Skip to main content

Family, food and two French wines

 
My 22 year old son was home for a few days during Spring Break and requested grilled marinated pork chops for dinner. Since he became of legal drinking age, my husband and I have enjoyed sharing different wines with him to see which ones he really enjoys. I invited my father to join us for dinner and my son invited a friend as well.

With my manly meal of pork, peppers and potatoes prepped for the grill, I decided to open a Rhone Valley Rosé to start as I had some cold boiled shrimp and Caprese salad kabobs out to nibble on while everything went on the grill. My son's friend was interested to learn that "all rosé is not bad or, you know, cheap wine" and that real men do drink pink wine as role modeled by my husband and father. The wine was Paul Jaboulet Parallele 45 Cotes du Rhone Rosé 2011. This rosé is a blend of 50% Grenache, 40% Cinsault and 10% Syrah. It smelled and tasted of fresh ripe strawberries with a bit of baking spice. Medium- body, alcohol with medium+ acidity and a fruity medium length finish. Recommended and enjoyed by all. I purchased this bottle at Whole Foods for $17.
We finished the rosé as the main course came off the grill. With the pork chops, I served a Syrah from the Languedoc. This wine was a big hit with all the men at my table, both the young and the older, I just got one small taste of it. I bought this bottle at Max's Wine Dive in a mixed case so I don't remember the price but you can call Drew over at Max's and he can  help you out. The wine was the Rare Vineyards Pays D'Oc Syrah 2011 and it was fruit forward with a bit of smoked meat, medium+ body, alcohol, and acidity with smooth, medium tannins and a medium length blackberry and black pepper finish. Recommended and enjoyed by all.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for reading Wine Life - Houston.

Popular posts from this blog

Winemaker, Andrés Sánchez of Alcance

I was invited to a media and trade tasting lunch at Backstreet Cafe with Andrés Sánchez, the winemaker for Alcance, a Jackson Family winery. As guests arrived, we were greeted with a glass of lightly chilled Alcance Chardonnay 2016, a perfect start for a hot summer day in Houston. This rich and elegant Chardonnay is grown on granitic soils in a coastal mountain vineyard in the Valle de Itata. Despite my multiple wine classes, this was a growing area with which I was not familiar. This vineyard is located between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean about 12 miles from the coast which as Sánchez pointed out adds a nice sea influence to the wine. The Chardonnay was pleasantly fresh with light citrus notes and a touch of butterscotch with a distinct saline mineralty throughout the slightly creamy finish.  A mixed appetizer platter with Gulf Coast Beignets, duck spring rolss, asparagus and zuchini flatbread, and lump crab cakes on red pepper beurre blanc were br...
Post a Comment
Read more

Darioush Wine Tasting at Pappas Grill

I went to a  Darioush wine tasting last Friday. What a delight! I found every bottle we tasted to be exceptional. Darioush is well-known for their Bordeaux styled wines so I was already familiar with both the Darioush "Signature" and the Estate Caravan Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. They are both highly rated and consistently good. The Caravan is the lower priced of the two and is something that I keep in stock at home. The wines in the line up for the evening were all from Napa Valley and included: 2008 Signature Viognier, 2005 Signature Chardonnay, 2005 Signature Merlot, 2007 Signature Shiraz, 2007 Estate Caravan Cabernet Sauvignon, and both the 2006 & 2007 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2007 was opened by mistake which was a bonus to all who were present. The Viognier varietal has been hit and miss for me at tastings in the past but this offering was an absolute stand out. It was very fragrant with floral notes of jasmine and or...
Post a Comment
Read more

"The Zen of Zin" Tasting at Fleming's in River Oaks

On Friday evening, my husband and I attended the Zinfandel wine tasting at Fleming's in River Oaks. My husband gets totally pumped up for any and all things Zinfandel but what I found really intriguing in the line up of wines were the aged offerings. Brent Sloan, managing partner at Houston's premier wine storage facility Nos Caves Vin, had provided Fleming's with four 18 year old bottlings and one 17 year old bottling from his collection of some of his favorites. I found this interesting because 1. I don't believe that I have ever had an 18 year old Zinfandel before this evening and 2. From various wine classes, I had always heard that at best Zinfandel had very limited aging ability. So, I was definitely excited to give these wines a taste. There were also an additional five younger Zinfandel wines that are some of Fleming's best sellers. The entire tasting line up for the evening included: 2009 Orin Swift Saldo - California 2007 Schulz "Lampyridae...
5 comments
Read more