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Drink
As the cool autumn air begins to sweep through New England’s trees, plucking leaves from their roots, the yearly metamorphose of color reminds us of something that the animals won’t soon forget: eat well now- for winter will be here soon. With that, it’s time to re-examine everything apple, pumpkin, roasted or baked. A particularly delicious accompaniment to a hearty meal for us New Englanders is a locally produced apple cider. Hopkins Vineyard has created a unique apple cider wine that is supple and smooth, with low acid and low alcohol at 10% ABV. The “cider” is less cider and...
Bogle Vineyards is consistently one of our favorite California value wines, and their latest offering- a 2009 called “Essential Red” is our new favorite. Released in June 2012, this juicy juice has spent the last 18 months in both American and French Oak. It’s an unorthodox blend of Old Vine Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Syrah. Blends like this are a great way for producers to pair the best characteristics of these grapes together to make a great wine. Each individual grape variety may have been undrinkable on it’s own, leaving something to be desired. The solution is to...
Hopkins 2010 Vineyard Reserve is a blend of 80% Seyval Blanc and 20% Traminette grapes, which creates a dry wine with characteristics similar to Viognier. This white is quite acidic- and as a result- that acidity cuts through spicy dishes beautifully such as curry, Thai foods, Indian, and others where exotic peppers are used. I highly recommend chilling this wine before serving, which really tones down the high alcohol content and brings out the delicate stone fruit aroma. We love the creamy smooth mouth feel this wine provides and the hint of citrus on the finish. If you’re into acidic...
Down in the small community of Lyme, Connecticut lies a family farm nestled half way between the banks of the Connecticut River and Rogers Lake. What once was land for dairy cattle has been replaced by free range beef steer, a state of the art coffee roasting operation and a cozy neighborhood cafe with a view. [Above: Local carpenters Jason, Adam and Dave relax after work on the deck off the Cafe] Inside, local pastry chef and barista Carol Monnerat served us up a taste of the newest coffee called Cold Brew. This extra bold and concentrated brew is steeped...
Today we came across this amazing video showing a text message enabled espresso coffee machine created by the Seattle company Zipwhip. Their cloud data texting service is the software behind the mechanics that allow a text message sent from any smart phone to trigger a robot that serves up fresh espresso. It gets better. After the coffee is brewed, a number unique to the person sending the text is printed on the frothy espresso with edible ink, so everyone will know who rightfully owns that particular coffee. Unfortunately, this machine was created to show the capability of the cloud texting...
With Memorial Day weekend ahead of us, it’s a time to celebrate the military men and women currently serving, and to remember those who served in the past. For most Americans, this is the official start of summer and a time to fire up those grills for the first time this season. Beef, burgers, steaks, pork and other summer delights will fly off store shelves as shoppers flock to supermarkets for the long weekend. This includes the obligatory trip to the package store for beer and wine; so what’s out there that will get your holiday weekend off to a...
Block Nine’s 2011 Pinot Noir from Caiden’s Vineyards is a very light bodied Pinot, one of the lightest we’ve seen in several months. It’s so light in fact, that it could be mistaken as a rose wine, with it’s beautiful sun-kissed strawberry pink color. With strong notes of earth and that characteristic tar aroma we’ve grown to love from some Pinot Noir, this wine will go well served slightly chilled with any barbecue you can through at it! At 13.1% ABV it’s not the most potent pinot we’ve come across, yet it holds up well with spicy BBQ, pork and...
Beringer’s cheapest Chardonnay offering currently retails for a mere $8 to $10, and while we’ve found outstanding wines in the past at the $10 range, will Beringer provide the same value? The first thing we noticed about the new Founder’s Estate bottles are their beautifully designed labels. They have that letter pressed style texture on quality paper with a new black seal stamped on the center. The bottles certainly look expensive and are pleasing to the eye, but don’t be fooled. The wine seems to be a genuine attempt at a tasty value wine, but there is really just too...
Fetzer, “The earth friendly winery” in California uses 100% green energy in it’s operations, and produces tasty gems like this 2009 Gewürztraminer. Pronounced “Guh-vertz-tra-mean-er”, this grape is known for it’s wonderful cinnamon, spice and baked fruit aromas and flavors that get even more concentrated and delicious with aging. Fetzer’s juice is fermented in stainless steel without any oak aging, and has a zesty bite that tingles your tongue enough that you could almost mistake it for effervescence; however it’s just the acidity. Color is a full golden yellow and has much more color than most other whites we’ve tasted recently....
Hopkins vineyard located in New Preston, Connecticut has a wonderful white out right now, their 2010 Westwind. This semi-sweet white was tasted on Mother’s day alongside several other whites, and was the unanimous winner for best wine. The aroma has light, fresh fruit papaya notes, and is very crisp which is perfect for the warm weather. The only complaint we had is that the alcohol presence is a little too obvious, and we would enjoy it that much more if the alcohol was more subtle. Regardless, this is one of the best Connecticut wines we’ve tasted, and at $11.99 a...
