My thoughts turn to beautiful rib roasts, fatty pan-dripped popovers, more mashed potatoes, more shallot blue cheese creamed spinach, more rich desserts and more wine glasses begging for attention!!
I am somewhat old fashioned when it comes to the Christmas dinner. Bubbles or Lillet Blanc for an app-y-tizer, as if there was a question!? I love a white Bordeaux like my go-to, the 2009 Chateau Ducasse ($16), to segue into the tang of a pomegranate-adorned, crumbled cheese speckled plate of greens lightly dressed in a vinaigrette. And then comes the meat, a wonderfully flavored rare slab of prime rib, filet roast or perhaps slow-cooked Osso Buco...pardon me as I dab the drool from the corner of my lips!
Hopefully the wine of choice here pleases all of my "only big reds, please" friends. Yup, it's time to grab the dental floss to scour the stained teeth caused by the true grit of tannins and monster alcohol percentages. My picks this year stay in Washington and both cost less than $25.
Longshadows Nine Hats ($25) is a hefty cab-based blend made by some Walla Walla heavyweight winemakers. It screams WA with espresso-drenched plums, cherries, cigar box, cedar--you know, the show-stopping attributes! The winery specializes in pairing WA grapes with world-renowned winemakers. And this blend is no sissy. It needs some major air--seriously, open it a couple hours before dinner and you'll be handsomely rewarded.
Cor Cellars is my current winery crush and, its Momentum Red ($18) is freaking awesome! The young and oh-so-talented blending skills of Luke Bradford will make you want to learn a LOT more about the Columbia Gorge region. This Bordeaux blend has the fruit of a domestic wine and the chops of the Old World style. Dark chocolate covered cherries, cassis, mineral and earth...yum, yum, YUM!
Let the season of great wine begin! You will find me ending posts in great quotes, some kid's books, some just for adults...like this one from W.C. Fields, "Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven."
~The Mama Somm
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