Monday Night Wine 
is a fabulous group of friends I have & we get together a couple Monday nights each month to taste wine. Each month we try a different varietal and I pair it with a dinner, as the wine will change once you introduce food to your palate.
January 2018 We have had a major freeze set in to start off the year! The nice thing about it being cold outside is that you can sit inside, hopefully by a fire, and sip some really good Cabernet Sauvignon that will warm you up from the inside out. This month we are going to taste 2 Cabs from Washington, and 4 Cabs from California, it will be interesting to see the differences and the favorites. Pairing it with Roasted Beef Tenderloin, Herb Scalloped Sweet Potatoes w/ Bacon & Gruyere, Asparagus Bacon Bundles, Chocolate Almond Torte.
- 1st Tie/2nd 2015 Resolute Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon, CA
- 2nd Tie/4th 2015 Highway 12 Sonoma/Lodi/Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, CA
- 1st Tie/5th 2015 Louis Martini Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon, CA
- 3rd/6th 2015 Luke Wahluke Slope Cabernet Sauvignon, WA
- 4th/3rd 2014 Saviah Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon, WA
- 2nd Tie/1st 2015 Trig Point Diamond Dust Cabernet Sauvignon, CA
February 2018 Still battling the cold weather and maybe a few of you are battling a cold also. The question is what will help both colds? Merlot of course, always recognized as a smooth red wine it will warm you up from the inside out, and when it is that smooth a glass or two or three later and you will be sleeping like a baby and you will not even remember your cold. Well it all sounds good, right? Merlot is still trying to recover from its crash in the early 2000’s when the movie sideways hit it head on. This month we are trying Merlot from California, Washington, France and Italy. Check it out! We paired Lasagna, Broccoli-Cheese Casserole, Garlic Herb Pull Apart Rolls and Death by Chocolate Cheesecake.
- 1st /3rd 2015 Toad Hollow Richard McDowell’s Selection Merlot, Sonoma County, CA
- 6th/4th 2014 Chateau Subilaux Bordeaux, France
- 3rd/5th Tie 2014 Barone Fini Merlot, Trentino, Italy
- 7th/1st Tie 2014 Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Merlot, Sonoma County, CA
- 5th/1st Tie 2014 Airfield Estate Merlot, Yakima Valley, WA
- 2nd/5th Tie 2014 Columbia Merlot, Columbia Valley, WA
- 4th/2nd 2013 Franciscan Merlot, Napa Valley, CA
- extra not voted on: 2013 Canvas Merlot, CA (But everyone really liked this)
March 2018 Syrah and Petite Sirah, its child. This month we are tasting Syrah which can still have some good tannins, a full bodied red wine for those cool nights we could still encounter. It is also known as Shiraz and we will check out a couple from Australia. These wines pair well with a good steak, BBQ, Pizza/Burgers. We are also going to taste Petite Sirah, which is a child of Syrah & Peloursin. This wine is generally inky, purple, and so smooth that before you turn around the bottle is empty and will pair with all of the above plus things like salmon and grilled chicken or pork also. I decided to to have Grilled Bourbon & Vanilla Brined Pork Chops w/ Kahlua Glaze, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Roasted Asparagus, & Chocolate Kahlua Coffee Pound Cake.
- 2015 1st/2nd Plungerhead Petite Sirah, Lodi, CA
- 2015 3rd/1st Spellbound Petite Sirah, CA
- 2013 5th Tie/5th Graziano Petite Sirah, Mendocino County, CA
- 2012 2nd/3rd Henry’s Drive ‘H’ Syrah, Padthaway, Australia
- 2012 4th/NA Hedges ‘Groedhart Family’ Syrah, Red Mountain, WA
- 2013 6th/4th Barossa Valley Estate Shiraz, Australia
- 2014 5th Tie/6th Shane ‘Villian’ Syrah, Santa Lucia Highlands, CA
April 2018 This month we are checking out Red Blends. These wines are lots of times a great value wine, and popular for BBQ’s and parties. They are easy to drink wines as the grapes meld together and the dry tannins are mellowed out by other grape varietals that have less tannin, are more fruit forward. There are so many options of Red Blends that I had a really hard time narrowing this tasting down to 7 wines. Not only will I post the results of those wines but at the bottom of this months notes I will list some additional wines for you to try. We paired a Raspberry Chipotle Bacon Cheeseburger, Sweet Potato Fries, Cheesy Corn & Blueberry Muffin Cake.
- 6th Tie/4th 2014 Barton & Guestier Cote-Du-Rhone, France
- 1st/3rd Tie 2015 Silk & Spice, Portugal
- 5th/5th 2015 Purple Heart Red Wine, Sonoma County, CA
- 2nd/2nd 2015 Black Ink, Red Wine, CA
- 4th/1st 2015 Predator Six Spot Red, Lodi, CA
- 6th Tie/6th 2016 Broc Cellars LOVE Red Blend, North Coast, California
- 3rd/3rd Tie 2014 Cooper & Thief Bourbon Barrel Red Wine Blend, California
Italian Wine Dinner April 2018 I had a request to do an Italian dinner, so we packed out the basement with people and had some awesome Italian wines! European wines are historical to me, they were being drank long before California wines, and they are drank morning, noon and night. This was a chance to taste wines from Tuscany, Piedmonte, & Abruzzo regions of Italy. We paired Braised Roast with Vegetables over Creamy Parmesan Polenta, 5 Cheese Marinara Pasta, and Triple Chocolate Pie w/ Hazelnut Crust.
- 7th 2014 Santa Martina Toscana Rosso, Tuscany, Italy
- 1st 2015 Rocca Giovanni Barbera D’Alba Pianromualdo, Piemonte, Italy
- 3rd 2015 Medici Ermete Solo Reggiano Rosso, Reggio Emilia, Italy
- 6th 2012 Sordo Gabutti Barolo, Serralunga d’Alba, Italy
- 4th 2016 Casata Parini Montepulciano D’Abruzzo, Italy
- 5th 2013 Salcheto Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano, Italy
- 2nd 2012 Silvio Nardi Brunello Montalcino, Italy
May 2018 Chardonnay, As the sun came up this morning driving thru the Flint Hills, it just seems like spring is finally here, even though the weather has not been telling us that. Therefore, I have decided that we will just force Spring to show up by drinking white wine! Chardonnay is a great place to start with it’s beautiful golden color, sometimes you can have a nice crisp Chard, and other times it is creamy and smooth. Let’s see what we find this year to usher in some sunshine and warmer temps. We will pair Pistachio Crusted Lemon Chicken, Creamy Goat Cheese Asparagus Quinoa Salad, and Apple Pie.
- 3rd Tie/2nd 2016 Neyers 304 Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, CA
- 6th/4th 2016 Stoller Dundee Hills Chardonnay, Willamette Valley, OR
- 5th/5th 2014 Light Horse Chardonnay, CA
- 4th/6th 2015 B.R. Cohn Russian River Valley Chardonnay, Sonoma County, CA
- 2nd/1st 2015 Cambria Bench Break Chardonnay, Santa Maria Valley, CA
- 3rd Tie/3rd Tie 2016 St. Francis Chardonnay, Sonoma County, CA
- 1st/3rd Tie 2016 Michael David Chardonnay, Lodi, OR
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