Girl Scout Cookie Time...

Well...what can I say...just received my shipment of Girl Scout cookies and the first thing I thought of was, lets pair them with wine?!

Samoa was first up and was quite delicious with the Corcoran Malbec, the chocolate and carmel with the crisp cookie middle...yummy!! Our Malbec is very light in comparison to the Argentinean Malbecs, who has a much longer grower season then us, here in Virginia. So that means lots of spice, some acid and a bit of fruit for us.

Next up was the Tag-a-long, milk chocolate covered cookies with creamy peanut butter in the middle (ok...yummy on its own)...what wine shall I choose?? I pulled the Corcoran Chambourcin because of it doesn't have a lot of tannins and is quite light in taste...it did quite well paired with this chocolate covered, peanut butter cookie, I must say!

Last of the evening, but most certainly not least, was the Thin Mint....what to have with a dark chocolate covered chocolate flavored mint cookie??? Ok...I opened the Hunters Run Red, another light red with a Cabernet Franc base blended with Barbera and Tannat. I was thinking that because of the light tannins it would pair good with the chocolate, but the mint does take over here and found it hard to taste all the complexities of the wine with so much other flavors from the cookie...after one cookie and a nice size glass of wine, it paired well...which makes it nice so that I don't eat too many cookies :)

Cheers!!

Toast to a New Year!

We rung in a new year and brought out the bubbles...Champagne or Sparkling Wine, but why do we only drink these on New Years or special occasions? I don't, but do you??

Sparkling Wine is something that can be paired with just about everything and comes in a variety of styles to please almost every palate. Some styles are called Ultra Brut (bone dry) to Extra Brut to Brut to Extra Dry to Dry/Secco, to Demi-Sec (sweet) to luscious which is often called Sweet/Doux. With so many options, why not cleanse the palate prior to a meal with a dry sparkling like a Cava, enjoy one with some sweetness during a brunch like an Asti or have a sweet one alone for dessert.

Make tonight a special occasion and enjoy some bubbles!

Happy New Year!

Time for Red Wine...

As the weather turns a bit chilly and we are bundling up for blustery days ahead...most people turn to drinking red wine. Red wine usually consists of more tannins. (Tannins are what seems to dry out our mouth, removes the saliva giving us the pucker effect.) A wine that has tannins pairs best with rich meats & sauces and of course, my personal favorite, chocolate. In the colder weather we tend to put meals in crock pots, sit by the fireplace with sweets while entertaining so a red wine is poured & enjoyed more often.

Some of the Corcoran reds I will be pairing this winter would be the Cabernet Franc with a beef stew or pot roast, Chambourcin with chicken pot pie and Malbec with chocolate.

Cheers!