Wine Wednesday- Three Sisters' Cynthiana

 

We took a trip down to the mountains of Georgia a few weekends ago and picked up this, along with a few other, delicious yummy bottles of wine.  I reviewed one of our favorite Chardonnay from Three Sisters Vineyard and this is one of our favorite local vineyards. 

The American winegrape Cynthiana-Norton is a special treat that you won't find everywhere. The Cherokee Indians and Thomas Jefferson grew this grape. It was the most popular winegrape in Georgia over a hundred years ago and now it is back! The 2006 vintage Three Sisters Cynthiana displays a deep rich color with notes of butter scotch and caramalized black cherry. Pair it with lamb or game. Try it with dark chocolate and experience the sensation of chocolate covered cherries!

 This wine was deep and delicious. The finish just seemed to keep going and going. It's full bodied and very rich. When we were at the tasting room we tried it with the dark chocolate and it was heavenly!

Glass Mountain - Chardonnay

For the 6 bucks we paid for it. This Chardonney didn't disappoint. Buttery and smooth it went great as a table wine. We served this with chicken and salmon, both were really excellent with this one. Buying cheap wine does not always equal poor quality wine and this Glass Mountain Chardonnay proves that.

Wine Wednesday - Allison Oaks Orchard White

Allison Oaks Vineyards was our NC wine of the month for July. The white selection was this Orchard White. We enjoyed this on a hot summer evening with friends during a special dinner and it was delicious and refreshing!

Allison Oaks is a family owned vineyard located in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. The Orchard White is a 50% Chardonnay, 25% Riesling, 25% Viognier blend and turned out to be very smooth and a little lighter and sweeter than I expected. This one is very fruity and would be great on a hot summer evening. We all enjoyed this one.

Rachel's Rating:

Wine Wednesday - Georges Dubceuf's Beaujolais Villages

We're currently in the process of 'spring' cleaning our house. While dusting off the tops of our kitchen cabinets we found this bottle of wine in a wine box. It's a 2002 that my grandmother had given me a long time ago. I was so excited to see that it was an uncorked bottle! After just hanging out for 7 years, I was thinking this should be killer!

I'd learned a while back that the Beaujolais, a red wine, is typically served slightly chilled so we put this in the fridge for just a few minutes before we drank it.

WOW. It didn't disappoint! The taste was very sweet and very port-like. The aroma was just intense and the flavor was just amazing. I'm not really knowledgeable enough to accurately describe the taste of this wine. It was just really awesome. It makes me want to put a pinot or cab on the cabinets and forget about it for a few years.

Rachel's Rating:

Tips 'n' Tools - Wine Vacuum Seal

A while back we picked up the Vacu Vin 3-Piece Wine Saver. If you like to drink wine but not always a whole bottle, this is for you. Whether you're the only one in the house drinking wine or you're just a one-glass-a-night person I recommend getting this or something like it. It's only a few bucks and most importantly it works.

When I first started drinking wine I found that I didn't like wine, especially white wine, the next day. I soon learned that once you pop that cork your on borrowed time. The chemical processes called oxidation starts to break the wine down and can eventually turn it into vinegar!

With my Vacu Vin I've been able to go back to bottle the next day and it be just as good. It claims to save wine for up to two weeks. I don't know about your house but I've never had a bottle of wine last in my fridge for two weeks! But I can safely say at it does hold it for a few days to a week.

This is a great video from the WineEnthusiast on how this product works.

Wine Wednesday - Persimmon Creek - 2007 Riesling

The Persimmon Creek Vineyard is located on 110 acres in the Northeast Georgia Mountains. We haven't visited this vineyard yet but they did participate in the Winefest we went to back in the spring. It was there that we got to taste a sampling of Persimmon Creek's wine. All were very good but the Riesling really stood out for me.

The 2007 Riesling is light in color and crisp in taste. It's not an overtly sweet or overwhelming Riesling. It's well balanced and very floral. Great for a hot summer day on the back porch or paired with seafood. The grapes for this wine are all estate grown, which I love to hear, and are aged in stainless steal. For us the wine was best after it was first opened. After more than a day or two (even with a vacuum seal) it lost a lot.

I also need to mention that I love this bottle and label. The see-thur section to the butterfly is just brilliant, beautiful, and very appropriate for this wine.

Rachel's Rating:

Wine Wednesday - Furnace Brook - Merlot

While in Mass a few weeks ago we toured the Furnace Brook Winery. While enjoying our tasting at their beautiful tasting bar we tried their 2004 Merlot Reserve. Now, I'm normally not a big Merlot fan but this one blew me away. It was very smooth and not to dry. It's a full bodied BBR (big beautiful red) and it's not ashamed about anything.

Merlot is renowned as a dry, soft, yet full-bodied red wine. Our 2004 Merlot
Special Reserve delights with its rich ruby red hue and complex character.
Aged for over 18 months in limousine oak barrels. Merlot is a perfect match for beef and other medium-heavy dishes. Try some with a rich, red pasta dish, or even a heavy chicken dish. Merlot is also an excellent compliment to chocolate.

I can definitely see this paired with chocolate. We paired it with a heavy red sauce dish and it was just lovely. We both really enjoyed this Northeast Local wine.

Rachel's Rating:

Wine Wednesday - McRitchie Winery - Falling Water

The McRitchie Winery was our the May selection for our NC wine club and we've previously reviewed their Merlot. The Falling Water table white wine I was saving for the super warm weather as they suggested in the newsletter. And they were dead on for this wine. The color is the first thing you notice about it. It almost looks like water, it's so clear. The taste is light, crisp, with big citrus notes. It was an excellent wine and I really enjoyed it paired with food and by it self! This is a great picnic wine or just a sipping-on-the-porch wine

Rachel's Rating:

Wine Wednesday - Furnace Brook Winery

While in Mass we visited the Furnace Brook Winery. Furnace Brook Winery is located at Hilltop Orchards, a 100 year-old farm set on 200 bucolic acres in the Berkshires. This was a beautiful location. The orchards are gorgeous and right out front. The outdoor gazebo and tons of Adirondack chairs give you lots of places to sit and drink a glass of Furnace Brook's award winning wine.

The tasting room and store was located inside and the tasting bar was beautiful. Tasting were free for 2 wines. If you paid $5 you got five more wines and 10 bucks got you everything, which included 2 hard ciders and 2 sparkling wines. The Other Williams got the complimentary tasting and I dove right in with everything.


I really enjoyed just about all the reds they offered but the Merlot really stood out for me. The hard ciders didn't appeal to me at all and only one of the sparkling wines won my favor. We bought a bottle of the 2007 Johannisberg Riesling for the 4th of July picnic and because I knew The Other Williams' mother would really enjoy it. It was a great Riesling for the picnic, light, sweet, fruity and tasty!

We also bought a bottle of the 2007 White Zinfandel and the 2007 Merlot Special Reserve to bring home. I'll do reviews of those when we pop the corks on them but both we're really yum!

Skirt Steak "Saltimbocca"

We enjoyed this meal on the back porch after being rained out of our picnic the other night. I can not even begin to describe how utterly amazing this meal was! It's what I term "Company Good." Which means, it would be a great meal to serve when you have someone over. I also thought it was "Restaurant Good", meaning I'd pay top dollar for this meal in a fine restaurant. The key is to not skimp on the ingredients, get the good stuff for this meal.

While we were on vacation last month we got to watch one of our favorite shows on Food Network, Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello. I just love him and his entertaining tips are always handy to know. I also like that a lot of his recipes can be done the day before and it allows you to spend more time with your guest's and not in the kitchen. He normally does an entire meal and this Saltimbocca was the main course. The Zucchini Pappardelle with Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette, Arugula and Feta Cheese he paired with this meal will be reviewed next week and is the salad you see in the picture.

We also really enjoyed the presentation quality and portions of meat and veg on the plate. This was a very healthy meal and you can tell that just by looking at it. The skirt steak is perfect for this but we had sirloin in the freezer so The Other Williams used that and pounded it out. We only used one steak for the both of us and the portion you see is just a half of a steak. Nice, right?

We paired this with the Macchia Zinfandel "Mischievous", which is just under $20 at our local Total Wine store. It went amazingly with this meal. I can't even begin to explain how utterly fabulous this meal was. This isn't a quick-fix meal but if you're doing an at-home date night or having company, I HIGHLY recommend this one. Cook together, sip the wine, and enjoy each others company. Salute.

Serving: 4-6

Ingredients
* 2 pounds skirt steak, trimmed of fat (we used one sirloin steak for the both of us)
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 6 ounces aged provolone, sliced
* 2 bunches fresh sage
* 12 slices prosciutto
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut the steak into 3 1/2 to 4-ounce pieces. Pound each steak out evenly to about 25 percent of its original thickness. Season them with pepper. On top of each steak place a slice of provolone, some sage leaves, and 2 slices prosciutto. Roll them up into a pinwheel and secure with toothpicks.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and saute the pinwheels until they are brown on both sides. Place them in the oven and roast until they are medium rare, about 7 minutes. Let the steaks rest for 5 minutes before carving them into bite-sized wheels.

Put the skillet back on medium-high heat. Add the remaining sage leaves and cook until they are crispy. Drain them on paper towels; use them to garnish steak.

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Wine Wednesday - Rock House Cabernet Franc

Last night we finally opened our RockHouse Cabernet Franc. We bought this wine while in the process of being lost somewhere up in NC. We are notorious for looking down a road not knowing where is goes and following it. On a day in April coming back from Burnsville we had fun getting lost and thankfully I was driving. I saw a wine sign. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about but it's the NC Wine Highway signs that denotes a winery...this way. I ALWAYS follow the wine signs. We did this time also and found Rock House Vineyards, a beautiful treasure in Tryon, NC. We sampled their wines and bought three bottles. This Cab Franc being one and two bottles of a killer port!

It not only went beautifully with our meal of grilled steak and bruschetta it was just delicious on it's own!

The 2006 Rockhouse Cabernet Franc demonstrates rich color and concentration with a nicely textured finish. The ripe, peppery fruit combines with plum flavors and subtle tannin levels. The wine was bottled without filtering.

If you're ever up near Saluda or Tryon I highly recommend dropping by this winery and vineyard! It's also less than an hour from Greenville.

Rachel's Rating:

Wine Wednesday - McRitchie Winery - Merlot

Last Sunday we took a picnic up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and brought this NC Wine club selection with us. This was May's selection and I'm loving the simplicity of the label!

This beautiful Merlot hails from the Yadkin Valley in NC and McRitchie Winery and Ciderworks! The McRitchie's are something of the almost famous in the wine industry. They've been winemakers in the Northwest and California before wanting a piece of NC for themselves.

2007 Merlot

This rich ruby-purple wine features enticing aromas of black cherry, cocoa, jammy fruit and exotic spice. Nearly 14 months in French oak and some time in the bottle have resulted in refined tannins and a luxurious velvety finish. This is a wine to be savored now or hold on to it because it is going to age gracefully.

110 cases produced.

This wine does have a great finish and it is a true red wine in every sense you think that means. We both enjoy it but The Other Williams enjoyed it a little more than I did.

Rachel's Rating: