 |
ISSUE 25| October 2011 |
Welcome to the Winacea E-newsletter.
Do you have a hankering for sweets and love wine? Consider combining the two and enjoy a glass of chocolate wine. You can find chocolate wines at nearly every liquor store or wine shop now. Our recent visit to Black Mesa Winery in New Mexico inspired this topic. Black Mesa's Black Beauty wine is infused with real chocolate, and surprisingly, has quite the fan-club. Many casual wine drinkers love to pair chocolate with rich red wine (although that concept is newsletter worthy by itself), which is why these sweet, dessert-style, wines are so popular. Wine snobs consider these wines adulterated because it is a wine product (wine with the addition of chocolate cream or syrup) not a natural wine. Regardless, some wine drinkers enjoy sipping these chocolate wines to satisfy their sweet-tooth cravings and experience something different. A 2 ounce pour of a decadent, chocolate infused wine can be the perfect, fireside, after-dinner drink. This holiday season, experiment with these dessert-style wines and entertain your guests with dessert-in-a-glass. Here are a few to look for: Rosenblum NV Desiree Chocolate Dessert Wine, Cocoa di Vine , Sweet Sunset Red Chocolate, ChocoVine, Chocolate Shop , Black Mesa Black Beauty.
|
Baked Pasta paired with Morellino di Scansano
Serves 4
| INGREDIENTS: |
| | |
¾ c olive oil | | |
1 lb rigatoni or penne pasta | | |
2 cans (28 oz) crushed tomatoes | | |
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper | | |
½ c freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese |
Add dry pasta and oil to a large bowl and stir until the pasta is completely coated in oil. Let the pasta sit for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine tomatoes with the pasta, then season with salt and pepper and stir to incorporate. Pour the mixture into a 2 ½ quart baking pan and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 45-60 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Remove from oven, top with cheese and stir to combine. Serve with crusty bread and salad.
Recipe adapted from The Martha Stewart Show. |  |
Holiday Parties and More!
The official first day of Fall was September 23rd. Guess what that means. The holidays are right around the corner, and it is time to start planning for parties. Winacea can be your perfect party planner for festive wine-filled events this holiday season. Don't wait till your calendar is completely full. Book your special wine tasting party now, and relax through the holidays. Contact Winacea today, and if you book a party date before November 1st, you'll receive 25% off the party price. What a great savings!
Need a great gift idea? Buy your family, loved one, or business partner a Winacea gift certificate to use towards a Winacea wine event of their personal choice. Winacea gift certificates are creative and unique, so your gift will surely be remembered for years. If you don't feel like shopping this holiday season, celebrate life, love and friendship by hosting a Winacea wine tasting. Tell your guests that time together and sharing experiences (and wine!) is your gift to them. You can be the host-with-the-most! Happy Holidays from Winacea.
Stay Tuned!! Next month's issue will feature dried grape wines.
|
|
|
 |
 |
Winacea Events
- coming soon -
Other Recommended Colorado Wine Events
Other Recommended Wine Events
|
Wine and Cigar Pairing
This topic is a tough one, but here is a collection of simple comments.
- Drink whatever you like with whatever you like to smoke. There are no rules. Sound familiar?
- EVERY cigar smoker has a different opinion. I especially like that for every opinion against pairing cigars with sparkling wines (champagne, etc.) there is an equal and opposite resounding opinion for the pairing.
- There is a general concept for matching the wine to the body of the cigar (i.e. light bodied cigars smoke nicely with light bodied wines). Avoid having the wine over power the cigar or vice versa.
- The scientific dilemma to wine and cigar pairing is to understand that wine is acidic (low pH 3.1-3.6) and cigar smoke is highly alkaline (high pH 8.5). There really are no adjustments that can be made to balance the pairing. You certainly can't add salt to the wine to make it more basic (increasing the pH) and you can't add a squeeze of lemon juice to the cigar to make it more acidic (lower the pH). It's a lot easier when you're working with food pairings. That's why coffee with a pH around 5.5 is a more friendly cigar pairing!
- What grows together, goes together. Also a familiar food and wine pairing concept, but practiced widely by cigar aficionados. Try an Italian Toscano Originale cigar with a Primitivo wine from Puglia, Italy.
- Ask you knowledgeable cigar shop employee to help you select a cigar to go with your wine of choice.
- Over and over again, the wines selected most often by cigar smokers are bold reds like Malbec, Shiraz, and Cabernet Sauvignon blends, fortified wines like Ports and Madeiras, and wine based spirits like Cognac and Aged Spanish Brandy.
|  |
|
|  | |
Winacea will launch its inaugural membership campaign in 2011! Please stay in-touch for more information regarding the exciting Winacea expansion and exclusive membership. |  |
|
Return to Archive