The WineEnablers are very busy lately.  More content coming soon.  Promise.

We wanted to try several wines for Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW), so we started with Champagne from Georges Lacombe. The Grande Cuvee is a tart, food-needy Champers. It’s bright, floral, with coarse bubbles. There are other bubbles that you can get for this price ($25) that might score higher, but this is a good value for an actual Champagne.

Kathy paired the bubbles with Roller Coaster Blues sung by Diana Dors from the CD Sex Kittens in Hi-Fi. Michael said the wine and song reminded him of a mid-level lounge act that could break into Burlesque at any minute. Both the Champagne and the song were sexy in that five-and-dime kind of way. Neil paired the Georges Lacombe with Sweet Dreams by Armik, from the CD Café Romantico. The bubbles and tartness paired well with the melancholy romance of Armik’s Sweet Dreams. Champagne should not only be used to celebrate the sweet life—sometimes you drink it just to celebrate life. [click to continue…]

Brunch wine: 10-1 pm. Spritz with Grapefruit out the “wazoo.” Quite lovely, really. Again, a morning wine—would go wonderfully w/frittata. Smells like yeast and sunshine. Celery. It’s a “got up Sunday morning and spent too much money on shoes wine.” The shoes are open-toed w/heels.

July is the summer month — full of sun, fun, festivals, and gatherings. This year, two of my favorite things are showcased in July of 2009 — good wine at The Second Annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference and the sounds of jazz at the Montreal Jazz Festival.

The WineEnabler Crew attended the First Annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference, and we had a blast. The people were great. The wine, at times, was exceptional. The conference offered lots of good information. And the hotel accommodations were reasonably priced and just retro enough to be fun.

Last year’s conference was in October, and the weather cooperated with warm days and cool nights. This year, the organizers have moved the conference to July, which would be OK, but the July date for the conference is very close to the scheduled dates for the Montreal Jazz Festival, so we had to make a choice. [click to continue…]

I am not much of a horse race fan. Maybe it is because I grew up in Texas where rodeo was big, but for horse racing you had to drive to Louisiana. But the Triple Crown is different. It has more than enough pageantry, funny hats, beautiful horses, beautiful women, and hoopla to keep me interested. To make things even more fun, the WineEnabler.com crew stopped by a local track (we have them in Texas now) and place a bet. It makes the race more interesting, and it also sparks quite a bit of trash talk, particularly if someone wins.

The other race day tradition we have is food and wine. I know that each horse race has its own traditional drink and food, but we prefer bubbles, white wine and seafood. We enjoyed a whole snapper from Austin’s Downtown Farmer’s Market, done in something of a Portuguese style, and shrimp with Spanish chorizo combined with a green salad, also provided by local farmers. [click to continue…]

A friend of mine sent me a link to a nice graphic of per capita RED wine consumption in the world in 2006. I thought it was fun, so I’m just sharing.

The summer heat has arrived early in Austin, making me think about the white wines of summer. This past Friday, the WineEnabler crew got together and put several white wines to the test.

The six wines we tasted were Michel Redde La Moynerie Pouilly-Fumé 2005 ($11.25!), Oro de Castilla Verdejo 2007 ($13.99), Pieropan Soave Classico 2007 ($18.99), Tasca d’Almerita Regaleali 2007 ($11.99) and Anselmi Capitel Foscarino 2004 ($8.75!).

Redde’s Pouilly Fumé and Anselmi’s Capitel Foscarino were purchased for half price on close-out. In fact, recently we have come across lots of French imports on sale considerably below their initial release price. It appears that some importers were speculating on the ’05 vintage and are now dumping the last of their ’05 stash for cash. [click to continue…]

Ridge wines are special to me. When I was first learning to taste wine about a year-and-a-half ago, I had my first a-ha moment with wine while drinking a wine from Ridge. Neil and Kathy had invited Rachael and I over to their house for a wine tasting party. To help us get a handle of the different styles of wine, we tried three white wines and three red wines that ran the wine style gamut.

Once we were finished tasting those, I remember them opening a bottle of Ridge 2005 Geyserville so (at least in my mind) we could see what a “real wine” tasted like. The 2005 Geyserville helped me understand why people get into wine. It was complex and layered, with aromas of berries and mild sweet oak, with what I now know to be typical Zinfandel spice. It was a rich wine, with an earthy feel and silky tannins. [click to continue…]

If you look around you can find a small group of American wineries that are not following the crowd or the critics. Instead, these wineries are following the grapes to produce individual, authentic wines. I really enjoy finding these wines and sharing them with friends. Recently, we received a sample of wines from Avanguardia winery, and I have to tell you about them.

Rob Chrisman, the owner, viticulturist, and winemaker at Avanguardia, seems to be driven to blend wines in an Old World kind of way. Starting with more than 20 varietals selected from Russia, Italy, France, and the hybrid gardens of the viticulture laboratories at UC Davis, Rob produces both red and white wines of very distinctive character and charm. [click to continue…]

It’s hotter than a “modie-fo” here in Austin, Texas, and it isn’t even EASTER for crying out loud. You may ask yourself what is a “modie-fo?” Well, it’s just a made up word of mine that I bet you can figure out all on your own. Anyhow, the point is that we have found a delightful pink (or if you want to be picky, Rose) wine to go with your Easter or Passover dinner, no matter what part of the globe you live in. We indulged in it several times last year, so the name may sound familiar — Bieler Pere et Fils, Coteaux D’Aix-en-Provence 2008. However, I like this vintage mo’ better and it is a hell of a deal, if you can find it. [click to continue…]