Lady Gaga Plans to Make Own Wine.
March 6, 2012
It’s been a busy few weeks for Lady Gaga! First the announcement that she’s the first person to ever reach 20 million followers on Twitter, and now this!
The pop icon was spotted in Sonoma County last week, and is allegedly interested in buying a property in the area with a view to making her own wine.
“My favorite way to catch up with friends is to have wine and food nights. We cook together and drink six or seven bottles of red wine,” she said. (NB: I’m starting to like her more already!)
During her trip to California, Gaga stopped into Sonoma’s Best deli and wine shop. “When she came in I noticed the six-inch stiletto heals and knew that she couldn’t be from Sonoma,” said owner Gayle Jenkins.
Two days later, Gaga was spotted in the area again at the bar of The Girl & the Fig where the pair sipped the restaurant’s signature Fig Kiss cocktail featuring FigCello di Sonoma liqueur, made locally from hand picked black mission figs.
Posted in News | Tagged buy Lady Gaga wine, Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga wine, Sonoma | 2 Comments //The Tasting Room – Tuesday March 6th, 6-8pm Wine Tasting with Musical Guest The Dewars.
March 6, 2012.
Cabernet Marinated Steak with Gorgonzola, Bacon and Shallot Butter Paired with Fiftyrow Cabernet.
March 5, 2012
I feel the need to start by pointing-out that this was a pretty-special pairing. If you’ve never actually taken the time to prepare one of the recipes featured in these food and wine pairings, I suggest you start right here!
I will say that I’ve never actually taken the time to marinade steaks overnight before. I’m pretty old-school when it comes to how I usually cook my steaks, namely; liberally coating them with garlic salt and black pepper before throwing them on the grill, and cooking them to a rare temp. Done! What I can say is that the extra prep time taken here (which really wasn’t very much work at all) really helped to tenderize the meat more than I had anticipated. However; the gorgonzola, bacon and shallot butter was actually the shining star of this dish (besides the wine of course, but we’ll get to that in a minute)…
Truth-be-told, you’re ideally supposed to make the butter a few hours ahead of time, in order to give it time to set. But I guess early signs of Alzheimer’s must be setting-in, as I completely forgot to make it! So I frantically started whipping all the ingredients for the butter together, threw the mix onto a sheet of wax paper, folded it into a small rectangle, and gently but hastily) placed it in the freezer.
Normally you would just let this set in the fridge, but it was starting to get late, so time was of the essence! Luckily the culinary-Gods must have been watching over me, because when it came time to melt the butter on the steak (a mere 30 minutes later), the butter had already set!
The thing that I really like about this butter is that if you don’t eat it all, you can simply wrap it back up in the wax paper and throw it in the freezer to preserve it for use another time. Give it a shot! The recipe is at the bottom of this post.
Posted in Pairings, Reviews | Tagged buy Fiftyrow, Cabernet, Cabernet Marinated Steak, Fiftyrow, Fiftyrow Cabernet, Napa | Leave a comment //How to Open Champagne Like a Sommelier.
March 4, 2012 Posted in Facts | Tagged Champagne, Court of Master Sommeliers, How to Open Champagne, How to Open Sparkling Wine, Sommelier, Sparkling Wine | Leave a comment //A Guide to Wine Faults – Bubbles.
March 3, 2012
Bubbles
Sometimes when you open a bottle of still wine, you might find it to be unexpectedly sparkling. I’ve ran into this mainly with white wines which are light and fruity (i.e. Sauvignon Blanc, Albarino, Vinho Verde etc) and primarily with screw-cap sealed bottles. This is due to a winemaker sometimes adding a little CO2 to keep them crisp and refreshing. In white wines this is often referred to as “petillance”.
How to tell if your wine is affected
The wine has a very lightly sparking appearance and there may also be an unpleasant smell.
Your course of action
If the wine is white, don’t worry about it. If it’s red, it’s a problem. Bubbles may be a sign that the wine has unintentionally began a secondary fermentation in the bottle, and is most definitely a fault. Send it back.
Click here for the rest of my —-> A Guide to Wine Faults posts.
Posted in Facts | Tagged A Guide to Wine Faults, Bubbles wine fault, Sparkling Wine | 2 Comments //Kung Fu Girl Riesling by Charles Smith Wines, Columbia Valley, Washington State.
March 1, 2012
Grape
100% Riesling
Facts
- I’ve been slowly working my way through the Charles Smith portfolio of wines for the last few years – with the only hindrance to my progress being their limited-availability. It’s quite a wonder why more restaurants/retailers don’t carry this line. I would challenge anyone to find a better value coming out of Washington State right now. It certainly beats the generic-tasting-juice that some of the “big boys” are churning out!
- Charles Smith grew up just outside of Sacramento, California. Born to a Welsh mother and French father, his first exposure to wine was the barrels of family wine made every year by his father. Charles moved to Denmark for a girl (NB: as you do) and spent the next 11 years living the rock-and-roll lifestyle (literally), managing rock bands (Danish indie-rock duo The Raveonettes being one of them).
After growing weary of all the sex, drugs, and loud-music; he moved back Stateside in 1999, and decided to take his career in a slightly different direction by opening a wine shop on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. During that same year he caught the “Syrah-bug”, making his first vintage in 2001: the 1999 K Syrah. In 2006 he launched his second brand – Charles Smith Wines.
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