Okay, so it’s not entirely new. I’ve done beer tastings before, and for the most part, I’ve really liked them. I don’t do the typical commercial beers because I love big flavor!

With that being said, when Issa at Khoury’s Fine Wine and Spirits showed me the four-pack of CoCoNut Porter – that’s not a typo – I hesitated only a moment before I grabbed one. What the heck. I did look askance at Issa, and he grinned and said, “it’s not sweet.”

Really.

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Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator are arguably the burly boys of the wine magazine world. They and their tasters can make or break the reputation of a winery (deserved or not…but that’s a debate that will never be resolved) by the flick of a pen. Or tapping of a keyboard as the case may be. Their tasting notes, ratings, and recommendations are read avidly by millions of wine fans, and we all look forward to their yearly Top 100 lists.

It is no secret that I’m quite the Paso Robles wine aficionado. What they do with Zinfandel and Rhône blends is terrific, but it’s more than that.  The talented winemakers there also do amazing things with grapes sourced outside of the region.  For instance, Hug Cellars makes some of the best Pinots I’ve ever tasted, and the grapes are sourced from various coastal areas. Other wineries, such as Sculpterra, Villicana, Ecluse, Estrella, and more, have estate-grown wines, right in the Paso Robles AVA. Quality grapes plus passionate winemaking equals great – if unheralded – wine.

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The original post was going to be titled, “I Made Demi Glace. Now What?” but I didn’t want to appear like I was too much of a plebe.  But that was my dilemma; I had made this gorgeous Demi Glace (Read about it Here on MirePoix Vegas) and didn’t have a clue as what to do with this beautiful gelatinous masterpiece.  All I knew was that when I tasted it, my eyes rolled back into my head and I emoted “Sacre Bleu!”  Whatever that means.

I searched the ‘Net for recipes because my Julia Child Cookbook was just a little too much for a weeknight.  I found this wonderful recipe for a more-or-less weeknight Bordelaise sauce at Angela’s Food Love and oh my! Shallots, thyme, a bay leaf and about a half bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (in this case, a 2007 Opolo Cab), rapidly reduced to mere teaspoons and quickly sieved, was the start.  A few quivering tablespoons of the Demi Glace, gently simmered and finished with a generous pat of unsalted butter – which turned it into silk – before being poured over a piece of pan-seared, oven-finished rib eye.

Now this is where the “I Get It” part comes in.  Asparagus (quickly sautéed in butter with a squeeze of fresh lemon seems to banish of the wine/asparagus problem), some crusty French bread, and a glass of Cabernet made up the remainder of my simple meal.

Ahhh!

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At first I was overjoyed! An article about tasting the best Zinfandels, rated by the well-respected group at Snooth!

I’m a Paso Robles Zinfandel fan, and I grabbed some popcorn as I prepared gleefully for the carnage. Paso Zins were going to kick some serious Napa butt, right? But as I read through the article – with horror, I might add – that was not to be. Not because Paso Zins were bad. They just weren’t invited to the party.

Oh, they weren’t left out completely. EOS 2007 Zinfandel - which is 15% Petit Sirah – and Candor with a NV Zin, were, like the new kids in the neighborhood who are a little strange and smell funny,  just allowed to stand in the corner. They were nodded at, and their rich, influential brethren weren’t even considered. Kind of like how I choos

Overlooking the city of Paso Robles.

e ex-husbands.

I was stunned. There were 28 wines tasted, and the top ten spots were gobbled up largely by the Napa/Sonoma group. Don’t get me wrong…I know that they have good(ish) Zins up there. But geez, Snooth! What were you thinking!?!

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Just in case you’ve been wondering – and even if you haven’t – MirePoix Vegas has been on hiatus since the server issues earlier this year.  As a result, any and all posting about food has happened here on Vegas Wineaux.  Well, that wasn’t working for me. Let me tell you why.

I’m a “Featured Publisher” on Foodbuzz.  ”Featured Publishers,” by the way, are those blog writers whose focus is on all aspects of food (including wine and beer!), and who have good writing skills.  So if you can sauté, braise, and render but have difficulty with punctuation and grammar, you probably won’t make it as a “Featured” publisher.  Well, I can manhandle an apostrophe or gut a gerund with the best of them!

I recently entered a contest on the best Foodbuzz food blogs out there (Project Food Blog) and didn’t make it past the first round.  Okay, neither did 1200 of my fellow publishers, but that’s beside the point.  I came to a gun fight armed with a cheese spreader and was doomed from the start, no matter how well I wrote about food.  Vegas Wineaux is about wine, wine, and more wine, with some food, travel, and personal stuff occasionally thrown in.  The competition, on the other hand, included career chefs who can write well. Wow.

Reenter MirePoix Vegas.

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