Monteluce Vineyards

A couple of week-ends ago, I had the privilege of attending the unveiling of Monteluce Vineyards new vintage. Monteluce is a planned vineyard community in northern Georgia, equipped with rolling vineyard hills, Tuscan inspired homes, gourmet restaurant with wine bar, and a Wine University that provides wine classes every Saturday. I had a simple lunch of macaroni with cheese (5 delectable cheeses) and pomme frites....I know...I was having a carb moment. Four new white wines were available for tasting. I paired my meal with their newly bottled Viognier. This viognier was really good. Solid fruit and acidity paired pretty nicely with my meal. The picture you're seeing in the box is my view from the restaurant. It's breathtakingly beautiful here! I could go on and on but I'm going to let their web site speak for them.

http://www.montaluce.com/tuscanstyle.php

Enjoy

Steak and Bordeaux

There are hardly any words for this near perfect combination.....grilled steak and Bordeaux red wine. The question for dinner last night was, "should we go out?", "should we eat in?", "if we eat in, what should we eat?" This question lingered until about 10:00 pm. You read right...10:00 pm. That's when the decision was made to have Rib Eye steaks. My husband, who is a whiz at whipping together a dinner on the fly, grilled those baby's to perfection. I, of course, knew what to do while they are cooking.....pick the wine! There was no question that we needed a wine that had a little backbone, meaning it needed to be red and tannic. Now the question then was should we have a Syrah, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Bordeaux, or a red Zinfandel. The single varietals (Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel) would have been fine, but I didn't want full fruit power with my steak. Instead I wanted something understated in power and that meant, going with a simple classic Bordeaux. This particular Bordeaux was a blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon. The Merlot brings to the wine understated berry flavor and body in the form of alcohol, the Cabernet Sauvignon brings to the wine a subtle, woodsy deep berry flavor and tannin. You know, part of what makes a Bordeaux wine so good is the wine makers or negociants choice of blending proportions of their native grape varieties. Lucky for us!

Les Caves Joseph Bordeaux - Trader Joe's - $7.99