wine: Ariel Sauvignon Blanc and other drinks for preggers
So, for those of you who might not know… Tom and I have “recently conceived”. We have a blog that we publish to together called Now Entering Parenthood. I started a new blog, because otherwise this blog would become consumed in baby stuff… and I still am convincing myself that while this is a incredibly huge part of my life now, it’s not my WHOLE life. But there is one area where these two topics meet, and that is tasty drinks and being pregnant…
There is a whole assortment of non-alcoholic recipes out there, but often what I’d find is that 90% would be little more than fruit smoothies, dessert shakes, and high calorie fruit juice concoctions. Are there no good drinks that can bring me the pleasure of a simple glass of wine or a fizzy vodka tonic with lime?
my top pregnancy drinks
1. cranberry juice + tonic + bitters
This is my standard order at the bar, and fix up at home drink. It’s great because cranberry juice is super good for you, it’s fizzy and tangy, and the magic ingredient (bitters) gives it a unique flavor that really reminds you of an alcoholic cocktail. Sprite Zero is also a nice substitute for tonic.
2. sparkling juice + anything or alone
Sometimes I just REALLY want to drink something out of a wine glass that might kinda even look like wine. Sparkling raspberry, apple, or grape juice are a great way for me to do just this. They make great mixers, but they are also great on their own. I love the St Julian’s stuff, but Trader Joe’s has some great sparkling juices as well.
3. ginger ale + lychee puree
I had this amazing concoction at a fancy wine bar in NYC. You aren’t likely to have either of these items in your house, and that’s the point I’m trying to make. Why avoid going out to fancy bars and restaurants? Why not indulge in some super exotic non-alcoholic drinks? Some bartenders have real fun with it… others don’t know how to do much beyond make you a high calorie virgin daquiri, so make sure to have a back-up plan.
4. Ariel Sauvignon Blanc
Now their website has a whole slew of flavors. I’d be interested to try the sparkling and rose wines, but the reds just scare me away. My Trader Joe’s only carried the Chardonnay (at $8!!) and the Sauvignon Blanc ($4). The Chardonnay tasted like a watery apple juice, very far away from wine and overpriced. The Sauvignon Blanc however was pretty refreshing and with it’s crisp fruit flavors reminded me a bit off a semi dry Riesling.
the good news
Many of the drinks I listed above are surprisingly low in calories. I was ecstatic to learn how little a glass of non-alcoholic Sauvignon Blanc or sparkling white grape spumante contained (less than a normal glass of white whine in many cases). Other good news is that almost all these drinks are cool and refreshing. In a time where we are encouraged to drink milk and juice, and we are discouraged from carbonated soda filled with caffeine and sugar… it’s really nice to know there is something delicious and fizzy we are allowed to drink, especially at all these upcoming summer events!!
the bad news
Nothing I have listed above will ever ever take away the personal satisfaction that comes from a glass of kick ass red wine. There is no substitute. Nothing quite will make you feel the same. Nothing will go as good with a juicy tender steak or a tangy tomato pasta. And certainly nothing will taste the same… if you think grape juice just as good, you obviously have been drinking some very cheap wine in your lifetime.
So here is the rub. As pregnant women we have to decide if “drinks for a pregnant girl” means 100% not a drop of alcohol during the next year (gotta remember breast feeding girls). This is about as heated a topic as they come in the mommy forums, next to breastfeeding and spanking your kids.
Here is all I want… don’t you judge me, and I won’t judge you. If you decide to go the “better safe than sorry” route, then I shouldn’t be able to come up to you and condescend about how you are a weak-minded soul who subscribes to whatever hype and pseudo-science fear-mongering BS comes your way. And if I decide to go the “everything in moderation” route, then you shouldn’t be able to come up to me and call me a selfish out-of-control lush who is putting my child at risk because of a stubborn addiction.
Because, honestly, neither of us would be right about each other. But this is what angry people in forums would have you believe the debate is about. Just like every other issue in this world… no amount of science and research will change the heated way moms argue over the right and wrong ways to raise children, even before they’ve left the womb. But… taking my Obama approach to this… can’t we just agree that at the very heart of this, we ALL just want the best life for our kids… a healthy positive caring life.
I think we can all raise a glass to that… wine, sparkling juice, whatever you prefer.
vacation: a trip to portugal’s wine country
It wasn’t so long ago that I crafted a baby bucket list, ten things I really wanted to do before I decided it was time for Tom and I to get our Strickland family started. Not four or five months later did I decide to throw out the list (even though I’ve almost gotten through it), because Tom and I just wanted to get started that badly!! The biological clocks have gone off for both of us.
Unfortunately, or fortunately… I have not yet gotten pregnant, which means that I get to enjoy and indulge in the joys of Portuguese wine as we take what may be our last trip to Europe for quite a while. It’s a sad thing, but I had to make myself realize that the days of wine vacations might be ending. Pregnancy (plus breast feeding) means a major decrease in wine consumption for a year or more. And most wineries are not designed for entertaining infants and toddlers.
It’s been an amazing ride while it lasted. Tom and I saw the wonders of California’s Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Next, we took a day trip out to the Long Island wineries while visiting New York City. Then there was the amazing trip in 2007, which we visited the Burgundy region of France, partied at the Fete de Beaujolais, and spent several days exploring Tuscany. And last year, we visited the Willamette Valley to try out Oregon’s famous Pinot Noirs.
So over the next few days, expect updates to this blog and my twitter stream, as regularly as I can deliver them. I will try and post up as much as I can about wine… since that is something I will very sadly miss once we actually succeed at what we’ve been trying to do since January 
my current top five portuguese wines
2004 Dona Maria Vinho Regional Alentejano
12/14/2008 rated 92 points: Smells dusty and woodsy with strong blackberries and spice (cloves?), like a fall mulled wine. Flavors are rich to match with a long finish. Amazingly fruit forward with black cherry and a tanginess that makes it a good match for food.
2005 CARM Douro Vinho Tinto Quinta do Côa
Available at Bella Vino Ann Arbor
1/1/2009 rated 90 points: Smells like dark bramble fruits and dust. Spice, dark ,rich and delicious with a sweet complex finish. Brings out the nutty characteristics in Portuguese cheese
2006 Vinhos Monte das Ânforas Vinho Regional Alentejano Vinho Tinto
2/5/2008 rated 90 points: Amazing for $8, tastes way more expensive. Fresh and bright like cherry candy with a subtle spice and a smooth finish that makes it gulpable. So many good offerings from Portugal in the lower price range, and this is a great example.
Barbeito Madeira Boal 10 Years Old
8/30/2008 rated 89 points: Tasty and not overly sweet, dry finish. Bitter orange peel and slight mocha. Thin and exploding with flavor. Excellent paired with chocolate plum pudding.
2004 Companhia Agricola do Sanguinhal Óbidos Quinta de S. Francisco
Available at Holiday Market Canton
9/19/2007 rated 88 points: Plum, ink, blackberry, black cherry, spices and acid. Great with food and very unique. Made with Castelao, Aragones, and Touriga Nacional.
wines: Veo Grande Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 and M Lawrence Fizz
I thought I’d do a two-for-one deal blog post this evening. First, it’s Wine Blog Wednesday. Second, we had our annual food and wine pairing party over the weekend.
It’s the #52 WBW hosted by Tim over at Cheap Wine Ratings. The challenge for this month was for a wine from Chile under $20, which isn’t really much of a challenge. I almost always keep a wine from South America and Spain/Portugal for under $15 or even $10 on me at all times. These are the ultimate value regions of the world, with great reds for great prices. My favorite at the moment is still Portugal, but I might be bias because we are planning to visit in April.
Veo Grande Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
It’s from the Rapel Valley. It smells of steel, like a cold table with some light smoke and dried fruit. The flavor is very similar… chewy but slight metal. It’s rustic and dry, not much to remember to be honest. For only $7, a bargain find with a long finish. We got “mongo-to-go” and I was delighted to find that for the holiday season they had added duck to their meat selection. With some sweet and salty duck stir-fry, the wine was great. With dark chocolate, two thumbs down.
Now onto our holiday party… which included all the usual happenings:
Way too many people try to cram in our tiny kitchen, as some try to finish their dishes, and others just seem to flock to the room with the brightest light. “They are like moths”, Gwen told me, “Go turn on a brighter light in another room and they will follow.” I tend to agree, but would replace “light” with “food”… people like food.
Everyone comes dressed in holiday garb. Wil the Wizard always comes in his homemade Victorian Santa suit. Never try and outdress Wil the Wizard or you will feel the wrath. But nonetheless, you see a lot of red and green, dark colors, sweaters, people can’t help but dress for Christmas times.
And finally, GOOD FOOD. The key ingredient in my wine and food pairing party is of course the wine, but mostly the food. 4 years in and not everyone has got the hang of the pairing element, but everyone knows that the way to win the prize is to deliver good food.
Tom and I had two pairings this year. One was a deconstructed reuben (pastrami wrapped on a breadstick) with a 15 year Anniversary Unibroue Belgium Ale. The other was a butternut squash soup with toppings of baked apples, fried sage, nuts, and bacon. To pair with the soup, I tasted a French Rosé and an Australian Viognier before deciding on M Lawrence Fizz.
Other notable dishes and pairings from my wonderful guests:
I was hoping for more cocktails or non-alcoholic pairings since we opened it up this year, but it turns out that people just like wine. And I certainly do not have a problem with that!!
food: austrian goulash, viennese sachertorte
wine: sattler zweigelt 2005
The journey has almost ended. Tom and I are one Portuguese wine/meal away from completing our second journey around the world. And unlike a previous post suggested, I did not make this moment happen before my husband’s 30th birthday.
But still, this will be an epic moment. Since Christmas 2006, I have been treating my husband to (almost) monthly theme dinners. The idea was this… dedicate the night to one country, it’s wine, it’s food, it’s cinema. We have gone from Chilean Cabernet to Australian Shiraz, from Grecian white to Israel red. I’ll save the full wrap up for that fateful night next month where I pop open the wine from Portugal, because tonight was all about Austria.
how to make a good goulash
In just about every goulash recipe I found, there was a key ingredient… patience. Well, patience and paprika, but those actually go hand in hand. The dish is fairly simple to make. Meat, spices, onions, wine, broth, and loads of cooking/stirring/waiting/tasting. Luckily I was also taking this time to bake a cake and clean the kitchen, so I got to see the magic of a 2 hour simmer unfold before my eyes.
Around half an hour in, I actually accidentally burned some of the sauce. I was tempted to start over out of perfectionist sake, but I’m glad I didn’t. The reason why the two hours is needed is because it breaks down the meat, but also because it mellows out the otherwise bitter paprika. The same theory applied to a slightly bitter taste of browned sauce. By an hour in, I started to notice all bitterness going away and turning into a richness. By an hour and a half in, my meat turned from tough leathery stew meat to disintegrating at the touch of my fork. And by two hours, I had goulash.
the necessary evil, chocolate cake
Reading the “true way” to do this dish was again a life saver. A Viennese Sachertorte should not be mistaken for a rich flourless chocolate cake that melts in your mouth. This cake is fairly dry, which is why the Austrians always eat it with a dollop of whipped cream (yum!).
While I created the batter, which involved a lot of fluffing and folding, I had a hard time imagining this would turn into anything but a moist, rich cake. But low and behold when it came out of the oven, it was surprisingly light in flavor and slightly dry in texture… not stale dry, just “fluffy”. It is a great contrast to the rich ganache topping and the sweet apricot jam filling, which could otherwise create for a combo that is just too rich.
drinking a varietal that starts with “z”
Finally, although the Sattler Zweigelt 2005 is hard to find, the flavors weren’t terribly exotic. It smells of white pepper, shoe polish, and blackberry. The taste was dark and rich, with great fruit and a crisp dry finish. The loads of pepper help it cut through the rich meat of the goulash, but there was still enough fruit in the wine to pair fairly well (not ideal) with the cake.
According to Appellation America, the best and only place to get cartoon characters of varietals, the Zweigelt is virtually unknown in North America as vintners don’t want to take a chance on a wine with a funny name. But those in cold climates, who already gamble quite a bit, have started taking a risk on the grape. Which is interesting, because the only other place I have seen a Zweigelt before was from the Pelee Island Winery in Ontario. I seem to remember it tasting very peppery as well, but quite good for the price. Maybe we’ll start seeing more in the future!
wine: muscadine and scuppernong
In the 1500s, Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon discovered Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth. While many still argue over whether or not he found the source for eternal life, what Ponce de Leon did find was a land rich in large fruits and more specifically the native muscadine grapes. They were “on the sand and on the green soil, on the hills as on the plains, as well as on every little shrub… in all the world the like abundance is not to be found.”
The muscadine grape is especially unique (and even larger variety scuppernong) in the fact that it was the first native American grape made to yield wine. The family name “rotunda-fullia” is appropriate as the grapes are so large that they more resemble small plums than grapes. The result is a sweet, musk-scented grape that has been described by oenophiles have described as “foxy”, a descriptor that conjures up wet fur, overripe grapes, and damp woods.
Recently, I sat down with my husband and my mom to experience these uniquely Southern wines. Paired with sweet potato biscuits, fried green tomatoes, and a scuppernong-glazed pork loin, here is what we experienced:
HENSCRATCH FARMS VINEYARD & WINERY
The Henscratch Scuppernong was really intense. It was very sweet with a strong white grape flavor and hints of pear. The mouthful was think and round with a honeysuckle finish. It reminded me of those sticky honeydew popsicle I would have on hot days during the Alabama summers at my Grandma’s house.
The Henscratch Muscadine tasted of strawberries and cream with a rustic musty finish. It smells of light perfume with a thick syrup texture. Gets a little sickeningly sweet after a while but makes a fine Charleston Cocktail (tea, lemonade, vodka, muscadine, mint).
The white Duplin Carlos Muscadine smells of musty old white fruit and forest, like rain and mild apple. The flavor packs a tart punch and a dry finish. But after the first spark it becomes mild on the palate, refreshing grape, like a mild but tasty Gewurztraminer.
Overall, some tasty and unique wines that went well with the Southern cuisine. You can imagine kicking back on a hot and humid night on an Alabama front porch with a glass of chilled muscadine in hand.
To make the occasion more southerly, we watched Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus. It was a musical documentary about the life and culture in the deep Pentecostal backwoods South. These people continue the tradition of Ponce de Leon, searching for everlasting life in the worship and the blood of the Lord.
Maybe it’s something in the muscadine? Actually, I’m not even joking. The muscadine grape with it’s thick skin is able to retain great amounts of antioxidants. The grape also contains an extra set of chromosomes that produces phytonutrients and resveratrol. Resveratrol has been studied for its life-extending benefits and is thought to be tied to the French Paradox.
Maybe Ponce de Leon found the Fountain of Youth after all.
technorati tags: muscadine, scuppernong, fountain of youth
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=edc6fd38-dc94-4dcc-89ef-6584bd66f552)
life: back to your roots, how I came to love wine
I hope that Lenn doesn’t mind, but my Wine Blog Wednesday is actually going to come on a Thursday. I hope I still make the cut!!
I am a day late, but for good reason. Yesterday was Tom’s and my 3rd anniversary. I was out all night having good wine and good food, and, for once, not blogging. But this was an important WBW for me, because this month’s theme is all about “getting back to your roots”, the wine that gave you that great big AHA moment. I wasn’t able to taste that wine last night, but the theme lead my husband and I on a journey about how we got into one and what that AHA moment was.
The fact is… I can’t even talk about wine without talking about my marriage and my relationship with Tom. They are and forever will be linked. It’s not just because we drank wine as part of our ceremony and received wines from our birth year as wedding presents. It’s not just because we honeymooned in Napa Valley. And it’s not just because all the great wines I’ve enjoyed in my life I’ve enjoyed with Tom. It’s all of those things, but most importantly to this theme, it’s because we experienced that AHA moment together.
It was RODNEY STRONG.
Life before Rodney
We knew we liked dry red wine. We were some of those people. Nothing really stuck, one wine wasn’t really that much better than the other, we just liked it red and not sweet. We were okay with cheap… actually super cheap. I remember how excited we were to buy cases of Crane Lake for $2 a bottle at Meijer. That would last us for a couple weeks. Now we only ever use that stuff for cooking.
Then, we had our first bottle of Rodney Strong Cabernet at my dad’s house. It was magical. We began talking about a particular flavor. We couldn’t really put our finger on it. One thing we did know, however, was that we liked the way it made us feel. The “wine buzz” we called it. It was warm and happy and not like any other buzz you could get. It made the blood rush and food taste better.
Life after Rodney
We started buying Rodney for ourselves. At $16, it was the first “expensive” wine we ever bought regularly. We’d save it for special nights. Whenever I would grab the bottle from atop our fridge (not a good place for wine) we’d have to evaluate whether the night was Rodney-worthy. It was in those days in our apartment where we developed our habit for “wine and cheese” dinners, elaborate snacking that would commence while watching movies together on the couch. Life was good.
Then came our wedding, and it was Rodney Strong we drank with our vows.
The Honeymoon and the 2nd A-HA
We closed out the Rodney story by visiting the vineyard on our honeymoon. But, we also visited a lot of other wineries on that trip… 11 in total. For the first time, we were tasting $30 wines, and mostly Napa Valley Cabs. It was an epiphany.
They were delicious and bold. They were big and fruit forward. And they tasted… expensive. We started talking about flavors and colors and textures. We were becoming wine snobs for the first time.
To this day, there is a certain character that we will find in wines that will have us refer to them as “Honeymoon Wines” whether or not they are from California…
“I taste blackberry in this one with a chocolate finish and a hint of honeymoon”
On our anniversary, it has become a tradition to drink big California Cabernets. First it was Spring Mountain, which coincidentally was featured on Conan O’Brien later that summer. Actually it was Spring Mountain for a couple anniversaries. But last night, since we weren’t dining in Canada, where you are allowed to BYOB, we had a new discovery. It was a big bold California blend from Lail Vineyard called Blueprint.
And though our tastes have changed over the years, though we have gained an appreciation of Pinot Noir and subtle flavors from wines around the world… we always have a place for those Big Cabs and for Rodney Strong. And though I wasn’t able to “get back to my roots” last night, this theme has inspired me to make me realize how I really truly came to love wine, and more importantly WHO I came to love it with.
There is no one in the world I would rather drink with. I love you Tom.
web concept: wine tweets
I haven’t written something about the interesting combination of web and wine for a while, but I was recently inspired by an article someone posted on the ThreeMinds blog called Wine Tastings Are Now Just A Tweet Away.
“Twitter has been used by a new wine company, Bin Ends, located in Braintree, Massachusetts, to facilitate online wine tastings. Dozens of people, armed with their Twitter accounts, participated recently in the now-monthly tastings that will be held on the third Thursday of every month.
To do this, Bin Ends first sent out the list of wines that were going to be tasted weeks in advance to allow the oenophiles the chance to go out and buy them - preferably through Bin Ends’ online or brick-and-mortar store. Then, tweets were sent by Bin Ends from their Twitter account to the other Twitter users that were “following” them to spread the time and date of the tasting. Finally, when the day arrived, additional tweets were sent out from Bin Ends telling the tasters which wine to taste next as well as thoughts from the distributors about the wine.”
The merger between Wine and Web is one of those things that never fails to impress me. When I got a chance to talk with Gary Vaynerchuk at FOWA this year, I actually asked him why he felt that was. He didn’t have too amazing of an answer for me besides… there is a lot of wine and a lot of web on the west coast. I think there has to be much more than that. Maybe it has to do with the highly social experience wine tasting can be. For some reason, wine just tastes better when I’m drinking with my husband than when I’m drinking alone.
From personal experience, I have also been noticing that “wine tweets” are growing in popularity. I follow several wine bloggers on Twitter, and in addition to getting good restaurant recommendations for business and persona trips, I enjoy seeing their dialogue between each other as they taste wines and compare notes.
Some of my favorite wine Twitters:
http://twitter.com/craigcamp
http://twitter.com/LENNDEVOURS
http://twitter.com/drvino
http://twitter.com/Catavino
Catavino is personally painful to subscribe to, because you get to hear how beautiful Spain is just about every day and what he’s drinking with his delicious tapas.
I also keep a personal wine tasting Twitter: http://twitter.com/winelovers
Which I used to document my trip to France and Italy, but have since just turned into tasting notes. I haven’t really thought of an extension for that. It is merely a personal documentation at this point. But whenever the phrase “personal” is used to describe something in the “social” medium, you know that it isn’t realizing its full potential. Using Twitter as a way to coordinate a wine tasting event across the nation, however, is definitely an example of using what Twitter is best at… real-time sharing. In fact, just this week it was used to report the Southern California earthquakes faster than any other news outlet.
Final interesting tidbit for those not addicted to Twitter… as maybe another sign of how web and wine go together, there is actually a word for a tweet sent while drunk called “dweet”. I have on occasion dweeted. It’s the new “drunk dial” of 2008.
technorati tags: twitter, wine tweets
wine: 2003 Couly-Dutheil Chinon La Baronnie Madeleine
I’m gonna make this a short, but sweet WBW. This month’s theme is Cabernet Franc from France. Gary Vaynerchuk (that is with a K, not a CK) of WineLibraryTV is hosting. His energetic entry is posted here. I had the pleasure of meeting Gary Vaynerchuk at Future of Web Apps in Miami this winter, and was inspired enough by his presentation to post an article on ThreeMinds about the “hi-res user experience” he is creating over at WineLibraryTV. So, I was glad to see him taking the time to join the Wine Blog Wednesday community.
Without further ado…
2003 Couly-Dutheil Chinon La Baronnie Madeleine
I broke the bottle trying to open this one… my rabbit didn’t like that lipped rim. Lots of sediment, dark purple color. Aroma of plump raisins and plum, but also lots of dust, grass, and green peppers. A burning dry mid-palate and finish that spread over your whole tongue. Veggies up front and light dried fruits on the long finish. Dirt for sure. It gets more complex as you taste it, and I start doubting what I’m sensing. Do I smell Cheez-its, taste vanilla? I don’t know, this wine is doing weird things. A slow drinker. $17
RECENT WINES