A librarian's adventures in tasting new wines, eating good food, exploring new places, and connecting it all with books.
Wine Name: Il Valore de Petri sangiovese
Origin: Italy (region)
Grapes: sangiovese
Cost: under $6 at Trader Joes
My thoughts: This deep red colored wine smelled like chocolate, and was spicy and pleasantly astringent to drink. I liked it and would buy it again. It’d be a nice contrast with a rich macaroni and cheese or potatoes au gratin. I think it’s great with cheese, such as manchego or a sharp cheddar.
This wine is a pretty, dark pink wine that smells like ripe bananas and watermelon. It smelled like it should be sweet, but it was pleasantly dry with a medium finish. It felt almost fizzy in my mouth – perhaps it has miniature bubbles? I would definitely purchase this again!
Cost: $8 (grocery store)
Monmousseau 2007 Rose d’Anjou
Loire Valley, France
50% Grolleau and 50% Cabernet Franc
$8 (grocery store)
I liked the pale pink color of this wine. It smelled fruity, though I couldn’t quite place which fruits. It had a pleasant, not sweet taste but the aftertaste wasn’t to my liking. I can’t exactly describe it except maybe a chemical taste. I tried it again the second day after letting it breathe and warm up but it still had an unpleasant aftertaste. I won’t buy this one again.
2005 Castillo de DaRoca Garnacha
Spain, Aragón, Calatayud
Garnacha (Grenache) grapes
$5.95 (Portland Wine Merchants)
This rosé was a pretty, deep orangey pink. I smelled strawberries, with a yeasty undertone. The first taste was a little bit sweet on the tongue, with a crisp, medium finish. I like the combination of crisp with a touch of sweetness, and plan to buy a case of it at Portland Wine Merchant.
Mont Marçal Brut Rose Cava Reserva
$13 (local gourmet store Pastaworks)
Trepat varietal
I wanted a sparkling wine last Friday to celebrate my year anniversary as a law librarian, and since I’m on a pink wine kick, I thought I’d try this pretty pink cava. It smelled like ripe fruit – melon, perhaps? The bubbles were small and fizzy, and it had a dry, pleasant finish. Very easy to drink – how did the bottle disappear so quickly between two of us? I’ll definitely buy this again for a fun summer wine.
Last month I met with Leslie Palmer, co-owner of Thirst Wine Bar & Bistro, to talk about starting a book club at her wine bar. Her idea is to get a group of women together to read and discuss books with a wine connection, and drink wine selected to “match” the book. Books, wine, food, and interesting women – what better combination could there be?!
I’m very excited about the idea, and have been scouring book reviews for interesting and new books that have some wine connection. I’ve found a few promising memoirs, a non-fiction book about nuns and priests making wine, a few mysteries, and a few books about food and wine. I look forward to our first book club meeting this summer!
This Sunday was the first wonderful, sunny day of the year, so my sweetie and I went walking around the Hawthorne neighborhood to look at the flowers and get some fresh air. We hadn’t been in the Portland Wine Merchants for quite some time, so we stopped to have a look. We had a couple of tastes, chatted very briefly with the owner, I think, and left with two bottles of rose, among other bottles. I often feel intimidated in a wine store but the proprietor said something to the effect that it’s just a beverage. So true!
Hermanos Lurton Rosado
I tasted this wine blind, and thought the aroma was unassuming but pleasant, with a slight fruity smell. I couldn’t identify any particular flower or fruit. The color was a brownish pink. It was surprisingly crisp; I suppose I’d drunk many sweet pink wines in my youth (Boone’s Farm Tickle Pink!) so I was surprised it wasn’t sweet. It has a nice berry taste in the back of the throat, and a short finish. It’s a lovely wine that I plan to drink often this spring.
Vino De La Tierra De Castilla Y Leon
Grapes: Garanacha and Tempranillo
Price: $7.00 (local wine store)
“In Europe we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness and well being and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and to me as necessary.” — Ernest Hemingway, A Movable Feast
I agree absolutely!
CREDIT: Barton, Ralph. “Ernest Hemingway.” Published in Vanity Fair. Courtesy of Diana Barton Franz. Caroline and Erwin Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
I met some colleagues at Thirst Wine Bar at the RiverPlace on the waterfront tonight, a place I don’t go to often enough. It’s just outside my usual geographic range but I always like the wine, the service, and the food. Tuesday nights they have a wine flight and cheese pairing, so I tried three wines and three cheeses.
Thirst’s Willamette White (Chardonnay and Viogner) with Rogue Oregon Blue
Witness Tree Pinot Noir with Goat’s Gouda from Holland
Oswego Hills Cabernet Sauvignon with Beecher’s Flagship cheddar from Seattle
My favorite pairing was with the Beecher’s Flagship cheddar with the Cabernet. The flavors complemented each other so nicely.
I didn’t take notes at the time, and couldn’t remember the wines’ names so I emailed one of the co-owners, Leslie Palmer, who emailed me back very promptly telling me what the flights and cheeses were that night. Even more good service!
If you haven’t been to Thirst, go! Thursdays nights they pour tastes from 5-8, and you can try all kinds of wonderful wine. Their happy hour is really nice, too. My next goal is to get my husband to join me for dinner…
