Jump to content

What Are You Drinking Right Now?


deangold

Recommended Posts

2003 A.P. Vin Pinot Noir Garys' Vineyard

Noses of cherries, cloves, roses and mint. Lots of cherries, dark fruit, and a bit of cinnamon showing up on the finish. Medium tannis that still have some bite. Karen thought it was a bit hot (alcoholly in her words) but I loved it. A bit sweet as to be expected from a Gary's, but a wonderful wine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Belated, but yesterday evening at the Porcupines' pasta workshop, ManekiNeko very generously offered up a Bell's HopSlam ale. A double IPA, it was surprisingly and pleasantly moderate in bitterness, but carried an immense fragrant nose of fresh hops with each sip...floral yet not excessively oily (as so many recent hop bombs are). I see today that a number of reviewers lament that it's not more bitter, but I thought that it was wonderfully drinkable. Heckuva funny label picture too. Some really outstanding beer...thanks for sharing!

Hopslamfrontsmall.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last night at Pazo in Baltimore:

Rami "COS" Insolia/Grecanio IGT Sicilia 2004--10% fermented in amphora. Slightly oxidative, peach and peach-pit and nice waxiness. Fun, although there's only so much definition one can achieve from this site and these cepages.

Cusumano Syrah IGT Sicilia 2005--Yummy, snappy syrah, perhaps acidified, but plenty of definition and no friggin wood. As Sicilia gets hotter and hotter, let's hope more and more Sicilian producers keep this kind of wine in mind rather than the $50-90 barrique bombs that filter out all too often. Nah, no chance of that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saturday night with the DC Crü for our monthly dinner. This time the theme was sushi and Champagne (with a little Burgandy)

NV Larmandier-Bernier

2000 Veuve Cliquot Rose

NV Egly-Ouriet

NV Billion Rose

NV Egly-Ouriet Rose

2005 Michel Ecard Savigny-les-Beaune

2002 Bouchard Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets

1998 Larmandier-Bernier

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last night: 2005 D'Arenberg Laughing Magpie Shiraz-Viognier. Wonderful nose--want to hang in there, sniffing it for ages--blackberry, spice and a touch of leather. Very rich and full in the mouth with layers of dark berry fruit. Not as flowery as other shiraz-viogniers I've had. Very interesting, satisfying wine. One to savor and think about, not to slurp and guzzle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The whole Shiraz-Viognier thing is interesting. Aussie and SA producers are falling all over themselves to co-ferment the two, like the good old days in Cote-Rotie. All too often (though I've not tasted the LM referenced above) the result (even at 5% viognier or less) is a flowery-perfumy bomb, with even-more-elevated alcohol and lacking the mineral guts of the wine's site.

Coincidentally, when the laws were changed in Cote-Rotie so that producers no longer had to coferment, many ripped out their viognier. Hmmmmmm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well last night anyway...Joker's Ale from the cask at BP. Sweet malty goodness with barely a hop around, from the Scottish brewery that does those wonderful heather ales.

CF -- Get your ass to BP. HH rates are $2.50 a pint.

Thanks for the tip ManekiNeko.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'99 Leonetti merlot. Decanted with an hour in the flask and then sipped slowly from a Reidel Sommelier...........perhaps Leonetti's best ever! I bought a case six years ago and this is the second bottle that I've opened. The first bottle was far too tight, too young. Now, it is perfect. Remarkably, I am not sharing it with anyone. Four of the most perfect glasses of wine that I can ever have. And, all to myself.

Life is good. And exactly like the picture to the left....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A glass of Noah's Mill bourbon, 57.15% alc., purchased on my last trip through Lexington, (Ky. of course), about $50 for 750 ml. bottle. Made 3-25-91, bottled 4-10-06, batch 637. Three ice cubes made from the very pure water from my deep mountain well. Vanilla, leather, huge, smooth yet assertive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2004 Giuseppe Cortese Dolcetto d'Alba "Trifolera." From one of my favorite (if not my favorite, for the cash) Piemontese producer. Supple, supple, supple, with crushed red cherries, a field of flowers, and a savory, lip-smacking, slightly earthy core that married perfectly with the fat edges of the lamb chops-with-arugula that we ate tonight. Oh yeah, no hint of the barrique scourge that is inveigling itself into Piedmont. One of the best sub-$20 (retail) reds I've had in a very long while, and yet another hit from Cortese. Wow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm mates with one of the guys behind the Greystone project (he also bartends at the Dominion brewpub), so I've tasted through most of the line. Some of the bottlings show some interest, particularly the Traminer (aka savagnin) and Pinot Gris. However, the artificial corks used in most of the bottlings occasionally generate some off flavors. I believe they are starting to transition to screwcaps, however.

Fun wines, and definitely worth a taste.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Clos Apalta 2003, one of the great bargains @ $52.00, if one is able to find it. In Dallas I saw this on the wine list at Stephen Pyles for $175.00 (!!!!). No, I did not order it; rather having returned from Texas today I decided to open one of my own bottles. Relative to Pyles' exhorbitant wine list the $52.00 I paid seems like an absolute bargain.

The wine is good......................very good even for $175.00. For $52.00 it is an absolute gem!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We passed on heading to Bourbon with the boys. (I remember, sorta, the LAST time we went to meet Jake there. I have NO idea what the bill was, although Dame Edna says I put some $$$ down--I hope it was enough :o ). Rather, I have contented myself with some Evan Williams with LOTS of water and ice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it's cold out, thus I'll be drinking a maple leaf soon- (yes I'm working from home today). makers + lemon juice + maple syrup.
Ya kow, Macallan has a Mayple Scotch....hmmmm. :o

Last night, Peachy Canyon Zinfandel, Paso Robles, CA. Very good bargain. I'm also leaning towards Amador County (Sierra Foothills) Zins (super old vines) and Barberas for value out here, don't know what they mark up to sell out there, but they are all $10-$22 bottle here, and a bunch of crazy ports and muscats also. I don't know if it's my independent streak or my small pocketbook, but Napa and Sonoma all seem too expensive.

Dave "Lost in SF" Batista :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried an experiment with some recently infused Earl Grey Vodka.

I mixed up 1 1/2 ozs of 209 Gin, and the EG Vodka, with a 3/4 oz lemon juice (of course it was freshly squeezed), 1/2 oz simple syrup, and a couple of dashes of Fee's Mint Bitters.

It was rather interesting, but a bit too medicinal. I am going to try it again tomorrow but this time with Plymouth Gin, and Orange bitters. I think that the tea, the very flavorful gin, and the mint bitters were a bit too much. I am hoping to bring a new meaning to the term “High Tea” with this drink, so I am going to keep on trying until I get it right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kistler Cabernet Sauvignon 1985 Kistler Estate

THis is the wine we drank during our wedding ceremony. We ahd a wine loving Unitarian minister who told us to buy a case of good cabernet, one that would age and this was it. While it was totally disjoint on first taste after decanting, it opened into a huge and ripe and delicious expanse of blackberries, black currents, black cherries and black plums loaded with spice and a touch of earth. Incredibly youthful (unlike us) in its 22 year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After a long day, we were enjoying some Korean at home from Han An Ruem (Kalbi, spicy pork, several types of Kim Chee). We polished off the last of our Aperol. Aperol is owned by the company that brings in Campai but they refuse to import it to the US. It used to be here a while back but now no more. And with my next trip to Italy not being until October.....

Any how... Aperol is a citrusy aperitif with a lightly bitter edge. Went great with our spicy stuff!

Apparently Aperol is now available in the US, as I bought a bottle of it a couple of weeks ago. I wish I could swear that I bought it at Pearson's, but I can only say that I think I bought it at Pearson's. For those not familiar with it, it's colored an almost lurid orange (with food coloring, not with anything interesting). It tastes mostly of orange, to me, with a very Campari-like bitterness admixed. For an aperitif, it's extremely low in alcohol, only 11%. I've been making a cocktail with it, without a name so far: 2 oz gin, 1/2 oz lemon juice, 1/2 oz Cointreau, 1/4 oz Aperol, 2 dashes orange bitters, shaken with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass. Pretty nice. I think I'll try switching the proportions of Cointreau and Aperol. Alternatively, I suppose I could increase the lemon juice to 3/4 oz and just bump up the Aperol to 1/2 oz. It's in danger of being too sweet. Any other cocktail ideas for Aperol?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1/3 Aperol, 1/3 acidic white wine, 1/3 soda. Serve on the rocks with a slice of orange. Some bacari in Venezia put a green olive (with pit usually) on a Bamboo skewer as a swizzle stick for it.
That sounds nice enough, but that's an aperitif, not a cocktail. I was looking for cocktail ideas.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been fooling around with an Aper-groni (need a new name...) a Negroni with Aperol. Very dependent on which gin you try and I have not done enough research to say that I have a good combo yet. But diligent testing will eventually show the way.
Negroli? Negraperoli? No, I guess not.

Do you mean a Negroni with Aperol substituting for Campari, or a Negroni with Aperol in addition?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...