sybaritesauvage   Uncorking a Mind Twisted by Wine, Food, Love & Remembrance

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Wayne Gretzky is not a wine guy.  He will be the first to tell you so.  No matter, he put his name (and number) on the bottles.  His rep is on the line.  And he does not need to worry that this will embarrass him.  Originally, set at a retail price of $30 per bottle (with $1 dollar going to fund Gretzky’s foundation to connect kids and sports), you may ask, what is this doing on No-Guilt Wednesday?  Simple– got it at an almost giveaway price.

Gretzky Estates Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 ($9).  This has a candy-like quality on the nose with a hint of something chocolate as well.  This is new world, fruit forward, ripe red cherry with pomegranate bits, quite drinkable, easy and a little fleshy.  A sweet spiciness on the finish with a little peppery sensation that catches in the throat every few sips.  Acidity adds backbone but the tannins were too soft to make this truly interesting.  Forget about aging this– it is built for drinking right at this moment.  This is better than merely good, but is definitely not in the very good category.  Good value for the dollar.  Rated ** 1/2

Some people hate shopping for food.  For us, it is an opportunity to explore new ingredients.  The supermarket is fine for our everyday needs.  But a good weekend farmers market can bring pure magic.  This week’s new ingredient is rainbow chard.  It looks so beautiful, who wouldn’t want to eat it?  Sautéed in a little peanut oil with shallot and garlic it formed an earthy filling for our panko-dill crusted chicken breasts.   Served with a celeriac root puree and an heirloom tomato salad.  What will we find at the market next week?  Wait and see…

Rainbow Chard Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 bunch Rainbow Chard
• 1 shallot
• 1 large garlic clove 
• 2 tbsps. lightly flavored peanut oil (not strongly flavored roasted peanut oil)
• 4 chicken breast halves
• 3 tablespoons, EVOO
• 1/2 cup Panko Bread crumbs
• 3 tbsps. fresh chopped dill

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Saute the chard, garlic and shallot in 2 tbsps. of peanut oil; when wilted, turn off heat, separate out into four roughly equal portions and set aside.
3. Make three length-wise cuts on the underside of each chicken breast half: one in the middle being careful not to cut all the way through and two on each side of the channel created by the first cut.  The idea is to be able to stuff the chard into the crevices created by these cuts and then enclose the chard filling within the half-breast.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
4. Place the sautéed chard into the cavity of each breast and wrap around to enclose the chard.  Set aside.
5. Place olive oil in large saute pan over medium heat.
6. While the oil is heating up, mix the panko with the dill in a shallow bowl and roll each piece of chicken in the panko-dill mixture.
7. Place breasts (cut side down) in the now hot saute pan and cook for 5 minutes.
8. Move the pan into the hot oven and cook for 35 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 175°– the bread crumbs should be golden brown on top. 
9. Top with fresh dill for garnish, if desired.

© Sybarite Sauvage

Like what you see?  Hit the Subscribe/Follow button and don’t miss another Sybarite Sauvage post.

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Buehler offers three different Napa Cabs.  Their top two Cabs are the Papa’s Knoll Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (300 cases– $45 from the winery) with the  grey and white label with maroon and gold banners. The second is the Napa Valley Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (1,800 cases– $36 from the winery) with a grey and white label with gold banner. 

This week’s wine is not one of those two.  This is the more humble Napa Cabernet (15,000 cases– $25 from the winery)– a wine with 30% Cabernet from the estate but 70% from other parts of Napa– with a green and white label and gold banner.  No matter, this is still a wine worth coveting.  It pays to go green.  But at this price, what is this doing on No-Guilt Wednesday?

Buehler Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 ($15).  Normally this is available for $20 or more.  But my wine guys offered me a good deal on this at just a few pennies below $15.  How could I say no?  As I started to drink this, I felt compelled to sip and then gulp this beauty.  It was just drinkably good.  Then I stopped myself and thought, “What the hell is going on?”  Hints of cocoa on the nose.  A healthy respect, but not deference to the fruit.  Yes, black fruit– insistent black plum, black cherry and cassis.  The wine has an herbal quality that straddles between the fruit and the acidity and ever so tenuously chalky tannins.  I felt this wine even had a touch of wood mushroom mutating kaleidescope-like into maduro tobacco on the longish finish.  This is a wine that  I could sip all night long.  I did.  I will again.  If you can get this for $20– jump on it.  If you can get it for $15, buy a case and a half.  Just remember to ease up on the gulping and sip this beauty– if you can.  Rated ***

Ms. R and I were celebrating one of life’s anniversaries– OK my birthday.  I have been thinking of mushrooms all week– besides wine, what else would a Sybarite be thinking of this time of year?  She wanted to go out to lunch.  It was pouring outside.  I preferred to stay indoors with the ingredients in ye olde larder.  Herewith the…

Simple Mushroom Crostini

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons, EVOO
• 16 oz. Crimini and/or mixed mushrooms – chopped
• 1/2 of medium red onion finely chopped
• 2 large cloves, garlic – finely minced
• 1/4 cup Amontillado
• 4 tbsps. parsley – finely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• Rolls, sliced and toasted on top only

Method

1. Place olive oil in large saute pan over medium heat
2. Add red onion and cook for 1 minute
3. Add garlic and cook with onions until onions are translucent
4. Turn up heat to medium-high and add mushrooms stir to incorporate with coat  with oil/garlic mixture
5. Sprinkle with salt and fresh ground black pepper and taste for seasoning
6. Add Amontillado and cook until liquid is evaporated
7. Add 3 tbsps. chopped parsley
8. While mushrooms broil bread in a toaster oven until golden brown on top but still soft on the bottom
9. Spoon mushrooms onto toast
10. Top with remaining parsley for garnish, if desired

© Sybarite Sauvage

Like what you see?  Hit the Subscribe/Follow button and don’t miss another Sybarite Sauvage post.

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Celler El Masroig – Sycar Red Montsant 2004 ($13.50).   As I was perusing the racks at one of my local suppliers the other day, this one caught my attention.  Not because it had great reviews.  It had none, other than some generic tasting notes from the wine merchant’s staff.  But, Montsant is a favorite appellation of mine and at $13.50 from a 7-year-old vintage, it was hard to pass up.  According to Espavino, the 2004 vintage in Montsant is considered an excellent vintage– though I did not know that at the time.  This wine, like most wines from this part of the world is a blend, in this case, Syrah 50%/Carignan 50%.  Thanks to the syrah in the blend, this starts off with earthy notes leading to brooding black fruit blending with a hint of chocolate and a tempting ripeness and jamminess.  If that were all, the wine would be just OK.  But the carignan steps in to  deliver a punch of acidity and brightness that conspired with a peppery finish offset by sweet tannins.  This is a wine of its place at a good price.   Rated ** 1/2

Growing up, I remember the flour-coated deep-fried eggplant disks that were among my favorites.  As soon as they were out of the pan, I would generously salt them and revel in their crunchy exterior and their hot fleshy interior.  These days, I try to stay away from deep-fried anything.  But I still love eggplant.

A tip on cooking eggplant.  Make sure to sweat out any bitterness it may have by salting the chopped eggplant for about 30 minutes before cooking and ensuring that any liquid released is properly drained.  Also, once this dish is fully cooked, the eggplant will start to break down, so any stirring of this dish needs to be gentle so as not to mangle the eggplant.  

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup EVOO
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 medium-sized eggplant peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes
• 1 fennel bulb cut in half, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper chopped into medium-sized bits
• 1 jar marinated artichoke hearts coarsely chopped
• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 4 oz. tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 6 tbsps chopped fresh parsley

Procedures

1. Heat up a large frying pan and saute the garlic till it becomes aromatic, but does not brown
2. Add the eggplant cubes, fennel, red pepper and artichoke hearts, and crushed red pepper.  Season with salt.  Once the eggplant is cooked but still firm, add the tomato sauce and the red wine vinegar.  These can be combined ahead of time in a measuring cup.  Bring to light boil and then reduce heat to simmer and cover.
3. While the sauce is simmering cook your pasta in salted water (whole wheat penne works well with this sauce).
4. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water to add to the sauce.
5. Mix pasta with the sauce and add the pasta water if needed to loosen the sauce up.

Serves 4

© Sybarite Sauvage

Like what you see?  Hit the Subscribe/Follow button and don’t miss another Sybarite Sauvage post.

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Wednesday again?  My 20-year old Sybarite-Daughter asked me out to the movies tonight.  Could I say no?  Wine is important.  Food is important.  Ms. R is important.  But nothing so important than the Sybarite-in-Training.  The movie– not so great.  But since I’m not going to start reviewing film, no need to name.

After the movie, on arriving at Casa Sybarito, the Wednesday urge took the form of the Beronia Crianza which called out to me with its siren song.  There is no secret that I really like this wine.  I have reviewed it before. 

Beronia Crianza 2007 ($13).   A little smokiness on the nose to start that transitioned to, and I mean this in a good way,  Smith Bros. cherry cough drops.  I know, this is supposed to be “medicine”, but we ate these things like candy back in the 4th grade and I simply love that smell.  This is another example of how personal wine is and why even after having tried a wine previously, I can still find a new taste sensation and a remembrance of my personal history in a wine bottle.  This vino hits all the pleasure centers on my tongue.  It has a pleasing viscosity.  On the palate, there are savory elements, leaving an almost tarragon like sensation mixed with blackberry in the back of the mouth.  Finishing with acidity and softly elegant tannins and a lingering desire for another sip.  You could spring for the $20+ Reserva from Beronia, and that would be great, but for $13 this is one you should not pass up.  Rated **1/2

Tonight, the Sybarite-in-Training and I arrived too late to really think about a meal more elaborate than a grilled cheese sandwich.   The Beronia brought me back to my childhood.  The sandwich, transported me to my college years.  Years ago, a great friend of mine was attending an all Women’s College with a cafe that featured an inexpensive sandwich known as the “Syrian” (Pita with Muenster Cheese and Tomatoes).  As a result, I don’t eat this thing, or a variation of it without thinking of her and those times.

Sometimes, the simplest things provide the greatest pleasure: an honest wine, an uncomplicated sandwich, a smile from your child, or a memory created many years ago.  I have all of these. 

Now it’s probably politically incorrect these days to name a sandwich after a country that has been ruled by the Assads for as long as I have been politically aware.  What to call this thing?

Ingredients

• 1 Pita, cut around the edges to create two halves
• Jarlsberg cheese thinly sliced and enough to cover the two Pita halves
• 1 Heirloom tomato chopped (a Campari tomato will do as well)

Procedures

1. Split the cheese slices between the two Pita halves
2. Split the chopped Heirloom tomato between the two Pita halves
3. Bake in a 400° toaster oven for 4 minutes or until cheese is bubbling
4. Pull out of the oven and place one half over the other (as you would with a grilled cheese sandwich)
5. Cut the sandwich in half and serve warm

Serves 1 (Or can be shared;  in fact, it tastes better when shared.  But you will be making more of them.)

© Sybarite Sauvage

Like what you see?  Hit the Subscribe/Follow button and don’t miss another Sybarite Sauvage post.

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Labor Day and the short week that it brought with it made this No-Guilt Wednesday a little bit more difficult for a couple of reasons.  First off, I was eating and drinking pretty much the whole weekend.  And there were leftovers from the weekend waiting to be consumed.  Second, with it being a short week, the reality of my everyday life had to be compressed into 4 days and that sadly left little time to think about menus for Wednesday. 

But that’s not to say, we did not try some interesting wines that fit within our parameters.  Herewith, a white, a red and a dessert to have after the meal.

Ingredients

• 1 Doz. Fresh Figs with stems trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
• 1 Cup of dry red wine
• 1 Cup of Amontillado Fino (a Spanish sherry)
• 1/2 Cup of Agave Syrup
• Manchego cheese sliced into 1/8 inch slices just before serving so they will not dry out)

Procedures

1. Whisk together the Wine, Sherry, and Agave Syrup in a bowl until the honey and agave are absorbed
2. Pour into a large frying pan and heat
3. Place the fresh figs (cut side down) in the pan
4. Bring the pan to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer
5. While the syrup is reducing, make sure to spoon it over the figs
6. Reduce the wine sherry mixture by half– you want a syrup which should coat a spoon, but not so thick that it become gloppy
7. Remove the figs from the pan and turn them cut side up in a serving plate
8. Drizzle the syrup over the figs and place manchego on the outer edges of the serving plate.

Serves 6 (4 fig halves per person)

© Sybarite Sauvage

Like what you see?  Hit the Subscribe/Follow button and don’t miss another Sybarite Sauvage post.

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s about all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Just before Labor Day and getting to the end of summer.  I want grilled meat.  I want a red wine with balls.   But I don’t want to blow out my bank account today.  And I don’t have to.

Rubrato Aglianico Feudi di San Gregorio 2007 ($9).  Right out of the gate the nose brings to mind candied cherries.  Ripe, yet restrained, fruit finishing with an herbal edge alternating with references to mint/lavender/eucalyptus.  Solid acidity and firm but yielding tannins leaving an almost tingling sensation on the tongue.  An aftertaste on the finish that evokes chocolate essence combined with soil.  This is a fine effort at this price point that would not be hurt by 2-3 more years in the bottle.  A great food wine that begs for a manly piece of meat.   As it opened up and extended itself, it just started to become more and more magical.  Am I really writing about a $9 bottle?  Rated ** 1/2 

 

The Wine Advocate’s Antonio Galloni gave this 87 points in August of 2009 complaining that “some of the Aglianico character is overpowered by the oak treatment”.  Interesting comment– I did not see this on the first two tastings, though it was a bit more prevalent on the third tasting.  So perhaps bottle variation is playing a role here.  Still, I don’t think that this is a fatal flaw.  In fact, it added a nuance to the wine that I found pleasing.  Nicely balanced and food friendly.  Find this and at this price and you should stock up.  Maybe all it needed was another year in the bottle.  Eventually, others will catch on and you don’t want to be caught short.  In fact, I flirted with a *** rating for this wine.  But it did not have the nose, complexity or finish to support that rating.  But a terrific value at this price point.

Initially, I was thinking beef with this.  But if ever a wine was made to accompany the classic grilled pork chop, this was it.  I have made this dish for company just because it is so damned simple I can prepare it in my sleep.  It always gets a the “can I have the recipe” imprimatur.  My daughter made a beautiful red bell pepper stuffed with quinoa, apples, garlic, parsley and mint which accompanied the chops.  Absolutely magical combination:  That dish is bound to make it into the pantheon of Sybarite Sauvage recipes.  Thanks much, my little Sybarite-in-training!

Grilled Puerto Rican Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 4 large center cut bone-in pork chops (about 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick)
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder (not garlic salt)– yeah, you read that right, not fresh garlic— don’t think, just do.
• kosher salt
• fresh cracked black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme

Directions:

1. Preheat grill on high setting
2. Season the chops with a generous amount of salt especially around the bone
3. Grind black pepper to taste
4. Sprinkle with garlic powder and dried thyme.
5. Place chops on grill and cook 5 minutes per side (7 minutes if chops are thicker).  You can use a meat thermometer to ensure proper level of doneness.
6. Remove from flame and let rest for 5-10 minutes.

Serves 4

© Sybarite Sauvage

Like what you see?  Click on the Follow/Subscribe button and don’t miss another Sybarite Sauvage post.

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s about all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Another No-Guilt Wednesday and still more of Ms. R’s relatives and a friend to feed.  Dinner parties can take place in the middle of the week– though usually at some cost.  In this case, my daily workout at the gym.  But it was worth it.  Tonight we ate cuisine tonight for which I owe a debt of gratitude to my foodie pen-pal, Melissa Clark.   I refer you to her adaptation of Sake Steamed Chicken which was published in the New York Times on March 4, 2011:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/dining/09appe.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=sake%20steam%20clark&st=cse

Don’t hesitate– you should make this.  If you want to see more about what she is about, check out the link to her blog on the left side of this page. 

Picture, if you will, the image of elderly Puerto Rican relatives, sitting down to this Asian dish.  At first they were a bit suspicious.  Steaming is not a favored Puerto Rican cooking technique.  Frying, boiling, roasting, grilling– OK.  Add to that the fact that I used a bamboo steamer to make this dish and they were completely befuddled.  A recipe for lots of leftovers?  Perhaps.  Ms. R took one look at the chicken and assumed that being as pallid as it was, it had to be undercooked.  She would be so very wrong.  And what leftovers we had were taken home for tomorrow’s lunch by Ms. R’s relations.  Now that is what I call a ringing endorsement.

The only variations that I made from Melissa’s recipe is that I used cut up chicken prices instead of cooking the whole bird and I used a little more mirin and ginger as well as fresh orange juice and grated orange rind in my dipping sauce, but that’s just the way I like it.  Results?  This was melt-in-your-mouth good– the sauce that accompanies the chicken providing just the right amount of pop to have everyone digging into the serving platter for seconds and thirds.  I served this with a steamed acorn squash and sushi rice sprinkled with black sesame seeds.  Honestly, I can’t wait to make this again.  And because it was steamed, the fact that I missed a workout tonight is of little consequence. 

Laetitia Arroyo Grande Valley Estate Chardonnay 2009  ($15).   Initially, this screamed out NEW WORLD to me.  On the nose, soft and oaky, almost popcorn-buttery in style.  A mélange of tropical fruits dominated by mango and papaya and a barely perceptible hint of allspice on the almost viscous finish.  And it does have just enough acidity to keep it interesting.  If you like this style, you will enjoy this wine.  Although it is more attractive than the Santa Ema Chardonnay I have rate previously, it gets the same rating.  Rated **

Like what you see?  Click on the Follow button and don’t miss another Sybarite Sauvage post.

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s about all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Some nights you just feel like having comfort food.  Last night, it just had to be spaghetti and meatballs (beef/veal/turkey).  Ms. R came over with two elderly relatives who had just arrived par avion from La Isla Encantada, Puerto Rico.  The last time they came to visit a couple of years ago, I also served them pasta.  Oops!  They must think this is all I ever make!  Well, it was still good. 

Schiavenza Dolcetto d’Alba 2009 ($15).  This is my first wine from this producer.  Full of dark fruit, this felt more new world in style.  Which is not a bad thing but for the fact that wines seeking out this “international” style tend to lose their connection to the place of origin.  I think this has happened here.  Certainly, it did not lack structure– with medium tannins and acidity.  But for my own personal taste the biggest flaw with this wine was the fact that it seemed a bit over-extracted.  Kind of what happens when you leave a tea bag in hot water for too long.  Still, would I drink this again– the answer is yes– as it did complement the cuisine.  Would I prefer a different Dolcetto made in the more traditional style?  Oh yeah.  Rated **

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s about all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Today’s wine is a French white from Gascogne (or Gascony) in southwestern France.  

Domaine de Pajot Cotes de Gascogne Les Quatre Cépages 2010 ($8).  A winning blend of  four varieties of grapes: Colombard, Ugni-Blanc, Sauvignon, and Gros-Manseng.  Citrus and apricot notes mixed with wetted stone dominate the nose.  Mouth-watering citrus and half-ripened peach fills the mouth.  Refreshing, juicy, perfectly leveled by the right amount of acidity.  Pure happiness.  A great price.  Rated ** 1/2

Serve this with smoked salmon on blinis. 

This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body.  Neither should you.  Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week.  Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price.  To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle. 

I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine.  I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.

No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality.  It’s about all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.  

Some weeks  things just don’t work out the way you planned them.  This was one of those weeks.  In the fun tug of war that Ms. R and I have when it comes to our social calendar, she won this week.  We were out of the house pretty much every night.  However, before she could get me out of the house last night, I managed to sneak in this week’s offering.  Yep, I know yesterday was Friday– but that is the hand I was dealt.  Just after 5 pm, as a colleague, whom I like very much, and I were finishing up some work related matters at the house, I thought, “It’s now or never”.  So I offered him a taste of this week’s offering:   

Bodegas Gormaz Vina Gormaz Blanco 2009 ($7).   Verdejo is an interesting grape.  While it does not offer overwhelming complexity, it offers enough.  It also carries such a different flavor profile from the more everyday Sauvignon blanc/chardonnay offerings in the marketplace that it is worth seeking out.  Straight out of the bottle, from the Spanish region of Rueda northwest of Madrid), this blend of 70% Verdejo and 30% Viura (also known as macabeo) put out an almost nut-like bouquet with hints of some sweet spice mixed with mineral and a touch of elastin.  Once it opened, it offered some tropical fruit notes including pineapple.  There were soft fruits on the palate and the wine seemed to have more body to it than one would typically expect from a white wine.  The wine was balanced by a touch of mouth-watering acidity on the clean finish.  This would be a great wine for a crowd– not expensive, easy to drink and different enough that people will ask you where to buy it.  Rated **

After writing this review, I consulted Jancis Robinson’s excellent Oxford Companion to Wine in which she notes that wines produced  from Verdejo are “aromatic, herbaceous (somewhat reminiscent of laurel), but with great substance and extract, capable of ageing well into an almost nutty character.”  The Vina Gormaz Blanco 2009 definitely has that nutty character to which she refers.  But it had not occurred to me to age this wine.  But now that it’s out there, why not?  I may buy a couple of bottles and just let them sit for another 2-3 years to see what happens.  At seven smackers a bot, this is a low-risk proposition.

 No Recipe this week folks– though I may have a little something coming out of this weekend.  But put this out with a little Manchego Cheese with some quince paste and you won’t be disappointed.