Friday Evening Wine Club

What a nice way to start off the weekend.   We had a surprise for FEWC this week… Scott and Amy’s son Seth and his wife Stephanie came by.  They were in town to celebrate a late Christmas with Seth’s family.  They were married this past year and live in Iowa  ( the proud Iowa Chapter of FEWC).

Here is a picture of all the wines we opened:

We started with the Qupe, a 2008 Syrah from California.  I thought that after 9 years this would be excellent.  However, it was far from terrific.  I thought it had an unpleasant turpentine flavor.  Even though we decanted it and let it breath for 90 minutes, we found that it still needed more time.

Next was Cooper’s Hawk Collaboration, a red blend that I had kept for a few years.  It was much more fruit forward and ready to drink than the Qupe.  We all liked it.

Then we opened the 2013 Sebastiani Cab.  Everyone loved this well balanced wine!  Sebastiani has become one of our favorite Vineyards from California.

Then we headed to France with a 2014 Chateau Gloria, from St Julien.  We all had some fun when both Janet and Amy said they were getting dogsh*t on the nose.  Merde!  Neither Scott nor Lenny could detect that scent and happily consumed most of the bottle.

Lastly, in an effort to start drinking older wines from the cellar, we opened a 2010 Napa Cab from Sean Minor.  It was delightful.  A great representation of a top notch Napa Valley Cabernet.

Of course, Janet made sure that nobody went hungry with a tasty array of crackers, cheese and some “foo foo” breadsticks.  Once again, FEWC made everything right with the world.

 

Happy New Year!   Friday Evening Wine Club braved the freezing Chicago-area temperatures and gathered together for some pizza, salad and some very tasty reds.

First on the list was Torbreck Cuvée Juveniles 2013, a red blend from Australia’s Barossa Valley, which was described by some as fruit-forward and reminded other members of Pinot Noir, especially on the nose.  It provided a slightly sweet beginning, and then filled the mouth with a smooth, satisfying flavor, just dry enough, but not too pucker-provoking.

As we dug into pizza, we opened the second bottle,  San Felice Chianti Classico Reserva il Grigio 2012.  It provided everything you would expect from a good bottle of Chianti, with some cherry tones and a bit of earthiness.       It certainly paired well with the pizza!

Several months ago, we had an opportunity to try some Aglianico, a red blend from Italy, as the  featured wine in a New York Times Wine School dinner.  We liked it a lot.  Fortunately, Scott remembered how much we liked it and voila… our third tasting was a 2014 Terradora Aglianico. This one is a keeper!  Great call, Scott.

All in all, it was a nice way to stay warm on a cold Chicago Friday.

Thankfully, we all survived the Holidays!  Lot’s of eating, drinking and fun.  We had an opportunity to drink a lot more sparkling wine than usual.

I would like to mention one in particular that I think is very impressive.  That would be the Blanc de Noir, by Gruet. 

This is a bright, refreshing sparkler that has all the nuances of a good French champagne, but it is made  right here in the USA in, of all places, New Mexico!  For about $15 you can’t go wrong.

The past year has been a good one for FEWC.  With our usual fun weekly get- togethers, interspersed with BYOB dinners, New York Times wine school dinners and, of course, a trip to France, we have been quite busy!

Now we look forward to a terrific 2018, with many good bottles of wine to discover.   I ran across an article in the Chicago Tribune by their wine critic, Michael Austin.  He made some suggestions that sounded like good advice.  Here is the link to the article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/sc-food-wine-resolutions-1229-story.html

I hope you enjoy it.  Let me know what you think.

So pour yourself a glass of wine, raise it high and let’s have a toast,

“To 2018, may we all have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!”

Sorry this is so late, but I wanted to mention that we held our meeting at Scott and Amy’s house and it was delightful!  With only a few days before Christmas, I think we all had finished most of the shopping and were ready for a nice relaxing night.

Being so close to Christmas, I felt it would be nice to have a wine that brought up memories of our  trip to France, so we opened a 2006 Chateaux Leoville Poyferre, which is the chateaux that we visited while in Bordeaux with Will & Thea and Will’s family.  It was such a beautiful place and we had such a wonderful tour and tasting there… I thought it would be nice to reminisce about how fortunate we have been this past year.  With Amy’s usual delicious selection of cheese and fruit offerings, it was almost like being back in France.

But just like with the vacation, we eventually returned to the USA.  Scott opened a  bottle of Duckhorn Cabernet and brought us back to California.  It was a very nice wine and so was the whole evening.

FEWC would like to say Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends.  So pop open a bottle of your favorite bubbly, sing some Christmas Carols and have a great time!

Busy schedules…. hopefully FEWC will be back on track once Christmas is over.

So have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year… drink some good wine with friends and family!

Just a few of the goodies that needed to be washed down with wine.  Scott and Amy enjoying a Malbec/Cabernet blend from Mendoza.

Sometimes our busy lives get in the way of drinking wine.

Hopefully, that will be remedied this coming Friday.

FEWC made some progress catching up with the New York Times Wine School Dinners.  On Friday the 17th, Janet and Lenny hosted a combined NYT dinner featuring 2 types of wine:  Blaufrankisch, an Austrian red and Croizes-Hermitage, a French red from the northern Rhone Valley.

Before dinner we started with the Blaufrankisch, a 2012 from Wachter-Wiesler.  Before sitting down for dinner, Janet brought out stuffed mushrooms to whet our appetites.   They paired nicely with the wine.  The NYT wine critic claims that these wines are “spicey, peppery, fruity reds”.  I’m not sure any of the FEWC members would describe it that way.  By looking at this wine in the glass, you might think it was a Pinot Noir,  same consistency and color.  However, the taste left us feeling a bit flat.  It was OK, but nothing to write home about.

After sitting for dinner,  Janet brought out a first course of fresh beet salad with green onions, olive oil and lemon juice.  Delightful!  By then it was time to try the Croizes-Hermitage.  We actually had 3 different bottles: one by Papillon, one by E. Guigal and another by Pittnauer.   The main course was a European style veal stew with onions, carrots and white wine.   Amy brought a loaf of artisan french bread for sopping up the gravy and we were in business. It was delicious!

The wines seemed to go fine with these two courses, however, the meal was the star of the show… not the wine.

We topped it all off with a mixed berry tart, a nice, light treat for desert.

This was the first time we had tried any of these types of wine (that’s the great thing about the NYT dinners).  Janet liked the Croizes-Hermitage better than the Blaufrankisch.  While these wines were fine with the dinner, I’m not sure any of us would actively seek them out again.

As usual, we had a wonderful FEWC evening.