wine school

As a lover of all things wine, and in particular Chardonnay, I was super-excited to hone my tasting skills when a local wine bar announced they were starting wine school! What I realized after class #1 is....

my tasting skills suck.

Does anyone know what a "wet meadow" tastes like? How about leather? Or tar. Seriously? TAR?

So, there are clearly numerous nuances you can detect in a glass of wine. Here's the starter list for red wine:
Berry - strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, currant
Tree Fruit - red cherry, black cherry, plum
Dried Fruit - jam, raisin, prune
Floral - violet, rose petal, lilac
Herbal - bell pepper, olive, sage, mint, anise, tobacco
Earth - mushroom, tar, truffle (here's where the good ole wet meadow comes in...or perhaps barnyard - yum)
Meat -  smoked meat, bacon, leather
Spice - cinnamon, clove, black pepper, white pepper
Wood - vanilla, oak, smoke, toast
Other - chocolate, coffee

Now, not every wine will have every one of these elements. But I may have to start licking, smelling or eating some of these things in order to be able to smell them in my Cabernet!

cold weather and warm meals

Our pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving was a wild success! We had 14 for dinner and fit everyone comfortably. Whew! I set two tables-one for six with black and white transfer ware atop plain white Crate & Barrel plates, accented with chocolate brown and silver; and one for eight with crystal candlewick atop deep red and white transfer ware, also with chocolate brown and silver. Glimmering and gorgeous! But no pictures. So sad.

But the stars of the evening were all the lovely and delicious dishes our friends brought. Highlights include homemade (a la Alton Brown) Green Bean Casserole. Which, in my humble opinion, is the only GBC anyone should ever eat! A dee-lish mushroom-infused dressing to accommodate our vegetarian friend, and the best damn gravy you can imagine. Choppers deep fried two turkeys. Wonderful. Oh, did I mention the pumpkin cheesecake with homemade whipped cream? Heaven.

For my part, I made my soon-to-be famous Spicy/Sweet mixed nuts (thank you Nigella!) and to-die-for caramelized onion chip dip (thank you Ina Garten!).

Last weekend was a perfect kick-off to our cold weather entertaining. There's something about a little chill in the air, just enough to warrant a cozy fire; big snowflakes lazily falling outside; a good meal (like the one in the oven right now), and of course...a bottle of Chardonnay!

Tonight's feature is a yummy Gallo Sonoma Reserve Chardonnay. Make no mistake, this is not your mother's "gallon of Gallo", or "jug of joy". It's quite nice. A good value. And it has all my favorites - oak, vanilla, butter.

The only problem is that we're having a Mexican fiesta tonight. Slow roasted pork studded with garlic and semi-spicy seasonings. I'm sure this is not the "proper" bottle of wine to serve with this meal. But I love it nevertheless.

I am open to suggestions though. Please, do tell...what would you pair with Mexican fiesta?