Tannat

Number 600 on The List - and here I am in the throes of vacation prep and I had no idea we were hitting a milestone wine number on The List. No time to write anything about it or to re-cap the wines we've been drinking so far or friends that have help us down them. Had I been prepared, I maybe would have chosen a more auspicious bottle as well.

As it is, it might be appropriate that we're opening an Argentine wine seeing as how that where we'll be in a couple of weeks. Not so sure that we'll be seeing a ton of Tannat though.

600. Las Moras Tannat (San Juan - Argentina)

Another Mortgage Milestone

Once again, the impending vacation is going to cause an abbreviated entry for a notable wine and occasion. Getting the mortgage down to another "milestone" figure is worthy of a bit of a celebration. We'd planned the salmon to go with a bottle of the Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay - a special occasion wine if ever there was one. However, when I took a quick look at the projected ageing capability of the bottle and there was still another 20 years to go, I figured we might like to hold it for a little bit longer.

We happened to have another special Chardonnay on hand, so Ridge is it.

599. 2006 Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains Estate Chardonnay (Santa Cruz - California)

Shut the Front Door - A Grand Final Tie!

It cuts me deeply not to be writing in more detail with this entry - but the time constraints with this pending vacation require so. I WILL come back to write a bit on this one because the resulting e-mails from this game were classics.

598. 2004 Kurtz Family Vineyards Boundary Row - GSM (Barossa Valley - Australia)

Repeat on the Ripasso

597. 2006 Villalta Ripasso (DOC Valpolicella - Italy)

Pickeral and Great Bears

596. 2007 Domaine de Chaberton Great Bear Cuvee Blanc (VQA Fraser Valley)

Walks, Brothers & Wine

595. Biltmore Estate Chardonnay Sur Lies (North Carolina - US)

Malbec & Meatloaf

594. 2007 Ben Marco Malbec (Mendoza - Argentina)

Blend?

593. 2006 Chateau Marsau (AOC Bordeaux Cotes de Francs - France)

Garden Harvest

Since we're busy getting ready for the upcoming trip, we figured we'd better harvest what we could from the garden. There'd be no telling what might or might not be left by the time we returned. So Boo hunched over in the community garden patch and dug up all of the purple potatoes that we'd managed to grow this year. We picked the balance of our cherry tomatoes, snipped some more basil and dug up all the garlic that we could find. The pumpkins didn't do so well this year, but we did manage to grow two nicely sized ones that will be put to good use - either in the kitchen or for Halloween or both.

Too bad the vacation pressures prevent me from writing more about the wines because we opened a couple of more unique bottles as we had Elzee over for dinner. We'll see about my writing more upon our return, but in the mean time, these are still two new additions to the my Wine Century Club application.

590. Civ & Civ Lambrusco di Modena Amabile (IGT Modena - Italy)

591. 2008 Villa Angela Offida Pecorino (DOC Pecorino - Marche - Italy)

592. 2006 Desert Hills Gamay (VQA Okanagan Valley)

Mission Hill Meets Syrah

589. 2001 Mission Hill Syrah (VQA Okanagan Valley)

Indian Dinner

(Still in pre-vacation speed entry mode)

588. 2006 Robert's Rock Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay (South Africa)

An easy accompaniment to an evening of pakoras, butter chicken, aloo ghobi and other Indian treats.

End of Summer T-Dance

OK, I know it's a picture of an Absolut bottle mirror ball and this is a wine blog. But, really, it is so very much more.

And today's T-Dance was so much more than just another wine event. Rather, we were celebrating (or despairing over) the impending end of summer and we thought it would be a blast to bring back one the icons of the 80's - at least my 80's - the T-Dance (or afternoon cocktail party, hopefully with non-stop dancing and pure fun). Indeed the 80's were more of a beer or Cosmopolitan kind of time for me. So, the Absolut kinda fit the occasion - particularly since we had the cooler filled to the brim with Cosmos.

I don't think we reached a definitive answer to the question posed during the afternoon; however, it seems that Madonna still has a bit higher of a perch over Lady Gaga when it comes to musical icons. It was grand fun to see that no single song seems to pack a dance floor like It's Raining Men - still.

Nowadays, there's not much of a chance that you'll find a wine-free event at our place. So, luckily, whether I was several Cosmo's to the wind or not, there was some wine to be had - and added to The List. I only partook in two wines myself, but I'd hate to have to pass on taking advantage of such an event altogether.

586. N.V. Sokol Blosser Meditrina 6 (Oregon State - US) (being modeled - and sampled - by Desmond and Lily.)

587. 2009 Sacred Hill Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough - New Zealand)

Since this entry is still in the pre-vacation speed phase, I can't take the time to talk any more about the wines. But, with any luck, I'll be able to come back and flesh out the entry a bit down the road (after our road trip, that is).

In the mean time, keep on dancing - and sipping.

Aglianico

I was in such a pre-vacation mode already that I didn't even take a picture for this bottle - at least not one that I can find at this moment.

585. Di Maio Norante Contado (DOC Aglianico del Molise - Italy)