Archive for the ‘Wine’ Category

Table’s Set: Use Summer Herbs and Veggies to Create a Special Votive

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

No table is complete without a candle or two.

Years ago in college, my roommate, Connie, taught me that every girl must have  candles to “set the mood.”  I took it to heart  one Saturday night when she was out with her boyfriend and I was hoping to get lucky.  I lit up our dorm room with all of her purple candle sticks stuck in Mateus bottles and any other seemingly cool vessel wishing for a last-minute date from, well, any guy.  The phone never rang and I proceeded to fall asleep with all the candles burning.  Fortunately I didn’t burn down our dorm building, but I did manage to get wax all over our possessions – mostly Connie’s, including her prized record player.

The experience didn’t stop me from lighting candles, but now I look for safer and more inspired table lighting techniques.  Which brings me to my latest creation -  a fruit, herb and vegetable votive.

Here’s how to set your table:

Use any fruit, vegetable or herb of your choice.  I selected key limes, mini red and yellow peppers and thyme and mint from my garden.  (I had to punch small holes in the peppers to keep them from popping to the top of the glass.)  Put these into any clear glass and add water.  Top with a tea light.Summer Votive

Saucy Sis2

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Table’s Set: How to Make an Asparagus Flower Vase

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Wild asparagus grew like weeds around our home in summertime Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.  I remember as a kid pulling it up and smelling its warm, earthy aromas.  Okay…I was a rare girl who loved her veggies….unlike my Saucy Sis, Barbara, whose lips only touched lima beans from a can.  Also disappointing to me, my Mom and Dad, who loved to cook, only served vegetables that hadn’t seen the earth’s soil for months.  So those beautiful green asparagus spears never made it to our table and I sadly tossed them into the woods.

Had I ever thought of other uses for veggies that no one else ate but me, those long-legged beauties might have been the center of attention at our dinner table. But only years later have I realized that anything from our gardens can be wondrous on our tables.

Asparagus Vase

Here’s How to Make Your Asparagus Vase

Select a flower vase – any kind or shape and get out a rubber band. Put the rubber band around the vase.  Get a bunch or two of asparagus (same length or not, doesn’t matter) and stand each asparagus spear through the rubber band, each one touching until the vase is covered.  Tie a ribbon around the vase, covering the rubber band.  Put your favorite flowers into the vase.

Saucy Sis2

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Can This Marriage Survive a Prestige Cuvee Champagne?

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Prestige Cuvee

Let me preface this story by saying that Beverly recently married Marc, a wonderful Southern gentleman who has brought my sister much happiness.  Before Marc, there was another beau.  I’ll just call him Bob.

Bob was something of a wine snob.  Had an impressive cellar, for sure.  But, truth be known, he was extremely cheap when it came to sharing his cache.  So, it came as a complete surprise when a bottle of 1998 Cuvée R. Lalou Champagne was delivered to Beverly and Marc as a wedding gift from Bob.

Now, this bottle was a Prestige Cuvée Champagne from G.H. Mumm that was much ballyhooed when it was released in 2008.  You know about those Prestige Cuvées…those super-expensive Champagnes made in small quantities that are supposed to represent the finest achievement of the Champagne House.  The suggested retail back then was $160.

We know that frugal Bob didn’t pay that.  Don’t get me wrong, we all love a good wine bargain.  But how did we know that Bob paid less?  He left the price tag on the bottle – which is SO Bob!  $121.99.  Still…a nice gift.

Marc is a very secure man.  But, for reasons known only to him, he didn’t want that bottle of Champagne hanging around their house for long.  So, to that end, Beverly and Marc brought the Cuvée R. Lalou to our house for cocktails on Sunday.  (“Pour it for Barbara…She’ll drink anything.”)  As they were driving over, Beverly related some of the published reviews of the Champagne to Marc.  Glowing, glowing, glowing.

The only silver lining for Marc was one reviewer’s comment to the effect of “drink it now in 2008 because it’s going to go downhill quickly.”  Aha!  Surely, that was Bob’s revenge.   The old boyfriend  knew the bubbly was bad but sent it in the guise of a thoughtful gesture.

With that as the back story, we eased the cork out of the R. Lalou and poured it into our flutes.  As we watched the bubbles dance up the glasses and prepared to take our first sips, I couldn’t help but think that maybe I should say something critical about the wine…just for Marc’s sake.  But then, if I was going to be overwhelmed by the Champagne’s exquisite taste, I really shouldn’t lie.  Then again, maybe the wine would truly be past its prime, in which case I could legitimately badmouth the benefactor.

We all took a sip and looked at each other expectantly.  I needn’t have worried about what to say.  The simple truth solved any possible issue.  The Champagne tasted just as I suspect the winemaker intended.  It was intense, still fresh, and with plenty of fruit.

Okay, so it had not fallen on hard times, but did I like it?  The short answer is it really wasn’t my cup of tea.  As with many fine French Champagnes, it was made in a style that is heavy on the smoke and yeast.  Millions of people think that’s an asset.  To my Americanized palate, the taste is musty.  Not something I appreciate.  So, I could honestly tell Marc I’d rather drink the $7 bottle of Cristalino cava he brought as a backup.

In the end, the Prestige Cuvée was never going to seriously jeopardize this new marriage.  But, all the same, I’m glad the empty bottle is ready for recycling.

SaucySis 1

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How Many Calories in a Glass of Wine? Who’s Counting?

Thursday, April 1st, 2010
If it weren't for "bride-to-be" Jenna, we wouldn't be counting our wine calories.

If it weren't for "bride-to-be" Jenna, we wouldn't be counting our wine calories.

In a week Beverly and Marc and Paul and I are headed to our niece Jenna’s wedding in Louisville.  It promises to be, in the words of our German grandmother, a “fancy-schmancy” affair.  So, naturally, Beverly and I invested in dresses that would suit the formal occasion.

Because both of our outfits are what you might call form-fitting, our main concern has been that the dresses don’t sneak into the category of “snug” or just plain “tight” by the wedding day.  To keep any weight gain at bay, Beverly decided to  cut her consumption of wine until the moment she steps into the reception at The Henry Clay.

Not me.  I’m not giving up my nightly wine.  I’ll fight the battle of the bulge any other way.  To justify my position, I point to the recent study from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  It found that women who imbibe with a drink or two a day actually gained less weight than teetotalers over time.

Okay, so the drinkers didn’t actually LOSE weight.  And they tended to substitute liquor for other foods (especially carbs), rather than consume it in addition to their meals.  That’s fine with me.

And it’s apparently fine with Jennifer Aniston too.  (Not that I’m comparing myself to her.  Only in Paul’s dreams!)  Jen shared her diet secrets in the UK edition of Harper’s Bazaar magazine.  She said, “You’re not taking away my coffee or my dairy or my glass of wine because I’d be devastated. My advice: just stop eating s–t every day.”

Now, that girl is making some sense.  On average, a glass of dry table wine is about 25 calories per ounce.  Would I rather have a 5-ounce glass of Charles Krug Family Reserve Generations for 125 calories or a single-serving bag of Lay’s Potato Chips for 230 calories?  The wine wins, hands down.

Would I choose a glass of Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc over a scoop of Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream for 270 calories?  You bet.  How about a Pizza Hut 6” Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizza at 610 calories?  For that I could rationalize TWO glasses of Segura Viudas Cava at a measly (by comparison) 250 calories.

I admire my sister for her determination and self-control.  But giving up wine?  I just don’t get it.

By Saucy Sis 1

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Wine In Poland?

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Everything Wine Book Polish EditionI’m learning Polish.  It’s not something I had really planned on doing.  Years ago when Paul and I went to Germany, we took a German class together at the local community college in advance of our trip.  This year we’re going to Poland, and I guess Paul figured we should learn the language…because as a Christmas gift he gave me a Rosetta Stone Polish language course.  What was I to do?

I’m now on Lesson 2…for the third time.  Hey, it’s a tough language.  I don’t know yet how to order a glass of wine.  That comes later, I presume, in the social interaction section.  But I’m pretty sure the word for wine is win.  Why do I think that?  Thank you for asking.

Beverly and I wrote The Everything Wine Book which was subsequently published in Polish in 2007.  Take a look for yourself at the cover.  What else could win mean?

I always thought of Poland as the place to drink beer and vodka.  I understand that’s still true (which will make Paul very happy).  But in recent times – and especially since the country was democratized – Polish people have been clamoring for wine.  Sure, they had access to wine during communist rule.  But it was bulk wine from other Eastern Bloc countries, and that barely counts.

Prince Charles and Camilla were in Poland this week, and President Lech Kaczynski hosted a dinner for them.  There were lots of toasts paying tribute to the longstanding friendship between the two countries.  Champagne was the beverage of choice…for all except Camilla.  She chose to toast with a glass of red wine.  I don’t know why.  And I don’t know what wine it was or where it came from.  Just bet it was good.

I’m no duchess, but I’m expecting to taste some great wines in Poland.  And, if not, there are still those two fallbacks.

By Saucy Sis 1

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Pronouncing Wine Names

Friday, March 5th, 2010

vernacciaA couple days ago we sent out an email asking for nominations for the most difficult-to-pronounce wine words.  From the response, we’ve come to a pretty sad conclusion:  There are a whole lot of wines NOT being ordered because no one knows how to say their names.

I have to admit, there have been plenty of times that I’ve snubbed a wine on a restaurant list because trying to say the name out loud would be humiliating.  But I don’t ignore hard-to-pronounce wines anymore.  First – because I don’t embarrass as easily as I once did.  Second – because pointing works just fine.

Still, I like to sound informed and sophisticated.  (Okay, call me shallow…It’s not how much I actually know that counts.  It’s how much other people THINK I know!)  If you want to sound knowledgeable next time you order one of these thirteen wines, here are their pronunciations.

Albariño                                  ahl-bah-REE-nyoh
Amarone                                 ah-mah-ROH-neh
Châteauneuf-du-Pape        ha-toh-nuhf-doo-PAHP
Gewürztraminer                   guh-VURTS-trah-mee-ner
Grüner Veltliner                  GROO-ner FELT-lee-ner
Mâcon Villages                     mah-KAWN vee-LAHZH
Picpoul                                     PEEK-pool
Pinotage                                  pee-noh-TAHJ
Pouilly-Fuissé                      poo-yee-fwee-SAY
Sangiovese                             san-joh-VAY-zeh
Tempranillo                          tem-prah-NEE-yoh
Vinho Verde                         VEEN-yoh VEHR-deh
Viognier                                vee-oh-NYAY

Although it didn’t make anyone else’s list, here’s a wine name that I always have trouble with:  Vernaccia di San Gimignano.  I think this one deserves a trip to Italy.  I’ll get back to you with the correct pronunciation upon my return.

By Saucy Sis 1

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The 5 Most Mispronounced Wine Words

Monday, March 1st, 2010

I can butcher the English language pretty well.  Last week I insisted to a group of friends that puerile came from the Latin word puer (poo-ehr) for young boy and was, therefore, pronounced poo-EHR-uhl.  I was right about its origin…but wrong about its pronunciation.  It’s PURE-ile.

I may be stating the obvious here, but you can’t always tell how a word is pronounced by the way it’s spelled.  And that goes double for wine words.  As if the wine world isn’t sufficiently esoteric!  It’s bad enough when you’re faced with a wine list of completely unfamiliar names.  But how about popular names that you’ve read a million times?  This is my list of the most mispronounced wine words.

Meritage.  MEHR-ih-tihj.  Not mehr-ee-TAHZH.  I understand the confusion because I was once one of the confused.  Knowing the origin of the term is a help.  First of all, it’s not French.  It’s an American invention.  A group of winemakers coined the phrase in 1988 from the words “merit” and “heritage” to identify their wines made from traditional Bordeaux grapes.  cosentino_2005_poet_1_I found this out when Mitch Cosentino, one of those winemakers, told us the story on our radio show.

Riedel.  Rhymes with NEEDLE.  I like to drink out of it.  And, apparently, so do millions of others.  It’s just that some of those fans have 60s teen idol Bobby Rydell stuck in their heads.

Willamette.  (No “i” as in William.) Rhymes with DAMNIT.   Etymologists say the name originated with the Indians who lived in that part of Oregon.  No one really knows the meaning of the word, but these days the valley is synonymous with Pinot Noir.

Freixenet.  Fresh-ehn-EHT.  My high school Spanish was not enough to guide me here.  An “x” can be pronounced four different ways.  I take my cue from the folks who actually make this cava.

Moët & Chandon.  Mo-EHT ay shahn-DAWN.  It’s the “t” that seems to cause the problem here.  I’ve read countless online discussions from self-described French experts about whether it’s mo-EHT or mo-AY.  Such vitriol over one little letter.  I’d rather be sipping the Champagne than fighting about it.

By Saucy Sis 1

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Drinking Orange Crush

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Orange wine...a new kind of Orange Crush.

Orange wine...a new kind of Orange Crush.

Paul and I were driving back from Florida yesterday after spending a few cold and rainy days with friends.  While Paul was at the wheel, I read an article about “orange wines” which I at first thought meant wines made from oranges.  Oh, how wrong I was.

Turns out that orange wines, named for their color, are the darlings of hip sommeliers and wine intellectuals.  So trendy…so cutting edge.   I like to pretend that I’m in the forefront of current fashion and figured I’d better do some more investigating when I got home.  Today, I called around to half a dozen retailers and discovered that none of them knew about orange wines (all of them thinking, as I had, that they were made from the fruit).  This got me excited because it means that, maybe for once, I really am ahead of the curve.

The article I read in the car said only that the wines were “kept at length on the grape skins as they are made.”  So how are these different than rosés, I wondered.  Rosé wines are made by leaving the crushed skins of red grapes in contact with the juice for a short period of time (hours or days) which imparts a pink color.  And here’s what I found out about orange wines:  They’re made by leaving the skins of white grapes in contact with the juice for a prolonged period of time (days, weeks or months) which imparts an orange color.

How do orange wines taste?  I don’t know.  Yet.  A couple of the retailers are trying to find some for me to try.  But just the fact that the juice is in contact with the skins for so long, you can expect these to have tannins that you wouldn’t ordinarily find in a white wine.  I’ll report back.

One thing I did find out:  this technique of fermenting white wines with their skins goes back thousands of years.  But the process was pretty much abandoned when the “correct” way to produce white wines came into vogue.  And now, it’s back.

It’s a lot like clothing.  If you lived through the 60s or 70s (or have pictures of your parents during that era) you know that fashion repeats itself.  Look around:  wrap dresses, peasant tops, platform shoes.  What was old is new again.  That goes for wine too.

By Saucy Sis 1

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Marketing of a Super “Bowl?”

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
It's all smiles at our "Wine Not?" class!

It's all smiles at our "Wine Not?" class! Cathy Brashear, Sheila Baldwin, Brenda Burgess, Jenni Maxwell.

Monday morning all the talking heads were declaring their picks for the best Super Bowl commercial.  I love those discussions.  It’s a free-for-all.  Everyone’s got an opinion.  Some people liked seeing grown men without pants on.  (I was not among them.)  Others appreciated the intelligence of the Google ad.  Some of us just love Betty White and had to laugh at seeing her tackled into the mud.  Remind me…what was the product?

I don’t know if Super Bowl commercials drive sales.  But I do know that effective marketing will have us buying stuff we thought was just “wrong.”  Like stemless wine glasses.

On Saturday Beverly and I were hosting our “Wine Not?” wine tasting class at the Nashville Bartending School.  We were demonstrating the restaurant wine tasting ritual of swirl, smell, sip…when Aurora, one of our students, asked how one should do the ritual with stemless glasses.  Stemless wine glasses, give me a break!  Perhaps prompted by my reaction, Aurora  quickly pointed out that her glassware had been a gift.

Don’t misunderstand…I’ve sipped wine (and enjoyed it) from all sorts of “wrong” containers:  coffee mugs, plastic cups, paper cones, water bottles, bota bags.  If you’ve got an opened bottle of wine, it needs to be enjoyed – in whatever receptacle is handy.  And at how many Italian restaurants have I savored a glass of Chianti plunked down in a tumbler?  But let’s not call this tumbler a wine glass.

The stem of a wine glass has held a fascination for wine geeks, wine professionals and wine snobs since…the very beginning, I guess.  If you’ve been to a wine tasting with any of them, you can see that the more they want to impress, the lower on the stem they hold the glass.  Ask them why they use the stem, and they’ll tell you that to do otherwise – putting your hand around the bowl – will warm the wine and change its taste.

Let’s just say we buy that explanation.  Many of these same people are now embracing the new stemless glasses.  Let’s see, how do you hold them?  With your hands around the bowl?  So, what makes them wine glasses?

Riedel introduced these glasses a few years back.  And it was brilliant marketing.  They had established themselves as makers of the finest crystal wine glasses with different shapes and sizes for different varietals.  (Beverly went to a Riedel tasting and subscribes to their “wine tastes better in our glasses” message.  I don’t.)  How many different shapes and sizes could they come up with?  It was time for a new product introduction – so what kind of innovation could they possibly make?  Of course, remove the stem.

I like Riedel.  I own Riedel.  I hold it by its stem.  (I think it’s a lovely tradition.)  Just don’t tell me that a bowl all by itself is a wine glass.  It’s not.
By Saucy Sis1

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Barefoot and…What?

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

No, no…it’s not what you think.  It all started a couple weeks ago when I got the funniest email from someone who called herself the “Tennessee Barefooter.”  Of course, I started thinking of all the Tennessee jokes until I realized that she represented Barefoot Wine in this state.  She explained that she had just moved here from California and was trying to make contacts…or, as she put it, trying to get her “feet wet.”  And that was just the start of a lot of foot talk.

There are forty Barefooters around the country, I found out – and each of them has a fun foot name.  Hers is Beverly Heels 9021-Toe.  Who could resist meeting a woman with a moniker like that?  And so it happened that last night Beverly (my Saucy Sister Beverly) and I went to Miro District restaurant to size her up.  Oh no, now I’m doing it too.

Diana (her real name) arrived with two other Barefooters in toe.  Correction: tow.  I’ve got to stop this.  I flat footedly refuse to continue this silliness.  Oh, I did it again.  It’s solely my fault.  At this rate, I’ll be a shoo-in for a sandaltorium.

Beverly here.  Barbara is resting comfortably now.  I’m sure that, if she had been able to continue, she would have told you about how Barefoot Wine has five different bubblies:  Brut Cuvée, Extra Dry, Pinot Grigio and – just introduced – Rosé Cuvée and Moscato Spumante.  Barbara’s favorite beverage is sparkling wine.  So I know she’ll report on them later when she’s heeled.  Hmmm.  I’m afraid whatever she has might be contagious.

Saucy Sisters with Barefoot Brand Ambassador Randy Arnold and Barefooters Diana Weston-Dawkes and Phil Aiello.

Saucy Sisters with Barefoot Brand Ambassador Randy Arnold and Barefooters Diana Weston-Dawkes and Phil Aiello.

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