Posts tagged with 'Love by the Glass.'

CMS? Complete Meaning Surfaced

  • Posted on March 25, 2009 at 9:00 pm

As we come to the end of the Ultimate Blog Party 2009 I have to say how impressed I am with the success of it.  Up until March 20th I had had NO comments on this General Wine Thoughts site.  Since then I’ve had over ten comments and they’re still coming in and they’re all SO positive!  Thank you to everyone who stopped by and for your wonderful comments and I have myself visited some great blogs from other people.

 

Today I am going to write about a couple of other wines from one winery that are reasonably priced (no, not under $3.00!) and worth a try.  You may have already tried them.  I’m talking about the CMS wines of Hedges Family Estate. 

 

With the popularity of wine on the steep climb upwards, the competition can become very fierce for the consumer dollar.  Winery’s try to come up with clever ways of marketing their wine so that it catches the eye of the consumer:  Animals on the labels, play on words—all sorts of things.  They also come up with catchy names and that is what Hedges Family Estates has done with their CMS. 

 

The white CMS is 35% Chardonnay, 3% Marsanne and 62% Sauvignon Blanc and it’s pretty good.  Smooth and creamy, this white wine is about 13 bucks in the store.  It’s an interesting combination of grape varietals that seem to work, though I remember this wine tasting better the first go around than it did this go around, which is the 2007 version.  There is some mango on the mid tongue that is nice but an awkward finish.  The down side is that there is virtually no nose on this wine, which I miss because I REALLY like a wine with a great nose.  All in all, however, it’s a wine to try, to be sure.

 

Then I opened their red CMS and, well, this is a GREAT deal!  While watching American Idol I enjoyed the 2007 CMS which is 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 51% Merlot and 7% Syrah and it really is a great value at about ten bucks a bottle.  The nose has a hint of smoky-ness to it but you get some alcohol as well.  The taste is the result of a really nice combination of the grape varietals Hedges has chosen with some blueberry, bing and black cherry.  I actually tasted the Cabernet Sauvignon more than the other varietals.  Friends of mine, Lin and Marci Cooper, served this at their Christmas party about three years ago and I was very impressed then and it hasn’t depreciated now.

 

If you had to choose between the two I would go with the red CMS because it’s less money and, in my opinion, better tasting.  But both are worthy.

 

On the last post I promised to tell you about the toast Shelley and I do on EACH and EVERY bottle of wine we open.  You’ve read about the Tastings column found in the Wall Street Journal that I read on Friday’s from Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher and how they have come up with Open That Bottle Night which is designed to get people to open that one bottle of wine that never seems to get opened because the situation doesn’t seem to be big enough (See my post about Open That Bottle Night).  We first learned of these two from their book, “Love By The Glass:  Tasting Notes From A Marriage”.  If you asked me to recommend just one book I would say READ THIS ONE!  This book is absolutely awesome!  Romance and wine rolled into one!

 

Anyway, John and Dottie toast every bottle that they open with the same toast.  Read the book to find out what THAT is but OUR toast is our own.  I look into Shelley’s eyes and say, “To your giggles” and she looks right at me, and says, “To your kisses.  (Hey, I can’t help it that I kiss well.)  THAT is the toast we make with each and every bottle of wine we open whether we’ve had it before or not.  We even have it etched in the base of our glasses.  Hers says TYK and mine says TYG.  Dumb?  Maybe, but it works for us because we are in love and we enjoy each other and our wine.  And we know that what ever we go through in life we will always have each other and our wine.  And everyone should know that feeling. 

 

Until next time, bottoms up.

What a Great Surprise!

  • Posted on February 21, 2009 at 11:12 pm

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.

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