Happy New Year!!! Hubby and I went out last night to watch the ball in NYC drop at midnight! I have never been out before on New Year’s Eve, and I really enjoyed it! We got all dressed up and met a large group of friends for a late dinner of steak and crab legs, and this particular group of friends is comprised of oenophiles, so each brought some bottles of wine (including us!). We tasted some fabulous wines, and dinner was fabulous! It was a really nice way to end one year and begin the next!
Here’s the list of wines we tried:
*Royal City Syrah by Charles Smith Wines
This wine is from Walla Walla, Washington; Handsome and I had been to the winery itself and absolutely loved their wines! The winery has a rock-n-roll feel to it, and it has two levels of wine: a more expensive line, averaging $100 per bottle, and an affordable line, averaging $12 a bottle. Both lines are delicious!! We have several of the affordable ones in our makeshift cellar now! This Syrah was complex, dry, medium to full bodied, and had hints of pepper, pomegranate, and dark berries. Highly recommended!
*Champagne by Dom Perignon
This is a champagne almost everyone is familiar with. It is dry yet still sweet, crisp yet velvety, refreshing, bubbly!!! It’s an excellent champagne, and it runs about $150 per bottle, more if vintage. It’s very very pale gold in color, and it’s a softer mouthfeel than other bubbles, seems less acidic somehow.
*Brut Rose by Soter Vineyards
This is the wine we decided to bring; it’s a sparkling wine from Willamette Valley in Oregon, and we’ve been to this winery as well. The winery is absolutely beautiful- the vineyards drape over the slowly rolling hills, and they have about a dozen sheep herding on the other hillsides. The winery is at the top of the hill, and you can see for miles all of the beautiful Oregon farmlands and vineyards! The Brut Rose has it’s own cult following- among the cultists, it’s referred to as “Soter Pop.” It is a brut rose, so it’s a beautiful pink color with bubbles!! We brought the only pink bubbles at the party, so we were proud! It is very dry, and not very sweet, which is why I can get Handsome to drink it! We belong to their wine club, and receive shipments of their Soter Pop and their fabulous Pinot Noir every six months, but everything we tasted from their winery was delicious- a tasting home run! This wine runs about $60.
*Pinot Noir by Roar, 2009
This is a California Pinot Noir, and it is delicious, in all of the ways a pinot should be. It’s from the Santa Lucia Appellation, which we have not visited (yet). It is on Wine Spectator’s top 30 Pinot Noirs list. It is dry and complex with plum, cherries, oak, and finishes with pepper. It retails for about $50 a bottle.
*Cabernet Sauvignon by Fairchild, 2008?
This wine is delicious. It’s from Napa Valley, and it’s very dry, with complex notes of dark fruits, a smokey/wooded flavor, some ginger, even. It paired beautifully with the steak at dinner, as most Cab-Sauv wines do. It would do well with any savory, garlicy, heavy dishes, like lamb, and beef. This wine wasn’t sharp or acidic; it had a softer, rounder mouthfeel (like most higher-end wines). It retails for $125- $150 a bottle.
*L wines
I’m not sure which of the reds they had a the table from L wines. I’m not sure if the wine was corked, or what- but it was terrible. When I tasted it, the first thing that came to mind was “turpentine.” Enough said. I didn’t bother looking at the year or type of wine.
*Educated Guess Cabernet Sauvignon by Roots Run Deep Winery
This wine is also a delicious Cab-Sauv also from Napa Valley, but it only runs about $20 a bottle. It is surprisingly complex and also has a lovely smokiness, but it isn’t as silky in texture as the Fairchild Cab-Sauv. Still, this is an excellent Cab-Sauv from Napa!
Today, I have mostly cleaned the house and organized things for the new year; as the saying goes, “Out with the old; in with the new!” Cleaning out closets, getting laundry done, cleaning the fridge out and replacing the holiday foods with our new detoxifying foods, etc.
This detox starts tomorrow, and is 3 weeks total. The first week is the hardest, it consists of a vegetarian diet based on fruits, vegetables, and plant-based forms of protein. The second week, we add back in fish and some other types of lean protein, and the third week is re-introduction of all healthy foods. So, maybe it will be a tough 3 weeks, but I like to do lots of cleansing & detoxifying after the lush holidays!