wine tasting: some good stuff

We can always count on Tom Saunderson, Young’s Columbia rep, to bring good stuff when he does a wine tasting at Gretchen’s, and he definitely didn’t disappoint this time. And the food wasn’t too bad, either.

We started off with a bang, with flutes of sparkling Riesling from Pacific Rim Winery, and an assorted plate of goodies including scallops, shrimp, green onion gougères, green salad and blue-cheese-wrapped grapes rolled in pecans. The following wine, a 2007 Willakenzie Pinot Gris, went beautifully with the food but almost everyone had cleaned their plates already.

deep blue sea

Jon has taken to reading cocktail recipe books like novels lately, and making lists of everything he wants to try. Inevitably, there’s some ingredient we just don’t have and can’t get locally. Our area liquor stores have some interesting stuff, but when I asked for Creme de Violette at the Burlington store I got an extremely blank look. We had to make a special trip to the Capitol Hill liquor store (where the clerk accused us of buying stuff off of the “fancy-pants” shelf) to get a bottle.

The drink I really wanted to try with the Violette was an Aviation Cocktail, but it wasn’t until we made it by the Crown Hill liquor store that we managed to score some Maraschino liqueur and I was able to try one. I thought it was disgusting – apparently I don’t have a taste for Maraschino as yet. Fortunately, in the meantime Jon had found a recipe for another drink that I ended up loving, called the Deep Blue Sea.

Sunday comic: wine appreciation

www.toothpastefordinner.com

Sundays should be reserved for reading comics, don’t you think? If you have a slightly twisted sense of humor, like me, you should get to know Toothpaste for Dinner: an online comic that is low on artistic finesse but big on sarcasm. I have three on my refrigerator at this very moment.

the Sazerac

I can’t explain the way cocktails have eased their way into our lives this year. Not that long ago, I was still prefacing every mixed drink comment I made with “I don’t usually like cocktails, but…” and now suddenly we have a full cabinet of liqueurs and a Boston shaker. Hm.

We first met the Sazerac (the Official Cocktail of New Orleans) about a year ago, at Star Bar. Phyllis, our favorite bartender, had taken it upon herself that month to get as many customers as possible to order Sazeracs, just so she could have the fun of making them. Jon had been wanting to try one, so we were in luck. When she set the drink down in front of him (I believe she served it up, in a cocktail glass) we each tried it. We weren’t sure if we loved it, but we were definitely intrigued.

Later, when we finally managed to find some Peychaud’s bitters (had to order them online), we started experimenting with Sazeracs at home. One day, out of the blue, I discovered I love them. My preferred presentation is in a rocks glass (built in the glass), with just a couple of ice cubes, and a sizable lemon twist. It makes me happy. Who knew?

Mixology Monday: Vermouth

I was happy to see that this month’s Mixology Monday challenge was Vermouth. It just so happens that we have recently discovered that vermouth really is a worthwhile flavor in a cocktail, not just something to wave at from a distance while making a dry martini. I will admit that I’m not fond of it straight, but ask again in a year and I might say something different.

Probably my current favorite drink using vermouth is the Manhattan, but in the interests of broadening our horizons we tried a few new things. The winners were the Emerald and the Cornwall Negroni.

MxMo: dizzy dairy

This month for Mixology Monday we were faced with the theme Dizzy Dairy. In other words, any cocktail involving eggs, milk, cream, yogurt or butter. The first thing that came to my mind was Irish Coffee, one of my favorites, but that seemed far too obvious.  We did some research and applied ourselves to some experimentation.

We began with an Angostura Fizz. A tart mixture of lime juice and Angostura bitters, this also had cream and grenadine, and was shaken vigorously with one egg white. Poured into a pint glass and topped up with seltzer, it offered an intriguing combination of bitter, frothy and creamy. I’d never tasted anything quite like it. I wouldn’t mind trying it again sometime, but I’m not really sure what the right time would be: to go with a burger? An afternoon pick-me-up?

beer in the wine country

I know it’s taken me all week to get this post up, but our Labor Day weekend wasn’t the kind you recover from quickly. As usual, my band (comprised of me, my husband and my parents) went on its annual pilgrimage to the Tumbleweed Music Festival by way of a lot of wineries. Not to mention two brewpubs and a truly fantastic diner.

We visited the dogs at Two Mountain, Chinook and Hightower – all just as cute as ever. I highly recommend all three wineries for their juice as well. We also visited Portteus, Bookwalter, Tefft, and Blackwood Canyon.

Amid all the winery visits, though, we needed food. And really, when you’re overloaded with high quality red wine, what you really need is a burger, or pizza. And a beer.

Mixology Monday: vodka is [not] your friend

This month’s Mixology Monday, hosted by Felicia’s Speakeasy, has the regrettable theme of Vodka is Your Friend. I wish I could concur, but I can’t really say that vodka has been my friend in the past. In fact, most of my interactions with vodka have involved a certain acquaintance who likes instant cocktail mixes, usually mixed much too large and strong, and inevitably leading to a conversation with Ralph on the big white phone (for her, anyway – I tend to just feel ill for days). But we needn’t talk about that.

So I was trying to think of anything I’ve had with vodka that I actually liked. I will occasionally try a Bloody Mary, but I usually find that I can only drink about two inches down the glass before I get tired of it. Vodka tonics hold no interest for me at all, and neither do vodka martinis. I like gin, what can I say?

Then I remembered a drink I had many years ago, at Campagne in Seattle. It was called Nuage de Pastis, and at the time I thought it was fantastic.  I’ve been unable to find any record of the drink online, but I remembered it as a primarily vodka cocktail with an orange twist and a float of pastis (French anise liqueur) which “snowed” down into the vodka. It was beautiful and delicious. I decided to try to recreate it, with my husband’s assistance. We shook up two ounces of vodka with ice, strained it over a fresh orange twist, and spooned a little Pernod over the top.

Suffice it to say, it didn’t work out. It came out pretty enough (see the pic at the top) although we didn’t quite get the pastis to float; it clouded down into the glass fairly quickly. The flavor, though, was like a regular pastis-and-water cocktail at first, except that it was too strong to drink fast, and not particularly refreshing. As the drink sat it began to take on a weird flavor of mothballs. I have no idea if I remembered the ingredients incorrectly, or if my tastes have simply changed. If anyone else remembers a drink like this I’d be happy to compare notes.

This time, though, I set it aside and poured myself a glass of gin and bitters. No more vodka for me for a while.

Note 8/12/09: I’m not the only one with vodka issues. Check out the MxMo roundup here.

Lillet Sin

In defiance of all the traditional wisdom of what a Skagit County spring should be like, the last few weeks have ranged from pleasant to actively hot, with practically no rain. Normally we’re lucky if we even see the sun before the Fourth of July! Instead we’ve been able to turn off the house heat, the garden has needed to be watered several times a week, and the summer cocktail recipes are beginning to emerge. When I saw that this month’s Mixology Monday theme was ginger, I knew just what drink I was going to post about.

Two of my favorite summer drinks are the mint julep and Lillet Blanc on the rocks, but Jon recently discovered a drink on the Lillet website that combines fresh mint and Lillet, then punches it up with fresh ginger and lime. They call it a Lillet Sin, for some odd reason – it’s one of the least sinful cocktails I can think of.

California wine

Take a long dram with me
of California wine, of California wine.
And the wine, it tastes so sweet
as we lay our eyes to wander,
and the sky, it stretches deep.
Will we rest our heads to slumber
beneath the vines of California wine?
Beneath the sun of California One. 

– the Decemberists

Despite being a Washington State native and rather uninclined to live anywhere else, I really like visiting California. We lived briefly in Santa Barbara after we were married, and this was the first time we’ve been back to visit. So nice to see the live oaks and the dry grassy hills (at least the ones not recently burnt black) and smell the eucalyptus.

To boil down our Memorial Day weekend to a few sentences: we drank wine and ate barbecue. Then we went to a wedding and had more wine, and oysters, and more barbecue. Then a lot more wine.  Whee! Many thanks to our friend Deron who drove us all the way out to Foxen Winery. I loved Foxen’s porch tasting room.