Bagrationi Sparkling Wine

People don't drink sparkling wine nearly often enough.  Not nearly enough.  They reserve the champagne for New Year's Eve, and wedding toasts, and thereby deprive themselves of enjoying its effervescent delights just because spring has finally arrived, or just because the sun's out, or just because.  There's no reason to wait for special occasions - particularly since there are several perfectly nice ones to be had for an affordable price. 

Among them we now add Bagrationi, a sparkling wine producer from the country of  ... Georgia?  I know, we had never heard of wines being made in that country bordering the Black Sea in Eastern Europe either.  Apparently Georgian sparkling wine have historically been primarily exported to Russia (as much as 80% of Georgian wine went to Russia, its second largest export product), but what with the Georgian-Russian relations being, ahem, tense, and Russia banning Georgian wine in 2006, Bagrationi has been aggressively developing new markets, including now the US.

But Georgia, and the Bagrationi company, has a long history of making sparkling wine.  By some accounts, Georgians have been making wines for eight thousand years and the modern word for wine may stem from the Georgian word for wine, gvhino.  A military officer from a branch of the Bagrationi dynasty, which ruled the Georgian kingdoms until Russian annexation in the early 19th century, brought the knowledge of French wine making to Georgia in 1882.  

The Bagrationi NV Extra Dry was quite nice - clean tasting and balanced, light and pleasantly dry.  It wasn't the best sparkling wine I've ever had by any means, but it was fairly smooth and bright.  It was fine by itself, but I think with its clean taste, it should take well with other flavors in champagne cocktails like mimosas.  All in all, rather nice.  

But what makes it particularly nice is its cost: the Bagrationi NV (non-vintage) sparkling wines come in at a very budget-friendly $14 a bottle.  Yes, some sparkling wines can even cheaper, but if they taste dreadful, they aren't worth their low price (I'm looking right at you, Cook's).  And there are several better tasting sparkling wines that I prefer, but they are typically cost more, around the $20-$30 range (J, of course, is my personal fave). 

But at $14,  Bagrationi is really a pretty good value.  I'd say it's a great choice for wedding receptions and for a nice everyday type of sparkling wine - something good, but not too pricey.  

Per FTC disclosure guidelines, we got two bottles of the sparkling wine to review for free.  But I would totally pay $14 for another bottle. 

Sake It to Me: Sake and Pork (But Not Together)

At first, it was just about trying a new sake. Then we thought, well, if we're going to try one sake, we might as well try two, and do a side by side taste test.

We sipped some of the Tozai Snow Maiden, then took a closer look at the actual contents of the pretty pink bottle, and had to give it a shake and pour it again.

Why? It's a nigori sake - unfiltered, and thus cloudy, sake.
The other sake was the more common, filtered sake, but both these sakes were dry, smooth, and delicious.

The real surprise, however, came after the initial tasting - when we had the sakes with dinner. In this case, pork. Breaded pork.

Alone, they tasted nice, clean, and refreshing. With pork, both sakes were awful. And by awful, I mean harsh, sharp, and alcoholic.

Before this rude awakening, I didn't think much of wine-food pairing efforts and rules. Besides making meal time decisions even more complicated, I couldn't imagine that it would make all that much of a difference what wine you poured to go along with your meal. Good wines should taste good with good foods, right? But maybe not - maybe pairing foods and wine really does have a significant effect on the taste.

For example, why the rule of only white wine with fish? Because the big robust flavors of red wine overpower delicate fish dishes. But also because drinking red wine with fish often produces an unpleasant, fishy aftertaste - the result of higher amounts of iron in the red wine.

There doesn't seem to be a general rule against serving sake with pork. Except now in our house, where breaded pork will not now be served with sake. And we'll pay more attention to how wine pairs with foods.

Going Into A Cava

We always enjoy a good bottle of sparkling wine, but our picks usually come out of California. Cava is Spain's sparking wine. This cava, Codorníu Pinot Noir Brut Rose, is a rosé, which I thought was a delightful idea.

However, I had been under the mistaken impression was always made from blending a white and a red wine.

Actually, rosés are most commonly made by crushing red grapes and allowing the juice to sit with the skins for just a few days and then removing them before fermentation, which gives it some color, but not enough to turn it fully red.

The blending method apparently was more common in the past, but the method has since fallen out of favor. A recent EU plan to allow blended rosés (promoted by winemakers in parts of France where red and white wine is in surplus) was abandoned after traditional rose makers argued it would bring on the "industrialisation" of wine .

We opened this Codorníu Pinot Noir Brut Rose after an afternoon of pruning. It's a lovely color and light as it can be ... which is a little too light for my tastes. It lingered on the tongue not a bit, and hardly had any weight to it at all. Not much of a reward for a couple of hours of hard labor.

But it wasn't bad at all - it was fun and refreshing and I think it might be especially suited for Sunday brunch or champagne cocktails.

Foodgoat's Style of Budgeting

(somecards.com)

An even more significant portion is allocated to beer and wine.

Wrong Date but the Right Bottle of Wine

Foodgoat and I were halfway through a bottle of sparkling wine tonight when we were informed by Foodgoat's mother that actually, our wedding anniversary is next week.

It's bad enough when one spouse gets the anniversary date wrong, but both? At least we both remembered it was around Memorial Day weekend.

At least we got to discover Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut, which was smooth, fresh, and an entirely enjoyable sparkling wine. Approximately 60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir, it was not too sweet, but quite nicely flavored, and went well with the crepes (or supper pancakes, as he grew up calling them) Foodgoat made for dinner.

We may have to open up another bottle next week.

How Foodgoat Rang in the New Year

Foodgoat spent the last day of 2007 cursing and denouncing the name of Tony Dungy.

The only things that made him feel a little better was Slyman's sandwiches (one with Swiss cheese and mustard, by the way, is a "Smurf", which makes it loads of fun to order), a bottle of our favorite J sparkling wine, and hours of Puzzle Quest.

Only a little.

Give Me Your Tired, Poor Wine Yearning to Breathe Free

While at the Rosenblum Cellars tasting room, we were introduced to the wonder that is the Vinturi Wine Aerator. We tried one of the wines with and without the aerator, and were astounded at the difference it made.

The idea behind aerating wine, or letting it breathe, that by exposing wine, young reds in particular, to air, you "open up" and improve the taste and the aroma.

How to do this? Well, you can open up the bottle and let it sit there for a while, and then drink it. We have never been patient enough to do this. When we open a bottle, it's so we can drink it right now. Plus, the shape of the bottle isn't really conducive to air exposure.

Or, you can decant the wine into another container. I think crystal decanters are lovely, but we don't have one, and anyway, the idea of pouring wine out of a perfectly nice bottle into a decanter just to pour it into a glass right away seemed to be just another step between me and that glass of wine.

There are also numerous aerating tools, including this Wine Whisk, but we don't have any of those. And anyway, did they really make a difference?

So, into the aerate-less world, enters the Vinturi Aerator. You simply pour wine through it into the glass. It makes a rather rude sound as the wine goes through and adds little bubbles into your glass. It all happens somewhat quickly and without a lot of flashing lights, leaving one to wonder if it really did anything.

Once you taste the wine, though, you realize that it does. It makes a huge difference. Taste some wine without using it, and then taste the same wine using the Aerator, and the taste difference can be spectacular. In some cases, we were surprised that they were the same wine. Unaerated, the wine was harsh and sharp; aerated, it was smooth and much better.

The Aerator isn't a performance enhancing tool for all wines - it made hardly any difference at all in some of the higher end Rosenblums, for example, and it didn't stop the Cigarzin from giving Foodgoat a raging red wine headache - and we haven't tried it on whites, but it did work wonders on some of the cheaper red wines that we've tried it with. A $10 bottle of wine that we initially disliked suddenly tasted like a $20 bottle. This $40 tool may end up saving us money in the long run.

Plus, it's pretty and it's fun to show people.

The lesson for me? Wine needs to be served properly to get the most out of it. And that includes adequate aeration, if that's what it needs. It's amazing how paying attention to little details in serving wine can make such a big difference in how it tastes.

Days of Wine

While in California a few weeks ago, we attended the wedding of Foodgoat's aunt, which featured not only a lovely ceremony, a fun party, and a very happy bride and groom, but also days and days of excellent wine. There was fine wine at the rehearsal dinner, trips into wine country for tastings, long discussions about the virtues of this wine and that, wine gifts, even wine with Nation's burgers for lunch (which is pretty good, let me tell you).

The reception had the very best bar of any wedding we've been to, and that includes our own (when people see my wedding photos, the first question is always "What's that you're drinking?"). It featured wines from the local Rosenblum Cellars in Alameda, which happens to be Foodgoat's very favorite winery and current obsession, having discovered their delicious Zinfadels when he visited their tasting room last spring. We sipped happily all night long.



Later that week we stopped by the Rosenblum Cellars tasting room - “mecca for zin-fanatics” - to sample even more.

We tried:
Kathy's Cuvée Viognier, California - 2006
Maggie's Reserve Zinfandel, Sonoma Valley - 2005
Snows Lake Vineyard Zinfandel, Lake County - 2005
Lyons Reserve Zinfandel, Napa Valley - 2005
Désirée Chocolate Dessert Wine, California


How much did we like the Rosenblum wine we tasted? This much:

Ah yes, Foodgoat and I will be drinking well for a long, long time.

Nicely Named Wines

When people ask me if things are different since being married early this summer, I look back on the nearly four months of wedded bliss, and I realize that yes, things have changed. Foodgoat drinks a lot more.

He claims the visit to California and, especially, the Rosenblum winery, inspired a interest in wine, but I have my suspicions because my mamma always warned me this might happen. Or maybe that was just a bad country song.

Anyway, we've been sampling lots of wine over the past few months. The Norman Vineyards Zinfadel "The Monster" is one of the few to receive multiple tastings, and makes us happy every time. I think of it as a big red wine, although I can't really articulate what I mean by that. Suffice it to say that the Monster is a great everyday wine to sip while cooking dinner (albeit a $22 one) or a nice one to bring over to someone's house, because it tastes lovely with a variety of dishes or just by itself.

I'm not saying that the only reason I wanted to try Kilikanoon Lackey Shiraz was because it was called the Lackey. Or because the label had a nice drawing of boots. But it helped.

No, the reason I wanted to try it was because the Warehouse Beverage, our excellent neighborhood beer and wine store, had a little handwritten sign, noting that it was one of the best in its price range. Over the years, we've found that their little handwritten signs are never wrong.

The Lackey ($13.99) was warm and red and just a little spicy and delicious with Foodgoat's pasta sauce, made from four different types of tomatoes and three different types of peppers in our garden.

The Old Ball & Chain Eats Burgers, Drink Wine

We're back from San Francisco! And Foodgoat and Ladygoat are officially a Mr. & Mrs. The wedding was fun, the food was actually good, and no, we don't have any pictures yet. But I did snap a photo of my pre-wedding lunch:
Yup, that's In-and-Out. Even the Fisherman's Wharf In-and-Out is delish.

A week in California has also activated the wine drinker in Foodgoat, because since coming back, he's been passing over the beer aisle for the wine selection. Blame his aunt for that transformation - she took him and his brothers to the Rosenblum Cellars tasting room, where they sampled several of their famous Zinfadels.

Since then, Foodgoat has been on the hunt for the Rockpile Road Vineyard Zinfadel. It appears to have completely opened his eyes to wine, for he described it as "amazing ... smooth ... luxurious" and likens it to having a Scharffen-Berger chocolate after only having Hershey's all one's life.

I was busy making centerpieces and favors that day, so I missed out on that fun. Fortunately, our favorite wine shop reported that their distributor could get some to them at the end of the month, so I'll finally get to sample this thing.

Allergic to ... France

We are nothing if not scientific, and that is really the only logical conclusion to be drawn from two indisputable facts:

A) French wines give Foodgoat a splitting headache, previously attributed to sulfites and compounded by Francophile snobbery, and ...

B) French beer (namely, the Kronenbourg 1664) gives Foodgoat a throbbing headache.

I expected French beer to be dark and earthy, but the Kronenbourg was light, very light - like an American beer. It tasted fine, but not long after finishing off a bottle, the French allergy symptoms would start to manifest themselves. Headache and a general nauseous feeling that would last til morning.

Clearly, Foodgoat is allergic to France.

World Blanc

Bursting with aromas of gooseberry and passion fruit, this lively Sauvignon Blanc matches aromatic intensity with freshness and balance. Lime and nettle characters predominate on the palate which cleverly matches fruit sweetness with natural acidity.When a friend recently declared that the only good wine came from France, Foodgoat took offense. Don't go talkin' no smack 'bout New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, or 'bout .... uh ....

Realizing he really only knew the New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, Foodgoat decided to broaden his horizons, expand his comfort zones, venture into new territories.

He would try ... the South Africa Backberg Sauvignon Blanc.

Billed as ...

"Bursting with aromas of gooseberry and passion fruit, this lively Sauvignon Blanc matches aromatic intensity with freshness and balance. Lime and nettle characters predominate on the palate which cleverly matches fruit sweetness with natural acidity"

... we found it fresh and clean and spicy and delicious. It made me want Indian food.

Wait ... So It's Shaped Like That on Purpose?

While at Crate & Barrel to replace a cracked French press, Foodgoat came upon these stemless champagne flutes. Sure, it would have made sense to put them on our wedding registry, but at $1.95 each, why wait?

So today, in order to celebrate Britney's long overdue return to rehab, we broke them in with a bottle of J sparkling wine. And either this bottle of J was different from other batches, or the flute glass actually makes a difference. For one thing, long before the first sip, I noticed that it had a distinct smell. A fruity, flavorful smell. I don't remember noticing the smell when I was drinking sparkling wine out of a coffee mug.

And so begins the Great Robot-Human War

It all started out so innocently.

Researchers in Japan recently revealed a robot sommelier. Using an infrared spectrometer, it can identify dozens of different foods in a childlike voice, naming wines and what kind of foods might go well with them, recognizing the kinds of wines its owner prefers, and alerting its owner to possible health issues by warning against fatty or salty products.

Buried in the middle of this fluffy report was this ominous sign:

"When a reporter's hand was placed against the robot's taste sensor, it was identified as prosciutto. A cameraman was mistaken for bacon."

Considering the things that I am willing to do for a taste of bacon, this may be the beginning of end.

Grovewood Tavern Wine Dinner

Cleveland people, have you gone to Grovewood Tavern yet? The place rocks.

And I'm not only saying that just because Foodgoat and I were invited by the owner to one of their monthly wine dinners last night (now that is how you treat a food blogger).

The theme of the evening was "The Low Country" around Charleston, South Carolina, with its flavorful African and Caribbean influences of the Gullah culture. Matching each of the six courses was an equally bold Australian wine from Old Bridge Cellars. This was my first time experiencing really well thought out food-wine pairings, and it was splendid - the wines were great, the food was great, and the two together even better. Weird, huh?

We sat at a table with the owners and the wine distributors, and had scintillating conversation, discovering many common bonds, including the love of beer, bacon, and CHEESE (mmmmmm, cheese). People who love food are always the best conversationalists. Oh, and the chef was Filipino! They have chicken adobo on the regular menu!! Am I in Cleveland?!!

The wine distributor introduced each wine and provided a lot of very informative background information about Australian wine and the wineries, such as the fact that some of them were foot-trodden (!).

The first course, the she crab soup (with crunchy pink roe in it!) was paired with the delectable Mak Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. It so unusual and so delicious a white wine that we brought three bottles of it home.

The food highlight of the evening for Foodgoat was this macadamia-crusted grouper with grilled cornbread and especially the field pea relish, that was served with Olive Grove Chardonnay. I liked it too, but was mostly happy that I didn't have an allergic reaction to the macademia.

Next up, shrimp with house-made tasso ham, tomato and sweet peppers over stone-ground asiago grits, with Stump Jump Grenache-Shiraz-Mourvedre.

Then came wonderful, tender pork tenderloin medallions, maple-brined, with fried green tomatoes and eggplant marmalade. With this we had High Trellis Cabernet Sauvignon.

And now we come to the pecan-crusted quail, with spiced praline sweet potato pone, and wilted greens with goat cheese and balsamic reduction. It came with another Mak, the Clare Valley Shiraz, which was lovely, smooth, and perfect for late night philosophical debates with friends. We bought more of this to take home, too.

I've never had quail, and here, in my pecan-less version, I was faced with what looked like a whole, tiny chicken. It dictated my having to rip it apart limb from limb so as to suck the tender yet delicious meat from its tiny, delicate bones.

And finally ... fresh peaches with sabayon in an almond tuile cup, and yummy, sweet Chambers Rutherglen Muscat. At one point during dinner, our companions had waxed poetic about the rareness and sweetness of a peach that's just right ... these peaches were close.


At the end, they also provided everyone with a booklet of the recipes from each of the courses, so you could recreate them at home. At first I thought they were giving away their secrets, but then again, the reason we like Grovewood (and why we really enjoyed the wine dinner) wasn't just the food, but the fine food and fine wine in a setting that's remarkably low key and relaxed (a bowling alley used to be where our table was).

Wine Blogging Wednesday: Warre's Warrior Port

I haven't felt like blogging, what with the end of the world here and all. First Katrina, then Gilligan dies, now a Satanic tomato. Coincidence? I think not.

So, let us enjoy the moment, for tomorrow some other catastrophe awaits. Wine Blogging Wednesday gives us the perfect pre-Apocalypse dessert: Like Wine For Chocolate, wine and chocolate cake.

Unfortunately, we at Foodgoat ... well, we don't bake. DO NOT make Foodgoat measure anything. Just ... don't.

So w're eating a bar of (pre-Hershey) Scharffen-Berger dark chocolate instead.

And, taking a cue from a bar I read about in Food & Wine, we're also pairing the chocolate and wine with caramel sauce.

If you're going for decadent, you might as well go all the way.


First, eat a spoonful of Narsai's Butter Caramel Decadence sauce. Actually, the bar had you smearing caramel sauce on the palm of your hand to lick off, but licking food off of body parts? Eww. Anyway, this caramel is real thing - do not insult me with your caramel-flavored topping! - and is creamier and more buttery than anything you ever put in your mouth.

Follow it with a sip of port. We tried Warre's Warrior Special Reserve Port, and found it deliciously sweet and smooth. Foodgoat may love port for cooking, but I am becoming quite fond of port for port's sake.

And finally, bite into a piece of fine dark chocolate. Scharffen-Berger, of course, is preferred. While Foodgoat still prefers the chocolate-coffee combination, he admits that the port (not the caramel so much, though it's still good too) brings out another aspect of the chocolate flavor. Port and chocolate is sort of an obvious pairing, but it's still a good one.

Now excuse me while I eat the rest of the jar of caramel sauce.

Wining

I did feel any inclination to take up the Eat Local challenge. I did not sign up to participate in the Eat Local challenge. And yet I have found myself buying even more local foods than I normally do. Go figure.

So I picked up my first Ohio wine that wasn't an ice wine: Old Firehouse Winery's Frosty Peach. I bought it because the label has a picture of a dog in a fireman's hat. And because it sounds like it came out of a self-serve machine at the 7-11. And because at 41.3 miles away, it qualifies as local. It's not the closest winery to me, otherwise I might have submitted it to Wine Blogging Wednesday #12, which features local wine.

We sat at the table, poured it into glasses. We noted that it was light, slightly sweet, quite nice and very appropriate for a hot, hot summer day. We conversed about the merits of red wine versus white whine. We ate smoked gouda and cheddar with Ritz cracker Asian knockoffs arranged artfully on a cheese platter. We felt civilized.

Until I saw the label with the dog in a fireman's hat again.

Wining

The Oscar-nominated Sideways is really a highbrow version Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Which is not a bad thing. Two friends on a quest for fun and fine wine in Santa Barbara county stumble instead through a series of misadventures. I found it particularly amusing that much of the film takes place in kitsch-by-the-sea Solvang, which I've stopped in many a time on the drive down to L.A.

Inspired by the film, I promptly went home and tried a new bottle of wine. No Pinot in the house, but I did have a Frambrosia Oregon Raspberry Wine
Lot 99. We're still enamoured of sweet wines, you know. And this was sweet. Not quite as good as the other Framboise we had, but still quite nice. I imagine it would be lovely with a bit of cheesecake.

And speaking of wine, now on the list of must-haves: Hercule Poirot Wine Bottle Candleholders, which turn wine bottles into candleabras. And what a name!(from Apartment Therapy)

Bonny Doon Vineyard

When I was a kid, I used to climb onto the kitchen counter, sneak into the cabinets, and eat Nestle Quick chocolate powder straight up with a spoon.

My sweet tooth is satisfied these days by slightly more refined foods.

Dessert wines, for example. The pool noodles of my recent wades into the wine pool have been dessert wines: sweet and fruity. Some, of course, are nicer than others.

Bonny Doon Framboise, a raspberry wine, won us over right away, being smooth and delicious and full of berry-ness. It's like raspberry syrup, except it makes you boozy.

I'll drink to that!

Sunday was the anniversay of the repeal of Prohibition!

Will someone let 24 of the states know that? Ohio only allows direct shipment of limited quantities of beer and wine if they are not available at all in the state. But Ohio's antiquated liquor policies don't stop there: though they recently chucked a 70-year ban on Sunday sale of liquor, many local communities still disallow them. And what's with only being able to buy hard liquor at state-owned and operated liquor stores? Not to mention that a state-mandated 135% markup on each bottle makes Ohio the most expensive place to buy wine.

I say let the liquor flow! L'Chaim!