Fall...into Wine Club!

September wine-club picks:

Hoopla, The Mutt
Varietal, Region: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Sirah, 10% Merlot, Napa Valley
Price: About $25/bottle
My Tasting Notes: Bright berry flavors with soft tannins. Jammy, fruit forward with notes of blackberry and currant.
My Verdict: Perfect for a picnic (where did the warm weather go?!), dinner with friends, or just to sip on after a long day. 

Yorkville Cellars, Sauvignon Blanc
Varietal, Region: Sauv Blanc, Mendocino County
Price: $18.99 /bottle
My Tasting Notes: Citrusy aroma and well balanced. Crisp notes of grapefruit, green apple and a tiny hint of lime. 
My Verdict: This wine is organic, which is something I like (but is often much more difficult to find). It should be a go-to for anyone who likes Sauv Blancs with a slightly sweet finish. 

Now the real treat...A video with adorable sheep that help Yorkville Cellars maintain it's organic grape growing!

Cheers!

An Arlington Happy Hour Albariño

Chardonnay, Sauv Blanc and all you other typical white-wine grapes, it's time to step aside. There's a new grape in town...

...Albariño!

Okay, well maybe it's not brand-new, but it is to me, and to happy hour in Arlington as far as I can tell! It's classic enough to not be trendy but with a slight twist. Great reputation and a significant following... unique, fresh, clean and just makes me happy.  Could this be the Zac Posen of grapes?!

Typically, I'm the type of person that after consuming two glasses of white wine will be bed-ridden for a week, swearing off all alcohol for the rest of my life, but  I may have found the one white grape I can tolerate (and it's refreshing and tastes great)!

My ritual when trying a new wine is take a little whiff of the scent and then close my eyes and take a sip and see what comes to mind.

With this wine, I could imagine I was in Spain, touring a vineyard on a warm day, sipping a glass under the shade of an olive tree...Yes, I have a vivid imagination. But that's what makes life fun when you don't have a private plane that can whisk you off to Spain at any moment. Entiendes?

Arlington Happy Hour, Neighborhood: La Tasca, Clarendon
Specs: Mon through Fri 5-8pm

The Wine: Adegas Gran Venum, Nessa Albariño

Varietal, Region: Albariño, Rias Biaxas, Spain
Price: $7/glass
My Tasting Notes: The perfect white. Balanced and crisp, notes of citrus and a mineral taste, but well balanced and not too mineraly (is that a word? If not, it is now)!
My Verdict: One large glass of this is the perfect amount (look mom, no headache) ! If you're usually a red or rose drinker but need a change, this is the one for you. Enjoy with or without food, but if you have a glass at La Tasca, I'd suggest trying it with the pork empanadas ($5 at happy hour)!

About the grape: Albariño is a grape from the Rias Baixas region of Spain, and is thought to have been brought over by French monks! Read more here. 

Salud!

*Any potentially incorrect tenses/uses of Spanish can be blamed on my high school Spanish teacher who was too busy reprimanding me for wearing spaghetti-strap tanktops to help me master the language (but no hard feelings). :-)

Water & Wall, Happy Hour Reds Part Five

Arlington happy hour, Neighborhood: Water & Wall, Virginia Square

Specs: Monday-Fri until 8pm
Happy hour red: A Pinot Noir from California that goes for $5/glass. I didn't like it (too dry and a slightly leathery taste) so I decided to try another one they had on the menu  (which was fantastic...see  below).

Yes, believe it or not, this happy hour review is for Virginia Square, the tiny, often forgotten about sub-neighborhood wedged between Ballston and Clarendon.

Side note: They do have great happy hour beers. You can choose from a selection of several-- all on the "crafty" side. So if you like lighter beers this isn't the right place for you (they don't even exist on the regular-price drink menu).

So here's the wine I did review:

La Cuadrilla, Stolpman Vineyards, 2012

Varietal, Region: 60% Syrah, 20% Sangiovese, 15% Grenache, 5% Petite Sirah

Price: $14/glass, $56/bottle
My Tasting Notes: Medium to full-bodied, dark fruits, spicy and dry with a nice finish.
My Verdict: Great wine. While it's a little pricey by the glass, just one of these gave me a nice warm wine buzz!

They also have fantastic appetizers. These are the fried green tomatoes.

Overall, Water & Wall is a must-visit. Cheers!

Delectable Desserts: The Ballston Edition

This post is long overdue, mainly because Arlington has some fantastic desserts. 

When I first started this blog, I intended to post about a few different desserts a month at the very least, but most of the time, they're so incredibly tasty that I forget to take a picture until it's half gone! That, or my fiance and I are abiding by our "phones put away at dinner" rule, which is actually a good thing (most of the time), but it can be a little complicated because my phone and camera are one and the same!

Now, on to the desserts! Here are two of my favorites, from Ballston:

Dessert: Mudslide cookies
Price: 4 cookies for $6
Available at: Willow, Fairfax Drive, Ballston
My Tasting Notes: These cookies taste just like a mudslide of chocolatey goodness and will certainly satisfy dark chocolate lovers (ME!!) and milk chocolate lovers, alike.
My Verdict: They taste great with vanilla ice cream. You can get the cookies with ice cream at Willow, or you can take them home and make your own cookie sandwiches, or cookies a la mode.

Dessert: Fruit Tart
Available at: Rus Uz, North Randolph Street, Ballston
My Tasting Notes: Tangy, light, fruity, slightly creamy, delicious
My Verdict: This dessert is much lighter than it looks, it is perfect for an after-dinner alternative to chocolate (which is an option, although I hate to admit it). I love the food here and I was pleasently surprised about this dessert...the surprised part comes in part because all it says under the dessert section of the menu on their website is "Call for details." Another thing to keep in mind, they have the desserts on some kind of rotation, so they don't always have the same selection.

Check out one of my other Ballston dessert posts here.

I promise my next dessert post will feature a different Arlington neighborhood.

Until then...

Cheers!

If You Have a Menut...

I couldn't help it; the pun was too good to resist. But, fortunately, so is this Priorat from Spain!

 It comes highly recommended from a friend and I was finally able to make it to one of the DC stores that carries it! 

Clos Martinet, Menut, 2011

Varietal, Region: Merlot Blend, Priorat, Spain

Price: $17.99/bottle

Available at: D'vines, 14th St DC and Adams Morgan

My Tasting Notes: Ripe and juicy, hints of blackberries and blueberries, slightly smokey, bold flavor with just the right amount of tannins.

My Verdict: So I bet you noticed this wine is a MERLOT blend. I think my next post might be "Why I should have never given Merlot the cold shoulder." haha. This wine is fantastic, a robust red that's also something a little different.

Cheers!

A Fantastic Fairfax Winery

As a final celebration for my big 3-0 (and I swear this is the last one), the fiance and I took a little trip to a winery right outside the beltway...Paradise Springs! 

It was the first nice day in about half a week and the winery was packed. Unfortunately we missed the big behind-the-scenes tour by about an hour (I think it's once a day on weekends) but the tasting was still totally worth it and even though it was packed, we we didn't have to wait long at all! 

The person who did our tasting was incredibly friendly and knowledgeable and even gave us a teeny taste of one wine, their Norton, a native grape to Virginia, that isn't normally included. 

While we were tasting the wines we spoke to a couple next to us who were celebrating their 42 wedding anniversary. When we mentioned we're getting married in December they decided to share some wisdom. Their advice: Don't do anything the first year you don't want to continue for the rest of your lives and go to Aruba for our honeymoon. They said they've been all over the world and that's their favorite place!

 

Here are my favorite PS wines:

Nana's Rose, 2013

Varietal: Merlot
Price: $8/glass, $22/case
My Tasting Notes: Refreshing and citrusy, notes of strawberry and tropical fruit. Not aged in oak barrels. 
My Verdict: You would NEVER know this is from Merlot grapes; I'm not a huge fan and I loved this...in fact it was my favorite by far. And from what I heard there, it's the favorite of the winery owner, too!  

Melange, 2012

Varietal: 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 20% Petit Verdot
Price: $9/glass, $27/bottle
My Tasting Notes: Medium-bodied and slightly oaky with a smooth finish. Hints of blackberry and dark cherry. This was aged in French oak barrels and contains several Bordeaux varietals!
My Verdict: I'm really starting to like smooth red blends. And according to PS, Melange means blend or mixture in French!

An overall great experience. Beautiful setting, family and pet friendly (many cute pups and babies)...and so close to DC! Also did I mention the fantastic snacks? We had amazing French bread, salami and goat cheese.

Cheers!