Cheese And Port At The Tea House Pagoda

Dan McElligot, Certified Cheese Specialist at Dole & Bailey.

Our favorite seminar at Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival 2019 was the cheese and port wine pairing conducted by Dan McElligot of Dole & Bailey, one of the major sponsors of the weekend.  First off, this guy KNOWS his cheese.  We tasted a very buttery, creamy Torta del Casar soft cheese which was matched with Graham's 10 Tawny Port.  Absolutely beautiful.  Taken together the combination leaves a smooth layer of an almost chocolate flavor on the tongue.

Second was the Highlon Blue Stilton Cheese (made in Lee, MA) and paired with Don's 2012 Late Bottled Vintage Porto.  The cheese had none of that moldy sort of taste that turns some people off of a good blue cheese.  Speckled with ribbons of red (signifying a newer cheese) and black, the pairing, again, was a sheer flavor delight.  

We'll be on the lookout for all of these products and are now inspired to have our own port and cheese tastings with family and friends.

Socials:

@thebostonfoodie
@theboysoftbf
@deano_iam
@newport_mansions
@doleandbailey

We were invited to this event as members of the media with no promise of any editorial consideration.

City Winery Opens

As many may know, the opening of City Winery has been delayed several times but we now can finally say that is officially open for business and waiting for you.  We were recently invited to the VIP Opening Party as media guests for this new West End venue and it was quite impressive in scope. 

There is a good-sized bar area which serves up plenty of, you guessed it, wine.  We enjoyed a sampling of a dry Riesling from the Finger Lakes region as we roamed the space.

The largest performance area is a room which will hold about 150 seated guests.  All music shows will be seated and not just standing room only as in many other clubs. 

There is also an area out back, behind the dining area, where, eventually, wine making classes will allow individuals to actually make and bottle their own wine.

 

Further along there is a gallery area where artists can display work as patrons wander through sipping their wine.  Nice touch for local artsy types.

My favorite spot, however, was in the area farthest back, a small, more intimate space with tables and a performance stage that had a real speakeasy/cabaret feel. 

All in all the facility is fairly large, a bit deceiving from the outside and all broken down quite nicely into these different areas.  How the food will rate we really are not sure of yet but it's quite nice having this performance space with smaller venues within the shadow of the TD Garden as an entertainment alternative.  Upcoming acts include the likes of Rufus Wainwright and Donna The Buffalo.

City Winery
80 Beverly At One Canal Street
Boston, MA  02114
Telephone:617.933.8047

Socials:
@citywinerybos
@thebostonfoodie

Make America Grape Again

It's hard to believe that May is here again!  This month is very special for us as we are celebrating our tenth anniversary of blogging.  The time flew by and we've made so many hundreds of great friends and built an audience of thousands, all organically.  We have never paid for or bought lists of followers, which seems to be part of the new game for some.  Look at any of our social media followers and you will find that they are all real people, not empty bots with no posts, profiles or followers.  We also look forward to continuing our perfect winning streak of selling out every event that we have promoted in advance and attended, a difficult record for others to beat.

As readers may know, each year we kick off May with a three month food tour of New England.  This year we will once again be visiting Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island in search of great food and food experiences.  We're adding a new twist for 2017 by putting a special focus on wine and we're calling it the Make America Grape Again tour.  We'd love to hear from all of our local wineries and restaurants featuring wine tastings and dinner events paired with wine.   

We're also eager to discover what our followers are doing whether it's a new wine find, a tasting or a new way to explore wine through classes and other education.  #MakeAmericaGrapeAgain will be the title of the hashtag you can use to join the fun.  We're on Twitter and Instagram @TheBostonFoodie.  Hopefully, there will be lots of pics of you, your friends and family enjoying a glass in the most beautiful spots all over New England - or the world.

Stay tuned and thanks, again, to all of our loyal readers and followers!  We're hoping to feature YOU on the blog before another Summer speeds by and it's Labor Day again.

Holiday Wine Selections

The holidays are upon us.  Let me be the first to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!  As we go through the next few months there will be social engagements and celebrations galore and one will certainly want to have some wine on hand to share with friends visiting or those that you visit. 

We like to keep our focus on two types of wines during the festivities:  the elegant and the fun.  We don't want to turn holidays into a wine tasting class or an in-depth lecture about wine.  We just want to relax, enjoy and share a few laughs with the people we like.

One of the selections we always try to have on hand is the Lucien Albrecht Crémant d'Alsace.  This is a sparkling wine made in the Alsace region of France.  Many would say that it is the closest thing one can get to champagne which, as most know, must actually be from the Champagne region in order to be called that. 

We are particularly fond of the Brut Rosé but both are good.  We'll save you the lecture but if you would like more information you can click here for the full story and tasting notes.  This is always an elegant choice and a nice gift for friends when visiting.

The fun wine on our list this year is the Plymouth Bay Colonial Red.  A sweeter wine and one that some pretentious wine snobs may scoff at, the wine is made locally and offers the unmistakable notes of the distinctive concord grape native to New England.  Friends you share this one with will find it fun and younger people, maybe new to wine, will love it. 

As we head closer to Christmas and New Year's we'll be sharing additional wines that may help you celebrate the season even more.  Enjoy!!

Some samples provided by Pasternak Wine Imports with no remuneration or editorial consideration provided. 

Wine Of The Week: Los Vascos Grande Reserve

As the holidays draw near we'll be featuring wines more prominently.  Wines for food, for fun, for celebrating with family and friends are always a great and welcome gift.  And it makes shopping easier, too.  When we provide a gift of wine we always attach a hand-written card explaining just a little bit about the vintage in words the recipient can use to describe the wine when sharing it with others at a later date and time. 

If one is providing a dinner party host or hostess with a bottle of wine one should follow proper etiquette and make it clear that this is a gift for him or her and not expected to be served with the dinner.  Chances are that the evening's wine will have been already selected.

So, what might that note say on the Los Vascos Grande Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2013?  Well, maybe it would say BIG!  A Chilean wine, it begins with herbal notes but certainly has a big, black cherry, oaky flavor profile with a finish that almost mimics the finish of an actual black cherry - near bitter.  It's definitely a full bodied wine. 

Such a bold wine will stand up well to pairing with all kinds of meaty dishes from braised shortrib to duck.  Enjoy!

Wine provided by Pasternak Wines without remuneration or editorial consideration.  

Wine Of The Week: Légende Bordeaux Rouge 2014

Our favorite wine this week is the Légende Bordeaux Rouge 2014.  The unusually warm autumn of 2014, after a gloomy summer, gave the vines optimal ripening conditions resulting in a great vintage year.

This is a 60% Cabernet Sauvignon 40% Merlot blend.  The dark fruit flavors are as strong as the ruby color is rich and the wine is very well balanced after 60% of the blend has aged in barrels.  The finish is slightly spicy. 

This is a great sip on it's own, as we've been enjoying it, or paired with meals and just seems right for the fall weather.  The suggested retail price is $17.99.

This wine was part of a sample provided to TBF by Pasternak Wines without any consideration for coverage or review by us. 

Wine Of The Week

In 1497 two noble Venetian families joined in marriage and began producing wine.  The family tradition continues today with this Barone Fini Valdadige Pino Grigio.  Delicate lemon and fuller fruit flavors are noted - melon, apple.  A bright acidity creates a lingering, crisp finish making it the perfect summer wine.  

As the season wanes and we enjoy those last few dinners, or just appetizers before heading out to dinner, with friends on the patio we've been enjoying this wine and it's been very popular so we thought we'd share it with you.  It's great with pasta, seafood and chicken but really it pairs well with everything including dishes with bolder flavors.  We also brought a bottle to a recent Buon Ferragosto dinner.  A hit!  Maybe because it's Italian.

Sip slowly and enjoy the last few weeks of summer!