All posts by The Savvy Lush

Red Wine of the Week | Red Wine Reviews

Santa Ema 60/40 Reserve

Cost: Average price unknown

Where buy now: Costco – $7.99

Grapes: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot

Region: Chile

Vintage: 2008

Santa Ema - 60/40 Reserve
Santa Ema – 60/40 Reserve

I’m fortunate that my younger brother, his wife and their new son, live four blocks away. When he called and invited me over for dinner, I said “yes” because A.) I didn’t have to cook and B.) I could get some cuddle time with my nephew. Then, he told me he made slow roasted pork shoulder, braised broccoli with garlic and sautéed mixed potatoes. Score! I grabbed a couple bottles and ran right over.

When we sat down to eat, you could tell my 8-month-old nephew is one of us. He ogled our food, and sat in dismay as he played with this sad rice cracker that looked like baby raw-hide. Sorry, buddy, soon enough you’ll be enjoying the high life and eating real food. I poured three glasses and we dove in. Mmmm, yeah. The pork fell apart as I tried to gather hunks on my fork. Then, I took a sip of the wine to wash it down. EUREKA! It was awesome.

I picked up this beauty at Costco, and it is called “60/40”. It’s an oak-aged wine that is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. It is luscious, well-rounded and finishes strong. We were all impressed at how well it tasted with the pulled pork (that is, with the exception of my semi-toothed nephew). I noticed how the original wine-maker was from the Piedmont region of Italy who immigrated to Chile. Ah yes, Italy. I know I’m biased but c’mon, Italy is one of the most beautiful places in the world with some of the most spectacular wines, and Chile is no slouch in the wine department, either.

We converse about life, food, and philosophy as we continue to enjoy the meal, bite by bite and the wine, sip by sip. Though my brother and sister-in-law aren’t huge [wine] drinkers, they are enjoying this libation with ease. The wine has a deep ruby hue with the usual red fruit flavor, slightly dry but with round tannins, meaning it wasn’t too bitter or sharp. It finished long enough to complement the food and leave you wanting more. You’d swear this wine was worth two to three times more than what I paid. Costco rotates their wines so often you’d think an 8-year-old with a leash and a helmet was the sommelier. Therefore, I plan to go back and buy a few more before this one becomes a thing of the past. I strongly suggest you do the same. Run, don’t walk.

Someday when my nephew is of age, I hope to be enjoying some fall-apart braised pork shoulder and a red wine like this – a moment to be shared between an aunt and a nephew where the tables are turned; he has all his teeth and no load in his pants.

Snob Wine of the Month | Wine Reviews

Palazzo Della Torre

Cost: Average price $20

Where buy now: France 44, Hennepin Lake, Haskell’s – several other shoppes for about $19.99

Grapes: 70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 5% Sangiovese

Region: Verona, Italy

Vintage: 2007

Allegrini - Palazzo Della Torre
Allegrini – Palazzo Della Torre

One sip from this luscious red had my husband emphatically declaring, “This is some good wine!” Yes, he’s been in mediocre wine hell with me lately, sampling a helluva bunch of crap so I can write about the decent ones! He’s always willing to take one for the team, but the recycling boys are going to love us this Thursday: our backyard looks like the backside of the Liquor Depot [RIP].

This red wine is made up of Corvina and Rondinella grapes along with a little smidge of Sangiovese. It hails from the Verona region of Italy (shout out to my cuz Shelby who lives there!) This ruby beauty does have some tartness up front, but finishes smooth, especially for a drier red wine.

My husband said he could sip this alone, but thought it’d be better with food to play off of. Me? I think that just about anyone could sip this, but on this night, I prepared spicy Thai steak lettuce wraps: bibb lettuce wrapped around flank steak that was marinated in a mixture of Sambal, lime juice, fish sauce and garlic. Throw in some cilantro, red onion, carrots and we were loving life. This red really paired well, and was able to hold court with the dish’s distinct spice. Really, you could drink this with several different ethnic cuisines: Thai, Vietnamese, or even some good ol’ fashioned BBQ ribs. Or, pair it the way it was intended, with some truly Veronese cuisine such as gnocchi (or, as non-Italophiles call it, potato dumplings) with butter, sage and parmigiano or with a mushroom risotto or with fennel sausage and polenta. I’m getting side-tracked by my growling stomach!

 

This wine is made in the ripasso method. What does ‘ripasso’ mean? I had no clue, so I did a little digging.  Literally, it means “re-passed”. It’s a method of wine making where about 70% of the grapes picked in September are immediately vinified. The remaining 30% are left to dry until the end of December, when they resemble raisins. These grapes are vinified and re-fermented with the juice from the fresh grapes picked in September. Voila: a more complex wine. It seems soooo labor intensive, but hey, we reap the rewards. Now, just because I said complex, it doesn’t mean you need a sophisticated palate to enjoy. It just has a bit more depth and rounded flavor to it. You’ll notice it just like my wino-in-making husband did.

My friend gave me this bottle for my birthday and I was tickled as I drank this wine once before at a friend’s house. I loved it so much that I ran to the store the next day, but found it came with a price tag of nearly $20! Too rich for my blood. Perhaps it seemed to taste even better because I didn’t pay a dime, but I could drink this sucker all day long. As I finish typing up this review, I’m tipping the empty bottle back to see if I can get one last drop. Oh sweet Maria, Mother of Italian grapes, it’s so smooth, it sings as it goes down!

The Palazzo Della Torre is more than the typical $15 price point I try to stay under (so as to feed my daily habit without the need to beg for change next to a highway exit). This bottle would make a great birthday present or hostess gift to any wino. Drink alone or with meat and cheese, you just can’t go wrong. Since this bottle is more than $15 but totally worth the price, I deem it the ‘Snob’ bottle of the month. However, there is always a wine sale happening around the Cities so you can pick it up from time to time 20% off. Guess I’m going to have to break down and buy a bottle for once.

 

White Wine of the Week | White Wine Reviews

Edition Maximilian Riesling Spatlese

3 Comments

Cost: Average, $17.99

Where buy now: I forgot where I bought this

Grapes: Riesling Spatlese

Region: Rheingau,Germany

Vintage: 2009

Rheingau - Riesling
Rheingau – Riesling

As I walked into Surdyk’s one afternoon, I was quickly approached by a lovely gal who asked me what I was looking for. “I bought a couple pounds of bacon and cheddar brats from legendary meat purveyor Nueske’s in Wisconsin,” I replied, “and we’re grilling them up tonight. I need something to wash ‘em down.”

She immediately took me over to the German Rieslings. I sheepishly admitted that I don’t know much about Rieslings, so she gave me a brief lesson. What I do know is that Germans do NOT make mistakes (only the big ones). German Rieslings are a rich subject matter. They are sweet, yet dry. She said to stay away from the California and other New World Rieslings as they would be higher in sugar and much sweeter.

She immediately recommended a 2009 late harvest Riesling Spatlese. There are five classifications of German Riesling, none of which I can pronounce without sounding like a WWII Looney Toons villain. Spatlese [pronounced SHPAT-lay-zuh] refers to the degree of the grape’s ripeness upon harvest. Spatlese is on the dryer side of the sweet Riesling scale. The grapes are left on the vine until they are almost raisins. This maximizes sugar content, thus yielding a sweeter wine. [You can do your own Google search and read up on the others- I need to get to the food and booze!] I was a bit skeptical, but the way the German language rolled off her tongue, I wasn’t going to argue.

I brought the bottle to my friend Pete’s house who was hosting a small soiree and we grilled up those succulent bacon and cheddar brats. For a single dude, he put out a nice spread of hummus, olive tapenade and salsa. Oh, wow, sweet mother of Wisconsin sausage! The cheese of the smoked bratwurst is warm and bursts in your mouth just enough to taste, but not overwhelmingly so like when you bite into a Juicy Lucy too early and curse the Lord’s name in vain because you’ve burnt your whole mouth. I looked at this golden white wine that is supposed to be sweet but dry, shrugged my shoulders and took sip of the Riesling. Yup, that’s the stuff- I’ll have more, please. Flavors of orange, lemon, and melon hit the palette with ease after each bite of juicy, smoky bratwurst. The dinner party consisted of folks that didn’t know each other all that well, but soon we were all grunting and nodding, sipping and grinning. Everyone commented on how well the wine and brats paired together. My only regret is that I didn’t buy more.

For all those skeptics who think Riesling is icky-sweet and only for women who are used to drinking wine coolers, I say pick yourself up a bottle of this and enjoy with smoked brats and kraut. Heavy German food not your thing? Pair this Riesling with Thai or perhaps Vietnamese food. Sweet enough to make salty treats sing.