Only On Sunday

It was a great weekend all around in the realm of pre-summer imbibing. Saturday featured stops at the Syrah and Sausages fest at Solis winery along with a stop in at Kirigin, both in the south bay (we stayed over after a great night of B.B. King at Mountain Winery in Saratoga.

Sunday was a play day with friends in Dry Creek, and as usual on Sundays, this meant a stop in for a taste and a jug of Preston Guadagni Jug wine.

This remarkably inexpensive field blend (3 liters for $32, or $8/bottle if you play it out like that) is NEVER a disappointment. Largely a blend of Zinfandel and the Rhone varietals Mourvedre and Carignane, 2008 Guadagni is a bright, bold delightfully drinkable wine that takes its broad base from the abundance of rich edgy Zin sparked with a sharp perkiness derived from the Rhones. It's the perfect wine for summer barbecue or grilled steak (which we of course paired it with on Monday). It's crisp, full of flavor and balance, but light enough to be a great summer red. It's bold and crisp and fun.

Gaudagni is only available at the winery on Sundays (often poured into the bottle by Lou Preston and his wife, Susan). you buy it by the jug (they sell the jugs for two bucks) and get it refilled when you come back. The last time we were at Preston we were there with a big group of folks that all hung out on the lawn for a picnic with Preston's home baked bread, olives and various cheeses, meats, etc. On that afternoon we dispatched a couple of jugs between us in short order. However, if you want to hold onto the wine a little while, the Preston's suggest decanting to other bottles. Our friends Rich and Janet were even able to score some left over Preston wine bottles to take along with them for decanting at home (the Prestons are BIG on the reuse/recycle mindset). There's a two jug limit per person.

While you're there... be sure to try the wide range of wonderful organic wines on the Preston list. It's a winery with Rhone tendancies, an Italian soul, and a Green World philosophy that could be a peek into the true future of California wine making.

Menage a Trois

Last night we spent the evening with two lovely low cost bottles, one a 2005 Carneros Chardonnay from Laurier, a wine we picked up at P-town Market for a steal of a deal at $7.99. It's fruity, crisp and clean, but it's got the roundness, and balance of Chards from Carneros with a slight touch of oakiness and none of that strnge thin ickiness that a lot of low price Chardonnay seems to have in spades.

I'm convinced that some of the specialness of this incredibly inexpensive white is due to the 2005 vintage which I just keep discovering over and over again as a spectacular year.

The next wine is an every day favorite from Folie a Deux Winery in St.. Helena. It's their wonderful little blend of Zin, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon (an 07 this time) Menage a Trois. The bottle retails most places for $12.99 (seems to be the hot low end price point right now) but if you keep your eye open you can find it in abundance at an even lower price.

The folks at Folie a Deux have fermented each varietal separately and brought them together in the blend; the zin bringing the big spicey frutiness, the merlot smoothing it over and rounding it out, and the cab gives it backbone and a little spark. The wine is aged in French and American Oak.

This wine has truly become one of my favorite "every day" wines. It's got big bold fruit (not as big or bold as last night's selection, but close) and bone dry finish. It's terrific as a solo sipper in the afternoon, or with anything a little bit perky or spicy. I've had it with cube steak and potatoes, hamburgers, pork chops, tacos, planked salmon and pasta and I have yet to find it disappointing even once.

Last night we drank the Laurier with our entree of spicy crab cakes with a buttery bay shrimp sauce and followed it with the Menage and a bit of cheesecake. Total cost of everything (for two) was less than $30.

The Inaugural Dose

Lately I've been thinking that my daily intact of beer, wine, and/or spirits has become too regular. I even read someplace that they were suggesting that drinking every day was an addiction.... and I got a little bit concerned.

Then it dawned on me... Wait a minute! I BREATHE every day. I eat FOOD every day, in fact on the rare occasion when I have not eaten food in a day my body has sometimes collapsed into a seizure... NOT something I am fond of repeating. I pretty much WORK every day, I sleep every night. I walk, talk, listen to music, read (I even check email), spend money,brush my teeth, and take a shower pretty much EVERY DAY. Does that mean that I am ADDICTED to each of those things? Am I addicted to breathing, nourishment, cleanliness, emotional and intellectual stimulation? Maybe so... but if so, guess what?

There's a term for someone who has given those things up... DEAD.

Besides all that... Drinking is even patriotic! It was Benjamin Franklin after all who declared that, "beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." In other words, if we stop drinking... say it with me... The Terrorists Win (this is actually even true in a twisted sort of way).

So, instead of altering my intake of one of the most sublime substances that the God/Goddess ever put on the planet, I've decided instead to BLOG about it (something else I pretty much do every day).

Tonight I've decided to start a new feature here at FoodFetish... a little thing I'm going to call The Daily Dose.

It will be a daily (or at least almost daily) sampling of some lovely (or perhaps on occasion, not so lovely) glass of grape or grain that I happen to try out that day. Every once in a while I will ask others to guest post, and from time to time I may even steal an idea from a reader (so please comment!).

I have no idea where this will lead, and I have virtually no concept of what I will be trying... but here goes.

The wine I'm drinking tonight is a fine Red that ran me $12.99 ($14.16 w/ tax) at the nearby Petaluma Market here in P-town. It's Marietta Old Vine Red (Lot Number 42). If you click that link there, you'll get a nifty little flash driven website with a whole bunch of Robert Parker quotes about the wine, but don't let that deter you... This stuff rocks!

At a price point of just over $10, winemaker Chris Bilbro has crafted a big bodied, fruit forward Zin blend (the label says it's a field blend but they don't let on about what other grapes were on the vines) that is perfect for sitting on the back deck and sipping as the sun sinks slowly in the west (which is what I was doing before I started writing this and what I will be doing after I finish) or combining with BBQ, or pulled pork, or spicy mexican. My personal plans for the bottle include accompanying left over planked salmon and chipotle cole slaw in some fish tacos I'm about to make. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a match made in heaven.

The wine is smooth, bold, mellow and velvety with just the right back bite on the end to stand up against real food and spice.

I almost passed it by tonight, but I'm awfully glad I didn't. Now I'm curious to try all of the rest of the wines on their list.

So there you have it... the Inaugural Dose... Marietta Old Vine Red Lot Number 49

Cheers!