Cabernet Franc

The Wino spent a rainy Labor Day holiday in Lake Chelan, Washington. It rained cats and dogs all weekend long. So the Wino did what any smart boozer would do - she went wine tasting in Chelan's budding wine country.

One wine in particular stood out. A Cabernet Franc from Benson Vineyards. It was delicious. Dark, savory-sweet and peppery, with a vegetal taste of green pepper, which is the distinction of many Washington State Wines, but also for many Cabernet Franc wines.

So intrigued by this varietal, the Wino decided to do a little research. What is Cabernet Franc?

Cabernet Franc, is believed to have been established in the Libournais region of southwest France sometime in the 17th century. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone. It is very similar to Cabernet Sauvignon and its DNA indicates that the Cabernet Franc grape was crossed with Sauvignon Blanc to create Cabernet Sauvignon. (Thank you Wikipedia.)

Fellow boozers, the Wino encourages you to purchase a bottle of Cabernet Franc and taste it. What are your impressions? Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.

Cheers,
The Wino

What? No wine?

The Wino is passionate about wine. It's true. But she also enjoys a cocktail now and then just like any other prudent boozer. In fact, yesterday she brazenly consumed 2 Manhattan cocktails at a local drinking establishment, the Twilight Exit. She greedily slurped down these drinks as if it was whiskey that she admires instead of her beloved wine.

Well, que sera sera, fellow boozers. The Wino really enjoyed her Manhattans and is not ashamed one bit.

The Wino would like to mention that her Manhattan was superb. The bartender "Shira" is not only incredibly nice and lacking in hipster-laden arrogance, she is an amazing mixologist and knows how to make a damn good Manhattan. She also knows to ask how you want it made---which most bartenders reserve for the ubiquitous martini.

Who would have thought that a Manhattan made at an unassuming local bar, known more for its cheap beer and ambrosia-like tater tots, would boast such a gem of a bartender?

In short, fellow boozers, have a cocktail. And have one made at the Twilight Exit by Shira. And if you can still stand after the third cocktail (because the Wino knows you can't just have one), order some tater tots. You won't be sorry.

Cheers.

Fête Nationale

Where has the Wino's mind been? She totally forgot to mention that it's Bastille Day in France. Mon Dieu! The Wino recommends grabbing a friend and doing the following:

• un: Pop open a bottle of French sparkler and pour yourself a glass or deux. The Wino suggests Louis Bouillot. Fabuleux!
• deux: Read up on Bastille Day on Wikipedia.
• trois: Listen to some music by France's First Lady, Carla Bruni.
• quatre: Translate a few English phrases to French. Helloooo Yahoo Babelfish (translate like it's 1996, boozers).
• cinq: Open a second bottle of Louis Bouillot. Délicieux!

Tout de suite, fellow boozers! Tout de suite!

The Wino Goes to Lunch

The Wino took herself out to lunch yesterday. She figured that since she has taken a 20% pay cut at work and bounced several checks over the past month, it was the perfect occasion to treat herself to a ridiculously expensive lunch. Wearing an all black outfit, which she thought looked sleek but realized later that she looked more like a Sephora employee, The Wino found herself at Barolo in downtown Seattle about 12:10 p.m. on an overcast July afternoon.

During her dining experience, The Wino consumed two of the most lovely glasses of Sangiovese with her veal carpaccio and arugula salad, which I might add made her forget all about her ill-chosen outfit. The Sangiovese was, "Rubio", San Polo, 2006

On Snooth.com Mr. Gregory Dal Piaz said, "This 100% Sangiovese from the San Polo estate in Montalcino is redolent of dried herbs, blackberries, ash and chocolate shavings. Easily styled in the mouth with bright acid highlighting the cranberry and black raspberry fruit and soft tannins giving the wine a gentle mouth filling quality. There is a nice touch of spice on the finish and a cleansing quality that makes this perfect with a few rich Italian sausages or tomato based dishes."

Thank you Mr. Dal Piaz. The Wino appreciates your expertise as she has none. This wine, according to various Internet sources (it's called Google, fellow boozers, stop whining and type it in) is priced at around $12. At Barolo, where the Wino was lunching, it was a hefty $11 per glass. (Apparently, Barolo is killing it on wine.) The Wino is not sure where in the Emerald City one can find this lovely wine by the bottle sans the ridiculous per-glass price. One might check Esquin. The Wino expects she will be attempting to track down this wine herself over the next couple of weeks. She could go for a glass, or better yet, an entire bottle, right this very minute as she slouches at her desk and contemplates another work day filled with demoralizing tasks.

Cheers!

Wine is Not Good for Dieting

The Wino is on a diet. Unfortunately, her attempts to learn about wine have led to drinking wine. Drinking wine leads to eating slabs of triple creme brie, cheese burgers, and half gallons of chocolate ice cream. Drinking wine and eating onion rings every day leads to The Wino having difficulty in getting her pants on.

The Wino does not want to wear a mu mu. The Wino wants to look fabulous in white pants and laugh uproariously at your jokes while drinking expensive wine on a yacht in Greece. The Wino hopes you understand.

The Wino will now share a few health and fitness tidbits about wine:

• A 6 oz glass of wine contains about 150 calories.
  
• A bottle of wine contains about 25.4 oz of wine, which equals about 635 calories.
  
• The Wino will have to run for more than an hour at a 12-minute-per-mile pace to burn off 635 calories (That's right boozers, The Wino has been known to drink a bottle all by herself.)
  
• The higher the alcohol content of a wine, the higher the calorie content will be.
• The health benefits of wine are uncertain and may lead to breast cancer.

The Wino hates dieting.

Rosé: It's Not White Zinfandel

Gentle boozers, it's not White Zinfandel.

The Wino explained this to a friend of hers who seemed a bit confused over her enthusiasm for the pink stuff. Her friend's confusion is well founded, of course. The Wino's friend had no experience with pink wine beyond the cheap White Zinfandel his mother used to drink at backyard BBQs and the Strawberry Cisco he regretfully quaffed during his college years. Heck, before a year or so ago, The Wino's experience with pink wine was virtually the same.

Well, times have changed fellow boozers. Pink wine, aka rosé, is all the rage now and it is threatening to reach peak popularity this very summer. And The Wino thinks we all could desperately use a whimsical boozy beverage to distract us from the demoralizing effects of the recession right about now.

Drink Up!
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in late May, armed with a cheese plate, The Wino held a small rosé tasting in her very own backyard. Every one had to work the next day, which made the opportunity to drink even sweeter. She served three rosé wines:

• French – 2008 Bieler Pere et Fils, Coteaux D’Aix En Provence, France 2008, (15% Syrah, 25% Grenache, 60% Cabernet Sauvignon)
• South American - 2008 Melipal Malbec Rosé, Mendoza, Argentina
• USA - 2008 Chatter Creek Rosé, Columbia Valley, WA

She chilled them in her freezer because she does not have a wine fridge—she is a novice after all and was definitely raised in a barn or log cabin or something. She awkwardly pushed glasses (from IKEA) of pink, improperly chilled wine into the hands of her guests and encouraged them to smell deeply and taste critically as if they were fancy sommeliers (not that any of them, including the Wino, actually knows what a sommelier is).

The group agreed that the overwhelming flavor and aroma the wine presented was strawberry, ranging from “heavy/overripe” to “light/fresh”. The group preferred the dry more mineral style of the French rosé to the sweeter New World styles. However, despite that preference, all bottles were happily and quickly consumed.

In conclusion, fellow boozers, get yourself a bottle of rosé and start drinking. To follow is some information about rosé wine.

The Wino's Guide to Rosé Wine

What is it?
Well, Rosé is wine of course, and it's not red wine and it's not white wine. Seriously. According to wisegeek.com, Rosé wines are wines which are not truly red, but have enough of a reddish tinge to make them not white.


How is it made?
There are three main methods of producing Rosé wine.

1. Skin contact. Red-skinned grapes are crushed and the skins are allowed to remain in contact with the juice for a short period, typically two or three days.
2. Saignée. Indeed, that's a fancy French word. Translated it means bleeding the vats. When the grapes for red wine are initially pressed, some of the pink juce is removed in order to concentrate the flavors of the wine. The pink juice that was removed is then fermented into rosé wine. In short, rosé made in the Saignée method renders it nothing more than a by-product of red wine fermentation.
3. Blending. Simply take a little white wine and add a little red wine until the desired color is acheived. Apparently this method is frowned upon. The Wino can't imagine why. The Wino suggests that everyone try this method at home and try to pass it off as a classy bottle of wine.
   

What does it smell like?
Rosé aromas generally consist of flowers and fruit. If you recognize any of these scents, good for you. The Wino is still trying to figure out what “broom” and “medlar” smells/tastes like.

• Flowers: Common Rosé aromas include rosé, violet, dried rosé, hawthorn, wild rosé, dog rosé, peach flower, wild flowers, peony, jasmine, freesia, orange blossom, lime, and broom.
• Fruit: Fruit aromas can include cherry, strawberry, raspberry, peach, black cherry, black currant, blackberry, banana, apple, plum, pear, blueberry, apricot, kiwi, medlar, pomegranate, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, litchi, and pineapple.
  

What does it taste like?
Since taste and smell are so intermixed, Rosé Wines have the same fruit and flower tastes as the aromas mentioned previously.


Rosé Styles
European or Old World Rosés tend to be dryer and have more floral and mineral tastes and aromas. New World (North/South America South Africa, Australia and New Zeland), rosés are sweeter and more fruity tastes and aromas. However, these are not hard and fast rules.

Although somewhat difficult to read in both page formatting and language, The Wino found this Web site helpful. And it's where she found much of the information she used for this post.