Archive list of 2014 Monday Nights

In January 2014 we tasted the following Cabernet Sauvignon wines.  I started this website after this tasting so I don’t have all the info at my fingertips right now while I am on the road but here are the wines for a reference. We had Beef Wellinton, 5 cheese mac & cheese, roasted green beans & tomatoes and Esspresso Crinkles/Chocolate Icebox Cake

2010 Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon, Horse Heaven Hills, WA;   2010 Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, CA;  2011 Dark Horse Cabernet Sauvignon, CA;    2010 Souverain North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon, CA;  2008 Atlas Peak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, CA;  2010 Paul Hobbs Crossbarn Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, CA

In February we tasted Merlots.  We had 3 Merlots from Washington State and 4 from California, the goal was to taste wines priced from $10 to $25.  Following are the wines in the order they were tasted with notes as to which were favoites at the bottom of the list: 

In March we are tasting Shiraz as the Aussies call it, traditionally this would be known as Syrah.  For this tasting however we are going to focus on Australia with one value outlier from California.  So we have had one of the coldest winters on record here, and Shiraz is a great red wine to warm up a cold winter night.  So what is the temp going to be today? Try 70 degrees and sunshine!  Pair it with a little meatloaf and roasted garlic mashed potatoes and spring will be here soon.  So here are the wines we are going to taste in March.  Prices are approximate.

April is a transition month for those of us who are Monday night winos.  We are finishing up with the reds and looking forward to the white wines.  In the past we have done specific countries, but this year we are going to check out 1 winery that has just decided to bring their wines to Kansas.  Row Eleven Wine Co. has several wines available, we are going to taste the following:

 

May starts our summer white wines!  This month we are going to check out Chardonnay wines.  Chardonnay has a long history and is predominately known as White Burgundy or Chablis in France.  In America though we just call it Chard!  We went thru a phase in the 80’s and 90’s with wineries competing to see who could have the most oaked Chard.  Today we have gone in the opposite direction, many of the wineries are now producing an oaked and an ‘unoaked’ Chard.  So we are going to check out both styles and see what we think. Here is the lineup for week 1 at least.

June, finally some warm weather!  So with the sun shinning and the evenings perfect for patio dining we are going to look at Sauvignon Blanc wines this month.  This is a great white wine for a warm evening, it has flavor characteristics that range from grass, lemon, grapefruit, gooseberry, passion fruit, jalapeno to name just a few!    Here are the wines we will be tasting so get ready for a lot of flavor.

July brings on the heat, in more ways then one. We will be tasting Rieslings which are sweet but they are one of the best wines for spicy foods.  So I did a test tonight and we are definitely doing Thai so you know what that means… heat! Don’t worry even though there is some spice it hopefully will not be to much and there is some Riesling to tone it down.

Once I finalize the wines I will list them here but in the mean time here is a picture of dinner.

August Kessler R Riesling                                 2nd/2nd

August, is usually blistering hot and you want some white wine to chill out on the patio.  This year in Kansas has been an anommoly, I probably just jinxed it!  However, these wonderful 70 degree evenings have been perfect for white wine on the patio!  So this, we are focusing on a couple varietals that you don’t hear to much about, Chenin Blanc and Viognier.  We are also having several white blends, which are wonderful.  Put this with a little savory pulled pork, sweet potatoes, fresh green beans & tomatoes and Fresh Peach Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream for dessert. Can’t get much better then that!!!

These wine were paired with Michael Chiarello’s Forever Pulled Pork. 

September, Just a quick note now, I will update with more soon.  Here are the wines!  So this month went by so fast, we usually taste wines from Argentina primarily Malbecs in September and this month was no different.  We had a great line up and week over week a lot of agreement as you can see below.

Dinner for this tasting was Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Chimichuri, Grilled Smoked Beef Sausage, Roasted Asparagus & Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes.   For dessert I made my own version of a Chocotorta go to the recipe page of my site to see the recipe for this.  

October is Zinfandel month, not necessarily super dry but enough body and brambly, cobblery juice and pepper to warm us up on those cool fall evenings by the BBQ, Burgers or Pizza.

Acre Zinfandel                                                       1st/2nd

 We paired these zinfandels with BBQ Beef Brisket, Ultimate Mac & Cheese, Steamed Broccoli.

 November brings families together for Thanksgiving.  This month we will focus on Pinot Noir and also highlight a couple whites (Pinot Grigio, Gewurztraminer).  Pinot Noir is technically the varietal of what we know as a Red Burgundy.  Burgundy is considered one of the greatest wines in the world and can age for decades.  Pinot Noir, is a lighter red that is typically not as dry as other red wines and can pair well with Salmon, Pork, Beef, and YES Turkey.  This month we will Try the following wines, and pair them with a Roasted Herb Pork Loin, Butternut Squash Risotto, Green Beans & Pumpkin Spice Layer Cake.

 

December 2014 it is amazing to me how fast time seems to fly by.  I remember being a child and thinking that it would take forever to get out of school, or for Christmas to come again next year.  So this month we are focusing on dessert!  Most of us don’t usually take time to have dessert wine, but it really is a nice finish to a nice dinner or a long day.  This month we tasted the following dessert wines:

Theses were paired with the following desserts:  Tiramisu, Caramel Cinnamon Apple Crostota, Chocolate Tart with Chocolate Ganache, Crumb Cake with Holiday Jam, Creme Brulee Cake, Cheesecake, Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Salted Caramel Frosting, Pecan Pie Bars, Brownie Bites, Sweet Almond Florentines, Blue Cheese.   For dinner we had Grilled Salmon with Wild Rice and Roasted Asparagus and wine from the cellar.

  Just a few desserts!