Between the Vines: One woman's wine-soaked musings

Chicken and chorizo with a Tempranillo-Cabernet Sauvignon blend from Spain

By Kathleen Rake

On November 17 I saw this great post by the BC Chicken Squad on Twitter: Chicken and chorizo sausage, with potatoes on one pan. The recipe came from Jo Cooks and I modified it to suit our tastes and on-hand ingredients.

While I had originally intended to bake/roast this in my Big Green Egg, circumstances dictated that I use my old-fashioned electric oven.

The first modification to the recipe was using just six chicken legs instead of eight. Then I added about one-third of a green bell pepper, sliced into thin strips, and a handful of grape tomatoes. I tossed the chicken in House of Q Peppered Bovine seasoning (I tasted it while working with BBQ Master Brian Misko on stage at the West Coast Christmas Show) and used regular Hawaiian pink sea salt for the rest. The chorizo was an award-winner from our local butcher shop, Dressed to Grill and instead of the zest from two oranges, I added zest from two Mandarin oranges, because that's all I had.

I paired the works with a Spanish wine: 2015 Mont-Blanc 362 - Catalunya DO, a blend of Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine clocked in at 13.5% ABV but did not increase the heat of either the Peppered Bovine spice or chorizo sausage.

Hooray!

Wine Tasting Notes:

On the nose

Black berries (as opposed to blackberries), plum, and a little bit o' pencil shavings (anyone remember those?)

The palate

 Black and red fruit, light tannins, short finish, easy to quaff.

À Votre Santé!

Copyright © 2016 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Wines under $10?

I ran into a friend earlier today and he asked if I had ever reviewed any wines under the $10 mark.

Well, sure I have.

In fact, in 2013 I dedicated three of my Abbotsford News wine columns to just such wines. Here they are again. Keep in mind the vintages and pricing will have changed, but they are still wines with good QPR (quality-price ratio), in my opinion.

Click on an image below for the corresponding article ... and cheers!

Spain

Italy

Spain, again

À Votre Santé!

Copyright © 2015 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Fino sherry and bread-and-butter pickles, caviar, potato chips

In July's My City wine column in the Abbotsford News (page 42), I pair a bread-and-butter pickle recipe from Lepp Farm Market (as well as other goodies) with Tio Pepe Fino Sherry from Spain.

"Serve it well chilled or over ice. Some may need to acquire a taste for this wine, but it’s worth a try."

Read the piece here or click on the image to your right. 

Have you ever tried sherry? Real sherry? Why not give it a go ... then tell me what you think.

À Votre Santé!

Copyright © 2014 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Christmas Eve at our house: Prime rib roast, family, friends and more red wine please

Red meat. Lots of it. Family and friends. Lots of them.

Oh, and the red wine. Let if flow, please.

That's Christmas Eve at our house.

Behold the 3.776 kg (roughly 8.325 lbs) Lepp Farm Market prime rib roast we'll serve tonight. Sides will include roasted asparagus, braised red cabbage, grilled Roma tomatoes topped with Parmesan cheese and fresh basil, half-as-bad garlic smashed potatoes, and a rosemary-shallot red-wine sauce.

Wines will represent the old and new worlds: 2008 Twisted Tree Six Vines and 2009 Mission Hill Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (B.C.), 2007 Château de Beaucastel (France), and 2010 Castillo de Monséran (Spain).

Merry Christmas!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Wednesday's wine word: Champagne

At the last round of writing and social media workshops I delivered to Community Futures South Fraser in Abbotsford, I was inspired to do two things by the clients who attended.

Here is one of them: A new wine word every Wednesday.

I'm not sure if we'll continue with the title, "Wednesday's wine word," or if we'll use some other configuration of the three Ws—Wednesday, wine, word. Time, as they say, will tell. Or, maybe, you will tell because you have a better idea for the regular wine-word-explanation feature on Wednesdays. Please share if you do.

Champagne

While Champagne is a sparkling wine, not all wine that sparkles is actually Champagne. Make sense? I didn't think so.

In order for a sparkling wine to be called Champagne, it must come from the area in France also called Champagne. And, it must be made in the traditional method from any combination of these three grapes: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. If the wine is made from Chardonnay exclusively, then it is called a Blanc de Blancs; if it is made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, or a combination of the two, it is called a Blanc de Noirs. And, yes, you can have a rosé Champagne.

There are different levels of sweetness, from bone-dry to very sweet:

• Brut (very dry)
• Extra dry (just off-dry)
• Sec (medium dry)
• Doux (sweet, dessert-style sparkler)

Champagne is a delicious, albeit costly, wine that is perfect for celebrations. However, since we like to celebrate often at our house, we usually count on a much more wallet-friendly sparkling wine made in the traditional method: Cava from Spain. 

I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone.  When I have company I consider it obligatory.  I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and I drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty.

~Madame Lily Bollinger on Champagne

Cheers to you!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Value wine from Spain with Christmas dinner

Click here to read my wine column, Fine Fare & Wine to Pair, published Dec. 9 in My City, a monthly lifestyle magazine in the Abbotsford News.

Salut!

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved. 

 

 

Kathleen Rake's wine column in the May edition of My City, a monthly lifestyle magazine from the Abbotsford News

 
Click here to download my May, 2010 wine column featuring a short wine chat with Brittany Manulak, principal at Concept Plumbing & Gas in Abbotsford and Chilliwack.

I'm still polishing the tasting notes for the wines in the column (right now they're in my own form of shorthand that includes odd symbols and things) and will have them uploaded to Palate Press soon.

Salut!

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival theme for 2011 announced

According to Tim Pawsey, Vancouver food-and-wine columnist and editor and tweeter known as @HiredBelley, the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival theme for 2011 will be Spain, with the global focus on fortified wines.

Olé, baby!

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved. 

Garnacha with spicy Thai-style chicken wings and mango salad at the Forest House

We're back at the Forest House after a day out and about Waimea and Kamuela.

We had a huge and delicious lunch at Huli Sue's, then we headed to Kamuela Liquor Store where we picked up various bottles of wine, including three Garnacha, two from Spain and one from—wait—Italy (Sardinia, actually), where it's called Cannonau.

I've tasted one of the Spanish Garnacha, the 2008 Viña Borgia (Campo de Borja, DO). You can see it in the video below. This fruity wine will go well with the spicy Thai-style chicken wings and mango salad I'm making for dinner tonight. It's price ($6.99), especially for those of us hailing from B.C, makes it that much yummier.

Before you click to watch, I want to apologize to the fine folks of Waimea: I pronounced it Waime-o in the video. Oops.

Salut!

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.  

Kathleen Rake's January wine column in the Abbotsford News

 

Click here to download my January, 2010 wine column featuring a short interview with Abbotsford wine-web expert Andrew Kamphuis, owner and lead developer at Vin 65.

Salut!

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.