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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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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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Diving Into Hampton Water Rosé

Out on the far southeastern tip of Long Island is a playground of the rich called “The Hamptons.” It’s rumored that there, every summer, the rosé flows like water. That’s how Hampton Water Rosé got its name. And yeah, it was launched by rocker Jon Bon Jovi and his son, who wisely partnered with acclaimed French winemaker Gérard Bertrand to create a wine that is much better than the mid-life anthem “It’s My Life.” Made in France, with a blend of 60% Grenache, 15% Cinsault, 15% Mourvèdre and 10% Syrah, the wine was proclaimed “Best Rosé of 2018” by Wine Spectator.


I didn’t know that when I picked it up, I just liked the label, which features an illustration of a woman diving into the water. So, even though my tastes edge more toward Salisbury Beach than Sag Harbor, I brought a bottle of Hampton Water to accompany a weekend with my adult kids on a lake in New Hampshire. It was almost 5pm when my daughter and I brought some snacks down to the dock and opened the bottle.

The sun was low, the water was sparkling and the wine was cold and delicious. I’ve found that some rosés can be too sweet, others a little harsh—a little alcohol-forward. This wasn’t. It was fruity and fresh and bold enough to stand up to ice cubes and even a splash of seltzer (hey, the day was still young!). We were impressed with the bottle’s glass stopper and we loved the way the wine tasted with sweet dark cherries and as well as with Irish cheddar. It even went with Cheez-Its (as I said, we’re not in the Hamptons).

After a glass each, we decided to try to recreate the picture on the label by diving off the dock. Our attempts resulted in a few stinging belly flops and exuberant splashes that damped the Cheez-Its. That’s when we decided that not only does Bon Jovi makes a very nice wine, but he was right: ‘We ain’t gonna live forever.” So we climbed out of the water, toweled off, and finished the bottle. Like the man says “It’s now or never.” We choose now.

By Carol Band (our local wine connoisseur)

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Friday Night Social Distancing & Wine Tasting

Yeah, yeah…these are uncertain times. The only thing we can count on here on Bartlett Avenue is our Friday evening social distancing block party. We depend on it because these days our sanity hinges on ninety minutes of genuine human contact, which is made even more delicious with the addition of wine.

But times being tenuous, and this being May in New England, we know that although the block party is a certainty, the weather is anything but predictable. So it was last Friday when we fired up the barbecue, cranked up the music and piled on winter coats, gloves, and facemasks and joined our friends and neighbors for a chilly, overcast celebration of another week of successful isolation.

There were touchless, tooth-picked bites of sausage and cheese, a variety of beer, a bottle of optimistically chilled rose, and several red wines — including the one that I brought—a 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon from Eg by Educated Guess of the Roots Run Deep Vineyard in Napa, California. I like the name, which the vineyard founder, Mark Albrecht, says reflects how he approaches winemaking—weighing what he knows (what grapes grow well where and when to harvest) against what could go wrong (wacky weather, insects). He says that it’s similar to the process that we go through when we buy a bottle of wine.


We use what we know (I like the label), we call on our experience (I had a Cabernet Sauvignon that I liked last week) and we make an educated guess. Hence the name and a label adorned with mathematical equations. Not to be confused with the slightly pricier version, the Eg line is produced with grapes sourced from California’s North Coast. The result is a very drinkable (and affordable!) wine with a whiff of blackberry and vanilla.

It was a hit with my neighbor the musician, it was a home run with my friend the real estate agent and my next-door neighbor, who is from France, where they practically invented wine, gently lifted his face mask, took a sip and pronounced the Eg Cabernet Sauvignon “Magnifique!” There’s no guesswork required to know that this is a wine that I’ll be happy to drink for the duration of social isolation or sip with friends when we get back to normal. And, if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say that will be soon.

Thanks for following along, Carol (one of our local wine connoisseur)

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Is your wine quarantine-worthy?!

Lately, it seems we are all taking comfort in simple pleasures. We cook macaroni and cheese, we play Scrabble with our kids and we enjoy a glass of wine or two. Because after working at home all week, figuring out how to host Zoom calls, keeping the kids from going crazy inside* and watching our retirement accounts dissolve, we feel like we deserve a moment of pleasure. And we do. But before you uncork that Pinot Noir or uncap that Sauvignon Blanc, ask yourself: “Is this a quarantine-worthy wine?” A wine that’s worthy of self-isolation is one that pairs well with sweatpants and stubble, whose subtle notes of pencil shavings and the forest floor are discernable through a face mask; it’s a wine that you’re willing to commit to because you’ll be drinking all of it…. alone.

 

Such a wine is Gooseneck Vineyards 2017 Chardonnay. A white wine from Navarra, Spain, this vintage is a lovely golden color. It’s light but complex with lovely notes of vanilla, oak and to my untrained nose, a hint of pear.

Here on Bartlett Ave., when it hasn’t been raining, we’ve been social distancing with neighbors. That means we stand in the middle of the street and drink wine. Rain, however, forces us to Zoom and last Friday as the rain poured down, I thought it might be fun to bring everyone together electronically to virtually share the same wine. So I sprung for several bottles of the Gooseneck Vineyards 2017 Chardonnay (not a fortune), dropped them off to my neighbors with touchless delivery, and sent out the Zoom notice.

There were seven of us at this cyber-tasting and although my friends were impressed with my seeming generosity, I had to confess that the wine is shockingly affordable. As the Zoom party commenced, we talked about what we’ve binged on Netflix, we discussed mask designs and we talked about what we were eating with that night. One neighbor paired their Gooseneck Vineyards Chardonnay with an aged Brie and seeded crackers. Another thought that it perfectly complimented their homemade chicken tetrazzini, still another drank it with black beans and rice and I savored it with a fried haddock plate from Fresh Pond Seafood. The Gooseneck 2017 Chardonnay seemed to enhance each of these dishes and, I suspect, it would also go well exceedingly well with a bowl of popcorn and Netflix.

*It takes a village to raise a child but it takes a winery to homeschool one.

Article By: Carol Band, one of our amazing wine experts and connoisseur

 

Photos by Carol Band and Gooseneck Vineyards

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Valle Reale Wine Review

Everybody in Arlington thinks that they live in the best neighborhood, but I really do. On my street we don’t just get together for block parties, we regularly have backyard barbecues, game nights, afternoons with the Patriots and dinners together. And the food is always extraordinary. But on Friday, after a week at work when everyone just wants to hang out, we often throw together a big green salad order a couple of pizzas and holler to the ‘hood that the door is open.

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Since the venerable Nicola’s closed, we don’t have a regular place for pizza but, as long as there a hot cherry peppers on top, I’m good—so we’ve sampled lots of local places. This Friday, it was two large pizzas from the Northender Italian Kitchen in Arlington Heights. We got a plain cheese and a sausage, onion and hot cherry pepper (my favorite) and put out the call to the neighbors.
I’ve discovered that same way it can elevate a burger from fast food to fine dining, a nice glass of wine can make a takeout pizza feel like a meal in a trattoria. I had a bottle of Valle Reale Montepulcano D’Abruzzo (2010) and when I called in the pizza, I opened the wine to let it breathe a bit. We lit a fire in the fireplace, and the neighbors came in, grabbed a paper plate, a slice of pizza and pile their plates with salad. The fire was roaring and for a while, no one spoke. It was the silence of contentment. Then Dave said “Hey, what’s this wine? It’s pretty good.”  I poured myself a glass and took a sip. He was right.
I like a Montepulcano because it’s bold enough to hold up to hearty food without the strong tannins that I sometimes associate with Italian wine. The Valle Reale Montepulcano D’Abruzzo (2010) was a deep rich red—almost purple. The first sip was satiny and offered notes of blackberry, a bit of mineral and even a hint of chocolate as it lingered on my tongue. I sipped again and swore that I tasted vanilla. I piled some arugula salad on top of my pizza and took a bite.

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While I wasn’t exactly transported to a trattoria in the Italian foothills, it was a delicious combination and made even better by the wine, the company and the prospect of a weekend ahead.

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The neighborhood fun continued on Sunday when my neighbor Nancy, christened her new family room by inviting a gang in for an early supper, followed by football. The Patriots were playing Kansas City— which I think called for ribs, but Nancy made a wild mushroom and pasta dish that felt like pure comfort food. I pulled together another huge salad and brought another bottle of the Valle Reale Montepulcano D’Abruzzo (2010). While some thought that white wine would pair well, I found that the earthiness of the mushrooms was perfect with the Montepulcano. Others agreed and I congratulated them on their ability to cast aside outdated ideas like: “only drink white wine with mushrooms.”  But the real congratulations of the night went to the Patriots. What a great game! What a great neighborhood!

Thanks for reading, Carol Band

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The Huntsman

The holidays were hectic. Beginning at Thanksgiving (actually, Halloween…) it’s been cooking, hunting for Tupperware tops, laundry, houseguests and dishes. It’s been fun, but I welcome getting back to the routine and a little peace and quiet. That’s why when my husband called at 5pm on Tuesday and said that he’d be working late, I was happy to have a few hours of solitude and meatloaf in the oven.

The week before, with house guests in tow, we had gone to TWK in Winchester for a burger. If I have a burger in the afternoon, I usually get a beer, but at night I’ll order a glass of red wine to elevate the burger to a higher cuisine. That’s what I did at TWK. The burger was delicious, but the wine really blew me away. Served by the glass, The Huntsman Cabernet Sauvignon from Ross Andrew in Washington’s Columbia Valley was silky, smooth and delicious.

I had two glasses and stopped by Mystic Wine Shoppe on my way home to see if they carried it. They do (!) and I picked up a bottle to share with my friends. But, in the flood of New Year’s champagne and morning-after Bloody Mary’s the Huntsman somehow, through the onslaught of guests, remained untouched.

Then, as I pulled the meatloaf out of the oven on that mundane Tuesday night, I wondered…if the Huntsman Cab could make a burger feel special, imagine what it would do for my meatloaf. Ordinarily, I might not open a nice bottle of wine just for myself – but I was savoring the solitude and somehow, it felt like a special occasion. I opened the cabinet, uncorked the bottle, poured a bit and swirled it in the glass. It was a gorgeous color— deep and fragrant. I sipped and tasted blackberries and whiff of vanilla.

I cut a generous slice of meatloaf, buttered a baked sweet potato and served myself some roasted cauliflower. It was a plate of comfort food—a post-holiday celebration of a return to normal. The owner of the vineyard named this wine The Huntsman because he likes to hunt, I imagine that this wine would pair as nicely with venison or wild boar as it did with my meatloaf.

I drank two glasses, corked the bottle and put it in the fridge. I bet it’s fantastic with meatloaf sandwiches, too!

Here’s my meatloaf recipe (it’s not rocket science, so feel free to tweak).

  • 1-½ pounds of ground beef (85% lean)
  • 1 large sweet onion chopped
  • 1-½ cups of old fashioned oats
  • Salt to taste
  • A generous sprinkling of pepper
  • Squirt of ketchup
  • Squish mixture until well blended then shape into loaf pan.
  • Frost generously with a mixture of ketchup, mustard and brown sugar.
  • Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly and done (about an hour).

Written by one of our wine guru’s, Carol Bend 

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The Holiday Spirit is a Phantom: BOGLE PHANTOM 2015

I’m not Jewish, but my husband is and, as is the case with holidays both secular and religious, it often falls upon the woman to create the traditions…which in my house means food.Potato-Latkes-300x257

So it has come to pass that I, the non-Jew, have become an expert at making latkes. I think that the crisp potato pancakes are the one thing that Hanukkah has over Christmas.

At our annual latke fry on Sunday, I grated both sweet and Yukon gold potatoes and served them with applesauce and sour cream, of course, but also with a hearty bowl of Portuguese kale soup and a romaine-free salad.

The soup is robust and smoky with chorizo and kielbasa, kidney beans, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and kale. But it cries out for a substantial red wine to elevate it from peasant food to festive holiday fare.

IMG_1318Bogle Phantom 2015 is just that wine.

 

Don’t be intimidated by the label that proclaims “mysterious and hauntingly seductive.” This is a very approachable blend  (44% Petite Sirah, 44% Zinfandel, 10% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon) that pairs well with comforting winter dishes like beef stew, pork loin and…my kale soup.

The girls and I opened it before dinner, let it breathe a bit and sampled it while pondering the New York Times crossword puzzle. Then we set the kitchen table and poured some for everyone.

It’s smooth but bodacious, yet it doesn’t overwhelm the tongue with tannins. This will become the winter house wine here on Bartlett Avenue.  Even my daughter (a millennial!) who tends to gravitate toward pinot noirs gave this wine high marks. It’s loaded with subtle flavors and it drinks like a high priced bottle. Good thing we had two.

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P.S. I made “Craft Beer Menorahs” for the “kids” and picked up some really interesting local brews to wish them all “Hoppy Holidays!”

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