This weekend.

JohnT · May 6, 2013

Had a great weekend.

Saturday:
I went to "90 acres", a 3 michellen star restaurant. This place is a 500 acre estate formerly owned by the king of Morocco.

They were hosting an Austrian Wine tasting and lunch featuring Austrian food and 23 wines. Being Hungarian, I was very familiar with both the food and wine.

The stars of the show was a very nice zweigelt and also a spactacular riesling. The riesling was true to the Austrian/Hungarian variety (dry (no residual sugar), crisp, clean, smooth, and refreshing).

What a great time we had!

Sunday:
Met up with my two brothers and saw my younger brother's winery for the first time. We then made a trip to the LBWS and made a number of purchases. Went to the Italian market to pick up some goodies, had lunch, then came back to my place to do a little sippin.

Could someone please explain to me why the weekend is 2 days while the work week is 5?

FABulousWines · May 6, 2013

Sounds like a great weekend. Your description of the Riesling resonated with me. I am currently working on a "tropical" Reisling Cornucopia kit. I really think I want to finish this off-dry or semi sweet at best. My wife likes a little sweet, but we are both gravitating more towards the dryer side.

We hit a few wineries here near Hendersonville, NC this weekend. One, St. Paul, had a nice dry riesling with a very crisp refreshing finish. But we only bought one bottle and that was the merlot. Wifey had already bought 6 sweet wines at another winery and blew the budget. I keep telling her we need to save up for kits, but I think she needs to be convinced that I am not making skunk water. We had a bad experience with a friends bad batch of watermelon, but I digress...

Can't wait for retirement...7 day weekends!

Deezil · May 6, 2013

I had a nice weekend myself

Went out to dinner on Saturday night, a 10-person party that didnt leave until after the restaurant doors were locked - celebrating two ladies' birthdays.

Had a Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot (Columbia Valley, WA) before dinner; having never had a decent Merlot before, I was pleasantly surprised with the fruity nature blending with the velvety texture of the tannins - and the length of the finish was impressive.

Having just recently finished 'The House of Mondavi' (and I'm almost done with The Billionaire's Vinegar), I ordered a Robert Mondavi Private Selection Cabernet Sauvignon (Central Valley, CA) with my Italian meatballs, Italian sausage and a portion of pasta with a nice red meat sauce; having never had a Cab Sauv before either, I was having a red-wine-crash-course, and unfortunately, because of the ice water spilled down the backside of 1-of-2 of the birthday ladies, the wine was the highlight of my evening (her meal/drinks were free)..

The Cab Sauv wasn't as enjoyed by my half of the table (both glasses got passed around after i was lovingly/jokingly called 'sophisticated') as the Merlot was, but it paired very nicely with the over-spiced Italian food. Where the Merlot had more 'berry'-type notes, the Cab Sauv had some red-tree-fruit kind of notes - plum or cherry; the Cab Sauv also had a slight smoky-spice flavor not found in the Merlot.

I think I chose well, I know I enjoyed myself, and I learned a great deal