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Rosé Wine Pairing Ideas for Spring

Dreaming of the summer days when you can sit outside and enjoy a glass of Rosé? Well, summertime is just around the corner, and it is time to start planning some outdoor events where you can get together with some friends and enjoy some Rosé and snacks! Here are some pairing ideas we think will be crowd-pleasers this summer. 

  1. Seafood, specifically salmon – Enjoy some fresh seafood this summer with your favorite glass of Rosé.
  2. Veggie pizza – Plan an at-home date night to make homemade pizza and sip some Rosé!
  3. Soft cheeses: brie and goat cheese – If you are looking to make a charcuterie board to pair with Rosé, make sure to include these soft cheeses. 
  4. Pesto – Enjoy some pesto as a dip or include it in a dish!
  5. Grilled meats – Grilling screams summertime, so fire up the grill for a dinner that will pair well with Rosé. 
  6. Charcuterie board  – There is nothing quite like a beautiful and tasty charcuterie board to go with a nice bottle of rosé.
  7. Egg dishes – For a brunch option, make some egg dishes such as quiche. 
  8. Fresh salads – Green or grain salads are great options to pair with Rosé this summer. 
  9. Bruschetta – For a snack choice, put together some bruschetta for you and your guests to enjoy, paired with your favorite Rosé.
  10. Fruit and fruit salad – Enhance the sweetness of the Rosé with your choice of fruit or even put together a fruit salad!

Whether you are planning a brunch or dinner event, there are plenty of options of how to pair Rosé wine. So stop into Mystic Wine Shoppe soon and pick up your favorite bottle to enjoy as the weather starts to get warmer!

Thanks for reading and see you soon. Eric and the MWS team.

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Wine Spotlight: Ninety Plus Cellars

With a mission to bring higher quality wine to the market for a better price, in 2009, founder Kevin Mehra brought his idea to life.  They are focused on getting wines from all over the world, putting their label on them, and selling it for less to consumers. 90+ Cellars wants their customers to get the best quality wine, so when you buy a bottle from them, you can be confident you’ll get a great wine, every time.

Based out of Boston, MA, Ninety Plus Cellars has done a fantastic job at integrating their brand into the marketplace. From being the official wine sponsor of local professional baseball teams, a Wine Truck and even a Wine Club, 90+ Cellars is way more than just a wine company.  Ninety Plus Cellars is about enjoying wine wherever is convenient for you, and this is clear from them having wine at baseball games, on the road from their truck, and having it delivered to your door.

90+ Cellars is available in many retail locations in the Northeast, including Mystic Wine Shoppe, so it is easy to find your favorite bottle wherever you are! The Wine Club also makes it possible to try different wines throughout the year, so you will always be prepared for an event or dinner party!

With a wide variety of wines, you will be sure to get something that you like! Stop into Mystic Wine Shoppe to grab a bottle of one of our favorites from 90+ Cellars!

Learn more about their current wines.

Banner photo by Latitude Beverages

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Steve Bird June Wine Specials

This June we’re thrilled to feature Steve Bird’s Rosé and Manu Sauvignon Blanc as our wine specials of the month. We got a chance to catch up with Steve this Spring about their tasty wines.  Steve shares his thoughts and tasting notes in the video below.

Wine Tasting Notes:

  • Manu Rosé (New Zealand): The nose is subtle showing delicate aromas of raspberries and cherries, quince, and fragrant flowers. There is a remarkable balance of delicacy and fruit intensity on the palate. Dry to taste and medium-bodied, the palate is bright and vibrant, with refreshing acidity balanced by the fruit sweetness and very fine textures. Regular $14.99 on special $12.99
  • Manu Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand): Is vibrant and tasty, packed with flavors of lime, stone-fruit and fresh herbs. The palate is powerful and fruity showing refreshing acidity and pleasing weight in the mid-palate. The flavors all flow to a dry finish with impressive persistence Regular $13.99 on special $11.99 Scored 91 points Wine Enthusiast

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Impress for less with this tasty rosé

Finally. The weather is warm, the deck’s been power washed. We’ve been vaccinated and we’re ready to get together with friends and neighbors to celebrate being…normal.
In my neighborhood, the first post-Covid gathering was last weekend at Dave and Denise’s house, where the hospitality is unsurpassed, the wine is plentiful and everyone always feels welcome.

It was a last-minute, let’s-see-what-the-weather-does invitation, so I made a platter of cold peanut noodles and picked up a couple of bottles of rose; Les Hauts Plateaux Alpes de Haute Provence Rosé 2020, to be specific. But don’t let the haughty name fool you; this is an affordable and deliciously approachable wine.

From Southwestern France, formerly part of the Provence region, this vineyard is drenched in sunshine. And you can taste it in the wine. Light with distinct fruit and berry notes, it paired well with cheeses served as appetizers and made my peanut noodles seem elegant. The beautiful pale pink (thanks to the addition of Syrah grapes) looks beautiful in a glass and caught the evening light. It’s great with food (we also had grilled chicken), but would be delightful to sip unaccompanied on a summer afternoon. Even my discerning French neighbor, Jerome, proclaimed the wine to be “fantastique!” And it is. This proves that you don’t have to spend a lot to get a very respectable bottle of wine with a label that looks like you spent a lot. And it’s French!

I am looking forward to many more neighborhood gatherings this summer. I’ll bring the Les Hauts plateau Alpes de Haute Rose. You can bring peanut noodles.

Here’s the recipe for Carol’s Noodles:

  • 2/3 cup Teddy’s smooth unsalted peanut butter
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • ¼ cup teriyaki sauce
  •  tablespoons brown sugar
  • Water to thin, as needed
  • Boil a pound of fresh Asian-style noodles (I use Hoy Toy). Cool by running under cold water. Toss noodles with half of the sauce. Arrange on a platter and garnish with: bean sprouts (or shredded cabbage) chopped mint and cilantro, chopped peanuts, and scallions.
  • Serve with remaining sauce and a glass of rosé.

By Carol Band

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Wine Review – Chasing Lions 2017 Pinot Noir

They say that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. But in New England, April winds can roar and the lion is very much alive well into May.

Last weekend, I followed the lion of winter north and drove up to visit my fellow fully-vaccinated friends in Harrisville, New Hampshire. I left Arlington on Friday night with a couple of bottles of Chasing Lions Pinot Noir, some good sharp cheddar cheese, and my beat-up Yahtzee set, excited, after a year of social distancing, to see people again. The trees were bare along Route 3 and there were still rogue piles of snow clinging to winter in the forest shadows and on the north face of Mt. Monadnock.

Harrisville, New Hampshire is a perfectly preserved little mill town. Perched on the shores of a picturesque lake, the heart of the town (and the only place to buy provisions) is the General Store. Supported by the Historic Harrisville Foundation, the General Store has been supporting the community throughout the pandemic by providing Friday night take-out dinners. Every week’s menu is a new theme. Last week was Mexican with homemade tortilla soup, tamales, and an assortment of side dishes.

Chasing Lions Pinot Noir seemed like a fitting accompaniment. I couldn’t wait to open it. As we waited for dinner to be delivered, I sliced up the cheddar cheese, got out some crackers, and uncorked the first bottle. It felt amazing to be with people again.

Produced by the Nine North Wine Company of Napa Valley, the Chasing Lions, 2017 Pinot Noir is easy to love. My friend Andrew and his wife Mary Lou are well versed in wine and they noted notes of cherry and citrus. Our host commented that she tasted a bit of spice and I simply proclaimed it “delicious.”
By the time our tamales arrived, we were ready to open the second bottle and the laughs and conversation flowed as easily as the wine.

Now, the lion of winter has seemingly moved on. The daffodils are blooming —even in the shadows of Mt. Monadnock— and I’m delighted to have found a wine that I’ll be uncorking to celebrate not just the return of spring, but also the gradual return of dinner parties and lifting a glass of wine with friends. Cheers!

Thanks for reading,

Carol, Mystic Wine Shoppe’s Wine Connoisseur

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New England Style Weather for Award-winning wine

I confess, I often pick wines because I like their label. I picked this one for that very reason. The clean, graphic type on the bottle of Oinoz Crianza, caught my eye. But, when I tasted it, I wanted to know the story of behind this delicious, drinkable red.

A dry, harsh winter, a miserable wet spring, and a summer drought sound like what we endure here in Arlington, but in 2014, at the northern end of the Rioja region of Spain, that weather pattern led to a late budding in the vineyards of Gallamate La Canoca in San Vincente. Those late buds produced grapes of extraordinary quality— so good, that this particular vintage won a Gold Medal at the Consurso Mundial de Bruselas, one of the most prestigious international wine events.

Crafted from Termpranillo grapes, Oinoz Criaza pairs well with pungent cheeses, aged beef, and roast goat. I didn’t have any of those on hand, but my kids were coming over, it was a rare warm spring night, so I decided to throw some burgers on the grill and share a couple of bottles of my newest obsession. 

We cracked the first bottle open and poured. The Oinoz Criaza is a beautiful ruby red color with an aroma of cherry, vanilla, and pepper. We sipped and dove into a baked Brie that my son had made. The gooey cheese was a perfect complement to the dry, fruity wine. My daughter, who tends to drink hard seltzer and white wine, commented, “I can tell that this is a good wine, because I actually like it.”  Smart girl. The 2014 Oinoz Criaza is the highest-rated vintage for this wine. 

We pulled the burgers off the grill and poured the second bottle of wine. It had been breathing for about an hour and the flavor really opened up and mellowed. The night was getting chilly, so we moved inside (four out of six of us have been vaccinated) and ate around the fireplace in the living room. The menu was burgers, tater tots, and salad. It was a double celebration of my daughter-in-law’s birthday (we also had a killer Key Lime pie from Petsi’s Pies in Somerville) and a send-off for my son who was being deployed with the National Guard to Washington DC. Oinoz Criaza proved to be a wine that is fitting for multiple occasions, but I plan to drink it often and for no particular reason at all. Here’s to getting together again.

By: our favorite wine connoisseur, Carol Band

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Just Breath…

Just Breathe…

To decant or not to decant…

It’s a question that many of our customers ask. How long should this wine breathe? Would it benefit from being decanted? What if I just can’t wait to drink it?


We’re here to answer these questions and we’re not too proud to say that, although we consider ourselves wine experts, we also checked in with the experts at Google.

Here’s what we know.

  • Most wines benefit from some degree of aeration and that’s what decanting accomplishes. Simply opening a bottle of wine and letting it sit isn’t enough. The narrow neck of the wine bottle prevents enough air from reaching the entire bottle.
  • The best way to let a wine “open up” to its true potential is to decant it. A decanter aerates the wine twice. Once, when you pour it from the bottle into the decanter and again, as it sits in the decanter, which has a wide surface area. However, if you don’t have a decanter (or you sold the one you got for a wedding present at a yard sale) the best way to let the wine “open up,” is to simply pour it into a glass and let it sit for a while.
  • An interesting experiment to do, if you’re patient, is to take a sip when you first pour your wine and then let it sit for a half hour before you take the second sip. Wow! Is that the same bottle of wine? You’ll often be able to discern dramatic differences in aroma and in taste.
  • Aerating or decanting is especially recommended with bigger more tannic reds such as Cabernets, Nebbiolos and Petite Sirahs. Decant younger, bolder reds longer; old vintages for only 30 minutes or so.
  • Delicate reds and older, lighter wines like Pinot Noir, don’t usually need to be decanted at all, just carefully poured into a glass. Other older—and by older we’re talking wines aged over 15 years — reds like Burgandies, Riojas and older Chiantis can be treated the same way. Their age makes them more susceptible to the affects of oxygen. Let the bottle stand upright for 24 hours and then pour carefully to reduce the risk of sediment clouding your glass.

Drinking white wine? Whites also benefit from aeration, but not as dramatically as the reds.
A rule of thumb is that the younger the wine, the longer you should decant. Have fun and enjoy!

Here are some guideline that we think make sense.

  • Full-bodied Red Wines (Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Tannat, Monastrell, Tempranillo, etc): Use a decanter with a wide base. Decant for several hours
  • Medium-bodied Red Wines (Merlot, Sangiovese, Barbera, Dolcetto, etc): medium-sized decanter. Decant for about an hour.
    Light-bodied reds (Pinot Noir, Beaujolais): serve in a small to medium-sized decanter that’s been chilled. Decant for under an hour.
  • Store leftover wine (there’s an oxymoron!) back in the bottle and drink within 36 hours.

Looking to get the best decanter? Check out this blog post.

Thanks for reading, Carol (Mystic Wine Shoppe’s Connoisseur)

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HAIR O’ THE DOG: SNOWED IN WITH FAITHFUL HOUND

One of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is that because people are working from home, animal shelters around the country are reporting record numbers of adoptions. I was lucky to find a “pandemic pup” of my own at Shultz’s Guest House in Dedham. A mix of terrier, hound, and adorableness, I named him “Bernie” and in the two months that I’ve had him, he’s mastered housetraining, sleeping through the night, and a few basic commands.
I figured we were ready to be houseguests.


My friend Beate, owns a farmhouse in New Hampshire with plenty of space to social distance, lots of land, open fields, and room to run. It’s a puppy paradise. So, Bernie and I hit the road. We packed a box of dog biscuits (also, puppy chow, his bed, chew toys, leash, and harness and poop bags) as well as a big pot of black bean soup (recipe below) and a couple of bottles of Mulderbosch Faithful Hound red wine. It’s a blend— kind of like Bernie.


As soon as we hit Route 101 North, the landscape changed from brown to white. An hour later, Bernie was romping in the snowy field burning off his abundant puppy energy and I was heating up soup and uncorking a bottle of wine.

Mulderbosh’s Faithful Hound 2015, is from Stellenbosch, the most famous wine-producing area in South Africa. The region is known for its Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which are used to create Bordeaux blends, like the bottle I was pouring.


The wine is a beautiful color—swirl it in the glass and it’s dark ruby red. Take a sniff and it bears a hint of vanilla, cedar, and berry. Sip it and you’ll taste the earthy, fruity deliciousness that paired beautifully with the smoky citrus of the black bean soup.

We ate, we drank, we played with the puppy and then we looked out the window. The snow was coming down at a furious clip. It was clear that Bernie and I had to spend the night. And the next night, too. Fortunately, I had brought plenty of kibbles and an extra bottle of Faithful Hound.

The next day, we hiked through the woods, we played board games and at night, we ate more soup and drank the second bottle of wine. In the morning, I watched the snowplow clear the dirt road and knew it was time to pack up and, like a good dog, go home.

SNOWED-IN SOUP
4 cups dried black beans – rinsed
1 large ham hock (optional)
2 Tsp. olive oil
1 sweet onion chopped
3 garlic cloves smashed and minced
4 carrots sliced into half coins
4 cups (approx.) Chicken stock or water or a combination of both
I cup chopped tomatoes (canned or boxed)
3 bay leaves
2 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. thyme
4 Tsp. cumin
black pepper to taste
salt
2 Tsp. brown sugar
1 large orange

In a large stockpot, heat olive oil. Add onions and garlic, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and cumin. Cook until tender. Add black beans, tomatoes, ham hock and enough liquid to submerge ham hock. Add carrots. Grate orange. Retain zest, cut orange in half and add to pot with brown sugar. Cover and simmer until beans are tender. Add orange zest and continue to simmer. Remove meat from bone, chop and return to soup. Add more liquid and more seasoning as needed. Serve with chopped cilantro, a lime wedge and a dollop of sour cream.

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