Down Memory Lane: Virginia Wine!

Purchasing wine can be an adventure. How do you make a selection? Tried & true? Recommendations? Cool label? Grabbing the closest bottle so you can get out of the store quickly? I can honestly say I've used all these methods with varying degrees of success. Last weekend, however, I used a method I haven't before: nostalgia.

I was in Washington DC for a conference and I flew out a couple of days early to spend some time with my friend Diane who now lives in Springfield. She picked me up at the airport and we drove straight to a local winery, Paradise Springs of Clifton, to enjoy a snack and wine. Diane selected a bottle of Viognier. It was a great match for the meats, cheese & dried apricots!

Later in our weekend, we stopped at Total Wine and headed for the Local Wine section so I could get a bottle of Our Dog Blue to take home. While there, I noticed Lake Anna Winery. It's been 10 years, but back when Maggie was a baby, we took a family weekend trip to Lake Anna, stayed in a cabin with our dogs Nala & Otis and had a quick stop at the Lake Anna Winery. I don't really remember the winery, but I remember it was spring and Maggie was probably 6-7 months old. So, with nothing other to go on than a memory of a weekend with my family, I picked up this pretty rosè Lake Side Sunset.

This is a dry, semi-sweet (gets sweeter as it gets colder). Light & perfect for a warm summers evening. I finished it tonight on the deck. If I were in Virginia, this would be on my regular purchase list!

Girl Scout Wine Pairing Party

I can't believe this post got a little lost! It's been almost a MONTH since my tasting party, but still worth sharing. 

It was a rainy rainy day. I had really hoped we'd be able to hang outside by the fire pit so we could also enjoy s'mores made with Girl Scout Thanks-a-Lots. But it was not to be. The rain let up by the time my friends arrived, but a wet backyard is not my idea of fun!

The sink is STILL my favorite ice bucket -- no mess!

Here are the official pairings. J Lohr Chardonnay with Lemonades. Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin with both Peanut Butter Patties and Peanut Butter Sandwiches (mostly because I didn't have a chance to pre-taste), J Lohr Reisling with the Cranberry Crisps. We also tried the Gnarly Head with the Thin Mints and I must say, again, Wow. I never would have dreamed that Thin Mints would pair well with wine and now I have 2! We all enjoyed the Thin Mint & red blend pairing as well as the Shortbread and Moscato d'Asti. 

Overall, I would drink any of these again, but I think my favorite was the Cranberry Citrus Crisps and the Riesling were my favorites. They balanced together well, bringing out some sweetness in each one.

Wine Club Red Wonderful @winc

I still love a good red blend. A good blend will bring out the best of the grapes used. This red blend Wonderful was really nice, and more so on the 2nd day with a little O2 to round out the flavors. [I kind of wish I had saved this for the wine & Girl Scout cookie pairing as it was pretty good with the Peanut Butter Sandwich cookie!]

A smooth, deep red blend. Hints of strawberry. A nice jammy blend. This could become my next go-to jammy wine

Wine Club 2nd Selection @winc

Sometimes, the occasion calls for a sparkling wine to celebrate something awesome. And sometimes you just want a sparking wine just because. I was excited to see a sparkling wine in my first Winc selections as it's always nice to have a sparkling wine just for that 2nd reason.

I must admit that I'm no longer intimidated by a sparkling wine cork and I think I'm getting pretty good at getting that nice "Pop" without wine going everywhere. This is the 2015 WKND Chenin Blanc. When I first popped the cork, I got strong grapefruit flavor. As it sat a bit, banana and pineapple joined the flavor profile. The bubbles are awesome: long-lasting and great mouth-feel. A nice long finish. This is a Prosecco-style American wine.

This is a nice wine, but a little tart with the strong grapefruit start. As I'm not a fan of grapefruit (I've tried, I've tried, but I just haven't found a way to enjoy that particular tart), I'm not sure this would make it back on my list of choices in the club. I will be looking for another sparkling WKND in my next selections.

First Wine Club Wine @winc

I joined an online wine club (Club Wine)! More about that later.

This is the first wine, Passarola Vinho Bronco (see a review from Club Wine here). We had salmon tonight and I thought it would be a good match. This is a light, semi-sweet white, hints of white peach, grapefruit & lemon. It's been a while since I've had wine from Portugal and I am really enjoying this wine. I think this could be a great deck wine, something light to enjoy on a warm summer's day!

Girl Scout Cookie Pairing #2

When I started thinking about doing this pairing, I thought shortbread would be easiest: a nice buttery Chardonnay seemed the obvious choice. And while that is a good pairing, I saw a recommendation to pair with a sparkling white. I chose Cupcake's Moscato d'Asti.  While very sweet, pairing with the Shortbread takes a bit of the edge off the sweetness. It brought out the peachy flavor to the sparkling wine that was nice, not too overbearing. The sparkling added some fun to the shortbread.

I'm thinking this could be made into a fun dessert with fresh peaches!

Thin Mint & Wine Pairing

For the past couple of years, since joining Pinterest, I've seen memes featuring wine & Girl Scout cookie pairings. Most feature a particular grape recommended but not a label or vintage. I've wanted to host my own wine & cookie pairing but was a little overwhelmed at the prospect of inviting friends over and hoping the pairing will work. Now I realize that some of the fun in these pairing is finding the ones that work, but I didn't want to take the chance that none of them would or one would be a busy merely because I picked the wrong Chardonnay or Merlot. So of course, this means I MUST try them first. I am attempting to keep the wines affordable and easy to find in a small town like this.

I assumed the Thin Mint would be the most difficult. After all, the Thin Mint has a strong minty taste and smell and could easily overpower or clash with a wine. Most memes suggested a Merlot, which I thought might be tricky. After all Merlot has quite the range -- light to heavy, and lots of pairing options. 

Then Diane decided to try the Clos du Bois Red Blend with her own Thin Mints. She said the pairing worked so I decided to look for the wine in town. And I was able to find it at the Brookings Liquor store for $11.99. The liquor store had quite a few different Clos du Bois wines.

On its own, this is a nice blend. Some black cherry and vanilla to sweeten. It would be nice with pizza or on a quiet afternoon. But adding the Thin Mint takes this wine to the next level. The cookie brings out the vanilla in the wine and the wine brings out the chocolate in the cookie. The pairing also gives the wine a nice mouth feel, not too dry, lengthening the finish of the wine.

I'm very happy with this first pairing attempt and can't wait to share it with my friends at my live pairing!

I think my next attempt will be the Shortbread with a New Age Rose.