Wine, Cheese, and Friends

My best friend in the whole world is visiting from California and we had to get together for wine and cheese. He is even more of a wine and cheese aficionado that me, and brought some amazing things for us to enjoy together.

He brought a chilled Peju blend that looks like a rose, but is actually a blend of red and white wine. This was one of his favorite casual drinking wines and I loved it as well.

Its soft and very drinkable with still some intrigue. It's one of those wines you drink and are like "wow this is really good..." and get back to your conversation. Its not something you have to ponder and think about, which I liked.

To go with the wine we had an interesting cheese plate. He brought an 18 month aged gouda and a Moliterno sheep cheese with truffles.

The gouda was SO GOOD. Seriously it's one of my new favorite cheeses. It was aged for just the right amount of time where it was potent with crunchy spots yet soft and smooth overall. It was just... perfect. The sheep cheese was a little more complex. It was a cheese with truffle bits chopped in, but also it was infused in truffle oil. It was REALLY good at first, but the more I ate, the more overwhelming it tasted. It really was quite delicious, but I would stick to small amounts of this one.

Since we were trying cheeses, I wanted to get his opinion about that crazy coffee and lavender cheese I bought.

The consensus was that this cheese is weird. Its interesting in that it has crazy flavors and perhaps the middle part is ok, but overall its just... weird. The coffee dusting leaves a strange taste in your mouth, and we didn't taste the lavender at all this time. It was kind of a bust.

Just for fun I had him try a piece of that Fiscalini Cheddar I hated... he spit it out and called it an abomination in the name of cheese.

While we were eating and drinking we got on the subject of (what else?) wines. While talking about the vouvrays I was recommended to try, he told me they are the same thing as chenin blancs! All of a sudden we wanted to try one, so I got out the Pine Ridge chenin blanc/viognier from my birthday dinner!

Mmmm it was smooth and creamy and as delicious as before. I didn't take notes of any particular flavors or details but Im sure I will be buying it again. We all agreed it was great.

It was a big night full of lots of wine, cheese, and catching up, simply amazing! :)

I Won!

I always forget to turn in my raffle ticket at the Specs wine tastings and have only remembered the past 2 times. Well this time I actually WON!

It's mostly just snacks in there - some that look good and some I will no doubt give away. Sadly there is no wine but there is a wine book so thats exciting! Im so shocked and thrilled! :)

Update: It is NOT a wine book, it is a WHISKEY book haha. Interesting...

Specs Wine Tasting

Wow what a tasting! Last month I went to Specs I didn't end up getting anything but this time was an absolute goldmine. There were so many amazing wines this time I had a hard time choosing.

The winner of the night was the Helfrich Pinot Gris. Normally I don't like these types of dry whites, but this pinot gris was very fruity and sweet in the middle and dry at the end, making it very refreshing without being overwhelming. My other favorite was the Castello del Proggio Moscato. As I've said before, Im starting to really love moscatos. I used to really like rieslings because they were so sweet and refreshing and have taken the next step in moscatos since they are even sweeter without being overly fruity. I ended up getting both of these wines for about $12 each.

Tonight was really cool because it seemed to be an unofficial Spanish Tempranillo night. There were FIVE tonight and since I love this type of wine it was really cool to try so many different ones almost side by side. The wines ranged from $7 to $17 and my favorite ended up being the Arzuaga la Planta, although I can't say exactly why. Just a personal preference perhaps, but I didn't end up getting it because I had too many other things and all were so good it was kinda hard to choose.

The wines I did NOT like were only three - 2 California chardonnays that tasted very unoriginal and blah and one African Shiraz that was just weird. On top of the 3 I really liked and the 3 I really didn't like, were about 10 other ones that were very good. I decided at the last minute to get one other wine because it was pretty good and only $3.73! It was a sauvignon blanc fron Chile and although it was not fantastic, it was solid and still delicious and definitely worth the few dollars I spent on it. These types of wines are good to have on hand for a super casual night or even as a second bottle of the night :o.

As always happens at wine parties, you get to chat with some really cool people about wine. We ended up talking to this guy about the moscato and he recommended I try a vouvray so we went to look at some and Specs ended up not having the one he was talking about. That brought me to an employee and we started talking about rose's and he had some great recommendations for me. I almost got one of those too, but seeing as I already had quite a few to buy and the rose was not one of the featured (and on sale) wines, I decided to wait. It will probably be the next bottle of wine I get though.

Now for the cheese!

The cheeses here are always interesting to try and I usually get a few. There was a cheese with fenugreek seeds in it that tasted like maple syrup which was really cool but not really my thing. One of the cheeses I ended up getting was a trucket and was really good and wanted to sample it further. Probably the most bizarre cheese was a cheese that had coffee and lavender flavors and when you first try it you think WHOA... but as you keep eating it you keep wanting more and more. So I got the trucket and the coffee/lavendar cheese and found a Parrano that was for some reason 50% off so got that too.

Hooray for Specs wine nights being back on track! Id say 75% of the wines were either good or great, which is how it should be in my opinion!

More Goat Cheese

I cant stop! Goat cheese is too delicious and I want to try it all! Since Whole Foods apparently has a few different soft goat cheeses in roatation, I will just have to try each one and compare them. I got this one, which has cracked pepper around the edges:

This was alright, but not great. The pepper flavor was weird and Im not a huge fan of pepper anyway. I DID put it on some crackers with the smoked tomato pesto and it was soooo good! It was suggested to me that I should just buy a chunk of plain cheese and then put my own herbs or whatever around it, so that will definitely be something I should look into! What a great idea!

So I had to get a plain one as well! Of course it tastes like the middle of the other ones and I haven't yet decided what to add on to it so for now Im just eating it as is. Its probably not the most flavorful or creamiest plain goat cheese I've had, so unless Im getting an herby one I will stick with another brand.

Full Quiver Farms Strawberry Cheese Spread

As I've said before, I love cream cheese, especially flavored ones. I still have the jalapeno cream cheese from the farmers market and Im trying to decide what to pair that with, but in the meantime I decided to get another one! I was at Whole Foods and wanted some to eat with crackers so I got the strawberry kind.

Its pretty good! I was surprised to find that its whipped... I don't remember the other ones being like that but who knows. This made it surprisingly light and fluffy and it actually reminded me more of icing on a cake! Delicious! Unlike at the farmers market, Whole Foods sells it by the pound, so I think it was actually a little cheaper there.

Maybe people who don't know me very well are wondering "Does she really eat ALL that cheese"? It seems like I should be 500 pounds by now eating all the cheese I write about! The truth is I get very small amounts of everything, and always share it with other people. If I get huge chunks of something I will get bored of it anyway.

Printhie Chardonnay

This is one of the wines I bought a few months ago at a Specs tasting because it was so interesting and different from many chardonnays I've tried in the past. Normally I don't like chardonnays because I think of 2 things: oak and vanilla. I have actually tried quite a few through tastings because it seems to be a popular type of wine, but have rarely found one that has any kind of actual flavor.

This Printhie Chardonnay is completely different though. Its from Australia, and I think one of the things that makes it taste so good is that its actually 90% chardonnay and 10% viognier I believe. There was another Printhie wine being sampled (I think sauvignon blanc) and it too was mixed with a little viognier and it was good as well! It is very creamy without tasting like vanilla, and it actually tastes like fruit. I still have some left so I will take better note of those flavors the next time I drink it.

One of the main things that struck me was the smell. It almost smelled like something was toasted or smokey, and a little nutty. I don't think I've ever smelled this before in a wine so it definitely caught my attention.

When I first tasted this wine at Specs I loved it and had to buy it because it was so unique. At a higher price point than I am used to (around $17) it makes me think that there may be hope for me and chardonnays. I really liked this wine and enjoyed drinking it and tasting it again, but I'm not sure it will be added to my list of wines I love and have to keep on hand.

Rondin Honey Goat Cheese

Mmmm this cheese is amazing! I got this at Central Market because I was curious what a honey goat cheese would taste like. Previously, I had bought a honey goat cheese spread, but the flavors were obviously mixed together in the little tub along with others... and this piece of cheese looks just plain! I was also worried it would be too fakely sweet and its not! Its smells delicious and just tastes like a normal cheese with a touch of sweetness. It is SO good! Like the dill one, this is another cheese that makes a good breakfast! :)