Like The Summer of '69 But '13

I'm well aware that I don't have to be back to work for 13 days but I have thoughts, man (and I can always edit this post). And as NWA and Madonna  say, "Express Yourself." So, I give to you my "Best of the Summer, 2013."

I'm also well aware that all of you read this blog religiously for my stellar wine reviews. I know you live and die with my grades and rush out to your nearest wine retailer to either buy by the case or knock over end-caps based on my sophisticated pallet. However, since the start of summer, I've been in 8 states, DC and spent 6 hours at the Dallas Ft. Worth airport and spent time with literally over 100 family members. During this time I have not drank that much wine (GASP!). It's true, big group settings, warm humid weather just hasn't been too conducive to cracking interesting stuff. So, here's the best of everything else.

Best of: Beer

It seems like a good time to be a beer drinker. Everywhere we went people were enjoying local or micro brews. I also noticed that once I got off the west coast, I saw far less IPA's and other hoppy brews. That's good for me.

My favorite beverage was Traveler's Curious shandy. I'm a shandy (beer with lemon) fan but this particular beer out of Vermont is a bit heartier, on the Hefaweisen side than the Leininkugal or Shock Top shandys. And thats a good thing.

Not too far behind that is Short's Brew, "Nicie Spicie." I swear that's an accurate description with "orange zest, lemon zest, coriander & peppercorns"(assuming I knew what a coriander was & tasted like). It really had a nice mild peppery finish. Short's gets the creativity award and I wish I were around the great state of Michigan to sample the likes of "Key Lime Pie," "PB&J Stout," or "S'mores Stout." Click the link. It's pretty interesting!

Best of: Burgers

I had a great lunch in June with my buddy, Ben Hansen at Umami Burger. The Truffle Burger has taken the top spot on my all-time burger list. Unreal. Truffle cheese + truffle sauce = heaven.

I'm calling this a burger but that's understandably up for debate. That there's a pic from Ann Arbor, MI's, Frita Batidos. We stopped for lunch on our way into the state and on the way out. It was that awesome. Both times I ordered a frita, which is "Inspired by traditional Cuban burgers made from spicy chorizo served with shoestring fries on top on a soft egg bun," one with chorizo, the other with fish that came with a "lemon scented mayo," both with the tropical slaw. Delish. It was so good I bought a t-shirt. 

Best of: Ice Cream

This Utica MI, roadside custard stand, which opened in 1942, was rated #1 in the American Airlines magazine I read on our return flight. I can't disagree.

Max, with his Blue Moon custard, doesn't either.

Also in the conversation is Avalon NJ's, "The Buccaneer." They get bonus points for being on the beach, sorry, the shore, the Piano Man playing Keira's request of "Row Row Row Your Boat," and having salted carmel pretzel flavored ice cream. The Buccaneer was home to this shot:

A very satisfied costumer.

Best of: College Campus Visits

The Big House

Max at M Den

Ann Arbor topped the charts. Great town, beautiful campus.

Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA edges out Penn State because of the horrible thunderstorm we were in and because, well, they are, Penn State. 

Best of: The Beach

Newport Beach CA, with the Yak's!

Lake Michigan with the cousins!

Avalon, NJ

Summer 2013 Grade: A

Happy rest of the summer to all!

Cheers! 

Celebrates Lateral Movement

WARNING: What you are about to read has not been edited by my, um, editor. She is on a girls trip in Palm Springs and probably can't see so good at the moment.

Thursday night, however, we pretended Thursdays are the new Friday and cracked something on the nicer side to celebrate the finer things in life.

"This calls for the bubblay!"

I'd been offered a new position at a different site. Same gig, new building, and I was (am) excited about it. So, filet time it became. And with filets (and grilled carrots ((no typo. they're $)), grilled taters, non-grilled tomatoes and corn on the cob) I pulled my last bottle of Minassian-Young from the shelf. Sniff sniff.

Note to self: Time to go to Paso! I know I could order online HERE but I love going up there. Need to get back soon.

Anyway, the last remaining MYV bottle was:

Minassian-Young Vinyards 2009 Black Saint Peter $25
(58% Zinfandel, 24% Mourvedre, 12% Tannat, 6% Cinsault)*


It was absolutely phenomenal. 

Initially, without food, seemed a tad on the sweet side, as a few of their 09 Zins tended to be, but once it opened up and the beef and the veggies and the OH the deliciousness! Rich and ridiculously smooth. 

How this wine, and all of their wines, is only $25 I will never know (unless I ask). But it is some seriously awesome bang for the buck. 

Grade: A-

* Blending percentages were pulled from the MYV website for the 2010 bottling. They may not be accurate for the 2009 Black Saint Peter. 

High Apple Pie In The Sky Hopes

If you were blindfolded there'd be no mistaking the smell permeating from the kitchen from this dish.

That there is shrimp and fish fra diavolo, or so we'll call it. And it was loaded with garlic. 6 cloves worth. And other stuff, but you'd smell garlic.

Anyway, I've been wanting to try this bottle I picked up back in February from Hi Times:

Almirez 2008 Teso de la Monja ($29.95)

The full description said, "Be patient here-this wine is super-powered with a mix of boysenberry, cassis, red licorice, Asian spices and heady floral notes. We used the word, "exotic" three times..." Exotic three time, eh?

Hey-oh!

Hoo-uh

What was George up to anyway? 25 years later, I'm still confused and finally comfortable admitting it. 

Anyway, we decided to whip up this pasta dish with some rappini, or as the fine folks of South Jersey and Philly call it for no reason, Broccoli Rabe. 

The dish gets an A. Easy. If that rolled out at Mama D's, or Villa Nova, or even Joe's Maplewood in beautiful downtown Hammonton, NJ, it still gets an A. Really good stuff. 

Thankfully the wine worked. Not much worse than something being billed as exotic, only for it to not be...exotic. Plus, red sauce is tough to pair with. This worked. Really, really well. Especially with food  but it also also did not disappoint on its own. 

Grade: B+

Beth's Grade: B+

Drinking In The Name Of

One of my employers' commitments is to "focus on the whole child." This weekend, Beth and I made the selfless decision to extend that belief to our weekend activities. We supported a former co-worker's son and his lacrosse team's fundraiser at Eagle Glen Golf Club. 

Go Corona Cavaliers! 

Us, for the kids

Oh, the fundraising event just happened to be a wine tasting event. But, for the kids. Focusing on the whole child.

Of all nights to forget my phone & camera. I wasn't trying to make Beth look like she was auditioning for an Alicia Keys video. THIS GIRL IS ON FIRE! It was after this pic I stopped taking pics. From here out, you'll just have to take my word for it. 

The wines were from people who work for Young's Market Company. They're a distributor of pretty much everything I see when I stroll the wine aisle at Albertson's not distributed by Gallo. I mean, look at this LIST! The wines being poured last night, 40 in all, ranged from Castle Rock, Bogle, Menage A Trois, Sebastiani, 4 Vines, and Hess. 

Technically we did "taste," but it was more of an open wine bar / social scene and I mean that in a good way. I didn't see anyone spitting in the bucket or writing tasting notes. 

Overall, a great night out. And to get to drink for the kids made it even better! Go Cavs! 

And Now, Andy Rooney

And now, Andy Rooney:

Did-ya ever go to a festival or fair that had some vendor selling dips and sauces and had samples available on a cracker or one of those fancy long cracker sticks? Some sellers prefer toothpicks. But if I'm sampling without food as a dipper, I prefer using one of those plastic, small, white spoons.

Just sends a nicer message than something I use to pick meat out of my teeth while typing...

These ladies are at the Upton Chutney Chilli Festival sampling unsanitarily from large community bowls.

I certainly hope they took some Tums first. And I hope they don't blow a hole in their sheets later in the evening. 

My favorite thing to sample at an outdoor festival is barbecue sauce. I've found it's pretty hard to screw it up. Even the rather unattractive creations, like mustard-pineapple seemed decent enough on a Wheat Thin. 

I once ate so many mini bread sticks dunked in a variety of barbecue sauces that I felt obligated to buy an over priced bottle. 

It's still sitting on my pantry shelf. 

I think Riesling is similar to barbecue sauce. Some are little better than others. I can certainly tell a difference from one to the next.  But, really, it all tastes pretty good. 

Just this past week, my wife stocked up on a few familiar labels, like J Lohr and:

We even opened the 2011 version of an old favorite Saturday to go along with clams and linguini:

It was a fine meal. Though I found the Monchhof a bit too lively and syrupy.

She also stumbled upon this little gem at BevMo:

For under $8.00, I think we found our summer Riesling, and it's not even May! It was very soft, smooth, not too sweet with a kind honey finish. 

I'm really not sure why so many people try to sell their Riesling at higher prices. Probably to keep the riff-raf drinking something else. Like Charles Shaw. Or Boone's Farm. 

With barbecue sauce, I know I'm perfectly fine with never going for the Stubbs on the top shelf. Sweet Baby Ray's suites me just fine. 

I also know that when I retire, I'm going to pursue the safest job in America: a barbecue sauce flavored Riesling maker. 

Join us next week for another addition of "60 Minutes."

Hear Ye!

2011 Garnacha de Fuego Old Vines ($6.99) 
92 Points - Robert Parker

I cooled on this wine as I was not a fan of the '10. I picked up the 2011 a month ago and was really, really impressed. On my next Total Wine trip, I was disappointed to find they were sold out of the 2011. Thankfully, last week, Hi Times had plenty.

Just finished a bottle and gotta say, I dare any of you to find a better wine, not only under $7, but under $15, maybe $20. Pats on my own back for loving it before Parker validated my opinion.

Really nice dark fruit flavor and a super long spicy, racy finish. Wow. Real nice!

Seriously, at $6.99, stock up!

Grade: B+

The Man in Black

I had big plans, man. BIG plans. Here, take a listen to get ya in the mood: 

We decided Saturday was gonna be salmon night. Which was a deliberate move on my part to crack the bottle of:

Black Kite 2010 Pinot Noir Kite's Rest ($45) 

Note my awesome photo skillz. On the left, no flash; on the right, yep, flash. See the bird's eyes? Cool, huh?

But before we got to cracking (literally) this bottle, I decided to finish up this bottle that we started Thursday night.

Little Black Dress 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon ($7.99)

There was nothing special, or wrong for that matter, with this bottle. But because it had "Black" in the title, the lightbulb went off, and BAM, figured I had an idea for a 2nd post in a week. 

The song in my head quickly shifted from Johnny Cash's badassness to

Because when I went to pull off the foil, I did this:

Yikes! This was a first. Before I go bragging about my super powers which include the ability to pull apart glass, I must admit, a few months ago I was rearranging bottles in my super small wine fridge. and because this is a fat Pinot bottle, when I pulled out the bottle below it, this bottle tumbled out. Nothing cracked, nothing spilled so I thought I was in good shape. Fast forward to Saturday night and I rip off the top of the bottle. Coincidence? I didn't think so either. I really do have super powers. Add that to your list of things you like about me. 

So now we have a decision to make. Salmon's almost ready and I've only got one bottle in mind to pair with it. Based on the facts: it was a clean break, no glass anywhere, no wine spilled, and it's a really nice bottle of Pinot that I've wanted to open for a while, we made the responsible choice to go ahead and drink it. I put the little screen filter thing in the wine aerator just in case, but it was all for not. The wine was fine. Thankfully. 

It really was a fantastic, big berry Pinot. Definitely lived up to the hype. I probably would've enjoyed it even more if I weren't thinking every sip could be my last, but even under that pressure, I liked it a lot. 

Grade: A-