Although there are a lot of very good reasons to drink wine, my favorite reason is as a compliment to a meal. Actually that is my second favorite reason. My first reason would be any time I get to enjoy the companionship of the Single Guy Chef (SGC). Since it is so seldom, it is always a cause for celebrating and therefore wine.
Speaking of the Chef, the other day he asked me for some recommendations for everyday white house wines. Among those recommendations was German Riesling. I love German wines. I enjoy them when they are sweet (Spatelese/Auslese) or dry (Kabinett). But above all my friends, they are wonderful with most any food. Ok, maybe the spicier the better; but take the SGC’s last carrot soup recipe. That pesto he puts in there would pair perfectly with a Riesling. Oh yeah!
So, how about a 2006 Schlink Haus Riesling that is currently widely available. Pale yellow in color, the light nose is a grand opening to wonderful fruits and light honey. The finish is very, very long. Is it a great wine? No. Is it a very good wine? Yes, yes yes! And are you ready for the price? How about less than ten bucks? I’ve seen it as low as $6.50. Much too cheap for serious winos, but not for me and I can’t think of a better wine to start off the spring of 2008 – with or without food. Let us raise our glasses to the daffodils
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When we first arrived in China, I decided that it was wine hell and wanted to leave immediately. The selection was limited and the prices were ridiculous. I spent weeks trying to find ways to import what I wanted, but that didn’t pan out. Of course, I was certain there were no good Chinese wines. That much was obvious. 
I was wrong. One day, I was in a wine store in a Nanjing shopping mall (you can see how desperate I was). The owner showed me all of his overpriced French and Australian wines. Finally, I asked him for the best Chinese red wine he had. Surprisingly, he didn’t take me to the most expensive bottle. He pointed me to a 2001 Grace Vineyards Premium Cabernet Merlot (RMB123 - about 15 bucks). I bought one bottle and avoided opening it for a few weeks because I didn’t want to ruin a night with some rancid grapes. We finally opened it and were really impressed. This was a great bottle of wine. It was our house wine until we exhausted the local supply (we’ve moved on to the 2003 vintage which is also very good). Grace Vineyards is a winery in Shanxi province started by a Hong Kong entreprenuer. The business is run by his daughter and a smart French guy handles the vines and the wines.
I’d like to give you a really detailed review of all the nuances of this wine, but I don’t have a golden pallet like that marriedWineGuy. If my wife didn’t drink all of the 2001, I’ll bring MWG a bottle and see what he thinks. Check back in a few weeks.
In any case, if you’re in China or your local wine shop has a Chinese section (yeah, right), head straight for the Grace Vineyards. The Tasya’s Reserve Cabernet Franc is excellent as well.
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So what wine would you drink with the cabbage rolls your mother sent you home with from your visit earlier this week?……………Times up. It was something I had to take a few minutes to consider myself.
Let’s see, you’ve got cooked cabbage, stuffed with a meat and rice mixture, covered with a tomato and carrot concoction. That’s a lot of different flavors.
Let’s try a 2001 Pinot Noir from Porter Creek, a little known vineyard in the Russian River Valley of California. We paid about $32.00 for this wine in 2003 while visiting the winery. We loved it in the tasting room and I’m sad to say that this was our last bottle. I chose the pinot because I didn’t want to drink anything that was actually going to compete with all of these delicious home-cooked flavors. The wine had to be a background to the flavors of the dish. I think this is true of most wine/food pairings; this one especially.
Porter Creek makes such wonderful Pinots. They start with a dark and fruity nose and a first taste of light jam-berry followed by some slight peppery bits and a stunning and long finish at the end. Again this is in contrast with the sharp though delicious cabbage rolls. Now I don’t often challenge the singleGuyChef and I don’t even know if he’s ever made cabbage rolls. But if he does and wants to do a taste test, well, my money’s on mom.
You’re not likely to get your hands on the 2001 vintage of a Porter Creek Pinot Noir, again they’re just a little winery tucked back on a winding road making stellar Pinots. They are currently offering their 2004 vintage at $65.00. That’s a lot of money for a bottle of wine. While there are a lot of overpriced California wines at this price, this isn’t one of them. I haven’t tasted 2004 but I will confidently recommend it to you. Enjoy.
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I should tell you that I am an optimistic wine drinker. I expect every bottle to be at least good. And in fact, nowadays, most wines are good. 
There is much more constancy in wines than in days of old. This does not mean that outstanding wines are not being created. I think it does mean that a lot of good wines are.
The Roshambo Winery in and around the Russian River Valley in California is a very good winery. I can’t say that they’ve made any outstanding wines, but they have made very good wines. They are an irreverent winery. They host ‘goth-like’ parties. They have wild art displayed on their tasting room walls. They are a bunch of punks and they know it. But, and here is the important part, they have fun making and selling good wines.
Their 2001 Petite Sirah is a very good wine. It’s almost black in the glass. The nose is black-cherry like. Your first sample will hit the tip of your tongue with nice full fruit. Mid-palate are some fairly complex plumy flavors with some light peppery notes. The finish is not especially long and trails off nicely.
I offer this wine because I was tasting it as I was reading singleGuyChef’s Grilled Lamb Chops with Chick Pea and Rosemary Ragout recipe that he posted on June 4, 2007. Why oh why didn’t he invite me over? This is the perfect wine for the dish. Its fruit would go perfectly with the lamb. The Rosemary Ragout would bring out the herbal notes in the wine. Asparagus? Oh yeah. Baby potatoes? Certainly. This would have been a great addition to what looked like a great recipe. And knowing, him…it was a great recipe.
I don’t know if you’ll find a bottle of this in the store, after all, it is six years old. It went for around fifteen dollars when we bought it; don’t pass up a purchase of a Roshambo wine. They’re irreverent and they make good wines too.
We couldn’t find the label for the wine so we’re putting up Roshambo’s rule#1. It shows how this winery feels about drinking wine and is a great rule to go by. Learn more about Roshambo’s other rules.
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I would be lying if I didn’t say that I originally picked up this bottle of Angove’s 2006 Nine Vines Rose’ because of its beautiful color. Then, when I read that it was made from Grenache and Shiraz grapes, I had to taste it.
I was not disappointed and you won’t be either. It’s really quite a mouthful of fruit. I don’t mean a fruit bomb, I just mean a pleasant flavor of…oh I don’t know, I’ll say strawberry…but I don’t mean like biting into a strawberry, I mean just a light “straw-frutiness” that is very enjoyable. I DO NOT MEAN TO IMPLY THAT THIS WINE IS SWEET – PLEASE KEEP READING OR YOU ARE GOING TO MISS OUT ON AN INCREDIBLE WINE FOR RIGHT AROUND TEN BUCKS.
Sorry about those caps, but some people hear rosé and fruit and they just shut down. Thanks for not being one of those people. Rosé wines get such a bad rap, mainly because of the white-zinfandel craze years ago, but they can be lovely (yes, that’s the right word) and reasonably priced.
Angove’s Nine Vines Rosé has very good acid and is wonderfully balanced (this is the key to all good rose’ wines). It would be great as an opening wine when singleGuyChef is serving those neat little appetizers he somehow just magically throws together. It would be delicious with some kind of spicy shrimp dish; it would stand up nicely to a green salad with herbs and a dressing that is just a tad sweet. Sure it would be perfect on the deck on a hot summer afternoon. But it would be more perfect after dinner when the dishes are piled high in the sink and, instead of dragging out yet another port or ice-wine, you offer your dinner companion(s) a glass of this refreshing South Australian beauty. Drink this wine now or in the next year (and again, sorry about those caps).
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Let’s start out by saying that drinking a five year-old chardonnay from California is always chancy. These wines, along with Zinfandels, are best drunk young; in their first 2 or 3 birthdays. Rutherford Hill’s 2002 Chardonnay breaks this rule. In fact this wine is good for at least another two years; I don’t care what anyone says. Very light, with a tint of green in color, this wine has a very nice chardonnay-like nose (sniff, sniff). It does not come on strong, but at mid-palate it says, “Hello, how are you?” This is a very smooth (but not too) wine with excellent citrus tones. Overall this is an excellent California chardonnay. The guys and gals at Rutherford Hill should stand proud.
We had this with cod (we’ve been on a fish kick lately) with a dill/cucumber/Greek (is there any other kind) yogurt sauce. It went especially well with a garden and herb salad topped with garlic/apple-cider vinaigrette. A more creamy sauce would over-power this wine. Be careful; but not too careful.
The singleGuyChef would say this is a perfect aperitif. I wouldn’t since I don’t use words with four syllables (except vinaigrette). Enjoy.
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Light straw in color, the 2005 Pinot Grigio from Luna Vineyards of Napa Valley is a mouthful. Although the nose is quite light, a sip brings forth some great lemon flavors highlighted by a good amount of acid (think ‘crisp’). It is the finish - that last essence of taste – that becomes exciting. All of the fruit comes forward; it is almost sweet.
Think summer fish; we enjoyed this white with salmon stuffed with crab, sided with green beans mixed with fresh mint leaves (a simple Friday evening dinner). The singleGuyChef could also pair this with one of his tasty creamy sauces. Yeah, a nice pasts dish would suit this wine well.
Luna is a small winery known for picking their grapes at night, hence the name. But do we really care? We are just thankful that they fermented these grapes in French Oak barrels for seven months which lends it a complexity from start to finish.
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The words ‘clean’ and ‘chardonnay’ don’t go together as often as they should when describing chardonnay wines from California. That’s too bad. Although heavily oaked/buttery chards can be very appealing, they become a difficult food wine for me. What a joy to bump in Kendall Jackson’s 2005 Grand Reserve Chardonnay. It’s clean (there’s that wonderful word again), flavorful (a little citrus), and very drinkable. If I told you that this is a great hot summer afternoon/early evening wine you might think that it is simple and inelegant. So, for heaven’s sake do not drink this on a hot summer afternoon or early evening.
At 45 bucks this would be a good buy. At the sub $15 price that I found it at, well around here we call that astounding! I don’t know how many cases of this wine were made, but Kendall Jackson is a mighty big wine-maker so it should be widely available. If you find it at Jackson’s $20 list price, I would still tell you to by six bottles – it’s that good.
This is a wine that would go great with most of SingleChefGuy’s Thai dishes, any of his recipes with the word ‘Asian’ in the title, and certainly his May 15, 2007 Ahi Tuna recipe. I don’t know what’s coming up, but if he decides to grill a nice thick hamburger with gorgonzola cheese on it, in it, or around it, I’m pulling out a bottle of this Kendall Jackson and sitting down with a smile on my face.
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ah….. what goes with grilled oysters - SGC (singleguychef) put together two eclectic, widely different recipes - one zesty mango, one asian vinaigrette salsa - how could any wine taste right with these two concoctions - well, lets taste them - my first thought was muscadet … dry, crystal-clean white from france - but, mais non, i thought maybe a touch of clean fruit would marry with the spicy hints, where pure muscadet might prove too simple - well, it worked …. magnifique - really the french sauvignon blanc brought us right into the purity of the oyster, and the light, silvery hint of semillion/muscadelle sweetness married flawlessly with both of the sauces - it really is a simple, and perfect food-wine experience that doesn’t take a genius or wine nerd to appreciate
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