Value Wine Recommendations

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a value-minded consumer. In this edition of the blog, I thought I'd share with you some recommendations for value-minded wines. I got these recommendations from Wine Spectator. I've had a subscription to Wine Spectator for a couple of years, but just recently did I really start digging into their ratings, buying the wines they recommend, and comparing the quality of those wines.

This "research" was prompted by a blind tasting at a friend's holiday party a few years ago. He bought 2 wines: 1 was a $8.99 bottle of Rosemount Shiraz, the other a $50 bottle of Shafer Merlot. Based on blind tasting- half of the group picked the $8.99 bottle as their preferred wine. The conclusion of that exercise was that half of the tasters were buffoons. But looking back at that experiment, both of the wines in that test were rated exactly the same by Wine Spectator: 87 points. So, if you believe the pros at Wine Spectator the wines were equal in quality although one cost 5x as much as the other.

Fast forward 5 years later. Based on recommendations from Wine Spectator over the past 2 years, I've discovered the following 4 wines. I present them for you for their Quality/Price ratio:



Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot 2003/2004
90 points/$11 (bought a case @ $9.59/bottle)

Yellow Tail Shiraz Southeastern Australia The Reserve 2005
90 points/$11 (bought for $9.99)

Wolf Blass Cabernet/Shiraz South Australia Yellow Label 2005
88 points/$12 retail (bought for $7.99)

Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon California 2003
82 points/$2.99 (Trader Joe's only- $2.99)

If you like red wine, I hope you give these a try. If you do, please post back and let me know what you think. I'm planning on having some blind tastings here for Thanksgiving. I'll post back with the results of that experiment.

Just treats, please

Last year trick or treaters were greeted by a front door that was anything but inviting. (Even Sam ran away!) Covered in plastic, with all the molding torn off, we could only play it up as a Halloween prank with a sign:



A house with no door is spooky you say?
Even more so when the owner’s away.
But if you’ve come this close without any fright,
You deserve candy and a Happy Halloween night!

This year we were armed with more than a new front door. We had welcoming lights and plenty of candy to give out to the many neighborhood children. I am also fairly confident we had some of the cutest trick or treaters in town to help give candy away. I pledge that next year we will really do it right and give out full size candy bars. One of us will stay home while the other takes the kids trick or treating so nobody ends up rebuffed by the "help yourself" bowl we left on the doorstep while we took Sam around the neighborhood.

Sam was quickly identified as a doctor but it was really a treat for those ladies who recognized him as Dr. McDreamy. Only the most observant noticed his name badge. Since last year, he's gained an understanding of "trick or treat" and he diligently said "thank you" to each of the neighbors who greeted him. Will was Pooh bear for a short time until he became a snoring lump of red and yellow on his Papa's shoulder. I have a feeling it's only going to get better.

Up for air

It's been a while since I've written mostly because typing with one hand is too blisteringly slow to stomach. This little baby of mine, Will, sure loves to be held. There are times during the day when putting him down for even a moment is cause for urgent shrieking. Other times, he's content to stare at me, smiling as much with his eyes as with his lips. At present, he is sleeping in his father's arms, as we sit watching our beloved Red Sox with great anticipation. This quiet time is a welcome respite from our clamorous days.

Despite the volume around here, I've thought much about mothering these two little ones. At any time, my general attitude depends very much on my degree of sleep deprivation. I've not had an uninterrupted night of sleep in more than 4 months which has been difficult for this slumber lover to endure. And sleep is but one example of luxuries lost that I once thought basic human needs. But holding my boys is a luxury too-- I'm reminded when I think of those friends trying unsuccessfully to start a family. I'd just like to handle the sacrifice this job requires with more grace.

I've seen plenty of moms deal with toddler tantrums and infant demands with far more ease than do I. I struggle with the requisite putting aside of one's own needs to meet those of my children. Moms, dads, what's your secret? How do you deal with the demands of parenthood and still do the things that are important to you? Consider this an open invitation to share your wisdom. In the meantime, I'll share a moment that kept me going on a shall-we-just-say "challenging" day.

France: Part Deux

I took the Twingo about 100km north to a nice little city on a lake called Annecy. Very pretty! It kind of reminded me of a combination of Bellagio, Venice, and Amsterdam.

I've been thinking about some of the preconceived notions I had about France (and French people) before I came here, and whether my observations so far were aligned with those notions. While you scroll through these photos du 'jour, let's play a little game of "French Stereotypes: Fact or Fiction" shall we?



FOOD:

"French food is served in small portions."
FALSE. Every meal I've eaten has included generous portions.

"French food is fancy. Lots of duck, rabbit, and strange stuff."
FALSE. While there is some unusual stuff (I've eaten quail legs several times) for the most part, I've found the majority of the food to be quite "normal".

"French Wine is very good and very cheap."
PARTIALLY TRUE. I have to say, I had higher expectations of the wine. It's good, but in my humble opinion very similar to California red wines. I mean, they're the same exact types of grapes (most California grapes are cloned from French grapes), just grown in a different location. The pricing is similar as in the states- very cheap or very expensive: take your pick. A typical glass of wine at the hotel bar costs 6 Euro. That's $8.40. That seems rather expensive to me actually.



TRANSPORTATION:

"Gas costs a fortune in Europe."
PARTIALLY TRUE. It's hard to calculate an exact comparison in one's head (dollars vs. Euros, gallons vs. liters- what a mind bender!) but gas is noticably more expensive than in the US. I filled up the econobox's tank today for 45 Euro. That's like $60. Gas has gotten a lot more expensive in the US lately, so $60 to fill the tank doesn't seem *that* outrageous.

"Everyone drives BMWs and Mercedes."
FALSE. Not in France anyway. While it's true that when you see the headlights of a BMW or Mercedes on the "rapidway" (highway) you should "get over immediately!" or be run over, most of the cars in France are Renaults, Peugots, and other modest cars.

"You can take the train anywhere!"
PARTIALLY TRUE. Yeah, if you want to spend a fortune and have all day. Paris is a 5 hour drive away. You could take the TGV (Train a'Grand Vittesse, the speed train) from Grenoble to Paris in 3 hours (plus transfers and waiting time). But you have to somehow get to the train station, find parking, and then pay. A lot. $125 each way. Pretty pricey. Transportation being so expensive, I could see where only the rich would be able to move about the region frequently.



PEOPLE:

"French people are rude."
TOTALLY FALSE. The people I've met here have been *so* nice to me. They're not fake-nice and all smiley right off the bat, but they are very appreciative when you try to speak French, ask questions about speaking French, or ask questions about France.

"Everyone smokes."
PARTIALLY TRUE. There's still a lot more smoking in public places here than in the states. I think an improvement here in recent years is that people don't smoke indoors anymore. They still smoke outside- say in a sidewalk cafe where it can be bothersome, but things seem to be improving in that area.



CULTURE:

"There's dogs everywhere."
PARTIALLY TRUE. I have seen quite a few dogs, but nothing ridiculous. I haven't seen anyone bringing their dogs to eat at the table with them or anything.

"People say things like 'komon tally voo' and 'on shon tay!' frequently."
PARTIALLY TRUE. I thought a couple of these were interesting actually. With my limited knowledge of the French language I had no clue what these words meant until I saw them spelled out in my phrase book. "Comment allez-vous" means "How are you?" You see "comment" used a lot to say "comment on this...". I think it's easy to remember that way. And "on shon tay": enchante. It's a concise one-word way of saying "nice to meet you" or "I am enchanted to meet you." I'd heard that the French language often provided single words that mapped to many in English. I think "Enchante" is a great example of that.



Bonsoir and au revoir for now...