From the Bar – Five new wines

For Thanksgiving, we did a couple of Cornish hens, aka little chickens.  They came out nicely, roasted for nearly two hours at 375.  Nothing special with them, just stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and my husband’s favorite cranberry orange sauce (recipes for the last here).

This weekend we made my husband’s fabulous seafood chowder.  Along with that, we had a few bottles of wine.   Yes, it’s a lot.  Just drink the same amount of water as you are of wine and most of the hangover effects will be eliminated.  🙂  Not all though….sigh.

Calling All Angels Chardonnay (2012)from Save Me, San Francisco winery. This is the winery by the band Train and their products are all titled from their songs.  I don’t know much about music but I do like some of their songs. We got this bottle because I liked the label (something that happens often). This is a very nice chardonnay, not too vanilla-y by being overoaked.  The wine reminds me of a chardonnay that we had years ago when we were first getting used to wines, the 1996 Meridian Chardonnay that was well reviewed back then.  It has a lot of pineapple notes to it.

Apothic Red and Apothic White – I really love these wines. They are very much from human hands, not just what nature gave.  Them both being blends doesn’t hurt either.  They are intentionally blended, intentionally adjusted and it gives a very stable product.  The red is a lush berry stoked blend. The white is slightly sweet and the moscato in the blend gives it a honey aroma.  A very nice way to be introduced to the idea of moscato without being brained by the sweetness that usually accompanies it.

Wine for Dummies Chardonnay –  This is actually pretty darn good. It’s a basic chardonnay, neither too fruity or too oaked.  I think that this serves exactly as it should, an introduction into varietals for those folks who don’t know where to start.

St. James Winery Cherry Wine – Oh my, this is sweeeeeet!  Far too sweet for  my palate anymore, so it got mixed with some cheap cabernet sauvignon.   For my money, if you want a good cherry wine that won’t give you a cavity just looking at it, get Nissley Wine’s  Montmorency Cherry Wine.  It’s a semi-dry wine and is perfect with chocolate.

And last, an obligatory cat photo.  This is Muffin, our little terror, being caught in a rather silly position. I suspect she wishes those eyes were lasers…..