The Wine Post

I told Shannon I'd had a great sparkling shiraz over the weekend. "Do you ever drink anything but Australian Shiraz?" was his reply. I do! So here are some recent faves, for my Ann Arbor readership.

2004 Whitehall Lane Merlot- WS 90
Whitehall Lane was one of our favorite wineries when we visited Napa on our honeymoon. We don't drink a lot of merlot, but theirs is always good so we thought we'd go for it. We ate it with grilled pizzas topped with rotisserie chicken, mushrooms and gorgonzola cheese. It paired well.

Lenoble Champagne Brut - Corkscrew Club
So good! We had it with sushi, of course. Very dry and crisp, but still complex with plenty of fruit and a touch of oak. I wish I could afford this on a regular basis!

2006 Amano Fiano-Greco
Chip and Roy had this at the tasting they accidentally went to on Chloe's birthday. Great Wines was doing Italian wines in honor of the Ides of March. This bottle is inexpensive and very easy to drink- there is a lot of lemon and honey. Very different and very good. I think we'll have it a lot in the future, based on the price. ($12 I think?)

2006 Rosenblum Contra Costa County Zinfandel
I wanted to make lamb burgers that I'd seen Giada make- ground lamb, parm-regg and basil for the burgers, then wrap each patty with a slice of proscuitto and cook them in a skillet. I made some mashed potatoes too because chips felt a little too pedestrian with such a fancy burger. Chip picked out this zin to go with the meal. The burgers were great, and paired well with the wine. I've had better zins, but it was certainly a solid bottle, like you would expect from Rosenblum. I really just wanted to describe that meal.

Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut- WS 90
This is good and creamy with a long finish. (That's what she said!) I think I'm going to bring this to Carrie's shower this weekend.

2006 Frank Family Vineyards Chardonnay
This is a really complex, well-balanced chardonnay. It seems like all the chards I look at are either $12 or $4o, so it was nice to find a good one for around $27. Sometimes it's a crap shoot trying to find a California chardonnay that's not too oaky, so I will definitely go back to this one. Chip didn't write down what we ate with it, but I think it was some kind of pasta.

2005 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett S.A. Prum- WS 92
I wrote down everything on the label since I don't understand the German. I really liked this, but it could be more balanced. Chip wrote down "sweetness and richness cover the structure for now, but there's a bright acidity underneath." Maybe it needs time in the bottle- I'll need Shannon's ruling on that one. I love the kabinetts-when I say I could replace water with wine in my diet, this is what I'm talking about. We drank it with sushi.

2006 Mollydooker Blue Eyed Boy Shiraz- WS 92
A big Australian shiraz! I made filet mignon stuffed with blue cheese and served with applewood smoked bacon mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. It was all awesome- just a huge, intense wine, pretty much exactly what you'd expect a higher-end Australian shiraz to taste like. If I were rich, this would be my house wine. Yummy!

Here's my new favorite recipe for an appetizer to eat while drinking Sancerre and cooking the main course:
4 oz goat cheese
1/4 cup ricotta
Basil
Lemon zest
S&P
Combine the above and toast a baguette for dipping
So simple and so perfect with a sauvignon blanc!

Although there is a good chance that was all bs.