Dreaming of Seafood

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from the PR firm for the brand.

I ate a lot of seafood this summer. Between Portugal and Maine my late July and early August were all about seafood. So I had seafood on the brain when I plucked the 2012 The Clambake Chardonnay from my sample roulette. Perhaps it was the lobster on the label that drew me to the bottle. I don’t know what it retails for, as I can’t find anywhere to buy it online…but I’m guessing maybe $14 or so?

Four takeaways from this wine:

 

1.) I often tend to reach for a slightly oaky Chardonnay to go with my shellfish and lobstah. This wine showed none of that, but was a great foil for the rich lobster meat and butter.

2.) Since I think it retails at a fairly reasonable price, this would actually be a great clambake wine for a crowd.

3.) Here in the DC area, we actually tend to do crabfests around this time of year and it would work really well for that as well.

4.) Fresh and fruity, this is a fun summer wine.

On the nose I got melon, lime, apple, and lemon. Overall it displayed a bright fruit nose. On the palate I found apple, yellow apple, lemon rind, and tropical notes. The wine had good acidity and bit into butter quite well.

 

 

Advertisement

Filed under: California, Chardonnay, White, Wine | 2 Comments »

Mangia! Mangia!

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Sonadora

Lucky me. Rodney Strong Vineyards reached out to me several months ago to contemplate hosting a wine dinner at my house to celebrate the Silver Anniversary of the Klein family owning the brand. The proposal included wine, cookbooks, food, and creating a 5 course dinner to be served simultaneously with dinners happening across the country at famous restaurants and other blogger houses.

Heck yes, I’m in! And you should be too. The dinner will go live at 8 pm et this Saturday, September 20. We’ll be tweeting and all other things social-media-ing using the hashtag #RSV25. Personally, I will be hosting dinner for 10 (mind you, at the house we just moved into less than a month ago….) and have created my own menu to go along with the wines.

The wines to be served, in order, are:

2013 Rodney Strong Estate Vineyards, Charlotte’s Home Sauvignon Blanc – 1st Course

2012 Rodney Strong Estate Vineyards, Chalk Hill Chardonnay – 2nd Course

2012 Rodney Strong Estate Vineyards, Russian River Valley Pinot Noir – 3rd Course

2011 Rodney Strong Symmetry (Red Meritage), Alexander Valley – Main Course

2010 Rodney Strong Brothers Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley – Main Course

2008 Rodney Strong “A True Gentleman’s” Port – Dessert

My menu plans:

2013 Rodney Strong Estate Vineyards, Charlotte’s Home Sauvignon Blanc – 1st Course

Goat cheese and watermelon spinach salad with citrus dressing

2012 Rodney Strong Estate Vineyards, Chalk Hill Chardonnay – 2nd Course

Potato Soup with sour cream, bacon, and crusty bread

2012 Rodney Strong Estate Vineyards, Russian River Valley Pinot Noir – 3rd Course

Asparagus and pancetta fettuccine

2011 Rodney Strong Symmetry (Red Meritage), Alexander Valley – Main Course

2010 Rodney Strong Brothers Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley – Main Course

Roasted rack of lamb with fresh herb breading over kale gratin

2008 Rodney Strong “A True Gentleman’s” Port – Dessert

Chocolate mousse with fresh whip cream

I’m a little nervous for the soup and pasta courses as those are new recipes for me, but I’m a decently confident cook, so hopefully it will all work out! Make sure to tune in at 8 to see what everyone else came up with for their menus and to follow the live feed from across the country!

Filed under: California, Rodney Strong | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

Knock knock. I’m home.

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Sonadora

Hello Wannabe Wino Readers-

 

Radio silence has reigned here at Wannabe Wino for the last 2 months. If you like to have spare time in your life to do things like taste wine and write a blog, I don’t recommend, in the course of 2 months, selling a house, moving twice, traveling to CA, CT, Portugal, Spain, and ME, speaking at 2 conferences, buying and closing on a new house, and moving into it. Not to mention, all my wine had to be put into wine storage while we were between houses!

We are moved into our new place, I have the wine back, and I’m kicking September off with a bang by hosting a wine dinner in less than 2 weeks to celebrate Rodney Strong’s 25th Anniversary! Here’s hoping I can pull off a 5 course dinner for 10! Watch here for stories on that, some tales from my trip to Spain and Portugal, and perhaps a very late recap of the 2014 Wine Blogger Conference. And your regular dose of wine reviews.

Thanks for hanging in there and I’ll have the blog back up and running now.

Cheers!

Sonadora

Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Knock knock. I’m home.