Thursday, July 22, 2010

A wine Connoisseur I am Not

About two months ago, the Big Kahuna (my boss) took a trip to California. While there he toured a few wineries and ordered a few cases of the wines he liked.

The Big K is somewhat of a wine connoisseur. He has been trying to educate me (with little success) for the past five years or so. He is appalled that I still enjoy the cheap boxed white wines.

He ordered a case of this inexpensive (to him--I have no idea what it costs) red wine. He likes reds, but I am not all that fond of reds. He gave me a bottle of this one to try. When I saw the bottle I thought it would be perfect for a Halloween tablescape!
Every week he asks me, "Did you try the wine yet?" Every week I have to say no.

So tonight, after half a glass, my box of cheap Chardonnay ran out, and I decided to try it; because I did not want to dirty another glass, I am using a white wine glass for a red. (just want everyone to know that I do recognize the difference! LOL)

After my first sip, I thought, "Whoa . . .tongue jolt! It's very, very dry. But I kind of like it.

I googled the wine and found this review:
The Twisted Wines 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon has a bright nose that features a ton of red raspberry and lighter hints of vanilla. When you take the first sip you'll find a medium-bodied wine that alternates between dark and bright berry fruit characteristics. Touches of candied black cherry emerge, and lead to the finish which continues the berry theme, along with spice notes in the form of white pepper and nutmeg

Yeh...that is exactly what I was trying to say! I did notice that there was a little tang on the tongue a few seconds after swallowing the wine...that must be the pepper and nutmeg spice notes...

I think I still need more teaching before I qualify as a wine sommelier.

With my glass of red wine in hand, I went out to water the containers. This corner of the deck is beginning to look interesting, even though there is just one tiny flower in bloom.

To my eyes, the big canna and Elephant Ear leaves are just as lovely as flowers. Like wine, cannas may be an acquired taste. I used to hate them. Now they are, without a doubt, my favorite flower for the deck containers.

Just look at those stripes:


A few days ago, I changed the wagon wheel garden. I brought a big pot from the deck and went in the woods and found a stump that I've used in previous years. It already had a Black-eyed Susan growing inside, so I wheelbarrowed it (it's heavy)to this area.
I am not really loving this vignette. I will probably make some changes this weekend.


I know a little more about cooking than I do about wine. I made a pretty tasty macaroni and cheese for last night's dinner. No little blue boxes and powdered cheese for this girl! I will probably have leftovers tonight.

I hope you are all having a good week. I can't believe tommorow is Friday already!

6 comments:

  1. Hey, did you get a little 'twisted' after sampling the wine? : )
    I'm not much on wine myself. I may have heard a long time ago about there being different glasses for red and white. It does sound like an interesting taste testing.
    I also admire plants with pretty leaves, that's why I love coleus!
    Your mac and cheese looked yummy! I made chicken tenders from scratch-you were suppose to have buttermilk and bbq sauce, but I used a splash of cream and ketchup-tasted a bit like tomato soup was used for the breading, but still edible.
    I had to drop the laptop off at a repair guy to have him wipe it clean and reinstall Windows 7. My recovery drive had eaten all the space and I was getting low disk messages all the time.

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  2. I been came a red wine person quite some time ago. No more sweets. Merlot is my favorite.
    No blue box macaroni for me. I've always made it from scratch.

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  3. ok, so now I really AM coming over!!! Macaroni? Good red wine? Cannas in buckets? You are my kind of girl!(and I mean this in a non-scary way!!!!) LOL

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  4. I'm with you Zoey..a glass of cheap wine is fine with me.

    Yep only homemade mac and cheese here..it is so much tastier.

    Those large showy leaves are every bit as pretty as flowers.

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  5. Hi Zoey! We are gardening in about the same conditions just across Lake Michigan from each other. I love your garden, the canna is beautiful and the wagon wheel bed is just perfect. And I feel so silly--I did not know there were separate glasses for different types of wine, but I do now! Thank you! Karen

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  6. I am not a canna fan, either, but yours do look nice in the container. They are a fancier kind than the green ones.

    Your mac and cheese looks yummy. I like to cook from scratch, too, and always make enough to have leftovers.

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