Menu For Hope V

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Sonadora

In case you haven’t read it elsewhere yet, it’s time again for Menu For Hope, the annual collaboration of food and wine bloggers around the world to raise money for a charitable cause.  This year, all donations will benefit the UN World Food Program School Lunch initiative in Lethos.

Raffle tickets for Menu For Hope are $10 each, and you can choose which prize you are trying for with each ticket.  The prizes as always are fabulous, but let’s not forget the ultimate purpose, to raise money for charity.  Last year, over $90K was raised!

All the details are here and you can see the specifically wine-related prizes here. You can purchase your raffle tickets here.  As of this moment, just over $8K has been raised, and you have through Christmas Eve to purchase raffle tickets.

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Filed under: Chez Pim, Menu for Hope | 1 Comment »

Pinot Noir for Christmas Dinner

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Sonadora

While my parents were here last week, my De La Montanya club shipment arrived. In the box came an offer to repurchase any of the wines with free shipping!  I’m in charge of picking the wine for Christmas dinner, and I thought the deal too good to pass up, so we tried several of the wines to see what we liked for the dinner.  Our first pick for reorder is the 2006 De La Montanya Ridgeway Ranch Pinot Noir. It cost me $30.40 in my club shipment, clocked in at 14.2% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure.

We all agreed that the wine had an intriguing smoky quality on the nose, which I’m calling sandalwood smoke.  I also found cocoa dust, raspberry, slight mint/eucalyptus, red fruit, and cherry. The nose just emanated smoke, I loved it. In the mouth I found tart red cherries, perhaps Bing cherries, red fruit, oak, spice, earth, strawberries, spice, and slight pepper.

Overall, the fruit showed as all red and very tart. We all tasted this wine and thought it would be a real crowd pleaser for Christmas dinner. We’re having beef tenderloin, and I normally wouldn’t pick a Pinot Noir for that, but I really think that everyone will like this wine, and getting something that people will like is more important to me than pairing it exactly with the dinner.

Filed under: California, De La Montanya, Pinot Noir, Red, Wine | Comments Off on Pinot Noir for Christmas Dinner