Castillo De Olleria Valencia

This Spanish Castillo De Olleria Valencia is made from 75% Bobal and 25% Tempranillo.  This is a delicious red wine. The nose is licorice and the taste is a lovely fruit and spice. In the glass, the color is a lovely deep red. I have a meaty spaghetti sauce simmering in my old, cast iron skillet for dinner tonight. I will also steam some fresh spinach from my garden.

I participated in a golf outing today (a fundraiser for the women’s golf team) and it was a lot of fun. I was called in last minute to complete a foursome. I enjoyed golfing with Bob Conlin and his son Bob and Bob’s wife, Julie. They were so much fun and I hope our paths cross again.

This Velazco Aminga Valley La Rioja 2007, an Argentinian red, is a blend of 85% Bonarda and 15% Syrah. We have had this wine before and I loved itl. Tonight it is Friday and we have both had a long and hectic work week. I will be teaching this weekend, as well, so I requested a special wine for tonight. Tom chose this wine because he knows that I am a fan of the Bonarda grape. This is a delicious full-bodied, lip smacking blend of spices, plums, and green peppers. So yummy.

For dinner tonight, I browned chicken in a skillet, added diced potatoes and chicken broth, covered and let it simmer. It has been an hour and a half and it is smelling yummy. I also went out to my little garden and harvested lettuce, green onions and cucumbers for the salad. My neighbor gave me some fresh Swiss Chard, which I will steam. All in all, I think this will be a delicious and fragrant Friday night dinner. But, more importantly, a relaxing and nurturing respite from a busy week.

This Castillo De Olleria Valencia 2007 is a wine from Spain that is made from 75% Bobal and 25% Tempranillo. Yum, yum, yum. Delish. The wine is fragrant with cloves on the nose. The taste is fresh and spicy with a crisp finish. I like this very much!

Tomorrow I am taking the day off and will drive to Mackinac Island (with my son, Tommy) to visit my youngest son, Tony, who is working there this summer. It will be a lot of fun to spend time with the boys!

We very much enjoyed this Grevin Cabernet Franc 2006 from our wine club.

It had a fresh-smelling nose of pine and celery and tastes of vanilla and caramel.

We’ve sometimes thought that Cab Franc by itself is a bit much — not enough fruit and not an easy quaff — but we found this Grevin quite nice and quite easily drinkable.

I bought two bottles of this Lindemans South Africa Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 today at the local grocery store because it was on sale. A good choice! The nose is fresh and lively and the taste is bursting with berries. This is a delicious “drink now” wine that requires no cellaring. The taste is fruity and friendly and, as my brother-in-law Bob says, “it drinks good.” The predominant taste is strawberry and the finish is velvety smooth.

I taught a class this weekend (Friday, Saturday & Sunday) so I did not get my normal down time this weekend. And, it is back to work tomorrow. At least I have this evening to unwind and rest my brain.

I was in the mood for a good home-cooked meal so I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from teaching and purchased ground beef, pork and veal. I mixed up two meatloaves and put one in the oven and one in the freezer. It smells good. Just what we need after a long weekend of work! For my meatloaf, I add oatmeal, milk, eggs, onions, spicy mustard and tomato juice (and lots of pepper). Delish!

This Argentinian Elsa Bianchi Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 arrived in one of our wine club shipments. I have tasted and blogged about his wine before and I think this is our last bottle. We are celebrating a Friday night, although I am working all weekend (because I am teaching a summer term weekend class).

I like this wine very much. On the nose I detect smoked meat — such as ham. In the mouth, I taste cherries and black dirt. I know I had rated this finish as moderate when I tasted it the first time, but I would have to say it is a rather short finish. Nevertheless, it is a taste that I love and I would purchase this wine again, absolutely.

This morning before work, I assembled a beef roast in the crock pot along with potatoes, carrots and onions. I knew it would be a long day and it is nice to know dinner is ready when we finish reading the paper and having our cocktail. So, I chose this Cabernet to go with our pot roast dinner. Nothing like a good, old-fashioned pot roast to end the work week!

This is our second bottle of this Sangiovese Italian red wine. A medium ruby red in the glass, the nose is a lovely fruit — very delicate and inviting. I like the taste of this wine very much. This has as much to do with the structure as it does the taste. While it is quite dry, it is also softly spicy and fruity. This wine has a somewhat austere, old-world quality to it that is quite wonderful.

We are enjoying this wine at the ideal temperature for red wine — thanks to Tom’s brother and wife, Bob & Suzanne, who gave us a wine refrigerator! Thank you, Bob & Suzanne!

Pockl Zweigelt 2004

This Pöckl Zweigelt 2004 is an interesting Austrian red wine that Tom purchased. Unfortunately, we don’t remember where we purchased this wine, but we think it may have been at Trader Joe’s. This is a vanilla-laced dry red with notes of cherry. It is quite juicy on the palate with a tannic finish.

Tom and I just returned from a six-day trip to Asheville, North Carolina where we attended Tom’s family reunion at the home of his sister, Pat and her husband Bob. What a fantastic week we had at their beautiful home in the mountains. We, along with Tom’s parents, Joe andMary, and his brothers Bill and (wife) Linda, Bob and (wife) Suzanne, and Steve and (wife) Janet (and daughters Emily and Katie), had tons of fun every day. We hiked in the mountains, toured the Biltmore, and had long cocktail hours on the deck, followed by delicious dinners with plenty of wine. We also played games together late into the night — resulting in much laughter and boisterous conversation.

Werner family in Arden

We took Trigger to the reunion and she quickly made friends with her cousin Molly, a Goldendoodle, who is three times her size and 1/9 her age! Trigger kept looking up at us with her big brown eyes as if to say, “Can you please make Molly calm down?” Although they tussled when they had an audience, when left to themselves, Trigger and Molly slept nose to nose on the kitchen floor together. I know Trigger will miss Molly.

I love Tom’s family and did not want to say goodbye. I can’t wait until we get together again.

It is hot today so I made a macaroni-tuna salad for dinner. I added carrots, celery, onions, peppers and peas to the spiral pasta and made a mayo/sour cream/ranch dressing mix to blend it all together. For this meal, we chose a merlot from California.

I am pleasantly surprised at this George Phillips Cellars Merlot 2005. It is not soft. Instead, it is sharp and astringent with plenty of blackberries and hints of violet on the finish. Perfect for a hot summer night!

By the way, here’s a photo of Trigger, who is always a part of our wine tastings.

We are enjoying a mid-week cocktail hour this June evening. Both Tommy and Tony are visiting tonight and I have big dinner plans — which includes the grill — and 10 minutes ago the rain was pouring down. I thought I might need to resort to pizza to save my husband from grilling in the rain, but the rain has stopped and the sky is bright once again. Yay!

This Château Lucière Bordeaux 2005 is one of my favorites. I purchased a case of it recently. It is richly flavored, dry, and tannic with a big, lusty finish.

Our son Tommy is a member of The Ben Daniels Band. The band played at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor last night. It was just fantastic. We were sitting close to the stage and took some pretty good pictures. Tommy plays the bass guitar. Their music is very good and original.