Posted on

Reunited and it Feels So Good

Harviestoun Brewery
Old Engine Oil
Black Ale (Best Porter of 2010)
6% ABV
Scotland, UK

Deep dark of night with a small caramel head that fades. Oh man, just raise that mug and here comes that deep smell of dark chocolate, baker’s chocolate, coffee grounds, toffee, and a hint of black pepper. Memories of years past are being conjured up. Now after all that here comes the taste. There’s again cark chocolate that goes bitter super dark with a crispy dry end, burnt brownie edges, black coffee, and a smidge of vanilla. It’s just black velvet and mouth coating, and after all these years it is still a constant friend.

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: oh God no!

When I saw this beer in my friend’s hand, I felt like Christmas came early! It has been years since I have had this glass of deliciousness. It was back at the old (and now gone) Mugs Alehouse, and anytime I saw it on their list, it was an immediate go to order. How on earth had I lost touch with this old bestie. I totally blame myself for not searching it out. Feels so good to be reunited!

#beer #craftbeer #OldEngineOil #porter #blackale #ale #stout #beerstagram #beerlife #beersofinstagram #wine #winestagram #instawine #worldbyglass @worldbyglass #cheezit #pairswithcheezits #faithnomore #reunitedanditfeelssogood #Scotland #UK @harviestounbrewery @sugarburgbk @cheezits

Posted on

Listening to the Vine

Domaine Les Hautes Noëlles
hého le Rouge 2019
Val de Loire IGP (PGI)
45% Cabernet Franc, 45% Grolleau Noir, 10% Gamay
Organic, hand-harvested, indigenous yeast
Saint-Léger-les-Vignes, Loire, France
Owner & winemaker: Jean-Gabriel Tridon and his wife Juliane

Ruby pool with garnet rim. Delightful strawberries and raspberries greeting my nose, and as it warms citrus zest, black pepper & a warm spice like a bit of nutmeg (which I found the hard way, I am allergic to… It’s not pretty. It sucks because I love that holiday flavor), and a puff of vanilla. Those strawberries and raspberries are back in the sip and they’ve brought along cherries, and something a little dark rugged edgy, then a vanilla droplet appears, orange rind shave liveliness with a grind of pepper. Try it chilled, or try it slightly chilled. Either way pick up two because you’ll not want them to end.

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: smoooooth yeeeesssss

Juliane & Jean-Gabriel Tridon embarked on what looks like a second act or new adventure in life with Domaine Les Hautes Noëlles. I love the fact they committed themselves fully to wine and Jean-Gabriel went back to the books and hands on experience and education (especially on working and growing organic). I’m just going to let their words from their site speak for them because there is no way I could do it better. “In a world where Man seems to want absolute control of everything, the vine gives those who dedicate themselves to it a wonderful lesson in humility. There is what we understand about Nature. There is what we know about it without being able to explain it. And then there is the great unfathomable unknown. The vine demands constant attention. In particular, it requires us to think ahead and even to prepare, today, for the generations of tomorrow. As for the wine quietly and slowly developing in the silence of a vat, it takes its time. It takes the time it needs. This is now our lives, our daily lives within this unspoilt setting; this is what we wish to share with you.” 🍷❤️

#wine #winetasting #vino #vin #winelife #葡萄酒 #ワイン #hého #heho #CabernetFranc #GrolleauNoir #Gamay #Loire #France #cheezit #organic @worldbyglass #pairswithcheezits #winestagram @vinewinenyc @skurnikwines @domaineleshautesnoelles @cheezits

Posted on

Dalmatian Coast Dreaming

Bura-Mrgudić Winery
Rukatac 2020
100% Rukatac (maraština, malvasia lunga)
Organic, hand-harvested, indigenous yeasts and grape
Pelješac Peninsula, Dalmatia, Croatia
Family winery: Niko Bura and Mare Mrgudić (brother & sister)

Skin contact antique gold. Oh and before I forget, don’t over chill it. Scents of apples, apricot, allspice, a little grassy/hay, then out pop peaches and orange. Oh those lovely apples are there again in the taste (both crisp ones and sweet), along with tangelo peel, orangey blossoms on the backside, dried parsley and herb mix, a little apple pie too since those spices emerge. It’s clean, awake and alive but comfortably snuggly. I just want to lounge, sip this and eat my new favorite triple-cream cheese, Nimbus. If you haven’t tried Chasehome Farm’s cheese, then head to the McCarren Park Greenmarket on Saturdays, but don’t buy it all before I get there!

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: Makes it more tart…so NO! Stick with the Nimbus

Rukatac, a grape with a few names and as I’m researching I’m finding a particularly irritating one dubbing it a “chick wine”. Well buddy, let me tell you, this is an equal opportunity wine. The Bura family have cultivated this bottle into a fresh fine showing of generations of winemaking and their part of the Dalmatian Coast (which I now have a new place to dream about visiting). Their Rukatac might not be the grape they’re best known for though. That would be their Plavac Mali which one of its parents is an ancestral Zinfandel and the other another native oldster, Dobričić. Looking forward to getting my hands on one of their acclaimed bottles.

#wine #winetasting #vino #vin #winelife #葡萄酒 #ワイン #buramrgudic #Rukatac #PlavacMali #Zinfandel #Dalmatia #Croatia #cheezit #organic @worldbyglass #pairswithcheezits #winestagram @buramrgudic @chaseholmfarm @cheezits

Posted on

Ancient Ways & New History

Pietro Beconcini Agricola
Antiche Vie 2020
Chianti DOCG
Sangiovese 80%, Malvasia 10%, and Trebbiano 10%
Organic
Grown in San Miniato, Tuscany, Italy
Wine Couple: Pietro Beconcini and Eva Bellagamba

Shining ruby that should be decanted for about an hour. I tried a couple different time frames and it seems to be the sweet spot. At first there’s a mellow morphing caramel scent, dark cherries, irises, forest earthiness, black pepper, and as it opens it’s more perfume. Tasting delicious cherries and dried cherries, plums, raspberry, boysenberry, blackberry, orange peel, white and black pepper, and digging in the dirt (earth)…yeah I have that Peter Gabriel song stuck in my head again. There’s also a small bite of rosemary and sage. All of this is joyfully light (that grows as it opens into medium) and lively with a seductive backbone, and this wine makes me smile and I feel like it’s winking back at me. 😘

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: deeper, darker and more sultry

Antiche Vie has ties all the way back to Pietro’s grandfather who back in the 50s bought their farmland, which is really important because it broke the cycle of being a sharecropper. Pietro’s Chianti celebrates the ways of old, the region’s indigenous grapes, and also his father who was a “pioneer in the cultivation of the vine in this area.” He also has written a new history with his San Miniato fed Sangiovese which was his 1st project and the grapes he is working with today in his “Wines of the Tradition”.  “Wines of Innovation” is the other route he has taken. They are the only ones growing Tempranillo in Italy, and their IXE will knock your socks off. As I keep repeating, it’s like Spain and Italy had a beautiful baby, and just like Antiche Vie it will be love at first taste.

#wine #winelover #vino #vin #winelife #葡萄酒 #ワイン #Chianti #Tuscany #Italy #SanMiniato #Sangiovese #Malvasia #Trebbiano #cheezit #organic @worldbyglass #pairswithcheezits #winestagram #pietrobeconcini @pietrobeconciniwines @soilairselection @cheezits

Posted on

One Step Too…

Tox Brewing Co. & Skygazer Brewing Co. Collaboration
Water Lily
Sour Ale with Blueberry, Chocolate, Marshmallow, and Milk Sugar
6% ABV
Brewed and packaged for Tox Brewing by Twelve Percent
North Haven, CT

Electric magenta with purple pops. Well, it smells just like the can reads…blueberry, chocolate, marshmallow, and milk sugar, just like a 1970’s kids cereal. Think of a mashup of Franken Berry, Count Chocula, and Boo Berry. Here we go for the taste and it again is blueberry, chocolate, marshmallow, and milk sugar but the chocolate is a Tootsie Roll that turns into a mochaccino and a little tiny lemon hint.

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: NO NO NO NO!

I do like the experimentation and the collaboration, and know a lot of you will love this sour ale (all over IG people are raving about it), and I’m going to get chastised for this, but I just wish there wasn’t any chocolate. Just one step too far for me. Yes, it’s a “wacky dessert smoothie” flair, and maybe I’m a party pooper. I think it’s the Tootsie Roll taste. They were the dreaded candy for me at Halloween. I never could understand why people would give them out, and while I’m on my soapbox, who thought boxes of raisins were a good idea too?!

#beer #craftbeer #sourale #ale #tootsieroll #skygazerbrewing #ToxBrewing #beerstagram #beerlife #beersofinstagram #wine #winestagram #instawine #worldbyglass @worldbyglass #cheezit #pairswithcheezits @BeerBoutiqueNYC @twelve.percent.beer.project @twelve.percent.nyc.metro @cheezits

Posted on

A Dashing Waltzing Partner

Val de Mer
Sparkling Non Dosé NV
100% Chardonnay
Sustainable, hand-harvested & no dosage added
Sourced from Tonnerre, France
Co-owned: Patrick Piuze & Moutard-Diligent

Golden with a little warm glimmer and tiny bubbles popping all over. Those bubbles send my sniffer some apples, a smidge of apple brandy that walks out the door but closes it gently, toasted brioche, a little vanilla, and  an Oreo cream center. Smooth sipping ripe apples of all sorts, lemon lime twist, crisp like seltzer but not salty, touch of toast, and some mellow limestone. She’s a polished accomplished lady that I recommend keeping well chilled and she’ll shine through the evening.

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: really good! Sharpens everything

Before this sparkler came into existence, Patrick Piuze, had a winding, globe trotting road to wine. Hailing from Quebec and 3rd son of a blue collar family, the vines called to him from what I’m reading when he was 18. With guidance and inspiration he worked with wineries abroad before returning to Montreal to open the wine bar “Le Pinot Noir”. Drawn back to France for studies and more experience he opened his own winery and became a Chablis master, or as it is said on Bowler Wine’s site, “Patrick has become walking encyclopedia of the terroir of the area.” Now with Val de Mer, he has joined up with Moutard-Diligent for a 2nd wine venture. The grapes for the Sparkling Non Dosé are from 25 year old vines and the winery (& above ground cellar) is in Tonnerre which is 10 miles from Chablis. He’s still all about minimal intervention and letting the land speak, and in this bottle it says celebrate and take an elegant waltz with your dashing partner under the stars.

#wine #sparklingwine #bubbly #Chardonnay #ValdeMer #PatrickPiuze #MoutardDiligent #winelover #vino #vin #organicwine #winelife #葡萄酒 #ワイン #cheezit #organic @worldbyglass #pairswithcheezits #winestagram #Tonnerre #France @bowlerwine @cheezits

Posted on

Sunshine on a Rainy Day

Domaine Bertrand et Axelle Machard de Gramont
Bourgogne Aligoté “Le Chêne du Court” 2017
AOC
100% Aligoté
Organic, hand harvested
Nuits-St. Georges, France
Winemaker: Axelle Machard

Pale glistening gold. Fragrances of apples, peach, smoke, light tangerine, and wet rock or limestone. As the glass and I are both sweating due to the evening…rolling this around in my mouth and there’s fresh apple, pear, light peach, salt, a lemon lime swirl ting of tart, and something herby but I can’t quite place which. I should have my Penzeys’ card revoked. It’s just so crisp, refreshing, elegant and so welcome. Henri is knocking on the door and this glass brightens this rainy grey day. Unfortunately it has me craving mussels and super salty frites which I have neither, and am not about to make a delivery driver come out in this  rough weather.

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: delicious and sweeter

Coming from a distinct wine lineage, Axelle, Bertrand’s daughter is at the helm of Domaine Bertrand et Axelle Machard de Gramont, and is who brought it into organic certification. I’m glad she came back from a 15 year stint in Paris to rejoin her father in wine. Her parcel of Aligoté is pretty darn special residing behind the Abbaye de Saint-Vivant which is now a historic site and had been going through restoration when a discovery took place. I got pretty intrigued about the Abbey and with some really bad Google Translate of different papers and posts, I found that a bottle was unearthed from under debris and a slab near the apse and altar. It could date back to 1772 or possibly 1810-60 and it was opened and tasted in 2011. I would love to know how that turned out, and I’m sure one of you probably knows.

#wine #winelover #vino #vin #winelife #葡萄酒 #ワイン #cheezit #organic @worldbyglass #Aligoté #Aligote #pairswithcheezits #wineinfluencer #winestagram #France #Bourgogne #burgundy #axellemacharddegramont @axellemacharddegramont @docwineshop @docwinebar @apwineimports @cheezits

 

Posted on

Making A Break

AT Roca
Esparter 2015
Parcel•la única
Brut Nature
D.O. Classic Penedès
100% Macabeu
Mètode Tradicional, zero dosage, organic, hand-harvested, sustainable, indigenous yeasts, and indigenous grapes
Vineyard: Costers de l’Ordal
Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs, Penedès, Catalunya, Spain
Winemaking Family: Agustí Torello Roca (son), Agustí Torello Sibill (father), & Lali Torello Sibill (aunt)

Pale yellow with very tiny bouncing bubbles. Crisp and bright scents of pears, apples, mellow brioche, and a smidge vanilla that delightfully grows. Sipping and here come those crunchy pears snd apples, brioche again but more, like a bite of vanilla-lemon curd cake, a dash of all spice, with a rounded lick of limestone. Delightfully creamy and would be fabulous with crispy BACON!

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: it’s ok. More fruity but I like it better on its own

AT Roca may have only been founded in 2013, but the family had an established history in Cava through Agustí Torello Mata. Branching out they made a break from D.O. Cava to D.O. Classic Penedès. Why is this special? Well, according to the official site in order to join, it’s required to be 100% organic (they are the 1st appellation in the world to require this), 100% Penedès (promoting the ancestral and indigenous varieties), and 100% Reserva (at least 15 months in the cellar). The family and team at the AT Roca project are very dedicated to the varying lands of Penedès and getting “maximum expression of the old vineyards”. They have the ability to choose the vineyards and not just be tied to an inheritance. This helps them in their delicious goal of consistently making wines that, “reflect the liquid history of its region” which is absolutely beautiful. 🥂

#wine #brutnature #sparklingwine #bubbly #atroca #esparter #classicpenedes #Macabeu # #winelover #vino #vin #organicwine #winetime #葡萄酒 #ワイン #cheezit #organic #bacon @worldbyglass #pairswithcheezits #winestagram #Penedès #Penedes #Catalunya #Spain @atroca_wines @josepastorselections @cheezits

Posted on

Say it Loud and Proud

Dyke Beer
Tallgirl Gose
Brewed with Blackberry, Lingonberry, Raspberry, Himalayan Pink Salt
4.9% ABV
Brewed & Packaged by Greenpoint Beer & Ale Co. Brooklyn, NY
Co-founded by Sarah Hallonquist and Loretta Chun (organizers of Dyke Bar Takeover founded in 2017)

Pink grapefruit cocktail pour with small white foam. Strawberries, and raspberries first greet my nose followed by a whiff of grapefruit mixed with old fashioned fruity bubblegum. Sipping raspberries, tartness of the lingonberry, edge of blackberry, salt, and a lick of a lime wedge. It’s crisp, fresh, light, perfect for summer and is brewed in honor of: “Transwomen, Femmes, Drag Queens & the all the tall queer girls in our community.”

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: surprisingly good and brings out the berries

You know the old saying when life gives you lemons? Well, we all got a pandemic and “Dyke Bar Takeovers” had to shift gears and thus “Dyke Beer” was born. Everything I’m reading about Sarah and Loretta…well they are damn cool. They celebrate LGBTQIA+ and their spaces and saw a need in the lesbian bars they loved for better beer. Not just cheap whatever on tap but a really good craft beer. It’s more than that though. As they say on their site, “People could grab a Dyke Beer to go and bring home some solidarity with them. Dyke Beer says, ‘You exist and you are important.’” For now, there’s only a saison ale and this gose (which is also their special PRIDE beer), but according to their IG there’s a new seasonal one coming in September. BTW just from picking up this beer I’ve learned there are less lesbian bars now than there were in 1980. That kind of blew my mind.

#beer #dykebeer #craftbeer #gose #sourale #LGBTQIA #pride #pairswithcheezits #worldbyglass #cheezit #GreenpointBeer #beerstagram #beerlife #beersofinstagram #wine #winestagram #instawine @worldbyglass #Brooklyn @BeerBoutiqueNYC @dykebeer

Posted on

Raised Environmentally Ethical

Matthiasson Family
Tendu 2019
Cortese
Organic, sustainable, vegan
Sourced from: Lost Slough Vineyard, Clarksburg, Yolo County, CA
Winemakers & Farmers: Steve and Jill Klein Matthiasson

Delightfully dancing pale yellow green. Sniffing musky melon, lime, tangelo, kumquat, nectarine, and salty rock. Ooh that was lovely! Sipping lime and lemon, just a super tiny bit of fresh honeycomb, light white donut peaches, and surprise! a hint of coconut, and a lick of a river rock. Everything just smoothly balances and begs for shrimp tacos and some spicy guacamole.

Pairs with Cheez-It’s: doesn’t do a lot, so I vote no.

Steve & Jill Matthiasson didn’t inherit a vineyard or any of the often told tales, but they both had a love and destiny in sustainable farming in common, oh and also UC Davis. From what I’m reading, Steve’s journey got a kickstart as a kid in Canada being sent to his cousin’s, who had a wheat farm; and later in Arizona going to a school where the kids mingled with farm animals and had their hands in gardening. Who wouldn’t grow up in love with nature and respect for the critters that inhabit it with an education like that? So now with their vineyards and also ones they source from (such as grapes for their Tendu wines), everything is all about organic, sustainability, reducing carbon footprint, and considering their feathered and furred neighbors; yet it goes further than that…they consider everything they do, grow, etc. and their impact on the environment not only just locally but globally. If only everyone could think forward like them, maybe we could start digging our way out of our climate change mess.

#wine #Tendu #winelover #vino #vin #organicwine #winelife #葡萄酒 #ワイン #cheezit #organic @worldbyglass #pairswithcheezits #winestagram #Clarksburg #Napa #California #Cortese @tenduwine @matthiasson_wine @docwineshop @docwinebar @cheezits