Deal of the Week!

Absolutely no one in the area had a deal worth talking about last week.  But, this week Publix has Little Roo buy one get one free.  It's only 5.99 to start! 

I can't find a web site anywhere for Little Roo. When I search for it all I get is gossip about how much the label looks like Yellow Tail's, and I really don't care about that.  I did see that it's from The Wine Group, but that's all the information I found out there.  Just to make the wine sound even BETTER the bottle says it's a product of Australia that's bottled in Livermore & Ripon California. Go figure.

I looked up what other people think about the wine, and it seems they either love it or they hate it. If you try it let us know what your opinion is.  I'll try at least one of them this week, if it's great I'll pick up some more; if I hate it I'll have find or invent another sangria recipe. I doubt there's a wine that can't be fixed by the right sangria recipe.

Finally a Wine I can Describe as Peppery!

One of the many interesting things about wine is how people describe the taste.  Minerally, chalky, peppery, smoky, gamey, all kinds of descriptions I never would have associated with a drink. 

I finally tried the Colores Del Sol malbec I mentioned the other day.  I don't know what came over me but I actually wanted a red wine.  This wine is pretty great.  It's a bit high in tannins and dry for my taste; my cheeks feel like I bit into a lemon.  But the tartness is completely made up for by the fact that it has a come-and-go smoky taste.  AND, even better, I swear it has a peppery taste and finish as well.  I started drinking this wine too cold - the longer it sat in the glass and warmed up the more I could taste the different flavors in the wine and the more I liked it.

Long and short of it is that although this isn't one of my favorite wines I've had I will definitely explore malbec wines a bit more and I would recommend you this wine.  That's pretty high praise for a red wine from a white wine drinker like me!

and the recipe for the red

#1 Red Sangria

1. Start with a bottle of red wine. I use Merlot.

2. Pour the bottle into a pitcher.

3. Add 2 cups of ginger ale.

4. Add 2 shots of brandy.

5. Add 2 oranges and 1 lemon. Cut them into decent sized pieces and squeeze the piece  into the pitcher until there is no more juice. Drop the piece into the pitcher.

6. Add cinnamon as you see fit.

7. Taste.         If:

· It tastes too much like wine? Add more ginger ale and a couple of more shots of brandy.

· It tastes too sweet/watered down? Add more shots of brandy and cinnamon.

· Doesn’t have a slight cinnamon aftertaste? Add more cinnamon until it does.

8. Put the pitcher in the fridge and let it sit at least overnight.

I don't know what If rules were followed for the batch of this sangria I tried this weekend, but it was a wonderfully mellow sangria - well worth the time spent making and waiting!

finally tried white sangria!

I made my first sangria Sunday and it was pretty addictive even if I do say so myself.  Here's the recipe:

1 bottle of Fish Eye pinot grigio (I just happened to have a couple bottles of it lying around, guess why)
1/8 cup peach schnapps
1/8 cup triple sec
tsp of sugar
3 little clementine oranges
1/2 a mango
about a quarter liter of ginger ale

It rocked, but next time I'll use a half cup of peach schnapps, and if peaches were in season I'd slice one into it too.  And  make that a whole mango, why be skimpy?

We had some red sangria as well, but I haven't yet managed to obtain the recipe.  Hopefully soon!

This Week's Best Deal

This week Win Dixie in the Tampa area has the best deals by far.  Another Australian wine - Black Swan is buy one get one free this week.  So is Colores del Sol (Colors of the Sun) which is a Malbec grown in Mendoza, South America.

My blogging consistency is pathetic, but that's all I can do for now.  We're having a who-can-make-the-best-sangria contest today, hopefully I'll have some awesome recipes to post later.

Tampa area Wine Deals of the Week

Well, Sweet Bay has it's Fish Eye wine buy one get one free this week, but the flyer states it's only chardonnay, which I just don't think is their greatest wine.  It's still the best deal out there, and I read somewhere that chardonnay is the most popular wine in the US, so you'll probably love it!

Linderman's bin wines are on sale at Publix this week 2 for 10. There is a pretty good variety of wines to choose from. 

Check out Linderman's web site.  You can look at thier 'tasting notes' that will tell you everything you want to know about a wine and more, from the region the grapes were grown in to the palate of the wine.

I have yet to try any of Linderman's wines myself, but you know that I will.  Have an opinion on Linderman's or Fish Eye?  Let us know which one to try first!  Or if you happen to know an even better wine deal, share the knowledge, it's good for your karma!  I know the deals I mentioned are useless if you're on the west coast...

Are we REALLY the only ones?

OK, I know we haven't blogged in a while but I'll get into why later and anyways, no one is sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for the next tidbit of non-information.

Last week got us back into the wine drinking mode for a very simple reason - Publix had Fish Eye wine $6.99 buy one get one free.  So I started the week off buying two bottles of chardonnay and 2 bottles of pinot grigio, because they were the two kinds of white wine they had, so of course I had to try them. 

I tried the chardonnay first since I know I like it, and was a bit disappointed.  It has that slightly bitter taste that makes your mouth pucker a little like you just tasted a lemon. Thanks to the Wine for Normal People's podcast Top 10 Snobby Wine Terms Defined I know that means it was too acidic for my taste.  Thanks wine for Normal People! 

On the other hand, I tried the piniot grigio and found my new favorite not-fruity wine.  It is absolutely wonderful. I would tell you the specifics of why, but I tried it an entire week ago so can't remember the specifics. That's why I keep meaning to take notes! (but don't)

So the next day... I decided that since Fish Eye was so well priced I should try the reds as well.  They had merlot and cabernet sauvignon so two of each...  I found that I liked the merlot OK, but I REALLY liked the cabernet sauvignon.  My brother-in-law-to-be has told me that people move from white wine to reds as their palette develop (which as a white wine lover I do NOT believe), if this is true then this is the wine that leads the way for me.

Anyway, I'll get to the original point now.  I mentioned the fact that there was a BOGO wine sale at work and NO ONE knew about it.  It's not like I'm the only wine drinker at work!  So I decided to start mentioning some of the really good deals in the Tampa area here.  After all, one of the reasons we are wannabe wine masters instead of the real thing is because the wine drinking bug can get pretty expensive if you let it.  I'll post this week's best deals tommorow.