Las Rocas Garnacha

I got home Thursday to find Pris hard at work in the kitchen getting dinner ready.  Since we've started experimenting with more food recipes she's gotten more adventurous and wanted to try out some stuff.  I found out she was making Fettuccini Alfredo with shrimp and chorizo.  And to go with this decadently rich meal she selected a 2007 Las Rocas Garnacha.

The Las Rocas is a light red wine with a light red taste.  This Garnacha livens up the nose with berry aromas, especially raspberry.  On the palate the wine is mellow and fruity, with good acidity and a touch of oak.  It also goes ever so slightly sweet through the mid-palate.  The finish offers up a nice tart kick right in the back of the mouth that is as abrupt as it is refreshing.  But the wine does linger a bit afterwards allowing you to savor it just a little longer.

This wine is an excellent Spanish 90 point wine that seems tailor made for rich spicy and savory dishes.  To say that the meal was rich would be something of an understatement.  The spice of the chorizo was mellowed a bit by the Alfredo sauce, but was still present.  The 2007 Las Rocas Garnacha offered both a great counterpoint and compliment to the meal.  The lightness and the acidity of the Las Rocas Garnacha cut through the heaviness of the cream sauce.  At the same time the fruitiness of the wine played well with the spices imparted by the chorizo.  All in all it balanced out the meal perfectly.

While the Las Rocas will go great with spicy or heavy dishes, its a great little wine all on its own.  We picked our first bottle of this wine at HEB Central Market in San Antonio. We then found the second bottle at the HEB in McAllen. We've noticed that HEB McAllen on Trenton and 10th is now starting to carry more of the Central Market inventory of wines. At $12.99 a bottle, this wine is definitely a good everyday wine to have on hand. To find out more about Las Rocas and their wines you can visit:  http://www.lasrocaswine.com/

Turnbull Cab: A Classy Wine for a Classy Meal

As some of you might be aware, we've kicked up the cooking a bit over here in order to elevate the food to the level of some of the wines we're "working" our way through.    This Sunday I decided to take it down a notch and go back to just grilling up a simple sirloin.  New York strips are great, but we are living in a recession, and the Prime One sirloin from H.E.B. is a fantastic piece of beef.

The menu was a well seasoned sirloin cooked medium rare (which is really the only way steak should be cooked), horseradish mashed potatoes, and a spring mix salad with a red wine/dijon vinaigrette.  We knew the steak and potatoes would both be bold and require a bolder wine.  Given our selection that pretty much meant a Cab or a Malbec.  Pris decided on a 2007 Turnbull Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Turnbull is an excellent Napa Cab in that its big, bold, and beautiful.  The first thing you notice is the dark purple opulence of the wine.  As expected there is a bold nose with lots of dark fruit including the expected cherry and currant.  The Turnbull Cab is big and bold on the palate as well.  Heavy fruits dominate the palate, but are tempered slightly with oaky undertones.  Around the mid palate you notice a slight sweetness that is a welcome reprieve from the heaviness.  But as soon as you notice it, then its gone and bold tannins provide a bracing full dry finish that starts with a bite of spice and lingers nicely for quite a while.

As expected the wine went great with the meal.  The boldness of the wine was a perfect compliment to the bold juicy steak.  The spicy potatoes, spiced with ground horseradish and Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, were a great counterpoint to the fullness of the wine.  Even the salad dressing matched with the wine.  Both had bite, but one had a touch of sweetness while the other countered with savory flair.

We first got introduced to Turnbull by my brother Rick who had it on a trip to California.  He brought a bottle of Merlot over for Thanksgiving last year and we've been on the lookout for it or the Cab ever since.  I finally found this fine 92 point Cab at the H.E.B. on Trenton and 10th in McAllen about a month ago.  Since I was there and the wine was there I decided to grab it.  It was on sale for about $35, but I think it normally runs closer to $40.  For more information on Turnbull and its wines you can visit: http://www.turnbullwines.com/

Fortune Favors the Bold Wine Selection: Rudi Wiest Riesling

So last night I went all out on dinner.  There's this Thai roast chicken recipe I'd been wanting to do for a while, but it's a little time intensive.  I had some time freed up so I decided to get to it.  Along with that I made a stir-fry shrimp and baby bok choy in a citrus soy sauce and coconut rice.  The food was a lot of work, but the hard part was figuring out a good wine pairing with the spicy citrusy dishes.

The most obvious choice for the meal would be some kind of white.  However, we're pretty much red wine drinkers and our white selection is rather limited.  We had a few whites that would work, but they'd all already been reviewed.  We also had some desert wines chilled and ready, but this wasn't desert yet.  Fortunately, Pris is an excellent selector of wines. 

Pris decided on a Rudi Wiest Riesling of an unknown vintage.  It seemed a bold choice at first, but it worked flawlessly with the meal.  This was a slightly dry and incredibly refreshing Riesling, not like a number of the sweeter ones on the market. The Rudi Wiest had a soft citrus nose and loads of citrus on the palate.  There was a nice mellow sweetness, but the acidity kept it from being overbearing.  This was an excellent crisp and refreshing wine that went great with the Asian dishes.

The citrus in the wine was a fantastic compliment to the heavy citrus and spice in the dishes.  In fact, a small tag that was still on the bottle noted that is paired well with shellfish and spicy dishes.  This was quite fortunate considering that dinner was loaded with lime, Thai peppers, and shrimp.

The Rudi Wiest Riesling came from a little store called WineStyles in McAllen that's no longer around.  We got the bottle in a basket that we won in a raffle years ago.  WineStyles was a great little store for buying wine in that it was very user friendly.  All bottles were labeled and categorized by flavor/type rather than varietal and region.  However, they are gone in the Valley, but you may run into them elsewhere.  For more information on the Rudi Wiest wines you can visit: http://www.rudiwiest.com/index.html

Beer and Wine do Mix! Frei Borther's Reserve Merlot

I don't know why, but we're really behind on our posts right now.  Not only that, its been a really slow week wine wise.  Thanks to the wonders of vacuum sealers for wine we're still nursing last Sunday's bottle.

Along with drinking more wine, Pris and I have been getting a little more adventurous with our cooking.  That means more time in the kitchen and less time on the keyboard posting.  So for last Sunday's dinner I decided to try a Shiner Bock braised chuck roast with garlic roasted potatoes.  It was a bit time consuming, but well worth it.  To go with this exceedingly rich meal Pris selected a bottle of Frei Brother's 2007 Reserve Merlot.

The Reserve Merlot is exceedingly smooth with a big fruit nose.  On the palate this wine is all mellowness with loads of dark fruit and lots of oak.  There are even some chocolate notes around the mid-palate.  Robust tannins allow for a bold spicy finish with lots of texture that hits you and then its gone.  No lingering finish here.

While technically a Merlot, this wine is actually a blend of 96% Merlot, 3% Petite Sirah, 1% Cabernet Sauvignon.  The wine went really well with the meal.  The deep fruit and oak was a great compliment to the deep sweet flavor of the braised beef.  Slow cooking beef in a nice dark beer really brings out the best flavor components of both ingredients.  The Merlot held up nicely with the strong savory flavors of the roasted potatoes.  Any wine that can stand up to strong garlic potatoes is a wine for me.

We picked up the Frei Bothers at H.E.B. and it runs about $17.24 a bottle.  For more information of this and other Frei Brothers wines you can visit: http://www.freibrothers.com/

An Evening of Art, Friends, and Inurrieta Cuatrocientos Crianza

Saturday night was a big art opening for Julian Rodriguez here at the Alonso Building.  If you haven't heard of him or seen his stuff, he is a master ceramicist.  The show was a great success with lots of folks milling about looking at the art, drinking wine, eating food, and buying art.  However, as I was partially in charge of the food, and Pris was working the event neither one of us got to partake in the wine.

Thankfully our friends George and Virginia Gause came down for the opening and brought two bottles of Inurrieta Cuatrocientos 2007 Crianza and a number of cheeses and some crackers.  They had tried the Inurrieta Cuatrocientos at a wine tasting at El Pastor in Pharr, and had fallen in love with the wine.  After trying it, it was easy to see why.

The Inurrieta Cuatrocientos is a light Spanish wine that is a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Graciano.  It has a crisp fruity nose with lots of bite.  On the palate this Crianza is smooth with a strong fruit flavor.  This is a well balanced wine who's rounded tannins provide a smooth slightly spicy finish.  The Inurrieta Cuatrocientos paired excellently with a trio of cheeses, and was great to drink all on its own.

As far as price and where to get it, I'm not sure. I would recommend it if you happen to be having dinner at El Pastor in Pharr, and they have it available. For more information on Inurrieta you can visit: http://www.bodegainurrieta.com/

Celita Sangiovese

Friday night was a small family dinner to celebrate Pris' dad's birthday.  We decided it'd be more cost efficient to celebrate with a small dinner at home rather than going out.  After deciding on some relatively easy and quick items for dinner it was time for Pris and I to select a wine. 

Dinner was skirt steak over spring mix with a home-made lemon/herb vinaigrette.  Some brushcetta, and the roasted tomato/olive dish from earlier in the week.  To go with this Italian themed meal Pris selected a 2009 Celita Sangiovese that my mom gave us from the Wall Street Journal Wine Club.

The Celita was light in color with a light and fruity nose.  There are great berry notes with cherry and other berries.  This is a really smooth wine with loads of red berry on the palate.  The Celita has a great long mellow finish with just a bit of a tang.

This is good little wine that that will go well with a number of lighter summer dishes.  It went great with the Tuscan steak and salad with lemon vinaigrette.   The combination of the light and fruity wine with the citrusy and savory steak was great.  Once again Pris picked a knock out combo.

The Celita 2009 Sangiovese is a Wall Street Journal Wine Club wine, which means you can pretty much only get it through them.  You can order online, or over the phone.  They run $12 a bottle there.  You can find out more at www.wsjwine.com 

Hall: A Simple Name for a Damn Good Wine

So we decided to change things up a little this Sunday.  If you've read a few of the posts you know that Sundays are reserved for steak and a full red wine of some type.  We kept the beef and the full red wine, but changed up the steak.

For dinner I braised beef short ribs in red wine and served it with a cheesy polenta.  Sorry, no pictures this time.  To be fair, it wasn't as photogenic as some of our other meals.  To go with this rich dinner we selected a great Napa Cabernet Sauvignon from Hall.  My brother brought over a bottle of Hall for Thanksgiving last year, and it was exceptional.  We kept the bottle despite not getting to enjoy it as thoroughly as we would have liked.

The 2007 Hall Cabernet Sauvignon is a fantastic full bodied wine.  Its all dark amethyst in the glass with a deep rich fruit nose to match.  Plum, spice, and rich berries all vie for attention on the nose.  The wine is smooth and bold with loads of dark luscious berries, cassis, and even anise on the palate.  Full tannins round out this Cab and give a long full finish.  This is everything one would expect from a fine Napa Cab and more.

The Hall went really well with the wine braised short ribs.  The full flavored Cab was perfect with the rich tender beef that fell off the bone.  I had worried about it being too much wine for the braising, but that wasn't an issue.  On a quick side note, the short ribs were braised in a full bottle of Concha y Toro's Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend.  I know the experts say cook with what you drink, but the Hall was way too good to cook with.  And back in the day Pris and I both drank our fair share of the Conch.  The wine also went well with the polenta which was rich and savory.  I suppose the cup and a half of heavy cream, or the almost cup of parmesan and fontina cheeses had something to do with that.  At any rate, the creamy richness was a great foil to the deep rich fruit of the wine.

I picked up this bottle on sale at H.E.B. in McAllen for about $34.  It usually runs a bit more, but it is worth it.  I know they also carry it at Feldman's, but I don't remember the price.  To find out more about the Hall family of wines you can visit: http://www.hallwines.com/home