Twitter

You are currently browsing articles tagged Twitter.

Wine Wednesday came a little early this week when I was asked to participate in a Tweet Chat on all things Rioja. I invited our friends over for Sunday night dinner, spent the day cleaning and making up some appetizers, and when it was time to chat, broke out the iPad for a little #RiojaBuzz. We were joined by the winemakers from the respective wineries and were able to ask questions of them. The chat was fast-moving but interesting, and we all enjoyed the wines.

Conde de Valdemar

Rioja

The Rioja, divided into three sub-regions, Alta, Alavesa, and Baja, all which have, as I learned on the chat have different seasons as far as harvest goes. I was .sent two different wines to taste (There were three, but I never received the third.) Both the wines were classified Crianza which means they were aged for at least two years, once of which has to be in oak. The first wine we tasted was the Ontañon Rioja Crianza 2008 which was a blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Garnacha. Half our group liked the smokiness and spice of this wine. I could really taste the oak, but not in a bad way at all. It was balanced and had some nice fruit flavors.

I absolutely loved the second wine, the Conde de Valdemar Rioja Crianza 2007. A blend of Tempranillo and Mazuelo (Carignan). It also had a bit of smokiness, dried leaves, spice, and fruit. Someone on the Tweet Chat pointed out that Rioja wines are mysterious, and they kind of have that quality. They’re also a great value. The Conde de Valdemar retails for around $11.

Rioja

image

What do you pair with Rioja? I didn’t have much experience, so I just went with what I felt like making and what was easy to put out for a Sunday. One of our guests is a trained chef and the best hostess I know, so as always, I was a little nervous!

On the menu:

Sliced goat cheddar

Sliced sharp cheddar (I wanted to get Manchego but Roche Brothers had a terrible cheese selection.)

Stonewall Kitchen Hot Pepper Jelly over baked brie (I didn’t do a puff pastry wrap, just baked a wedge of brie topped with jam at 350 for about 15 minutes until nice and gooey.)

Spicy turkey meatballs (store bought meatballs in a homemade spicy marinara, super easy)

Baguette slices and lots of different crackers

Amazing homemade calamari and sauce made by our friends

Lots of wine. Too much wine for a Sunday, but it made for a very fun and delicious evening.

Stonewall Kitchen

crackers for party

wine tasting setup

We ate and drank wine until 10:00 which is definitely wild and crazy for a Sunday night. Sometimes it just has to be done. Winking smile

My work week is crazy this week. I am basically jumping between 4-5 jobs every day all day and commuting into Boston for half days, then coming home at 6 and finishing the rest of my work. And I am determined to get in shape for summer, so there’s that. I have a bunch of way overdue doctor’s appointments scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, so I took a few hours off. I am actually looking forward to sitting in the waiting room and reading.

Do you watch Mad Men? I am finding this season boring, but lots of people on Twitter disagreed with me on Monday. I just can’t seem to get into it.

Tags: blogger events, events, Food, Rioja, Twitter, wine

Boston’s newest wine lovers meet-up group, the Red White Tasting Crew, met for the first time last night at the Enormous Room in Cambridge’s Central Square.

Perfect for a chilly evening, the Enormous Room, which is above Central Kitchen,  is dimly lit with pillow-lined benches for lounging. It ended up being an ideal location for wine tasting.

The Enormous Room

Because the Tasting Crew is a Red White Boston group, I arrived a little early to see if I could help out. Surprisingly, even after a 16 mile run (where I saw Anthony Bourdain!), I wasn’t sore and had quite a bit of energy which ended up being a good thing because the Tasting Crew drew quite the crowd!

The long rectangle-shaped space that is the Enormous Room had several tables which Cathy from Red White Boston had set up bottles of wine, glasses, and tasting sheets with both notes about the wines and some conversation starters for the tweet-up portion of the event. As the event went on, then tweets were flying!

As soon as Tasting Crew members started to arrive I started pouring wine. The first up was Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs, a sparkling wine I have enjoyed time and again, especially on visits to their Carneros tasting room (Gloria Ferrer visits here and here and here).

Wine Tasting

Next up was a surprise wine, not on the list. Panther Distributing brought a McClaren Vale Chardonnay, K1. This was one of the wines I missed over the course of the night; while pouring I actually didn’t get to empty my own glass often, a good thing after the long run and not a lot of food!

I did enjoy the wines that I tasted, which included a Grenache Syrah, Plume Bleue that I enjoyed at the Amanda Hesser Formaggio Kitchen event. Blending two of my favorite grapes, the Plume Bleue is just fruity enough with a hint of spice to give it some edge. This wine can be found at an excellent value, and I would definitely recommend having a few bottles on hand.

wine tasting

Cathy got our attention when she talked about the 2003 Nicolette Christopher Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa, and her love for this wine was spot on. This was a spectacular sip with classic Napa Cab flavors with an extra bit of elegance and a lush full mouth feel. It made me even more excited for another visit to Napa in March for the Napa Valley Marathon. It is getting close!

Also in the tasting lineup were two Malbecs from Cahors, France and a blend of Carignan, Grenache, and Syrah, a Domaine de Fontsainte Domaine Rouge, from Corbieres in Southwestern France. I missed these while pouring, but I have two out of the three in my wine fridge. I am planning a Malbec tasting of a Cahors Malbec, an Argentinian Malbec, and a Napa Malbec sometime soon, all for the sake of the blog. The things I do Winking smile

My favorite wine of the evening ended up being another not on the list, a Shiraz brought by Panther Distributing. It was simply stunning, and I didn’t even get the name. I will definitely be getting in touch with Panther and will share once I have that information. You have to try it.

tapas

Some light snacks including bread, hummus, and olives were scattered throughout the room for nibbling throughout the night. Somehow I ended up so busy chatting and pouring I also missed these.

It was completely worth it though; I met and reunited with some of Boston’s best food and wine folks, and the vibe in the room was just so festive and positive. I genuinely can not wait until the next Tasting Crew event and look forward to collaborating with my fellow testers in the future.

For more (and much better) photos, head on over to F2%, a really beautiful blog written by the husband of my very first real boss. Justin is an amazing photographer, and it was great to run into him last night at the Red White Boston tasting event.

Do you belong to any meet-up groups in your city? How do you best do your networking, via social networking platforms or in more traditional in-person ways?

Tags: Enormous Room, events, networking, Red White Boston, Twitter, wine, wine tasting

Last night was one of the most fun dinners of my life. I had the incredible opportunity to dine with some rockstars of the food and wine community, and it was one of those meals that could have gone on all night.

I “met” the acclaimed Chef Robin White through Twitter, and since she has become a great friend. She even set me up with the best wine tasting ever, on my birthday, in Napa. I was thrilled to actually meet her in person last night at Bistro du Midi, where my husband and I had a lovely dinner last month. I also met Robin’s best friend Deb and another Twitter friend Catherine Schiff who, in addition to having an incredible background in restaurants and wine, is the voice behind the weekly radio show Cocktails for Everyone.

Boston Bistro du Midi

There was so much chatter at the table that it took us quite awhile to order. There was quite a bit of wine, and stories about wineries. All of my dinner dates were well connected in that department. . .

image image

I didn’t photograph all of the food, but I once again ordered Bistro du Midi’s mussels in pastis, and they were once again perfectly cooked and delicious.

bistro du midi bistro du midi

bistro du midi

Each of the women at dinner has at least one book that she needs to write. There were so many stories and lots of laughs!

Most interesting of all was listening to Robin just talk about her life, especially how she met and worked for Julia. Yes, that Julia. 🙂

In addition to having one of the best times, I received some very sad news, so I will ask you to bear with me for today as far as blogging and following up on comments goes. Our families are okay, but some really great people that I know experienced a very sad loss, and my heart is with them right now.

I will certainly be back with more fun food stories.  . . when you know people like Catherine, Deb,  and Robin, you can guarantee it!

For today, enjoy life, tell your friends and family you love them, drink wine and eat great food, and take a break to get some summer sunshine.

I know I planned on announcing the Siggi’s giveaway today, but I promise it will be announced tomorrow.

Have a fantastic day, and if you missed my posts from yesterday, I actually posted twice! I don’t know how people do 3 posts a day!

Tags: Boston, Food, Twitter, wine

new restaurant
WordPress SEO fine-tune by Meta SEO Pack from Poradnik Webmastera