February 2009 Archives
‘Twas The Night Before OTBN…
‘Twas the night before OTBN Ten and all through the house…
That’s right, tomorrow is Open That Bottle Night TEN (see previous blog post). We’ll be on the road so we couldn’t have our annual event, which would have been our third year, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have something fun to open tomorrow night. I have a little surprise for Shelley, but, where WILL we be? Twin Falls? Idaho Falls? Logan or Provo, Utah? I’m guessing it will be somewhere in between these points as we make our way down to Southern California. Wouldn’t it be great if we were going down to wine country? Ah, but alas, we are going down to pick up her father and visit our kids. My guess is we’ll probably be in Salt Lake City. Hmmm, they probably won’t appreciate us having a special bottle of vino, will they?
Oh well. So here’s the deal, you will have to wait to find out what we’re going to open tomorrow night. I went into our wine cellar looking for just the right wine but all we have are reds down there and I didn’t think we’d finish a whole bottle by ourselves (I’m not about to let a special bottle of red go to waste by not drinking all of it!) so I’ve opted for a white. And that’s all I’m telling you–for now anyway. The next post you’ll real ALLLLL about it!
Last night we had a marvelous pork tenderloin and we opened a bottle of 2005 Sagelands Merlot. Sagelands is from the Columbia Valley in Washington, located in Walla Walla. This was a delight. I got raspberries on the nose and even some terrior. The taste was very mellow and Shelley commented on the tannins. It went very well with the pork. Shelley made this wonderful raspberry sauce and it all paired very well with the wine.
Well, tomorrow will be a long day but we’ll have our special bottle of wine to look forward to when we reach our destination, wherever that might be. I hope you have pulled a special bottle for you to open yourself and share it with somebody or somebody’s special.
What a Great Surprise!
Some things you can never predict. Have you ever had one of those nights when the stars all aligne perfectly and you never expected it? That’s what happened tonight.
As you may or may not know we are living in North Idaho and it’s beautiful. Today got up to a balmy 45 degrees and the sun was out and it glistened on the snow. Just beautiful. Then the Huskies beat USC and kept an arms length to those pesky Bruins of UCLA and the “other” UC school there at Berkley.
Then the magic started shaping up. OK, so it was 45 and sunny today but when it’s clear like this the temperature drops fast at night. So there I was, walking outside with two steaks on a plate and it’s 17 degrees. And there I am barbequeing. Chilly yes, but I’m looking forward to a great dinner with a Cabernet Sauvignon.
We opened a 2005 Cab from Arbor Crest Wine Cellars in Spokane, Washington. We’ve visited this winery one summer a couple of years ago when we went to listen to some jazz and drink some wine. At the time I was not very enamored with the wine but the property that the winery sits on is unbelievable. A Florentine house built in 1n 1924 sits on a bluff overlooking a river valley below. Arbor Crest Wine Cellars purchased the National Historic Landmark in 1985.
The wine was young but very good, indeed. I think Cabernet Sauvignon is my very favorite red wine if I had to pick one. I love the full body and berry nose. I think if this wine were to be layed down for a bit it would be really very good.
So, now for our surprise. Remember, the last post I made I told you I was going to explain about Open That Bottle Night. Here it is, in a nutshell. Dorothy (Dottie) Gaitor and John Brecher write the Tastings column for the Wall Street Journal. I recommend everyone read their column any time you have the chance. It used to run on Fridays but now it is every Saturday. They write in the most down to earth way that shouldn’t intimidate anyone wanting to know more about wine.
We stumbled across these two after reading their book, “Love by the Glass” which you can find, and should buy, at Amazon.com. It is probably the best romantic wine book written. I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of it. After we read the book we began to read their column every week. February 28th will mark their 10th year of Open That Bottle Night, or OTBN. The idea was born from many letters and e-mails they recieved asking when they should open “that special bottle of wine”?
You know that wine, yes? Everybody has one. It’s that special, SPECIAL bottle of wine that the occasion or event never quite seems to match. So there the bottle sits. And sits. And after it’s done sitting it sits a little longer. Until…it goes bad.
Open That Bottle Night is for just that sort of bottle. We sort of jumped the gun by one week. Shelley pulled out a bottle of Sterling Vineyards Light Zinfandel Port NV from the pantry. It’s been kicking around there for awhile and it had not been stored very well. It even had a slight wine stain running straight through the middle of the label. So she opened it up and to her and my surprise it was fabulous! She had bought this in March of 1982 and it was made in 1978 even though it is a non vintage wine.
I talked with Mike at the winery and he says they don’t even call this Port anymore because to be called Port means it has to be from Portugal and Sterling Vineyards is from Napa, California. When they make this particular wine now they call it Light Zinfandel Port Styled Dessert Wine.
So we encourage you to take that bottle of wine that you’ve been waiting for “the” special occasion and drink it next Saturday. Make THAT day the special occasion.
Better Late Than Never
Ok, so I probably would have written right after the Super Bowl had my prediction turned out correct. Shelley nearly predicted the exact score at one point late in the game and then Ben Roethlisberger did his thing by taking the Steelers all the way down field, throwing the winning touchdown pass that destroyed Arizona’s dream of winning it all. But we were close!
So, now nearly two weeks later, I am writing about a 2006 Shiraz that we had last night with meatloaf. First of all, let me tell you, Shelley knows what she’s doing in the kitchen. This was likely the best meatloaf I’ve ever had. And this Shiraz from Burley Fox went quite well with it.
Our Cork Catcher and riddling rack.
I don’t know much about Burley Fox other than they’re located in South Eastern Australia.
It was a young Shiraz and it lacked complexity and character. I was thinking we would get a much stronger wine but it worked well with the meatloaf. When we were finished we did what we do with all our corks after we finish a bottle of wine and pitched it in our cork catcher.
Yes, you read correctly, cork catcher. About a year and a half ago we went to a little wine bar in Sandpoint, Idaho, to enjoy a little wine and a little food. It was a lovely place down a long stairway. As we entered there was this large framed glass with a bunch of corks in it.
Shelley loved the concept and asked if I would make one for us. I did and you are looking at the outcome. We had a few corks saved up but since then we just pitch the cork in the top (the top is open) after we finish a bottle of wine. We usually don’t put anything in unless it’s actually a cork MADE of cork. On special bottles or wine drank on special occasions or events we’ll even write on the cork including the date and what the occasion was. It’s been a lot of fun and quite a conversation piece.
Next to the cork catcher is our antique riddling rack. A riddling rack is for sparkling wines. They are to be turned, if I remember correctly, about a quarter turn every other week, which is called riddling. I will get my facts straight in a later post but this is the rack that is used to do this. Now most riddling is done by a machine. Notice this rack is also used for drying out lavender. A rack for many uses!
We unveilded our cork catcher at our Open That Bottle Night last year which is the last Saturday of the month of February. I’ll explain all about Open That Bottlel Night on my next post. Until then, bottoms up and keep enjoying that wine.
