What's the grown-up version of those little candy hearts?  Perhaps a little bottle (or, heck, a BIG bottle!) of dessert wine.  Dessert wines add a sweet touch for Valentine's Day.

Sweet wines don't get the same sort of press as the big guns such as Chardonnay and Cabernet.  But they have a place at the table, especially at this time of year when romance is in the air.   And you don't necessarily have to wait for dessert - as an aperitif, I love it with blue cheese, or having it with lobster is a wonderful treat too.

Dessert wines come in various styles.  Many are late harvest wines, which means the grapes are left on the vine until the sugar levels increase dramatically, then the grapes are pressed and fermented to produce a wine with residual sugar, hence the sweetness.  Some involve allowing a particular kind of mold, known as botrytis, to develop.  This further concentrates the grape sugars and flavors.  It is a labor-intensive and tricky process.  You have to have just the right amount of rain - it doesn't happen every year, but it did this harvest -- followed by painstaking picking; sometimes only a few grapes are selected from a cluster.  The result is a golden, silky wine with notes of pineapple and caramel.  The wine is rich enough that a little goes a long way.  It is something that is sublime and has a very lengthy texture on the palate and you want to be able to enjoy that.  Port also falls into the category of dessert wines.  Here the sweetness comes from adding a spirit, often brandy.  These are usually higher in alcohol content than regular wines, around 18 to 19%, and are a traditional way to end a meal.  Ports also happen to be good with dark chocolate, a plus for Valentine's Day.

So go forth my dear readers!  Live – Love – Eat  this Valentine’s Holiday!

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Apparently there's some fuss in DC about who was invited and who was not invited to the State Dinner with the Prime Minister of India. Whatever...

In perusing the official menu for the State Dinner, however, I came away appalled. It offers a choice of two entrees:

Roasted Potato Dumplings with Tomato Chutney, Chick Peas and Okra

or

Green Curry Prawns, Caramelized Salsify, With Smoked Collard Greens

Okra? Collard greens? Not exactly haute cuisine. But that's not my concern. It's good American fare, so more power to them!

My problem is the wine they propose to serve: "2007 Granache, Beckmen Vineyards, Santa Ynez, California." In the first place, they misspelled the grape variety: It's grenache, not granache. (The same mistake appears to have been made on the menu cards on the table!) In the second place, grenache is a red wine. It is used primarily as a blending grape. It's fruity, fleshy, but generally doesn't produce great wines, although there are a few French, Aussie, and US exceptions to that rule. For example, Beckmen Vineyard is one of the Rhone Rangers who is making premium Grenache. Their Grenache wines tend to be high alcohol (15% +), with flavor associations including kirsh, licorice, spices, earth, and game. Robert Parker typically scores them in the high 80s or low 90s.

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I bet you're all thinking, "Well gosh, did I miss The Wine Snob's October wine entry?"  No, no, no, I just had to wait for Halloween for this one, because it was all about trick or treating!  Some of you may have walked children around the neighborhood and you may have even "inspected" their candy stash by now (for quality control purposes, of course!), or perhaps you went to a grown-up Halloween party all decked out in scary/sexy costumes...  Well, my friends came to my house for what they thought was a wine tasting party and got tricked... but it was quite a treat for me!

What they didn't know was that, like a mad scientist, I was conducting several experiments on them - yes, they were my little lab rats for the evening.  So, I wanted to know if I paired a cheap wine next to an expensive wine, if the majority of people would choose the expensive one as their favorite.  I had about 20 guests and each had two wine glasses in front of them.  I poured the cheap (I mean dirt cheap!) wine in the left-hand glass and the expensive (I mean out-of-control expensive!) in the right.  The difference in the price between the cheap bottles and the expensive bottles was a $50 gap, so I was hoping the contrast would be clear in the glass. 

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I can't think of a better day to write about Malbecs than today.  Here in Houston it is currently 75 degrees, and after the hellacious summer temps of over 100 degrees for months on end, we Houstonians are smiling a sigh of relief - Ahhhhhhhhhh...  :) 

As you know, we here in Houston are blessed with a nationally renowned restaurant beat - lots of fancy restaurants, great food and a happening scene.  But some evenings don't you just wanna throw on your jeans and head out to your local drinkery and partake in one of Houston's most esoteric marvels...  Steak Night?  Several pubs, bars and wine bars around town pick a night to promote a huge cut of meat slapped on the grill accompanied by a potato n' all the fixins for anywhere between $12-$15.  You can't beat that in this down-trodden economy!  I don't know about you, but over the summer when we'd go out for 'Steak Night' I always ordered an Argentinian Malbec to pair with my steak - despite the fact that it was 105 degrees out, 90% humidity and an ice cold beer would have been WAY more refreshing.  I can't help it, I'm a Certified Sommelier and CAN NOT be seen around town drinking beer - it would all but ruin my reputation!  Anyway, yesterday was the first official day of Autumn, the temps will start falling away and Malbecs will become fashionably perfect pairings with Steak Night for all (certified or not).  I thought I'd list all the Steak Nights around town that I am aware of and give you a plethora of Malbecs that are tried n' true!

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Champagne, Sparkling Wine, Bubbly…  Whatever you call the fizzy stuff…  It’s not just for toasting at weddings or for ringing in the New Year.  No, in fact, it’s perfect for celebrating just about anything – or nothing at all for that matter!  A couple weeks ago I invited a small group of friends over for a sparkling wine tasting complete with a pairing dinner of Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Crostinis, Romaine Salad with Strawberries & Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing, Smokey Deep-Fried Chicken and Fresh Berry Trifle with Grand Marnier Jam. I thought I’d share it with you all as well – perhaps you’d like to try some of these, or even host a tasting of your own! We tasted (ok, we didn’t just “taste”, we DRANK) a total of 10 bottles of various sparkling wines – here are the details:

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Hello everyone! Welcome to my first article for RSVP 713. I have some wonderful summer sipper suggestions (or gulpers, depending on your style) outlined for you below.  You might think, well gosh, summer's just about over!  But not here in Houston - As you know, our summer weather can last clear through October around these parts!  With that in mind, I've laid out for you 3 Bubblies, 3 Whites, 1 Pink and 3 Reds - in addition, you'll see I have included some of my favorite summer recipes that pair so well with these wines! So let's all raise our glasses to summer - and always remember, life's too short to drink blah wine...

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