Today on Serious Grape: One Perfect Glass of Bubbles

Today in my column Serious Grape on Serious Eats, I tackle the subject of drinking single glasses of wine.

Like many of you, I'm the only drinker in my house. If I didn't open wine unless someone was there to share it with, I'd be very thirsty. And, there is no way I'm downing a whole bottle.

I love sparkling wine, and often have a glass while I'm cooking dinner or watching the news. And I find that sparkling wines are actually some of the easiest wines to keep tasting fresh. I drink one bottle of sparkling wine over 5 days--and enjoy the last glass as much as the first.

Check out my preferred method of keeping sparkling wine fresh, find a link to the results of Rational Denial's pump vs. inert gas experiment for still wine, and get my current recommendation for a great sparkling wine that costs under $10 in most markets by clicking over to the story.

Have a great weekend--and have a glass of bubbly.

Remembering

Seven years seems like a long time ago. I'm sure it feels quite different if you lost someone you loved. (Une étoile perdue au plafond, by darkpatator)

Seven years ago we were living in London. We got up, sent my sister-in-law off to the airport bound for Newark and went to work in the library. We'd taken a lot of time off to enjoy her company, and decided to stay late until around 7:00 and catch up on some work.

We walked the few blocks home, tried to buy a paper. The man in the newstand said "no afternoon papers left, dear." No worries, I replied, the morning paper will do. He seemed puzzled. When we arrived at the flat, my sister-in-law was sitting on the front step. She hadn't been able to get to us inside the library and tell us that she had been sent home just before her afternoon flight was supposed to board. We asked her what she was doing here. Shouldn't she be in Newark?

"Do you two know ANYTHING?" she asked us. No, we replied. We'd been in the library all day.

We found out about the events of 9/11 around ten hours after the fact. We stood in horror and watched the coverage over and over. For a few days, normally reserved Londoners would hear our American accents and express their sympathy, and the older ones told stories of The Blitz. Some American exchange students across the street hung a flag outside their windows. My sister-in-law remained in London for almost another week in an eerily quiet city since no flyovers were allowed.

We went to St. Paul's for the memorial service held by the Queen and the Prime Minister. The cathedral was full of Americans who couldn't get home, many of whom had lost friends or family. It's one of the few times that the Queen was ever seen to cry in public.

Can it really be seven years ago?

If you are remembering friends and family you lost seven years ago today, I just wanted you to know that I'm remembering that day, too.

Beating the Wine Blahs

Ruts.

We all get into them.

This summer, my rut was grassy Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand. I love them. But sometimes, too much of a good thing is still too much.

So I turned to fellow blogger Sonadora from Wannabe Wino and took her picks for three summery white wines, thanks to the organizational efforts of domaine547. A while back, domaine547 started asking wine bloggers to put together sampler packs of two or three wines that they would recommend to their readers. This is the third blogger pack I've tried, and so far I've enjoyed them all. It's like having a friend you trust serve as your guest sommelier for the evening.

The first wine I tasted from the Wannabe Wino Blogger Pack certainly helped me beat the wine blahs I was experiencing. The 2006 Mauritson Sauvignon Blanc was one of the best domestic Sauvignon Blancs I've had in a long time. (around $17; purchased from domaine547 in a 3-pack of assorted wines for $55) First, let's get this straight: there was no oak. It was fresh, and yes, a bit grassy, but not assertively so like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Instead, warmer melon, Meyer lemon, and clementine aromas and flavors accompany the grassy notes, which were really more like hay than fresh cut grass. This was a nicely balanced wine that I would definitely buy again because it had such excellent QPR. And I warn you now: it is very likely to be on my annual list of wines that will go well with Thanksgiving dinner.

We had the Mauritson Sauvignon Blanc with grilled shrimp and lemon-basil pesto. I loved the way the lemon in the pesto picked up the Meyer lemon flavors and aromas in the wine, and the wine's grassy hay notes were very nice with the basil, too. Served with some crusty bread or linuine, this is a fast, after work meal that tastes like a restaurant dish but can be enjoyed at home.

Thanks to Sonadora from Wannabe Wino and domaine547 for lifting me out of my wine rut. Now on to the next two bottles of wine in that blogger pack!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #49 Announced: What Will You Be Drinking on Election Day?

What will you drink to celebrate the end of the Bush
era and the beginning of--who knows? (image from Topics from 192 Countries)

On September 17, just a few weeks before election day and a few months before the presidential inauguration takes place, wine bloggers will be telling America what they will be drinking.

That's the theme for Wine Blogging Wednesday 49, hosted by dhonig of the 2 Days per Bottle blog. dhonig lays out some pretty interesting possibilities in his announcement post: "Will it be something to honor the 43rd President, or are you just looking forward to 44? Will it be something from Texas, which Bush calls home, or Connecticut, where he was really raised? Maybe a nice French champagne, a bit of a poke in his eye? Or do you prefer Italian prosecco, since they supported the "War on Terror"? Whatever it is, get ready to lift a glass and toast the end of an era that America will never forget." And Remy from the great blog The Wine Case reminded all of us who are geographically challenged that Shiraz is a city in Iran (which is not too far from Iraq) in his comments on the announcement.

I'll be posting my pick for toasting regime change election day and inauguration day on September 17, and if you have a blog you should join in the fun. No blog? Not to worry. You can always post your ideas on the Wine Blogging Wednesday blog.

Basilicata's Pizza and Pasta Wine

There are wines meant to be mulled over, thought about, discussed, and dissected.

This is not one of those wines.

It's a wine for drinking when you don't want to mull, think, or discuss. It's a wine for having with pizza while you're watching TV or a movie on the DVD player, or for buying in multiple bottles and setting in the middle of a long, family-filled table adorned with a red check table cloth and big bowls of spaghetti.

The 2005 Alovini Terra degli Eventi is a good QPR choice if you are looking for a simple, flavorful wine to go with traditional Italian-American dishes. ($8.95, Chronicle Wine Cellar; available online from other merchants for $13.95) This is a wine that can handle tomato sauce--lots of tomato sauce--with its aromas of sour cherry and medicinal notes of clove and spice. Blended from Aglianico and Sangiovese, the wine's flavors echo the aromas and are predominantly sour cherry with high-toned blueberry accents and some hints of baking spices. While this wine will do the business for the price, it's not a highly unique or memorable wine.

Italy produces a lot of simple, quaffable reds. They're perfect for pizza and pasta. My rule is, if the wine costs more than the pizza you ordered for delivery you've done something wrong. If it costs less than the pizza, don't think about it too much. Just pop the cork, open the box or pile some strings of spaghetti on your plate, and enjoy.