New England

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If you missed the first part of my Coastal Wine Trail Kickoff recap, make sure to check it out here. I last left off with our visit to the Travessia table where we tasted Travessia’s Rosé, Vidal Blanc, and Pinot Grigio.

Rather than going in table order, we made our way around the tent looking for the least crowded tables and visiting those first, so we followed our Travessia tasting with a visit to the Sakonnet Vineyards table. I first tasted Sakonnet wines at a wedding in Rhode Island and loved their Vidal Blanc at first taste.

Sakonnet also hosted last year’s Coastal Wine Trail Kickoff, and their beautiful property in Little Compton, RI, is definitely a lovely day trip from Boston.

Sakonnet Vineyards Wines

At the Running Brook Vineyards table, we tried an interesting and refreshing mix of their 2007 Cabernet Franc and their Vidal Blanc. The result was light and fruity.

Running Brook Vineyards Cabernet Franc, Pinot Gris, Vidal Blanc

Greenvale Vineyards was another winery that we visited last summer and is another beautiful property to visit. While many of the white wines poured at the Coastal Wine Trail Kickoff were a little to sweet for me, Greenvale’s Rosecliff Pinot Gris was drier, softer, and would be a great summer food wine.

Greenvale Pinot Gris

There was of course more food. PB Boulangerie of Wellfleet had samples of their baked goods. I can’t even look at this photo of croissants without my stomach growling! Aren’t they beautiful?

PB Boulangerie Croissants

Their bread was a work of art, and yummy too!

PB Boulangerie bread

After our bread samples we found time for a little more wine. . .

Westport Rivers is famous for their Brut, and you can even find this delightful bubbly on restaurant menus in the Boston area. It has nice pear flavors and lots of little bubbles making it a great local wine for celebrating 🙂 Wesport Rivers also makes a great wine from the Rkatsiteli grape, a grape from Eastern Europe. This wine has a great lemony flavor, and is definitely worth a try.

Westport Rivers wine

We also enjoyed the White Merlot from Langworthy Farm, a winery and bed & breakfast in Westerly, RI. The White Merlot was drier than many of the pink wines I have tried. Langworthy also offered my favorite red of the day, their Cabernet Sauvignon

 

Langworthy Farm White Merlot

Langworthy Farm Cabernet Sauvignon, White Merlot, Merlot

Our final wine of the day was from Coastal Vineyards, a winery that is the newest member of the Coastal Wine Trail. I thought all of their wines were fantastic, but my favorite was the 2008 Seaside White. Coastal Vineyards is new to me, and I can’t wait to pay them a visit this summer!

Coastal Vineyards Seaside White, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay 

Coastal Vineyards Seaside White

 

Truro Vineyards 

A trip to the Cape would not be complete without sticking my feet in the ocean, and Mara from Truro Vineyards was kind enough to give us directions to the nearest beach.

 

The girl behind the blog

Island roses were already in full bloom.

Cape Cod Island Roses

And Cape Cod Bay was warm! If I had a bathing suit, I totally would have gone swimming!

first dip in Cape Cod Bay this summer

Cape Cod Bay

I can’t wait to visit more of the New England Coastal Wineries this summer, and I am REALLY looking forward to my annual Provincetown trip with my college roommates!

Don’t forget that my Olivia’s Organics giveaway ends in a couple of days! There will be 5 winners, so you have a pretty good chance to win!

Tags: Cape Cod, Coastal Wine Trail, events, Food, New England, wine

After my great Saturday run, the hubby made me an egg and English muffin sandwich (yum!), and we got in the car for a rainy drive to Newport, RI. We made it in record time with no traffic. Arriving at Newport Vineyards, we saw that the holiday event festivities were in full swing, and I was excited!

First I stopped to snap a photo of the vineyard in the winter. We came here in July for my husband’s birthday; what a difference five months makes! It was neat to see the vines without the leaves.

 

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The wine and food event was held all throughout the Newport Vineyards’ winemaking facility. Once we checked in, we were given souvenir glasses and a map, and we were on our way to tasting.

Newport Vineyards has a lovely tasting room and store with an extensive list of wines available.

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Our first stop was in the tent covered wine garden where we sampled a spice-rich cranberry orange chutney with a bit of cream cheese. The flavors were warm and definitely festive!

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We tried some Narragansett  Creamery cheeses and cheese spreads including their creamy, spicy Pirate Spread made with salty sea feta, sundried tomatoes, rosemary, and cayenne pepper. We tried Narragansett cheeses at the Coastal Wine Trail Kickoff last summer, and they were even better than I had remembered!

The tent held the white wine tasting area, and as New England wineries are more known for their whites, we had a few tastes here.

I had tried many of these wines during our July visit, but it was fun to taste them again, and it surprised me how much I liked their “In the Buff” un-oaked Chardonnay.

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We moved on to the tank room where the reds were being tasted, and I enjoyed a taste of the sweet Bellevue Blush which would make a delicious dessert wine or aperitif, and the Cabernet Franc, which was a bit peppery, a characteristic I really enjoy in wine.

The tank room also offered one of my favorites, Cabot Cheese. Once past the Cabot Cheese table, we encountered this:

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Aquidneck Island Apiaries had a beautiful display of their pure, local, pesticide free honeycomb and honey. Yum.

As we made our way around the room, we tried light, crispy, spicy/sweet candied pecans from The Purple Pear of Providence. I tried the delightfully zingy ginger which would be amazing on a salad. . . or eaten by the handful. Don’t you just love ginger?

Our final food stop of the afternoon was at Aimee’s Bakin’, a baked goods table that benefitted the American Cancer Society. We tried and purchased creamy peanut butter fudge and peanut butter cup brownies which came in handy on the ride home and later while watching the snow fall 🙂

My final wine tastes of the event were at the dessert/sparkling wine station where I thoroughly enjoyed the 2003 Brut Sparkling Wine and the White Cap Port which sort of tasted like Welch’s grape juice.

On our way home, we decided to stop in New Bedford to pick up our wine club purchases from Travessia Urban Winery. I didn’t get any photos yesterday, but if you would like to see some you can visit my post from the summer wine club event.  I was particularly excited to stop by Travessia because they launched their first red, a Pinot Noir, the night before. Travessia’s Pinot Noir further solidified one thing that we already knew: that they make REALLY good wine. Marco, the winemaker and owner of Travessia, told us that the Pinot would be even better aged, so for now we have it on our wine rack and will likely open it around my birthday in March. I can’t wait! Marco recommended a few places for us to eat lunch in New Bedford, and we walked right next door to the winery to eat at Ginger Grill, a new Korean restaurant. I had a scrumptious curry full of vegetables, potatoes, and a mildly spicy sauce that warmed me right up inside. The staff was very friendly, and the prices were reasonable. It seems as though downtown New Bedford really has a lot of great places to visit and events going on!

A beautiful day ended with a relaxing evening eating the brie from Gypsy Kitchen and drinking a glass of Chateau St. Michelle bubbly while watching the snow fall.

I am off to do some yoga for runners and to maybe do some baking.

Have a great Sunday evening, and don’t forget to enter my Sur la table giveaway!

And if you need a good laugh, check out this funny Christmas tree video. Makes me laugh every time, but maybe its because I am from New Jersey 🙂

Tags: Food, giveaway, New England, wine

Happy 4th of July! It is  only 6:30, but we have had a jam-packed day. It started out with an awesome Green Monster: spinach, chocolate soy milk, Amazing Grass Chocolate SuperFood, black cherries, and ice.

Then, I decided to go to the MSPCA to walk some more dogs:

Beautiful Siberian husky

Beautiful Siberian husky

After that we walked the 4 miles or so to the Boston waterfront. It is a GORGEOUS sunny day here in Boston!

Part of my running route

Part of my running route

 

Pretty city

Pretty city

 

Queen Mary 2

Queen Mary 2

We walked alllll the way along the harbor, drank about a gallon of water each, and then made our way to Battery Wharf for lunch at Sensing.

For lunch I ordered the Golden tomato and mango gazpacho, ricotta wasabi raita and a Peak Organic Nut Brown Ale. The hub ordered the lobster roll with fries. . . mmmmm.

My Peak Organic and the hub's Cisco Sankaty Light

My Peak Organic and the hub's Cisco Sankaty Light

 

Golden tomato gazpacho

Golden tomato gazpacho

 

Lobster roll

Lobster roll

 

Sensing's Patio- just gorgeous

Sensing's Patio- just gorgeous

 

Our meal was light and delicious. The lobster was on an incredible brioche roll, and the seasoned french fries were seriously just what I wanted. The very smooth, chilled gazpacho tasted like sweet sunshine with a little wasabi dumpling in the middle. Whoever thought of these flavors is just genius. The patio was nearly empty which is unfortunate because it was just gorgeous, tucked away and right on the water. Sensing’s dinner menu looks excellent, and the service was impeccably elegant so I hope to return soon.

I got waaaaay too much sun today. Going without it for so long made me a little silly and I omitted the sunscreen from my day. We are home now, cooking up a TJ’s pizza and chilling a bottle of our Sakonnet Vidal Blanc. I am so glad we did not make any plans for tonight. I sort of felt bad earlier that we decided to spend the day together, skipping the traditional bbq’s and fireworks that I felt like I “had” to go to. Now, I am tired and sunburned and happy to be home with my hub. Family bbq tomorrow and getting back into the work swing of things, so for tonight, I will be curling up with the a/c on and relaxing big time! Have a safe and fantastic fourth all!

Boston Harbor Hotel

Boston Harbor Hotel

Tags: Boston, Dining out, Food, gazpacho, harbor, lobster, New England, organic beer, running route, walking, weekend

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