My Heart "Wines" For You!

With Christmas and New Years are behind us, it is now time to think about the most ROMANTIC holiday of the year - Valentine's Day!  Are you looking for a nice wine or a wine-related gift to give your sweetheart?  Here are a few on-line stores that offer a huge assortment of wonderful items for that special person in your life.

There are a host of wineries and other gift shops that offer, not only deals on wines for this special day, but offer baskets that pair wines with various cheeses, chocolates and crackers!   Last year, I purchased a set of small bottles of Papapietro Perry wines that were paired with chocolates.  It was a very  nice way to try several PP wines, without going overboard!  It was our own little wine tasting!

During my research for the best wine gifts, I first found that winecountrygiftbaskets.com offers a variety of Valentine's Day wine baskets pairing wine (sparkling or non, red or white) and chocolate, crackers or a combination of both!  Also, for non-wine drinkers, they offer coffee and tea baskets, as well as baskets for breakfast in bed!  Chocolates include Ghirardelli and Godiva, and Oreos are offered too! Some baskets even come with a darling stuffed bear.  Depending on the basket, shipping may be free!

The next site that I found to have wonderful gifts was wine.com.  Through wine.com, you can buy single bottles or multiple bottles of wine, or gift baskets!  Chocolates available include, Godiva, Brix and Ghirardelli.  I found a beautiful decanter, pictured below, whose handle is shaped like a heart!  Also, with your first order of $49 or more, you only pay one cent for shipping!

If you would like a personalized gift, I would suggest redenvelope.com.  I have purchased several things from Red Envelope, and have always been pleased.  This company has unique personalized gifts, such as a personalized wine cellar sign, personalized lazy susan, or an all-inclusive picnic backpack, just to name a few.  Red Envelope also carries wine baskets, as well!

Interested in something really unique?  How about designing your own wine label for your honey?  If you go to personalwine.com, you can design your own wine label and select your own wine!  The web site seems extremely user friendly and production takes approximately ten days.  You can buy individually or in bulk, or you can just buy the labels!  In addition, etchinexpression.com will etch a beautiful design with your special message right onto a wine bottle!  This is a wonderful keepsake that makes a beautiful decoration after the wine has been enjoyed!

There are plenty of other wine-related gift ideas for the wine lover in your life.  A personalized wine tote with a heavy duty corkscrew would be a great idea!  How about a membership to a wine club, it is the gift that keeps on giving!

If you are the creative sort, make your own wine basket tailored to your special person!  Buy a bottle or  two of their favorite wine, crackers, chocolates, a candle, a couple of nice glasses and a red rose for good measure!  Put all the items in a basket, or a large wine box or tote and put a bow on it.  I guarantee that it will be a hit!

Happy Valentine's Day!

(Image from corkjoy.com)

Cheers!
Mary Jo

Wine Word of the Week



Brix - A scale used to measure the sugar content of grapes before harvest or unfermented grape must. This scale can help to estimate the alcohol level in the finished wine.

Pigs and Pinot

     The weather has definitely taken on a chill. The season for backyard BBQ’s has passed. So the Winos and their husbands needed to move dinner inside and we were looking for a twist on a traditional dinner party. My husband and I had read about an annual event in Healdsburg, CA, called “Pigs and Pinot” which is held at Hotel Healdsburg and Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen. It looks and sounds like an awesome event that also raises money for charity events, but we all live 2,000 miles away. Lucky for us, Wino Lisa’s husband is a fantastic cook and is a wiz with his backyard pit. So it seemed only logical that we invite some wine loving friends over and try our “Pigs and Pinot”.

     We invited our friends to all bring a bottle of their favorite Pinot for a blind tasting to begin the evening, and what a treat that was. We had wine from California, Oregon, and New Zealand.

The lineup was:

·         Craggy Range Single Vineyard, Martinborough, New Zealand 2009

·         Talley Vineyards, Arroyo Grande Valley, California 2009

·         MacPhail Frattey Shams Vineyard, Healdsburg, California 2009

·         Winderlea Estate, Dundee Hills, Oregon 2007

·         Sequana Santa Lucia Highlander, California 2009

·         Domaine Drouhin, Willamette Valley Oregon 2008

·         Papapietro-Perry Nunes Vineyard, Russian River Valley, California 2009

    

     My husband, Mike, was the Master of Ceremonies for the blind tasting. We all received a scorecard, a blue chip for our first place vote, a red chip for a second place vote, and a white chip for our third place choice. Appetizers were passed during the tasting, pig inspired of course, including water chestnuts wrapped in bacon and drizzled with Maple syrup and Asian pork skewers with Portabella mushrooms. Both were a great match for the Pinots! As we tasted we wrote our impressions on a tasting card spending about five to ten minutes on each wine. After tasting all seven wines, we picked a first, second, and third place winner and awarded the wines accordingly. A first place vote was worth 3 points, a second place vote was 2 points, and a third place vote received one point. All agreed it was tough picking winners because we enjoyed all of the wines, but the Grand Champion was the Sequana Santa Lucia Highlander.

    

     Next it was on to dinner! Bart prepared the majority of the meal in his pit outside and it was all delicious. We enjoyed Pork Brozol in tomato sauce (a chef Bart creation), homemade smoked sausage, baby back ribs, and chopped pork shoulder with a choice of Carolina sauce or a Texas Red Sauce. On the side there was a cold green bean salad, Dutch oven potatoes, baked squash with cheese and breadcrumbs, and a tomato, cucumber, mozzarella salad with Balsamic dressing, and a homemade flatbread with Parmesan cheese. We enjoyed a lovely Meiomi Pinot Noir with dinner. If you had room for dessert there was Blue Bell ice cream with Papaya and a chocolate covered bacon stake.

     Great wine, delicious food and wonderful friends-it doesn’t get any better than that! So grab a few friends, a nice bottle of wine and enjoy.

Cheers,

Beth

 Wine Word(s) of the Day

"Dry"vs "Sweet" -in wine terms "dry" refers to wine without residual sugar. In the wine making process,  fermentation usually turns all the sugar in ripe grapes into alcohol.  Therefore, "sweet" wines may be only 5-6% alcohol and "dry' wines may be 13-15% alcohol.