- Chuao - Potato chip bar - This is a milk chocolate bar with crisp kettle cooked potato chips and a touch of sea salt. This is a very complex milk chocolate and tastes almost like dark chocolate. It is very, very good. If you like Late Night Snack by Ben and Jerry's, you'll like this a lot.
- Liberte - Lemon Greek Yogurt - Brett loves greek yogurt and sour/tart foods and drinks. He had never had lemon yogurt before (with real lemon juice and pulp), but it is delicious.
- Pepperidge Farm - Caramel Apple Pie cookies - Typical Pepperidge Farm style cookies, but this is a limited fall edition. They taste like apple pie in cookie form with a moderate number of caramel chips.
- Dairy Vale - Vintage Cheddar Cheese - This was surprisingly not very sharp. It was nutty and pretty good, but would like it a bit more sharp.
- Hennings - Garlic and Dill Cheddar - Brett likes this a lot and thinks the dill is reasonable and well-balanced with the sharpness of the cheddar and the garlic. Megan doesn't like dill that much and doesn't agree about the well-balanced part. To each their own! :-)
- Calbee - Shrimp Chips - These are shaped like Cheetos, but they taste like shrimp and leave no orange stains on your fingers. Megan didn't try these and Brett thought they were okay, but that shrimp-flavored corn crisps are pretty weird.
- Gruyere and Horseradish Cheese Spread - This was from Kroger's deli. Neither of us really like horseradish that much, but try it we did. Oh my, it was like ALL horseradish. We couldn't taste the gruyere at all.
- Kroger - Yogurt & Berries mini rice cakes - These are much like the Quaker rice cakes that have been out for awhile now. These were surprisingly berry tasting and pretty darn good.
Vintage Cellar had a huge closeout tasting on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Brett has lab until 5, then has to ride home, and after all that we headed over. By the time we got there, a lot of the wines were gone. At some point, we'll also learn to go straight to the red wines instead of stopping and doing the whites first, even though they are right there when you walk in. Since we generally prefer reds, you would think we'd know this by now, but apparently we're slow learners.
- NV - Heidsieck & Co. - Monopole Champagne - Green Top Demi-Sec - This is really good. Looking for an excellent champagne for New Year's Eve? This would be an excellent choice.
- NV - Heidsieck & Co. - Monopole Champagne - Rosé Top Brut
- 2011 - Weingut Steininger - Riesling
- 2009 - Louis Latour - Montagny 1er Cru La Grande Roche
- 2008 - Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils - Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons - Other people really really like this, but we didn't find this very impressive for some reason.
- 2010 - Doña Paula - Torrontés Estate
- 2006 - Sonoma-Cutrer - Chardonnay Founders Reserve
- 2009 - Sbragia Family - Chardonnay - Gamble Ranch
- 2011 - Artesa - Chardonnay - Carneros
- 2009 - Torii Mor - Chardonnay
- 2011 - Tolosa Winery - Roussanne - Edna Ranch
- 2009 - Rosenblum Cellars - Viognier - Kathy's Cuvée
- 2010 - Altavins Viticoltors - Terra Alta - Domus Pensi
- 2009 - Ogier Caves des Papes - Côtes du Rhône - Heritages - Blanc
- 2010 - J. Vidal-Fleury - Côtes du Rhône - Blanc
- 2010 - Mollydooker - Verdelho - The Violinist
- 2011 - Don Cristóbal - 1492 - Chardonnay/Viognier/Chenin blend
- 2008 - Philippe Delesvaux - Coteaux du Layon - St. Aubin - This bottle was flawed. Mostly it tasted musty, dusty, and like mothballs.
- 2007 - Santa Ema - Cabernet Sauvignon - Amplus
- 2006 - Beni di Batasiolo - Barbaresco
- 2008 - Achával-Ferrer - Malbec - Finca Bella Vista - Wow wow wow - we gave this a 95 and it's very, very good.
- NV - Cantine Pellegrino - Marsala Superiore Sweet
We also went over for the Saturday wine tasting.
- 2012 - Domaine de la Grenaudière - Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie - Brett liked this more than Megan (although she also liked it). The "sur lie" means it was aged for some time on the lees which is the yeast and other particulates that precipitate out during the fermentation (and fining). This was crisp, tart, and citrus and very refreshing.
- 2012 - Jean-Paul Thibert - Mâcon-Fuissé
- 2012 - Avantis Estate - Evia - Greece - You don't see a lot of Greek wine being praised, but this was quite good and refreshing.
- 2009 - Château de Chamilly - Bourgogne
- 2011 - Clos du Mont-Olivet - Côtes du Rhône - Vieilles Vignes Montueil la Levade - We didn't like this at all and would say maybe the bottle was flawed, but other people at the tasting thought it was great so...
- 2009 - Quinta das Liceiras - Douro - Made in Portugal from the same grapes that make port. This was pretty interesting and you can really taste what we guess could be called "adolescent" port.
- 2010 - Bodegas Volver - Monastrell - Tarima Hill - This is very good and reasonably priced (as is the 2012 if you can find it).
- 2006 - Long Shadows Wineries - Cabernet Sauvignon - Feather - Also very excellent, but definitely not an everyday kind of wine at around $40 - $50 a bottle.
Last, but not least, we tried a number of new beers this week.
- Sierra Nevada - Tumbler - Autumn Brown Ale
- Bells - Special Double Cream Stout
- Maine Beer Company - MO - This is an excellent American Pale Ale. It's unfortunately going to be hard for some people to find as they have fairly limited distribution.
- Sixpoint Brewery - Autumnation (2013) - First wet hop beer for the season that we've been able to try. This year, Sixpoint used Mosaic hops and it was quite interesting.
- Left Hand Brewing - Nitro Milk Stout - This is an absolutely delicious milk stout. If you like milk stout as a style, be sure to give this one a try.
And that is all for the week. We can't believe we've made it to over 900 already and are really looking forward to finishing up!
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