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Happy Hour: Rumball Sparkling Shiraz

partysugar — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:58:22 -0700

A few weekends ago Emily (my bff), Gabe, and I ran into our favorite local wine shop, Vine and Barrel, to pick up a bottle (or 2) of wine to bring to dinner at my parents house. Jason the owner, an awesome guy who is super friendly and always helpful, met us with big bear hugs. After we said our hellos we got down to business. Grilled spiced rub turkey breast and sweet potato fries were on the menu for the evening, so Jason suggested that we pair the turkey with a Rumball sparkling Shiraz. Sparkling Shiraz? A red sparkling wine? Neither Emily nor I even knew that such a thing existed and you can imagine our giddy excitement. But did Jason have a bottle chilled for us? You bet he did (gotta love this guy)! When we got to my house, Emily opened the bottle while I rounded up the champagne glasses. The wine was a beautiful, dark ruby color with teeny bubbles and pink fizz. The south Australian wine was elegant with fruity flavors, a soft smooth palate and lots of depth. I fully enjoyed this wine, it was completely complementary with the turkey and I will definitely remember to serve this next November at Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Hour: Vixen by Fox Creek Wines

YumSugar — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:03:38 -0700

This weekend I had the opportunity to taste a lovely sparkling red wine. Even though I knew it was a sparkling Shiraz, I couldn't help but think it would be light colored, like a rosé. However, when I poured Vixen by Fox Creek Wines into my glass, it was definitely a full-bodied red color. The effervescence caused by the bubbles added just the right bit of fizz, and it definitely rounded out the subtle black cherry flavor. Overall, it was very smooth and fruity, but had just enough bubbly that it ended up dancing on your tongue. Sparkling reds are still uncommon in the US, but are increasing in popularity in Australia and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it becomes commonplace on our shores. Available for $19.99.

Happy Hour: Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto 2004

partysugar — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:15:17 -0700

If you think all dessert wines are too sweet, think again. Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto 2004 ($21.99) is a red sparkler that's appealing without being cloying. It has a fabulous ripe raspberry flavor and rosy scent. The bubbles are light and the fruitiness rich yet refreshing. The festive hue makes this wine ideal for special occasions. I poured it alongside a white cake, but it would complement chocolate excellently. Although we sipped this sparkler with dessert, it's unique berry-forward flavor means it could be enjoyed anytime - before, during, or after a meal.

Has anyone sipped this festive bubbly? What did you think of it?

Come Party With Me: Bold Flavorful Thanksgiving - Drinks

partysugar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:00:49 -0800

Jump-start your Thanksgiving with a bold, flavorful cocktail like this appropriately named pear and rum concoction, spice. It's a mixture of dark spiced rum and pear and lime juices. Freshly grated nutmeg is a special garnish that makes it particularly festive.

For the rest of the meal, stock up on sparkling wine, dry rosé, and a light, fruity red like Pinot Noir. Don't forget to set pitchers of water on table as well. Flavor them with orange slices, mint, or cucumber.

To look at the cocktail recipe, read more.

Spice
From Food & Wine

Ingredients

Ice
2 large mint sprigs, torn and bruised
1 1/2 ounces spiced rum
1 ounce pear nectar or juice
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
3/4 ounce Simple Syrup
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 thin slice of pear

Directions

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add all of the ingredients except the pear slice and shake well.
Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with the pear slice.

Makes 1 drink.

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What Type Of Wine Do You Drink?

partysugar — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 01:59:00 -0800

Come Party With Me: My Birthday Party - Drinks

partysugar — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:50:16 -0700

There's lots going on with the drinks at my 28th birthday dinner. I plan on serving a different wine with each course, but before we sit down to the meal, I'll offer guests glasses of a specialty cocktail. Since the menu is rustic Italian, the cocktail features Italy's most popular aperitif and campari. When mixed with a sweet late-harvest wine and fresh-squeezed orange juice, the vibrantly colored spirit tastes far from bitter.

At dinner, I pair the salad with a crisp, dry, minerally Italian white wine. A fruity aromatic rosé will balance out the richness of the cheesy pasta course. For the seafood stew entree, I'll serve a light-bodied softer red wine.

Finally, there's only one thing to sip with the dessert: a slightly sweet sparkling wine! To check out the campari cocktail recipe, read more.

Late-Harvest Wine and Campari Cocktails
From Food & Wine

Ingredients

3 3/4 cups sweet late-harvest white wine, such as Riesling
2 1/4 cups fresh orange juice
1 cup Campari
Ice, for serving

Directions

In a large pitcher, mix the white wine with the fresh orange juice and Campari. Refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours.
Fill tall glasses with ice, pour the cocktail over the ice and serve.

Serves 10.

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A Lesson in Pairing Food and Wine With Peter Marks

partysugar — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:13:31 -0700

When I was planning my wine and chocolate party I had the lovely opportunity to speak with Peter Marks, an expert on the subject. Peter is a wine master and wine educator at COPIA - The American Center for Wine, Food, and Arts - in Napa, CA. He has won an array of wine-related awards and even hosted a wine-centric television show. His highly sensitive tastebuds are not afraid of sweet Rieslings or White Zinfandels. To see what he taught me about pairing food and wine, read more.

PartySugar: How do you choose a food and wine pairing?
Peter Marks: I don't over analyze it. It really depends on your mood and who you are serving. I think about the general weight of the food, the level of sweetness in both the dish and the wine, the level of fat. You have to find a balance between the salt and the acid. If you have a very acidic white wine, you can lessen the acidity by eating something salty. Season the food to make the wine taste better. Also remember that many wines that may taste sweet are actually super fruity. The intensity of fruit gives the impression of a high level of sugar.
PS: What are some classic wine and chocolate pairings?
PM: A dry Cabernet Sauvignon with chocolate is a classic pairing that we do at Copia. But half the people who taste it love it and the other half don't. When pairing wine with anything avoid extremes. Don't choose a wine with heavy tannins to pair with bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, instead, look for young, fruit-driven wines. Choose a wine that is as sweet or sweeter than the food to maintain a level of sweetness. If the wine is less sweet you'll have that drinking-OJ-after-brushing-your-teeth effect that creates a bitter, bad taste in your mouth. Rieslings work well with chocolate because they are both sweet and acidic. Madeiras complement chocolate with nuts or caramels because the wine has a baked nutty character. For milk chocolate a super-sweet Port, cream Sherry, or late-harvest Riesling are nice selections.

PS: Can you pair Champagne or sparkling wine with chocolate?
PM: In general, most sparkling wines are very dry and highly acidic so they don't pair too well with it. The sweeter styles a doux or semi-sec are OK to pair with something like white chocolate. A fruity sparkling wine also may work like a Rosé or a Blanc de Noir. Other options are a Spumante or Moscato di Asti, which go well with caramel and vanilla flavors. These are lower in alcohol and super-sweet sparklers. Sparkling Shiraz is very good with dark chocolate. An ice wine is good with milk chocolate because it's sweet intenseness can hold up against a super-sweet chocolate.

PS: What advice do you have for a young wine drinker who doesn't know much about wine? How can they pair wine and food?
PM: Select wine you like, serve food you like and go from there. Pay attention to what happens when you enjoy the two together. Choose flavors that either mimic or contrast. Richer foods tend to go better with richer wines. Match the flavors of the dish to the wine or contrast the two. Contrasting always provides a surprising result. I love to pair a Riesling with smoked foods.

PS: What is your favorite food and wine pairing?
PM: It's more a philosophical effect. For me to really enjoy a pairing, I have to be with my favorite people. Usually my favorite pairing is the food and wine I am currently having. However, I really enjoy fresh salmon with lighter red wines like a Pinot Noir or a Beajulois Nouveau.

Source and Source

Come Party With Me: Wine Club's 1st Meeting - Tips

partysugar — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 06:55:13 -0800

I've invited a group of friends to my house to taste and learn about wine once a month and the club's first meeting is coming up! I'm very excited to take an educational experience and translate it into a party. Together, in a non-threatening environment, we will discover and discuss, sip by sip, new varietals of red, white, or sparkling wine. After all the best way to become an expert on wine is by drinking it! Although the wine is the focal point, I will be offering a few small savory and sweet bites to cleanse our palettes between tastings and to fully appreciate the flavor of the wine. I encourage you to come party with me by starting your very own wine club! To see what wine I'll be tasting at the first meeting and for essential wine club tips, read more

The perfect size for a wine club is 10-15 friends.
Be sure to choose friends who are interested in learning about wine and who you enjoy drinking with.
Next select what type of wine you want to focus on at your first meeting. I chose my favorite red wine, a Spanish Rioja.

Red wine is weather appropriate for the colder months, like now, so save your favorite whites for the summer when the weather is hot.
Another idea (thanksKbella) is to alternate red wine with white wine each month.
Host a blind tasting by covering each of the labels of wine and pour each guest a small 2-3 ounce serving in order to sample each of the wines.

As the hostess, be sure to put one non-Rioja (or the red wine of your choice) wine in with the group of wines you are tasting. This is to see if guests can identify the difference tastes between the varietals.
If the wine you are tasting is produced in several different regions of the world, assign each guest a distinct area to cover. For example Chardonnays are produced in many locations including but not being limited to Napa, Chile, and France. Ask one girlfriend to bring a bottle from Napa, another to bring one from South America, and another to bring on from Burgundy.

Remind guests to research her or his bottle online before attending your event. That way they can provide informed knowledge on what you should be "tasting."
Ask guests to bring a wine tasting notebook in case they are interested in taking notes.
Create a wine tasting notes worksheet to fill out while you sample each wine.

Happy Hour: Sangria Flora

partysugar — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:00:39 -0700

Last weekend I hosted my first outdoor dinner of the season. While I had grand plans to serve a crazy new cocktail, in the end, I went with a crowd-pleasing standby, sangria.

Sangria is one of my favorite drinks to pour at a party because it's wildly refreshing, can be made in advance, and serves a large group. From white to red to sparkling to rosé, there's hundreds of recipes, so I rarely make the same variation twice. This time, we sipped a white-wine sangria spiked with elderflower liquor. It was wonderful! It's slightly sweet and floral, incredibly fruity, and highly drinkable. My guests went through three pitchers in a matter of minutes.

If you're planning a warm-weather get-together, put this easy concoction on the menu. To give the fruit time to flavor the alcohol, assemble several hours in advance. For the recipe, read more.

Sangria Flora
From Food & Wine

Ingredients

One 750-milliliter bottle Sauvignon Blanc
1 1/2 cups St-Germain elderflower liqueur (or elderflower cordial)
1/4 cup Cointreau
6 strawberries, sliced 1/4 inch thick
6 raspberries
2 peaches, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 orange, thinly sliced crosswise
1 pound green and red grapes
Ice

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients in a pitcher and let stand at room temperature for 3 hours, or cover and refrigerate overnight.
Serve in wineglasses over ice.

Serves 6-8.

Note: Peaches weren't in season, so I left them out of the sangria. There was a buy one get one free sale going on at my grocery store for strawberries and instead of using raspberries, I doubled the amount of strawberries.

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Come Party With Me: Wine Club's 1st Meeting - Invites

partysugar — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:56:32 -0800

I've decided to start my own wine club! Think Oprah is to book club as PartySugar is to wine club. Since 34% of readers fall into the I'm learning about wine category (like myself), I thought it would be a great way to get us all to increase our wine knowledge. So not only am I starting my own wine club, but I am inviting and encouraging you readers to create a wine club as well!

I'll help you plan it so you'll have nothing to worry about. Here's how it's going to work: I'll gather a whole bunch of friends (the more the merrier) to discuss, taste, and develop a flavor for wine. Each month we'll focus on a different type of wine. I'll ask everyone to please bring a bottle of the specified wine (example: Cabernet Sauvignon, French champagne, Spanish Alboriño, etc.), we'll cover the labels and fill out tasting sheets so we can develop personal tastes of the wine with open minds. First thing is first, I have to make and send the invitations. To host this party with me, starting with the invitations, read more

As this party will be a monthly get together, I want the invites to be simple and easily changeable. The details of the party - the location and the wine type - will change with each month. The easiest way to do so is to create postcard invites. The image on the front of the postcard will stay the same and the information on the back will change.

To make this invitation you will need:

wine book
scissors
cardstock in the color of your choice (I chose red)
gluestick
computer & printer
wine label image(s)

To assemble this invitation:

Start by choosing an image that you really like. You could make a collage using actual wine labels or you could make a photoshopped collage like I did. I found a whole bunch of fun wine labels on the internet and made a collage in photoshop. This will be the back of the postcard.

Print out your image (or print out my image and cut down to size, 4x6 inches - the size of a standard postcard.

Next open up a new document in Microsoft Word and write the text of the invite. Remember that you want it to be on one side of the back of the postcard (the left side) so make the details concise and in a smaller font. On the right side you will write the addresses and place a stamp. Write a message with the information, along these lines:

PartySugar cordially invites you to be a member of her recently formed Wine Club, the Vinettes, a group that partakes in a taste journey discovering and discussing sip by sip new varietals of red, white, or sparkling wine

Meetings Once A Month
Every First Friday
Friday March 2, 8 o’clock

PartySugar’s House, San Francisco
RSVP 415.444.5555, friends welcome
Please bring a Spanish Rioja for the 1st tasting

I used my favorite font, Papyrus, in size 12.

Print the text on the colored cardstock of your choice.

Using a pencil outline the shape of the wine label image on the red cardstock. You want the text to be as close to the edge of the left side of the postcard.

With the pencil drawn line as your guide, cut out the red cardstock to a 4x6 standard post card shape.

Carefully glue the wine label collage to the back side of the red cardstock.

Your postcard invite is now done! Wasn't that fabulously easy? Don't forget to use your best handwriting to address the cards.

I hope that you plan and host this party with me! Come back for more on my first wine club meeting, all this week.

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