blogs, 100 Days Blog 37: For the love of wine. What makes you love wine?

Blog 37: For the love of wine.
There are certain things that I think about when I think of wine. I think of the wineries that I have visited and the ones that I have yet to visit. I think of the friends that I shared a bottle of wine with. I think of the good memories that I have had when I drink a glass of wine that reminds me of something. It brings me back to the last time that I tasted or smelled a wine like that. I think about what went in to making this particular glass of wine. I think of how many hands it must have gone through to turn these grapes into such a great tasting beverage. And, I think of the passion and hard work that was put into making this glass of wine different than any other.

What makes you love wine?

For me, it is:

Fresh air
Bud break
Rolling vineyards
Bunches of grape varietals
The smell of French oak barrels
The aroma of the wine as you breathe it in
The taste of the wine and the texture once it hits your mouth
The friends that you meet and enjoy while tasting your wine
No two wines are the same
There are so many choices

Tell me why you love wine? I want to hear from you! Give me your thoughts!
Bon Vin!
Veronica

100 Wine Blogs, 100 Days Blog 17 How to Host a Wine Tasting in Your Home?

17. I would like to talk about wine parties and different ways to have fun hosting a party. In the last three blogs, we learned how to throw a great wine party, how to have your guests blend wines to make their favorites and how to identify wine aromas. This article will discuss how to host a wine tasting in your home. These are ways you can enjoy common interests without it becoming a boring ritual.

How to host a wine tasting in your home?

Invite your wine loving friends. Decide what type of tasting you are going to have. Will it be a sit-down tasting with tasting mats and tasting sheets? Will you have a spittoon, water and crackers available? Do you have a white table cloth if you are doing a sit-down tasting? It is better to see the color of the wine for observation with a white background. Do you want to have food or appetizers or should you have only plain crackers or bread to cleanse the palate? Remember to tell your guests that there is to be no smoking and for them not to wear heavy perfume or cologne. This can interfere with the tasting.

Do any wines need to be opened prior to the tasting? If so, have them ready to go. Some of the wines may need to be opened right at the time of tasting such as sparkling wines. You should pour about 2-3 ounces in each glass only. Do not pour a full glass since your guests will be trying several types of wines.

When you are pouring the wine and deciding the order of which wines to try first, pour white before red and light before heavy. Pour young wines before old if you are having a vintage tasting. Vintage tastings can be fun. You can try the same wine but at different ages.

Do you want to have a tasting that is blind? Your guests will taste from bottles that are inside sacks and will have either no information or limited information regarding what they are trying. It is fun if they try to guess which wine they are drinking, even if they are not experienced with wines. They can then get familiar in learning how to taste wines and differentiate one wine from another. It is fun to see who guessed right.

Remember that sight is used to determine the color of the wine, which is best against a white background. Smell is then used to determine the aromas the wine has captured by swirling your glass and taking in a sniff. Taste is used next to determine if you like the wine or not by swishing and swirling it in your mouth. The sense of touch is used to determine the texture of the wine. From all of this, you can reveal the overall feel of each wine and the qualities that make a great wine to you. Did any of the wines capture you?

Tell me your thoughts, make them funny, keep them nice and educate me.
Bon Vin!
Veronica

100 Wine Blogs, 100 Days Blog 15 How to have your guests blend wines to make their favorites?

15. I would like to talk about wine parties and different ways to have fun hosting a party. In the last blog, we learned how to throw a great wine party. This article will talk about how to have your guests blend wines to make their favorites. The next two articles will be about how to identify wine aromas and how to host a wine tasting in your home. These are ways you can enjoy common interests without it becoming a boring ritual.

How to have your guests blend wines to make their favorites?

There are kits that you can purchase that are on the market such as “fusebox” from Crushpad. The kit will come with the wine for blending. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc are included in the California wine kit. The kit will also come with a blending placemat, corkscrew, recipe cards, wine evaluation cards, pipettes and a graduated cylinder. There is a mystery wine that is included that has already been blended. Once you get good at blending wines and how the different variations of wine tastes together, you can decide with your guests what the mystery wine might be.

You do not need to use this wine kit if you want to purchase these items separately. You can decide on a region or area and purchase some wines you think would be best for blending. Keep in mind that you should purchase wines that are not already blended.

First, you will each set up your area on a table that can accommodate all of the participants so that you can comment and share your thoughts together. Each person will need these basics for any wine tasting: water and crackers or bread to cleanse your palate between wines, a spit cup, paper towels, blending placemat, a pen or pencil and five wine glasses. You will be evaluating each wine that you create.

You start by tasting each of the wines by themselves before blending to get a feel for what each one tastes like. You can then either use the recipe cards that come with the kit to make a wine or create your own blend. For instance, the 1997 Opus One from Napa, California is one of the recipe cards in my kit. It gives the blend that you can recreate with the wines that are provided. The evaluation cards let you rate the color, aroma, flavor, texture and overall feel for the wine. You can decide what blend you like best. You can compare your blend with other participants. This is fun, easy and can become a habit.

If you do come up with an incredible blend and you are feeling daring, you can actually contact Crushpad to create your wine. All of you can split the cost and end up with cases of your favorite blend.

At Crushpad, they let you actually go to their facilities and help in the creation of your wine. You can sort the grapes, help in the fermentation or even taste your creation throughout the process. It is a fun and exciting adventure!

Tell me your thoughts, make them funny, keep them nice and educate me.
Bon Vin!
Veronica