The Culinary Experience

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to dine at the Culinary Institute of America with Universal Studios. We had a wonderful dinner at the American Bounty Restaurant, which is one of my favorites.

I started out during cocktail time with a 2004 Stillwater Creek Vineyards Novelty Hill Syrah, Columbia Valley. This was a nice choice. It was smooth and had a hint of spice on the finish. The best selection came during dinner when Shrek ordered the 2004 Duckhorn Napa Merlot. This was a great pleaser! Smooth and fruity. Some of the guests even commented that they weren't red wine drinkers, but really enjoyed the Duckhorn.

The evening ended with a 2005 Hess Collection Cabernet. This went well with the Molten Lava Chocolate Cake I had selected for dessert.

Vocabulary for the week

Chewy 
Chewy refers to a wine that is full-bodied, robust and often tannic. The texture or mouthfeel of the wine is therefore often rich and chewy.

Closed 
A young, undeveloped wine that does not easily reveal its character.

Turkey, chile pepper stuffing and what wine?

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday. I cooked my turkey with my special chili- pepper stuffing. I was debating on what wine to serve with it. I generally like dry wines, but since my stuffing had a slight spice to it, I decided on a Goosecross 2005 Chenin Blanc. This wine went beautifully with the dinner. It complemented the dressing nicely!


This Chenin Blanc had 3.7% residual sugar which in my book is sweet. In this case, it was a good choice with the spicy dressing, as the sweetness interacted nicely with the spice. The Chenin Blanc was very smooth and soft with hints of melon and pear. It really made the dinner.

Wine Night

Friday night was our monthly wine night. We had a great selection of wine. A variety of wine from all over the world.

Surprising two Hudson Valley wines were brought. A Millbrook Cabernet Franc and a Baldwin Chardonnay. Other parts of the world that were present were New Zealand and Italy.

It was a red wine night for me, so I can't comment on the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Comments were the wine was excellent. I had some of the Millbrook Cabernet Franc. It was earthy but good. I also had a glass of each of the Italian wines. All was good, but nothing jumped out at me. Maybe it was because I was hosting wine night and busy with preparing finger foods to go with the wine.

Next month is our wine night - cookie swap. There is also talk about taking Wine Night on the road to Italy. I'll keep you posted.

Two Howell Mountain - Napa Valley Cabs

Last night we opened two 1999 Howell Mountain Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons. One was from Pine Ridge the other from Goosecross.

Two wines from the same region, same vintage, but tasted completely different.

The Goosecross had an elegant nose of vanilla and blackberries. On the tongue it had intense cherry and black currant. It finished with soft tannins. This wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon with 85% of the Cab from Howell Mountain and 15% from Napa Vally. I loved the strong cherry flavor!

The Pine Ridge was more structured and chewy. It was a blend of 94% Howell Mountain Cab, 4% Merlot and 2% Malbec. The flavors weren't as strong in this wine. It had hints of cherry and black current.

I personally enjoyed the Goosecross Cab better. I like my wine fruit forward and the cherry flavors were wonderful. However, my husband enjoyed the Pine Ridge.

Two Cabs, two people, two different tastes.

Wine and dust

Do you have wine sitting in wine racks with dust on them. Feel embarrassed when someone comes over and looks at the dust. Well, don't dust those wine bottles to fast.

The dust on the wine bottles protect the wine from light that can potentially harm the wine. Think of the dust as the a bottle cover as the wine is taking a nap getting ready for it's big day.

I would suggest before you serve the bottle to company you do dust it off.

La Famiglia by Robert Mondavi

Robert Mondavi comes under many labels and tonight we decanted a 2001 La Familglia Barbera. What a wonderful wine.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to taste the wine before it was decanted, but decanting served it's purpose.

This wine was earthy and smooth with soft of tannins. It wasn't very strong with the flavors,but it had hints of dark berries. It was the kind of wine you sat in front of the fire place and drank with a loved one.

Vocabulary for the week

Malic acid - One of the main contributors to the acidity of a wine. Malic acid has a sharp, green apple like taste.

Malolactic Fermentation - A bacterial process which results in conversion of the sharp tasting malic acid to the softer lactic acid.

Long Island Wine Country

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to the North Fork of Long Island for the day. It was a 3 hour drive from Poughkeepsie. It was a long day.



I went to 4 wineries/vineyards in this order

• Pindar


• Laurel Lake


• Jamesport


• Paumanok

The two tasting rooms I most enjoyed were Pindar and Jamesport. The experience as well as the wine. Remember when you go wine tasting, it's not all about the wine, it's about the experience and the tasting room staff plays a large part of what your experience is going to be.

At Pindar I tasted 8 wines. The one I like the most was the 2005 Chardonnay - Peacock Label. This is a new release that also won a Gold Medal. It was crisp with hints of pear and apple with subtle notes of vanilla from oak aging. This wine was very reasonable priced at $9.99 a bottle.

We tasted a lovely 2006 Sauvignon Blanc at Jamesport. The wine I liked the best was the 2003 East End Cinq. Unfortunately the only bottle they had left was the bottle we tasted out of. Bummer.

The Riesling at Paumanok was very good. It was semi sweet and will pair nice with spicy food.

Overall, it was a nice day, tasting some nice wines. I was however disappointed in the reds I tasted. They lacked depth and character. As we move into the colder months, I personally tend to drink more red wines. I was surprised all my purchases were white wines.

Chappellet Chardonnay

The other night I was cooking salmon for dinner and opened a 2005 Chappellet Napa Valley unfiltered Chardonnay. It was wonderful! It was smooth and creamy with a buttery finish.

This wine was aged in oak hence, the butter on the finish. Creamy and smooth...like a Werther's Original. Perfect for a cold blustery fall evening.