Red Right Hand with... of course... steak!

Photograph by Melody Flammger
Steak paired with Red Right Hand wine

Photograph by Melody Flammger
Red Right Hand Bottle

See/ Swirl: This wine has a deep garnet color upon first glance.  When tipped to a 45 degree angle there is no watery edge- which is not expected as this is not a pinot noir.  I did, however, find tartaric acid crystals at the bottom of the glass.  Swirling revealed legs on the sides of the glass, meaning that the alcohol content is relatively high.
Sniff: This wine reveals notes of caramel, vanilla, black pepper, and cherry.
Sip: butterscotch followed by sour dried cherry and pepper on the finish

Photograph by Melody Flammger
Steak Cooked Rare

When paired with steak, the tannin and acid in the wine balance with the fat from the steak perfectly.  This allows the pepper flavor from the steak seasoning to stand out more.

Happy New Year!

Today as I was browsing through some of the blogs I follow, I noticed a Gizmodo headline that caught my attention here.  They're champagne flutes that exploit surface tension in a way that causes your champagne to continue to bubble until the glass is empty.  The flutes are laser etched in order to achieve the effect (one of the many ways technology is improving our wine experiences).  Better yet, the glasses aren't even that expensive.  They're about $25 for a pair.  While I haven't tried these myself, I am quite tempted to buy a pair!

Sockeye and Lager

Shadow's Wild Black Premium Blackberry Lager
Photograph by Melody Flammger

Shadow's Wild Black Premium Blackberry Lager
Photograph by Melody Flammger

I've noticed I do a lot of pairings with salmon at this point.  It's probably because it's so versatile and it's one of my favorite types of fish to work with.  It also happens to pair with a lot of different beverages.  That said, this is unique because I've paired fish with beer (something I haven't done before).  Without further ado, on to the food and beer pairing!

Beer:

• See: very garnet in color- not a common color for a lager.  There is also very little head on the beer.
• Sniff: Blackberry, cherry and hints of molasses 
• Sip: Blackberry and cherry on the forefront with and almost woody backbone
• Swallow: Clean and crisp finish with very little aftertaste.

Sockeye Salmon and Steamed Peas
Photograph by Melody Flammger

Food:


Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon with a side of steamed peas.  The salmon was flavored with seasoning salt and black pepper and then oven-baked skin side down until flaky.  The peas were microwave steamed.

Food and  Beer:

The fattiness from the salmon immediately softened the woody and bitter flavors in the beer.  Because of the more bitter flavors being softened, it allowed the blackberry flavor to shine.  Paired with the fish, the pairing was almost like eating a glazed piece of salmon rather than two separate entities.  It was an excellent combination.  I even forgot to sample the peas with it, but they were more for a vegetable than for actual tasting value.

Bagged up to go?

Bag Wine?
Photograph by Melody Flammger

I stumbled across this interesting find during my latest trip to the liquor store. It's apparently a new take on boxed wine.  The purse shape camouflages the fact that it's boxed wine (as much as it can anyway).  I really liked that they even displayed the product on a retail purse rack, which adds authenticity to the idea that it's purse-shaped box wine.

It seems like an opportune time to introduce a product like this one because the weather has been gorgeous and many beaches and parks have rules about glass containers.  A few other wineries have tried things like tetra packs and bagged wine with a spout on it- but I've never seen anything this intricate or thought out before.  While I can't say anything about the flavor or quality of the wine itself, I can say the concept caught my eye!

Why wine?

Photograph by Melody Flammger

Wine is the reason I decided to completely change my career path and veer off in another unknown direction.  Often, others will ask me or just assume what the reasons are that I might have made such a risky maneuver- particularly when I had a perfectly reasonable career path lined up for myself.  The reasons are many and varied but they essentially boil down to a few really big and amazing things about wine.

Wine as a Science

As a part of my first class in the subject taught at RIT by Lorraine Hems, I decided to make a wine for my project.  I realized the relevancy of my scientific training in Biomedical Sciences (my program of study at the time) during the wine making process.  I loved both as a scientist and somewhat of a nerd, the fact that something so wonderful could come of the process and was able to more fully appreciate the fruits of my efforts in a tangible way that could be shared with others.  My printouts of gel electrophoresis or successful production of monoclonal antibodies paled in comparison to the joy I felt opening my first bottle of self-made wine.

Wine as an Art

Wine is so much more than any one action you do with it.  Wine is about tasting, smelling, seeing, swirling, making, sharing, scoring, buying... Wine finds so many ways of expressing itself.  It transcends all of the senses and comes in limitless forms.  Wine is made from different types of grapes, barrels, yeasts, procedures.  The possibilities with wine are literally endless.

This is where the wine making process becomes more than just a laboratory procedure to be carried out.  There is more than one way to get the desired result and deviation is encouraged.  Deviation from the standard procedures finds beautiful anomalies.  Somewhere in this process, a grape becomes more than just wine but a unique collection of smells and tastes.  As many wine makers have said, there is a bit of alchemy involved in wine making.

Wine with Food

If I thought wine was amazing by itself- the right food makes it even better.  Food and wine pairing is a wonderful tasting adventure to embark on and really brought many of my wine experiences to life for me.  Instead of sitting down to a single glass of wine, the act of planning a dinner around a wine or vice versa became an experience unto itself.  My husband, Chris Flammger even enjoys planning these pairings with me.  We've recently expanded to doing food and beer pairings to incorporate his tastes as well.

Mass wine tasting

Wine tasting table
Photograph by Melody Flammger

I attended a tasting held at my local Lilac Festival.  For some reason, when I attended this tasting I thought of previous wine tasting events where there was plenty of room to move about and politely converse about the wines we were trying.  At previous events, ticket prices were higher, venues were indoors and a different crowd was present.

First of all, this event was a smaller part of a larger outdoor festival held in one of the larger city parks.  The tastings themselves occurred in a large tent and tables lined the edges of the tent with one larger one in the center.  The center winery was Casa Larga Vineyards (this made sense because they largely sponsored the event).  Upon entering the tent, my original assumptions were shattered.

For $5 at this event, you got a tasting glass and basically unlimited tastings- IF you could get to the tastings.  The problem was that many people would stand around the tables for long after they'd tried their samples instead of moving along.  This led to overcrowding and people were reaching over others just to try to get a sample.  In many areas of the tent, it was impossible to pass easily on to the next table.  The area became so crowded with people that no one could easily move.  I hadn't anticipated having so much trouble even moving around.

Wine tasting table
Photograph by Melody Flammger

Instead of taking tasting notes, my friend Kat and I focused on collecting winery brochures so we would know which wineries had attended and could refer back to their websites if we liked anything we had tried.  We tried the wines that sounded interesting or that we hadn't had before rather than doing a complete tasting at any one winery.  If we had tried to get a whole lineup in, someone would have pushed us out of the way.

This really opened my eyes to what can happen if there isn't a good crowd management system in place.  There was one security guard stationed at an exit to the tent, but no ropes for lines and no apparent organization.  We noted quickly to each other the difference between an event like this and an event for serious wine drinkers.  Unfortunately, what could have been a very nice event for serious wine appreciators it had become the ultimate drunk fest.  After all, if you can get unlimited samples with your $5 entry fee, you wanted to get your monies worth and that was done by trying as many wines as possible- sometimes even multiple times.


We managed to have a good time despite the event not being what we expected.  We ultimately decided that if we're going to go to an even where there is a massive tasting such as this one that we'd have to keep a notebook to have an idea of what we tried, or to abandon trying to gather tasting notes for each wine.  We made a mental note of some of the wines we liked but a list may even have been better.

Have you had a mass tasting experience?  What was it like?

Catfish blanc

Explorador Sauvignon Blanc
Photograph by Melody Flammger

2010 Explorador Sauvignon Blanc

See/Swirl: This wine, like most Sauvignon blancs is very light color.  This is probably due to the young age of the wine.  Swirling reveals that the wine has definite legs and these are indicative of the 13.5% alcohol content listed on the bottle.

Sniff: I get definite lemon zest, apple skins and another bitter, sour smell I can't put my finger on.  I think it's gooseberry (a classic descriptor of Sauvignon blanc).

Sip: The flavor is lemony and acidic with light fruit on the back end.  I've previously referred to this wine as being a lemonade replacement and this one lives up to the name due to its tartness and lemon notes.

Citrus Dill Catfish

Citrus Dill Catfish with Steamed Vegetables and Garlic Flatbread
Photograph by Melody Flammger

The first word out of my mouth after tasting this was "Meh."  The flavors canceled each other out. The dill was too subtle a flavor to stand against the bright flavors in the sauvignon blanc and there wasn't enough fat in the fish to balance out the acidity in the wine.  The whole thing fell flat for me.  This is a learning experience though. Pairing flavors that seem similar to each other can cause problems is pairings.  Sometimes they work out spectacularly and others they don't.  This is a learning experience.

Garlic Flatbread


I knew that the two would go together, so the whole meal was not a miss.  The acidity in the wine enhanced the garlic flavor and the fat in the cheese was enough to buffer the acidity in the wine.  Because of that acidity being brought into balance, the fruit flavors in the wine came forward and the pairing transformed.