A Soothing Wine to Tame Your Inner Beast

I'm in the middle of nearly three weeks on the road.  As I write this post I'm 30,000 feet in the air somewhere over Nebraska (probably). After nearly two solid weeks on the road, I returned home last Thursday in need of something.

Not just anything but something really special. 

Since the dreaded fiscal cliff we just went over, our friends at the Transportation and Safety Administration decided to make life a little more difficult. Lines are longer. People are just a tad bit less friendly. Ok. Maybe not "people" but I know I certainly was!

By the time I got to the house on Thursday I was looking forward to that special treat.  Just before all the travels began, I received my shipment of Chardonnay from Pete and Cathy Seghesio's new venture -- Journeyman Wines.

I wrote about their new venture a few posts back in "Taking a New Journey through Wine" but I hadn't yet tasted their wine.

It arrived just as I was leaving town for California for a week and so the wine sat in the trunk of the car for a little over a week.  I was trusting that the trunk -- even if it was around 35 degrees outside would be warmer in the garage at the airport rather than in my 75 to 80 degree office.

While I normally prefer red wines, I was anxious to try this one.  After our visit to the Central Coast region, I also received a little more wine than I should have ordered. Now I have to get to drinking the wine. Actually, I've now had to take six shelves out of the wine cabinet to get all my wine appropriately stored.  Like I said, time to have a party and drink up.

 Back to some Chardonnay. I came home to a great meal of chicken breast, veggies and a baked potato. Some good home cooking that I longed for after nearly two weeks of being on the road.  I called ahead and asked Roxanne to open up a bottle of the Journeyman Chardonnay.

Over the last couple of months I've had some really delicious Chardonnays -- especially the Bacigalupi Vineyard Chardonnay made with grapes from the same vines that produced some of the grapes that made the historic Paris Tasting. (Read about it in my post "Experiencing my Own Bottle Shock".)

I had already tasted some of the Journeyman Chardonnay from the big green egg as it was in the middle of the malolactic fermentation so I had high hopes for the wine.

And I was not disappointed.

This is a delicious wine.  They say that music can soothe the savage beast but I'll tell you this wine soothed my inner beast.  After a week on the road dealing with grumpy travelers, losing my way through Philadelphia, narrowly missing a barricade trying to pick up a phone call on my blue tooth, this wine was just what I needed.

I'm hosting the next Mondays @ Mark's on Tax Day.  I think that I'll be doing a blind tasting between three of my favorite Chardonnays: one from Bacigalupi Vineyards, one from Chamisal (the Califa blend) and this wine.  I'll report back in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, I'd sure recommend giving the Journeyman Chardonnay a taste.

In the meantime, if there's a wine you think I should try, please let me know.  I'd love to try something new.

I'm Thankful for My Friends -- Old and New

Last Thanksgiving was a bit crazy.  Not only was I getting ready to celebrate my 50th birthday (and my twin brother's) we found out on the Monday of Thanksgiving our Thanksgiving Day restaurant reservations had fallen through.

That meant that I ended up hosting two pretty big celebrations in three days.  I won't go into details here (you can read about it in my post The Unexpected Party. This Thanksgiving was a lot more low key.

This Thanksgiving I spent celebrating with family. There were just five of us.  Ok seven if you count the little dog and the 20 lb turkey! Pretty small considering the crowd that was there for last Thanksgiving but it was no less rewarding.

It was nice because it gave me an opportunity to reflect on a year of friends both old and new.  This past August (as you can note from my series on my trip to Sonoma, I had the real privilege to meet and work alongside three BBQ masters, Chris Lilly (from Big Bob Gibson's BBQ), Dr. BBQ (a mainstay on the professional BBQ circuit) and Pete Seghesio.

Not only did I learn a lot about the BBQ, I really had a chance to get to know more folks in the wine business.  Here's what I'm discovering -- I really like these folks.  The Seghesio team are incredible people.  From Pete and Cathy to Dave Meserli, Brandye Alexander, Dana Macaulay, Tony in the tasting room and so many others.

I'm really honored to call them friends not just acquaintances.

This fall I had the unexpected opportunity to not only meet some new friends but visit the great folks at Seghesio's sister vineyard in San Luis Obispo, Chamisal Vineyards.  You can read about the visit in my post A Special Day at Chamisal Vineyards. They're part of the reason for my reflections on my friends.  Our Thanksgiving meal featured the Chamisal's Morrito Pinot Noir.

This incredible wine was the perfect pairing for our turkey dinner.  Because of Michael's gracious tour, I can still see the view to the ocean from this little morro.  The particular terroir of this particular part of the vineyard is distinct.

It's more volcanic type rock than other parts of the vineyard and the hill is steeper.  This produced a wine that begins with a hint of strawberries and then ends with full on cranberry and the Chamisal spice. But more than the perfect pairing, it reminded me again of that special day with my new friends Michael, Alyssa and Andrea (who came in special even though she was recovering from an early fall cold).

So as we enter the holiday season, I just want to say thanks to my old friends and my new friends.  So to all those mentioned and to Bill Frick (Frick Winery), Nicole and Katey Bacigalupi (John Tyler Wines), Brooke at Chamisal and Nancy Santiago and Chistine Kyle from Pine Ridge Winery, a Giant Thank YOU.

You have made this a special year. Not only do you all make fabulous wines but you're some of the best people I know.

A Little Iron and Wine

First let me apologize for the lack of posting over the last few weeks.  Sometimes life conspires against you and that's been the case for me.  Lots of travel, a move and some personal challenges have made it difficult to get some posts written.

While I'm not yet unpacked, I am back to my regular Monday schedule. Last weekend was my first Ravinia concert of the season.  For those of you who aren't in the Chicagoland area, the Ravinia Festival is an outdoor concert venue. They have concerts pretty much every night from Memorial Day through Labor Day.



You can get yours at the Ravinia website here.

What I love about Ravinia isn't so much the music but that you can picnic on the lawn.  An afternoon drinking some really good wine and eating some really good food.  The problem for us is that, too often, I can't seem to push the easy button.

Over the last couple of years, we've perfected the experience.  We have the perfect picnic bag (complete with wheels and space for 4 bottles of wine and plenty of cooler space.  But that still, too often, means schlepping chairs and tables and . . . well you get the idea.

Last year we utilized one of the upright grocery carts but it turned out to take up so much room in the trunk we moved on to a folding wagon. I only have one thing to say to this folding red wagon . . . Genius! The only draw back are that the front wheels and the handle are independent so it can wander a bit.

The Wine Army on the move!

Over the years we've added a couple of Crate and Barrel "Table in a Bag" tables to our Ravinia outfit.  They come in very handy. Now it's just a matter of adding food and wine.  As I mentioned, I have just moved so everything is in boxes out in the garage. It makes for a difficult time creating for Ravinia.

Laying out a spread and pushing the easy button, the approach we took was a three course meal.  Course 1: Cheese, fruit, olives and a little Genoa Salami. Course 2 included a pasta salad with shrimp and some vegetables and artichokes with a roasted garlic aoli. For course #3 our friends Nick and Annie brought an out-of-this-world rhubarb/strawberry crumble.

For the most part everything was put together Sunday morning between errands and such.  As for the wines, I mentioned earlier that I had moved. What that means is that my wine cabinet, though moved, is still empty and all of my wine is on the floor of one of the bedrooms.  That means wine selection had to be a bit of a hit or miss approach.


Frankly, I think I hit.

The wines chosen were a 2011 Seghesio Pinot Grigio, a 2009 Chamisal Vineyards Chardonnay, Seghesio's Defiant and Venom.  I brought along the Seghesio Dionigia but we didn't get to it.

Nick and Annie with our pre-concert cocktail!

Actually, we almost came with just two bottles of wine. I had the wine in the picnic carrier but pulled the white wines to put in the fridge before we left. I had the trunk packed when I remembered the wine and made a quick dash upstairs to grab it.

After setting up the tables I pulled out a little summer cocktail I like to make.  It begins by creating a rhubarb simple syrup and then adding rum, tequila, seltzer water and mint.

I think it would be equally good as a non-alcoholic drink as well.  However, it can be made as strong as you like.  I mixed it with two parts rhubarb simple syrup, 1 part tequila, 1 part rum. They go down smooth and easy . . . a couple of them would put me down for the night so I recommend 3 or 4 parts syrup to 1 part rum and 1 part tequila.

As you can see, we spared no expense on the serving dishes

We then opened up the Seghesio Pinot Grigio. I had heard from Nick earlier that Annie liked Pinot Grigio and I'm a huge fan of this one.  It's a great summer wine.  Actually, it's a great wine all the way around.  I'm more of a red wine person but you won't get me complaining about this one.

You also won't get me complaining about Chamisal Vineyard's Chardonnay. My sister-in-law has a hard time with the oakiness of most Chardonnays but they have a great stainless version that she absolutely loves.  This is their "middle of the road" Chardonnay. 

We ended the evening by introducing Nick and Annie to two of my favorite wines: Defiant and Venom.  Perhaps it's because the name matches my sometime personality. This delicious blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Aglianico quickly became one of my favorites.

When I first started to seriously look into wines, I thought that blends were just a way for the winemaker to drop in some really cheap wine and try and pawn it off on the unsuspecting consumer.

I couldn't be more wrong.

I'm beginning to believe it's really where the winemaker gets a chance to show off his talent. And in this case, Ted Seghesio is a gifted winemaker. Taken by themselves these wines have a distinct and unique taste but when you put them together --

it's magic. 

While I was going to end with the Dionigia, it turns out the Venom was the close for the night.  This sangiovese is quite different from the Defiant.  Grown on the home ranch, it gets its name from the hill upon which the grapes grow -- Rattlesnake Hill.

Photo of Rattlesnake Hill from Seghesio's Facebook Page and Richie Knapp

Pete Seghesio told me last summer that when he checks the vines up on Rattlesnake Hill he drags a shovel behind him to make enough noise so that the venomous citizenry will move along and not be a problem.

On my last visit I picked up a t-shirt as a souvenir. It's black with a quote from the winemaker: "Venom -- the antidote for every bad Sangiovese you've ever had."

He's right, you know.

The Venom was a delightful end to a wonderful evening.  Mostly, I've talked about the food and the wine and didn't really touch on the music at all.  I guess that while I really enjoy the music, that's not what the Ravinia experience is all about.

This night's concert featured both Dr. John and Iron and Wine.  I guess it's a pretty eclectic mix with a musical icon and a relative newcomer.  It was a wonderful evening with some of Dr. John's more recognizable tunes and a few more obscure tunes. 

Perhaps the most interesting happening of the night was happening on a blanket not too far away from us.  My friend, Nick, took this picture on the sly.  Ravinia is good for a lot of things but I think this goes a bit too far.

Actually, this was one of the more tamer images from the evening.  I'm pretty sure that they had no idea who was playing or why they were really there.

They left at the intermission and missed the entire set from Iron and Wine. Frankly, I would have thought that Iron and Wine would have been more their style but perhaps they had other things on their minds.