Wednesday, June 4, 2014

New food taste!

We still haven't gotten enough time to put in all of the tastes from beer and wine since the start of the year, but we do have a new recent food taste!  Our garden is essentially gone - the plan is to replace it with some raised beds, but we haven't finished those yet.  To make up for our lack of our own fresh veggies, we decided to get a farm share from Glade Road Growing.  We had always bought a lot of veggies from them at the Blacksburg Farmer's Market so it seemed a no brainer.  We get a weekly bag of veggies fresh from the farm for what feels like almost nothing!

We just got our first bag this week - it was filled with a huge bunch of spinach, leeks, broccoli, and some dill.

We were looking for a fun recipe to use some of the veggies this week with.  We decided to modify a recipe from Jamie Oliver, Leek Lasagne.  Below is the recipe as we modified it - note this makes 2 9" by 9" pans of lasagne and according to the original recipe, one serving is one sixth of the two pans - that's a LOT!
  1. Leek and sausage lasagne


  • 4 leeks, thinly sliced
  • 2 red onions, thinly sliced
  • 200 g spinach, washed and chopped
  • 440 g mild italian sausage
  • 350 g good-quality ricotta
  • 1 litre base tomato sauce
  • 1 packet lasagne sheets, wholewheat if you can find them
  • 125 g mozzarella ball
  • 75 g fresh Parmesan, grated
Cook the sausage, remove it from the pan, then drain any excess grease.   Add a small bit of olive oil to the pan and slowly sweat the onions and leeks for about 10 minutes.  Add the chopped spinach and heat it until it's slightly wilted.  Remove from heat and let it cool a little bit.  Preheat your oven at 350F. Mix the ricotta and sausage back into the vegetables.  Spoon ~1/4 of the tomato sauce into the bottom of the two 9" x 9" pans.  Add a layer of noodles, then a layer of the veggie/sausage mixture, more sauce, another noodle layer, the last of the filling, sauce, another noodle layer, and top with more sauce. Grate the mozzarella and Parmesan over the top.  Place the two pans on a large flat pan, and bake for about 35 minutes or until the cheese is just browned over the top.  
  1. 2007 - Viña Siegel - Merlot - Crucero Reserva - we had this with dinner and it went fabulously with the lasagne.  
Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Long time, no posts...

This has been one heck of a semester and we obviously haven't spent any time whatsoever about posting our new tastes.  We haven't been slacking off in terms of tasting, but sure have been about posting about those tastes!  Because we have such a backlog, we'll start with just some food tastes, then move to beer, and then wine.
  1. Lake Champlain - Salted dark chocolate
  2. Crostini with Balsamic Caramelized Onions, Melted Cheese & Sage
  3. Almond-Bacon Cheese Crostini
  4. Stowaway Chocolates - Peanut Butter Meltaway

We went to a special wine tasting dinner in Marion, Virginia held at the General Francis Marion Hotel/Black Rooster restaurant.  There were some phenomenal wines and great food.  The food and wine was a smattering of spanish wines and foods.
  1. Esparragos blancos - white asparagus, lemon, caper
  2. Aceitunas arbequinas y cabrales - sweet brown olives, artisanal blue cheese
  3. Manchego, jamón y membrillo - sheep's milk cheese, cured ham, and quince
  4. Pan a la catalana - crusty bread, garlic, tomato, wild olive oil
  5. Torta de cangrejo - crab cake and saffron aioli
  6. Lubina con romesco - Mediterranean seabass, roasted pepper, and almond sauce
  7. Carrillada de cerdo - braised pork cheeks, sofrito, glace
  8. Tarta de Santiago - marcona almond cake
  9. Flan con jarabe de café - custard and coffee syrup
One of the regulars at the wine club is starting a fine chocolates business, Chocomiro, and their chocolates are incredibly delicious.  They have a limited selection now, but every single one we tried was phenomenal.
  1. Chocomiro - Creamy espresso caramel
  2. Chocomiro - Jasmine tea lemon ganache
  3. Chocomiro - Earl grey garnache
  4. Chocomiro - Deep vanilla caramel
  5. Chocomiro - Cherry fondant cordial
  6. Chocomiro - Coconut
  7. Chocomiro - Deep vanilla sea salt caramel
  8. Chocomiro - Four spice fusion
  9. Chocomiro - Raspberry ganache
  10. Chocomiro - Saffron lavender honey fusion
We're sure that there's more foods we've tried, but we are often lazy about remembering to record new foods.  

Brett went to a meeting in the DC area and was able to go to Pizza Paradiso (the DuPont Circle location) and got a nice pizza.
  1. Macellaio - Paradiso Tomato, Pepperoni, Mozzarella, Sausage, Red Onion 
Megan found a quick casserole recipe for dinner.  It's fast to make and darn tasty!
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Welcome to 2014!

It's been awhile since we've done a post.  Both of us have been buried with new class preps (Megan has 2, Brett has 1 and it includes labs), so we haven't had a lot of time to do a new post.   Rather than try to do these chronologically we'll break them up into beer, wine, and food separately.

Starting with new beer tastes, we have:
  1. New Belgium Brewing - Fat Tire - We're not sure how this was never on our list, but it's on the list now.  
  2. Brooklyn Brewery - Black Chocolate Stout  - Delicious and dark chocolate milk mixed with stout. 
  3. Russian River Brewing - Pliny the Elder - What a delicious double IPA.  Worth all the praise it gets.  If only it came out to Virginia...
  4. Firestone Walker Brewing - Velvet Merlin - What a nice stout - rich chocolate flavors and smooth coffee.
  5. Bockor - Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge - This is one of Brett's most favorite sour brown's he has ever tasted.  Delicious, delicious, delicious.  
  6. Odell Brewing - Friek - Odell's Kriek (sour cherry ale) - Brett was very hard pressed to decide if this was better or worse than the Bockor...  
  7. Crooked Stave - Vieille Artisanal (Happy Leaf) - Crooked Stave's saison blended with prickly pear kombucha.
  8. Crooked Stave - Vieille Artisanal (Cranberry and Spice) - Holiday-season spiced and fruited saison.
  9. Crooked Stave - Surette Provision Saison - Batch #7
  10. Crooked Stave - Surette Provision Saison - Batch #8 (both of these were on tap - we preferred #7 just slightly)
  11. Crooked Stave - Vieille Artisinal  - Their base saison.
  12. Schmaltz Brewing Company - HeBrew Jewbelation Reborn - Incredibly complex and the 17% alcohol was noticeable without being overwhelming.  
  13. Anderson Valley Brewing - Winter Solstice
  14. 21st Amendment Brewery - He Said (Belgian Tripel) - This was a pumpkin-based tripel.  Brett didn't like this much at all - so much tarragon and lots of sediment.
  15. Brewery Ommegang - Three Philosophers - This is a really tasty quad.  
  16. Deschutes Brewery - Black Butte Porter - This was Brett's favorite porter when he lived in Montana.  It was as good as he remembered.  
  17. Odell Brewing - Cutthroat Porter - This was the second great porter we've had recently.  
  18. Roanoke Railhouse Brewing - Switch Monkey - A very local trippel from right down the interstate.  It's pretty tasty, but not amazing.  
  19. Apocalypse Ale Works - Heavy Red Horseman - This is a scotch ale from one of our favorite Virginia brewers.  This was just as good as all of their other beers (which means delicious). They will have cans out for distribution inside Virginia sometime this summer!  
  20. Liefmans - Cuvée Brut - This is a kriek, but it also has extra sugar added.  This is fairly sweet for Brett, but at least it has some nice tartness to somewhat balance it.
  21. Terrapin Beer Company - Big Hoppy Monster - A very nice DIPA, goes well with pub food.
  22. Wolf Hills Brewing - Belgian Quad - Another Virginia Belgian-style beer.  This quad is quite good.
  23. DC Brau - Penn Quarter Porter - The third excellent porter we've had recently.  They are using this and making a mixed drink with this and red wine from Burgundy in a DC restaurant. Very good, chocolatey, and rich.
  24. Schmaltz Brewing Company - HeBrew Funky Jewbelation 2013 - A blend of 6 barrel-aged beers creating one sour, funky, delicious glassful of jewbelation!
  25. Lefthand Brewing - Sawtooth Ale - This was a nitro bottle - a good every day ESB.
  26. New Belgium Brewing - Snapshot - This is their new sour wheat beer.  It's slightly tart, wheaty, and refreshing.  I suspect this will be very good on a hot summer day.  
  27. Southern Tier Brewing - Live - Bottle-conditioned American Pale Ale.  The nose and the palate have lots of citrus and this very nice.
  28. Petrus - Blond 
  29. Shooting Creek - Buffalo Brown - This had stopped being brewed due to a divorce between the brewer and his wife.  This is now being contract-brewed by Blue Mountain and is a nice brown ale.
  30. AleWerks Brewing - Coffeehouse Stout - Brewed with a very nice Antiqua coffee.  
  31. Parallel 49 Brewing - Salty Scot - This is a scotch ale with caramel and salt flavors.  Those flavors however are very subdued and it almost tastes a little watery.
We have had quite a few new wine tastes, both at the house and at tastings.
  1. 2011 - Villa Jolanda - Moscato d'Asti 
  2. 2008 - Rabbit Ridge - Pinot Grigio
  3. 2007 - Thorn-Clarke - Terra Barossa Barossa Cuvée
  4. 2012 - Vinicola de Castilla - Verdejo La Mancha El Cortijillo
  5. 2012 - Casa De Cambres - Douro Reserva
  6. 2012 - Fifty Shades of Grey - White Silk - Clearly attempting to capitalize on the book, this chardonnay-based blend was on clearance for a reason - bleh!
  7. 2012 - Weinkeller Erbach - Flonheimer Adelberg Silvaner
  8. 2012 - Señorío de Sarría - Navarra Rosado
  9. 2011 - Definitive - Pinot Noir
  10. 2009 - Ramilanos - Garnacha Calatayud
  11. 2012 - Casa De Cambres - Douro Reserva
  12. 2008 - Palacio Del Burgo Tinto Bodega Burgo Viejo - Tempranillo Reserva
  13. 2012 - Rubus - Barossa
  14. 2009 - Raymond Vineyard & Cellar - Sauvignon Blanc
  15. 2009 - Heumann - Villány
  16. 2008 - Odipus - Navarra Garnacha Viñas Viejas
  17. NV - R.H. Phillips - Merlot - Night Harvest
  18. 2011 - Casa Lapostolle - Merlot - Rapel Valley
  19. 2005 - Campo di Marzo - Brunello di Montalcino - Il Valentíano
  20. 2012 - Rubus - Zinfandel Old Vine
  21. 2010 - Firestone Vineyard - Moscato - Discoveries Vineyards
  22. 2011 - Fratelli - Mochetto Venezie IGT
  23. 2011 - Les Vins de Vienne - (Cuilleron Gaillard Villard) - Crozes-Hermitage
  24. 2008 - Domaine Vincent Paris - Cornas La Geynale
  25. 2006 - Fortediga Estates - Sodamagri Maremma Toscana IGT
  26. 2007 - Isole e Olena - Syrah Collezione de Marchi Toscana IGT
  27. 2009 - Long Shadows Wineries - Syrah - Sequel
  28. 2009 - Ramey - Syrah - Rodger's Creek Vineyard
  29. 2006 - Blair Fox - Syrah - Paradise Road Vineyard
  30. 2009 - Henschke - Shiraz - Mount Edelstone - Megan had this (and the above syrah and shiraz wines) at the Wine and Women Club.  This was apparently quite good since she gave it 100.  It also comes with a glass "cork."
  31. 2005 - Clarendon Hills - Astralis
  32. 2012 - El Sierro - Valencia Chardonnay-Macabeo
  33. 2009 - Domaine de la Terre Rouge - Enigma
  34. 2011 - J.B. Adam - Gewurztraminer Kaefferkopf - Cuvée Jean-Baptiste
  35. 2011 - La Viña - Valencia - El Sierro
  36. 2009 - Vieux - Duché
  37. 2009 - Viña Sastre (Bodegas Hermanos Sastre) - Ribera del Duero Crianza
  38. 2012 - Babich - Sauvignon Blanc - Marlborough
  39. 2012 - Foris - Gewürztraminer
  40. 2011 - Domaine de la Guicharde - Côtes du Rhône
  41. 2011 - La Posta - Malbec Cocina
  42. 2011 - Trentadue Winery - Old Patch Red Lot #36
  43. 2011 - Casa Gran del Siurana - Priorat GR-174
  44. 2008 - Vinos de Arganza - Mencía Bierzo Flavium Premium
Last, but not least, some new food tastes.
  1. Blacksburg Taphouse - Downtown Slider Trio - Brett though his favorite was the beef slider, but the crab cake was awfully good.  The picture shows a flight of 4 Virginia beers as well, some of which were new tastes in the beer list above (Roanoke Railhouse's Switch Monkey, far left, and Apocalypse Ale Works' Heave Red Horseman, far right).  
  2. Blacksburg Taphouse - Turkey Club - Megan really loved the bread, but the sandwich was a little dry.
  3. 1906 Ale House - Rum Drunk Pulled Pork Cuban - Brett had this before the Snarky Puppy concert in Roanoke.  It also came with homemade BBQ chips which were just okay.
  4. 1906 Ale House - Turkey Club with Applewood Smoked Bacon - Guess what? Megan had another turkey club.  You might think she likes turkey.  She would have preferred a bit more meat throughout the sandwich but it was very tasty and the bacon was amazing.
We're pretty sure we had some other new food tastes, but we've somehow lost track of them so...  




Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Best and Worst Tastes - 2013

We thought it would be fun to have a few lists of our top tastes.  We will break them up in the same big three categories that we did for the statistics.

Top Beer

These are the top 10 beers from 2013.  While some of their scores don't match their rating here, it's been very hard to be consistent with rating over months and months.  

  1. Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus - Westvleteren 12 (XII) - This was an amazing beer and a gift from Brett's brother Brian.  This is the number one beer on Ratebeer.com and well deserving of its ranking.  It is incredibly complex and delicious.  
  2. Hill Farmstead Brewery - Susan - We had this on our summer trip.  This is an IPA with floral and citrus notes from the hops on the nose.  The taste is complex and not just all hop like many IPAs and is full of citrus and caramel with a long mellow finish.  
  3. Dogfish Head Brewery - 60 Minute IPA - We tasted this at the brewery in Delaware. This is the classic East Coast IPA and has an excellent reputation that has been honestly earned. 
  4. New Belgium Brewing Company - Lips of Faith - Transatlantique Kriek - This is from New Belgium's Lips of Faith series and is a traditional kriek.  It starts life in Belgium, then is shipped to Fort Collins, CO and blended with a golden lager.  It's deliciously sour and fruity.
  5. Hill Farmstead Brewery - Edward - Another great beer from Hill Farmstead, we had this on our trip as well.  This is an American Pale Ale and not as hoppy as Susan, but just as delicious. 
  6. Hill Farmstead Brewery - Everett - You might be sensing a trend.  In this case, Hill Farmstead has created an excellent porter.  Full of dark chocolate, coffee, and nutmeg - this is even better than Brett's perennial favorite, Fuller's London Porter.
  7. Maine Beer Company - Lunch - We bought a bottle of this while in Maine and brought it home. Sticking with the trend of breweries to make lots of different IPAs, this is a nice example. It is bottle-conditioned which is pretty different in this day and age and it's one of the best-balanced IPAs. It's very smooth and easy to drink.
  8. Dogfish Head Brewery - Palo Santo Marron - This is a brown ale aged on a very dense, hard to get, South American wood.  The brewery managed to get their hands on 20 blocks which was used to age the beer.  This is a very unusual beer with licorice flavors as well as chocolate and dark malt.  
  9. Brouwerij Van Steenberge - Gulden Draak - We had this in Denver at the Cheeky Monk.  This is an incredibly drinkable Belgian strong ale with notes of caramel and toffee.  
  10. New Belgium Brewing Company - La Folie - This a great sour red ale which is thankfully widely available.  We both love this beer - great tastes and aromas of sour cherry, cranberry, and caramel.  
We have some clear preferences here - 3 from Hill Farmstead and 2 each from New Belgium and Dogfish.  

Worst Beer

Here's a list of our 2 worst beers.  We've eliminated any that were clearly faulty in the bottle.  These two are actually terrible and even if you were dying of dehydration, you should probably skip them. We had other beers that weren't great, but these are actively bad.  If you see these, just run the other way or pour them down the drain.
  1. Carton Brewing - Intermezzo - Not only was this disgusting, it was probably one of our most expensive pints of the year.  We think we finished maybe a third of it.  If you can imagine liking a beer that is reminiscent of a urine-soaked sweat sock that has been left in the back of a gym locker all year and then barfed on, this is the beer for you!
  2. Anheuser-Busch InBev - Wild Blue - After gifting us the Westvleteren XII, Brian then dug out this terrible excuse for a beer.  AB has clearly tried to copy Flying Dog's art and font, but didn't bother trying to copy the quality.  This was terrible.  If you imagine a blueberry soda, dump all the syrup into a glass, and dilute it with some additional artificial sweetener and a bit of carbonated water, then add some vodka for the alcohol content, that's what you have.  Smells like convenience store pre-packaged blueberry muffins and tastes worse.
     

Best wines

Here's our top 10 wine tastes for the year.  
  1. 1997 - Salon - Champagne - Brut - Blanc de Blancs - This was from our champagne tasting in December.  At the cost per bottle, this should be darn near the top and it is!  A classic French champagne, with aromas and taste of pear, apple, and bread.  
  2. 2008 - Abelis Carthago - Toro Fighting Bulls - A classic Spanish wine made from a classic grape, tempranillo.  A very big wine with lots of complexity and flavor.  
  3. 2007 - Saint-Cosme - Châteauneuf-du-Pape - This is a red Rhone-blend, very round and a bit spicy on the palate.  
  4. 2009 - Bodegas y Viñedos Maurodos - Toro Viña San Román - Another tempranillo, this one has a velvety mouthfeel and almost a port-like feel to the finish.
  5. 2005 - Bodegas Muga - Rioja Gran Reserva Prado Enea - Hmm... another tempranillo, but in this case it's a blend - fruit, red meat and some acidity.  This would go great with food.
  6. 2010 - Domaine Serene - Pinot Noir - Evenstad Reserve - An Oregon pinot noir, this is fruity, peppery, and chewy.  It's quite expensive, but it's very good.
  7. 2000 - Donatella Cinelli Colombini - Rosso di Montalcino - We brought this back from Italy. Presumably, this was past its prime, but nobody told the wine that.  This was excellent and we are going to open our last bottle we brought back from Italy, a Brunello, very soon.
  8. 2012 - Chakana - Estate Selection - This is an Argentine red blend.  This is a delicious round, complex, smooth drinking wine.  
  9. 1998 - Krug - Champagne Vintage Brut - A second champagne from our tasting in December.  While not quite as expensive as the Salon, it was very close to being as good.  
  10. 1968 - Gaja - Barbaresco - Brett's 40th birthday gift from Brian and Teresa, this was another wine that should have been past its prime. Was it?  Probably, but it was a delicious experience to try a 40 year old wine and while it might have been a bit past its prime, it was still holding up very, very well.

Worst wines

Throwing out the bottles that were obviously flawed, these were the worst 5 wines of the year.
  1. NV - Peaks of Otter Winery - Frosty Morn - This supposed to be a dessert wine so it's not unusual for it to be sweet, but this was disgustingly syrupy sweet.  
  2. 2011 - Ferrari-Carano - Bella Luce - Again, very sweet with burned eraser notes on the finish.  
  3. NV - Lamplighter Vineyards - This is supposed to be a chardonnay blend, but this tastes about as much like chardonnay as Twinkies taste like steak.  
  4. NV - Peaks of Otter Winery - "Chili Dawg" - Any wine tasting that they squeeze Cheez Whiz on your hand so you can lick it then take a shot of the "wine" deserves to be in the bottom 5.  
  5. NV - Leo Grande - Roaring White - Like sweet?  Want even more sweet?  Try this!

Best foods

Here's our top foods from the year (not in any particular order).
  • Mike's Pastry (Boston, MA) - Boston Creme Pie - We had this while we were in Boston and it was absolutely delicious and rich.  
  • Mike's Pastry (Boston, MA)- Chocolate Ricotta Cannoli - Also from Boston, this was also very good.
  • Sea Dog Brewing (Portland, ME) - Risotto arancini - deep-fried risotto with nice spiced breadcrumbs, lots of umami, delicious;  served with pomodoro for dipping.
  • The Summit (Christiansburg, VA) - Apple Rutabaga Bisque - On first blush, this probably sounds like a very strange combination, but it was quite good, so much so that we asked if we could get a container to go (obviously, we'd pay for it). 
  • The Summit (Christiansburg, VA) - The Brigadier - Brett had this.  The steak was literally melt in your mouth tender, the gorgonzola sauce was not overdone and the flavor of the steak was fantastic. 
  • The Summit (Christiansburg, VA) - Chocolate creme brulee - In short, it tasted like a super delicious chocolate mousse with caramel on top with a bit of sea salt on top.  
  • Villella's Ristorante (Niagara Falls, NY) - Lemoncello Gelato - It's a dessert of creamy vanilla gelato served in a flute with lemoncello.  Think of it as a refreshing and adult ice cream float. Hard to imagine that the best Italian food we've had since we left Italy was in a Super 8.
  • Britt's (Carolina Beach, NC) - Glazed donuts - These are apparently the second best donuts in the US.  Neither of us really care about donuts, but man these were good!
  • Natty Greene's (Greensboro, NC) - Turkey Razz sandwich - Megan says this was amazing and all her mayo should be raspberry.
  • Cooking Light - Chicken and Black Bean Burritos - We made these and took them on our trip. Fast, easy, healthy and delicious.

Worst food tastes

  • Cabot - Horseradish Cheddar - Neither of us like horseradish and this was way too much for either of us.
  • Oregano vinegar - This flavored balsamic vinegar was like chewing on oregano.
  • Whole fruit persian lime olive oil - lime peel and lime juice - not really very olive oil-like.
And that's the end of our 2013 summary.  We'll have new tastes starting up in 2014 soon!
Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, January 4, 2014

2013 - Summary and statistics

Here's a quick summary and some statistics from our 1177 tastes from 2013.

First, here's the total tastes divided up by wine, food, and beer.



We were interested in the statistics based on the wine we tasted since that's where we got most of our tastes.  Obviously most of our wine tastes were from free sampling which means that we were somewhat at the mercy of what was available, either at the winery or Vintage Cellar (ie, the distributor at Vintage Cellar doing the tasting).  We limited ourselves to the top 100 wines we rated of the 540 total we tasted.

First, here's the breakdown by type of wine.



Here's the breakdown by country.



Here is the same list broken down by vintage.


We didn't break down the beer tastes, because conveniently RateBeer already broke everything down nicely in a summary page.  It doesn't include every beer we tried in 2013 as some of our ratings were done after January 1st.  Here's a quick screenshot of the tastes by type, but there's lots more information available here.




Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Final tastes from 2013

We headed to Colorado to see some of Brett's family after Christmas.  We had a very early flight out of Virginia so when we got to Denver, we decided to go to REI as they were having a post-holiday garage sale.  We found a couple good deals and then were surprised that there was a belgian-style pub right across the street, The Cheeky Monk (this is their Westminster location, rather than downtown Denver).  We shared 3 beers and an appetizer.
  1. BBQ Spud Buds - Bite size BBQ potato loaves filled with shredded pork, Jack, cheddar, and BBQ sauce. Served with sweet BBQ aioli.  These are seriously addictive and why no one out east has thought of these yet is a mystery.  
  2. Brouwerij Van Steenberge - Gulden Draak 
  3. Elevation Beer Company - Apis IV - an excellent quad 
  4. Dry Dock Brewing - Paragon Apricot Blonde 
On the 29th, we went to Brian and Teresa's house (Brett's brother and family) and shared some beers. Our cousin Blake provided some homebrewed beer to try (we didn't get to try all of them and honestly Brett forgot to write notes down so shame on him).  Brett had also sent Brian some beers from the East Coast that aren't distributed here for him to try so we sampled some of those.  Brian then pulled out a very very special beer to try.
  1. Homebrew by Blake - Blackberry wit
  2. Homebrew by Blake - Lemon wit
  3. Homebrew by Blake - chai-spiced porter
  4. Starr Hill - Double Platinum
  5. Wild Blue - This is probably the second worst tasting beer I've ever had.  Imagine fake blueberry flavor, overwhelming, with the syrupy consistency of cough syrup and then add some weird twig like flavor.  Apparently, although the label looks very much like that for Flying Dog, it's actually made by Anheuser-Busch.  It's disgusting.  If you see this, you should earn some karma by buying it then either killing your enemies with it or pouring it down the drain.  Have we mentioned it is utter swill.
  6. Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus - Westvleteren 12 (XII) - This is, seriously, the number one beer on ratebeer.com.  This is possibly the best bottle of beer ever consumed.  It's rich, round, velvety, almost rum-like.  It's subtle, yet complex and utterly delicious.  We can't thank Brian enough for allowing us to share that bottle and experience near perfection.  In one night we went from lowest of the low with Wild Blue to the utter reaches of beer heaven with Westvleteren 12.  
On the 30th, Brian joined us first at lunch at Dad and Dude's, then on a tasting trip to Epic Brewing's downtown Denver tasting room. 
  1. Dad & Dude’s Breweria - Dank IPA 
  2. Dad and Dude’s Breweria - Rough Draft 
  3. Epic Brewing - Sour Apple Saison-Style Ale - If you like sour apple, this is crisp and refreshing (and as far from the skankiness that is Carton Intermezzo as Mordor is from the Shire).
  4. Epic Brewing - Brainless on Peaches
  5. Epic Brewing - Utah Sage Saison - If you really, really like sage, you could drink this without food.  If not, you're gonna need food with this.  
  6. Epic Brewing - Brainless on Cherries
  7. Epic Brewing - Copper Cone Pale Ale
  8. Epic Brewing - Smoked & Oaked Belgian-Style Ale
  9. Epic Brewing - Santa Cruz Brown Ale
  10. Epic Brewing - Hopulent IPA
  11. Epic Brewing - Big Bad Baptist
  12. Epic Brewing - Barley Wine
  13. Epic Brewing - 825 State Stout
  14. Epic Brewing - Brainless Belgian-Style Golden Ale - This was just plain excellent.  
  15. Epic Brewing/Strange Brewing - Epically Strange - This is the absolute best beer of the tasting in Brett's opinion.  Complex, tart, round and warm.  Mix sour cherries from Cherry Kriek from Strange Brewing and Big Bad Baptist from Epic and you have a match made in heaven.  
  16. Epic Brewing - Escape To Colorado IPA
  17. Epic Brewing - Hop Syndrome Lager
  18. Epic Brewing - Mid Mountain Mild Ale
Finally, on New Year's Eve, we went to New Belgium in Fort Collins and then met up with Blake and Shannon to go to The Welsh Rabbit for dinner and then Coopersmith's for pool.  

Megan's flight at New Belgium:
  1. New Belgium - Frambozen - Most excellent raspberry sour brown.  
  2. New Belgium Lips of Faith - Yuzu - Yuzu is weird, but delicious.
  3. New Belgium Lips of Faith - Wild² Dubbel
  4. New Belgium Lips of Faith - Cascara Quad
Brett's flight at New Belgium:
  1. New Belgium - Abbey
  2. New Belgium - California Route Lager
  3. New Belgium / Cigar City Lips of Faith - Ale Brewed w/ Anaheim & Marash Chiles - Strangely weird and strangely good.  Must be excellent with spicy foods.
  4. New Belgium Hop Kitchen - Rewind India Pale Ale 
We had some wine at The Welsh Rabbit, but honestly it was mostly forgotten after eating cheeses, olives, and chocolate.  And, well, we didn't write a darn thing down about it.  Here's a list of the cheeses and one chocolate that were new.
  1. Honey chevre
  2. Humboldt fog - Megan didn't like this at all.  Brett could eat a huge wheel of this.  Seriously. Adding it to my birthday/Christmas/whatever day wish list now.
  3. Gouda extra aged (5 years)
  4. Grana padano
  5. Chimay grand cru
  6. Hafod
  7. Hopper - don't remember much about this one
  8. Espresso bellavitano - Again, Brett liked this and Megan, who doesn't like coffee, didn't.
  9. Bison pastrami - This was tasty.
  10. Chorizo - this was dried and we've never had it dried like this. 
  11. Napoli - a nice italian salami.
  12. Saucisson sec - also, quite good.
  13. Chocolate salami - this had lime zest, pistachio in chocolate  
And, last but not least, the two beers we tried at Coopersmith's.
  1. Coopersmith's - Black Powder Barleywine
  2. Coopersmith's - Horsetooth Stout
And that wraps up the final tastes of 2013.  We've already had some new tastes in 2014 and are looking forward to another great year!

Posted by at No comments:

Wine catch up post

As noted in the last post, we have about 100 extra wine reviews that happened before the holidays. Because of the number, these will mostly just be direct links to our full review on CellarTracker.com.

  1. 2009 - Louis Latour - Meursault-Blagny - 1er Cru - Château de Blagny - We liked this a whole lot.
  2. 2008 - Guarachi - Chardonnay
  3. 2009 - Bouchaine - Chardonnay - Chêne d'Argent Estate Vineyard
  4. 2011 - Stags' Leap Winery - Viognier
  5. 2011 - Sonnenband - Riesling
  6. 2010 - Valley of the Moon - Pinot Noir
  7. 2010 - Viña Bisquertt - Syrah - Casa La Joya - Reserve
  8. 2011 - Wine Men of Gotham - Shiraz-Grenache
  9. 2007 - Montes: Napa Angel - Cabernet Sauvignon - Aurelio's Selection
  10. 2009 - Rocca di Montemassi - Monteregio di Massa Marittima - Sassabruna
  11. 2010 - Pure Love Wines - Garnacha - Layer Cake
  12. 2007 - Bonterra Vineyards - The Butler - Single Vineyard
  13. NV - René-Henri Coutier - Champagne Brut - Grand Cru
  14. 2011 - Innocent Bystander - Pinot Gris
  15. 2011 - Coquena - Torrontés
  16. 2012 - Domaine Pouillon - Gewürztraminer - Columbia Gorge
  17. 2012 - Patricia Green Cellars - Pinot Noir - Reserve
  18. 2012 - Ken Wright - Pinot Noir - Guadalupe Vineyard
  19. 2009 - Paitin di Pasquero-Elia - Barbaresco - Sorì Paitin - This is an excellent Barbaresco.  
  20. NV - Chambers - Rosewood Muscat - Rutherglen Muscat
  21. 2006 - Long Shadows Wineries - Pedestal - This is an excellent, complex merlot made with Washington grapes by renowned French winemaker Michel Rolland.  
  22. 2012 - Domaine de Saint-Lannes - Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne - Blanc
  23. 2011 - Domaine Baumann-Zirgel - Pinot Gris - Schwenkel
  24. 2011 - Château de Champteloup - Touraine
  25. 2012 - Chateau Clou du Pin
  26. 2010 - Château Les Paruades
  27. 2010 - La Celestiere - Vin de Pays de Vaucluse
The next few tastes were during a special tasting at Vintage Cellar by a member of the winemaker's family.  The Jaume family has had the winery for many generations and it is currently done by two brothers while their sister does promotion.  She was in the US working with her distributors to promoter her family's wines.  The lowest scoring wine we tasted we gave an 88.  
  1. 2012 - Domaine Grand Veneur - Côtes du Rhône - Blanc - We gave this a 94.
  2. 2012 - Domaine Grand Veneur - Châteauneuf-du-Pape - Blanc - We gave this a 92.
  3. 2011 - Domaine Grand Veneur - Vacqueyras - Grande Garrigue - We gave this a 93.
  4. 2011 - Domaine Grand Veneur - Lirac - Clos de Sixte - We gave this a 92.
  5. 2011 - Domaine Grand Veneur - Côtes du Rhône - This is one of their cheaper bottles and we gave it an 88 - it's a real bargain.
  6. 2011 - Domaine Grand Veneur - Côtes du Rhône - Reserve - We gave this a 94.
Back to our regular tasting notes.
  1. NV - André Clouet - Champagne - Grand Cru - Rosé Brut
  2. 2011 - Suavia - Soave Classico
  3. 2012 - Force of Nature - Pinot Gris - This was a very tasty pinot gris - we gave it a 93.
  4. 2012 - Montinore Estate - Pinot Noir - Willamette Valley - This is a tasty Oregon pinot noir that is ready to drink now.  We gave it a 94.
  5. 2006 - Bodegas Valdemar (Martinez Bujanda) - Rioja - Conde de Valdemar - Reserva
  6. 2011 - Force of Nature - Cabernet Sauvignon - Mossfire Ranch - We liked this (92), but it needs to age for a couple years to reach its potential.
  7. 2010 - d'Arenberg - Shiraz - The Love Grass
  8. 2011 - Finca Villacreces-  Ribera del Duero - Pruno - We gave this a 94 and if we've discovered nothing else during this 1000 tastes, it's that we really like Spanish reds.  This has enough complexity to be enjoyed alone, but not so overwhelming that it couldn't be enjoyed with food.
  9. NV - Château Gaudrelle - Crémant de Loire
  10. 2011 - Adegas Valmiñor - Albariño - Rías Baixas
  11. 2009 - Ancien - Chardonnay
  12. 2008 - Ancien - Pinot Noir - Carneros
  13. 2012 - Señorío de Sarría - Navarra Rosado
  14. 2010 - Burgo Viejo - Rioja Reserva - This is an inexpensive, but very tasty Rioja (92).
  15. NV - Lovisolo
  16. NV - Quatremillemetres vins d'altitude - Valle d'Aosta - 4478 - Nobleffervescence - Brut QualIty Sparkling
  17. 2012 - Ten Sisters - Sauvignon Blanc - Single Vineyard
  18. 2009 - Cascina Montagnola - Colli Tortonesi - Morasso - This is a very unusual white made with a grape rarely seen in the US.  It's a very complex white and we enjoyed it a lot (94).
  19. 2010 - Villa Mottura - Primitivo di Manduria
  20. 2007 - Sandro Fay - Sforzato di Valtellina - Ronco del Picchio
  21. 2010 - Boeger Winery - Zinfandel
The next set of tastes were at the special champagne tasting (technically sparkling wine, since one was from California).
  1. 2005 - Rutz Cellars - Pinot Noir - Dutton Ranch
  2. 2010 - Marimar Estate - Chardonnay - Acero Don Miguel Vineyard
  3. NV - Coastal Vines
  4. NV - Domaine Chandon - Brut
  5. 2010 - Michel Lynch - Sauvignon Blanc - Bordeaux Contrôlée
  6. 2011 - Rosemount Estate - Pinot Grigio
  7. 2005 - Principato - Bianco
  8. 2011 - Niederkirchener Weinmacher - Riesling - Blue Fish
  9. 2010 - Bonterra Vineyards - Riesling
  10. 2011 - Ferrari-Carano - Bella Luce
  11. 2009 - Castle Rock - Pinot Noir - Central Coast
  12. 2000 - Heritage - Grand Vin Bourgeois
  13. 2000 - Heritage - Heritage Chateau
  14. 2008 - Mas de Libian - Côtes du Rhône - Bout d'Zan
  15. 2005 - Contemassi - Brunello di Montalcino
  16. 2007 - Contemassi - Toscana IGT
  17. 2010 - Francis Ford Coppola - Diamond Collection - Scarlet Label
  18. 2008 - Trinchero - Meritage
  19. 2009 - Michael-David Vineyards - Zinfandel - Sloth
  20. 2010 - Château Sénéjac
  21. 2010 - Château Rollan de By
  22. 2010 - Château Charmail
  23. 2010 - Château de la Dauphine - Full of chocolate and berries on the nose and palate (93).
  24. 2010 - Château Côte de Baleau
  25. 2010 - Château d'Arsac - Margaux
  26. 2010 - Château Fontenil - Made by Michel Rolland (91).
  27. 2010 - Château Lilian Ladouys - This is bright, fruity, and complex. (94)
  28. 2010 - Rubus - Barossa
  29. NV - Voirin-Jumel - Champagne - Blanc de Blancs - 1er Cru
  30. 2012 - The House of Independent Producers - Chardonnay - La Bourgeoisie Dionysus Vineyard
  31. 2010 - Ramey - Chardonnay - Russian River Valley
  32. 2011 - The House of Independent Producers - Merlot - La Bourgeoisie Bacchus Vineyard
  33. 2011 - Hedges Family Estate - Red Mountain
  34. 2008 - Worthy - Sophia's Cuvée
  35. 2012 - Mönchhof Robert Eymael - Riesling Spätlese - Mosel Slate
  36. 2012 - Raventós i Blanc - Penedès Silencis
  37. 2012 - Domaine de Villargeau - Coteaux du Giennois Les Genêts Gris
  38. 2009 - Raventós i Blanc - Cava - Gran Reserva de la Finca
  39. 2011 - Ken Wright - Pinot Noir - Shea Vineyard
  40. 2011 - Guimaro - Ribeira Sacra
  41. 2011 - Masia del Bielsa - Garnacha Viñas Viejas
  42. 2011 - Porter Creek - Carignane - Old Vine
  43. 2011 - Domaine La Grange Tiphaine - Montlouis-sur-Loire Clef de Sol
  44. 2008 - White Rock Vineyards - Claret
  45. 2006 - Lyeth - Pinot Noir - Heritage Reserve
Thus ends all of the wine tastes from 2013.  We have a few more tastes we did before the end of the year and that will be our wrap up post for 2013.  We'll have a post listing our best and worst tastes for the year and then we'll start tastes for the new year.




Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)