For those of you hoping to see something wine-related here, you’ll be disappointed.  This is a (hopefully) final rant about kitchen appliances. No wine here today. However, since wine and food are such an essential part of life (wine and food make a food group all on their own), it’s still kind of related. Sorta.

Those of you who have followed my kitchen appliance nightmares know that I’m blessed to still have a  kitchen.  House, actually. After the meltdown (almost literal) of my stove last year, the loud, grinding death of my dishwasher, and the disintegration of my microwave, my opinion of KitchenAid/Whirlpool has been damaged forever.

Let me explain. … Continue Reading

The Contestants

Let me explain.  This was another Trader Joe’s wine adventure, but it was a lot more fun than I had anticipated. It began with a bargain bottle of Newton Chardonnay (that is not a typo), and culminated in a competition between the Central Coast and  Sonoma/Napa.  The wines were 2008 Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Chardonnay – Central Coast and 2008 Newton Chardonnay – Sonoma/Napa.

You all know that I’m a Central Coast gal, and this tasting was particularly challenging.

I had great fun!

First, a little about Chardonnay and me.  Many eons ago I had the opportunity to taste a really good Chardonnay.  It was rich, luscious, loaded with fruit, buttery and wonderful.  Because I was a relative wine newbie at the time, I thought that was normal for Chard and couldn’t contain my disappointment the next time I tasted one and found it to be, well, kind of like lemonade laced with apple juice.  It was hardly the rich and wonderful wine I remembered. Unfortunately, that became my experience through the years as I would try it from time to time, still seeking that ethereal Chardonnay experience.  But it was lemonade. Every single time.  So I became an ABC (Anything But Chard) gal. It was quite a few years before I found the Chard character my palate desired and, as I discovered, you had a spend a little money to get it.  Nowadays – whether it’s because you really don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy a good Chard or because my palate has matured – I enjoy it on a fairly regular basis.

Yup. Me. Liking white wines. Who’da thunk?

Rather than read lots of stuff about how wonderful (or not) these wines were, enjoy the videos!  I liked this wine tasting review so much that I may do more.  If you’d like that, just let me know.

The Zin Fest in Paso Robles was an incredible weekend of food, wine, and fun.  And I mean FUN!

After a quiet Friday evening, we visited several wineries, but ended up spending most of the day and early afternoon at Hug Cellars.  It wasn’t just because of the wines – although that had a lot to do with it – but it was because of the Wild Game BBQ that Augie hosted.  So it was our stomachs that made the decision for us.

What a shock, right?

With that being said, there were lots of activities that entire weekend with the different wineries which we had to miss.  However, it was not all about food.  It was also about reviewing some of the wines in the Spring shipment of the Hug Cellars Wine Club (Club Hug).

Oh man. What a treat!

Rather than go on and on about how wonderful the wines were, just watch the videos!  There was enough footage to make a mini-movie, but unfortunately, YouTube is pretty strict about the whole ten-minute thing.

The first three videos all take place at Hug Cellars where we taste the wines, pair the wines with the food, and find out what a “mystery” wine was.  Lots of tape on the cutting room floor!

Zin Festival Fun – Tasting at Hug Cellars Pt. 1

Zin Festival Fun – Tasting at Hug Cellars Pt. 2

Mystery Wine Revealed! – Tasting at Hug Cellars Pt. 3

Related articles by Zemanta

• Prepping for Tasting at Hug – Zin Fest Fun! (vegaswineaux.com)
• Farmstand 46: Farm to Table (passionatefoodie.blogspot.com)

Testing all of the categories.  I think we’ve finally beat the disastrous server meltdown we had last week, and quite a journey.

Vegas Wineaux is being launched as a brand new site, and the old posts will return as we filter through old databases one at a time.  And it will definitely be one at a time because of the complexity of grabbing the old stuff.  The great thing is that at least it’s there, even if it has to go through several steps to be usable again.

Stay tuned!