For those that are counting, the trip to Chamonix was Day Trip 3, I just forgot to include that in the title.  This really is Day Trip 4 and it was the longest journey by car that we took the entire time we were in France. However, since Chateauneuf du Pape is the heart of the Southern Rhone wine region, we felt that we owed it to ourselves to make the journey there. After all, who knows when were going to get a chance to do this again?

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I have been working for a while on developing classes in exploring various varietals and styles of wine. I’ve been using my co-workers as guinea pigs to work out the kinks in these classes. The first one I offered to them back in May and it was simply an introductory class on how to taste wine. I felt that this was a good place to start simply because too many people don’t know how to go about approaching a glass of wine to break it down. It also gave all of those attending future classes a common place from which to begin our explorations.

The second class was one that I offered this past Saturday and I entitled it the World of Chardonnay. This may have been a a bit of overstating things as covering all of the different styles of Chardonnay out there in just six wines is quite ambitious. However, this was an introductory class so I felt that giving them exposure to six distinctly different styles of Chardonnay (eight if you count the oaked and unoaked versions that we make) would be enough to give them a good feel for the grape and give them a basis from which to slot our wines into the hierarchy of Chardonnay wines.

What follows below is a listing of the wines we tasted plus some of our impressions and thoughts about them.

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Another gathering of Chrysalis wine folk took place this past weekend and this time the theme was Australian and New Zealand red wine. This is hardly surprising since Don and Susan, our gracious hosts, had just returned from there after visiting their son. As a side note, their son is a travel blogger (Mark on the Map) and as of this writing is currently in India.

For those that haven’t seen this before, a Chrysalis Wine Dinner is when a portion of the Chrysalis Vineyards staff gets together and blind tastes a group of wines. It’s a pot luck dinner and a theme is chosen for the wines to be drank. The wines are then rated individually and the results tabulated to determine the winner and loser for the evening.

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We are going to finish our discussion of this wonderful evening by talking about the wine. Sparkman Cellars is owned by Chris Sparkman and you can’t talk about his wine without talking about the man himself. Like many winery owners, Chris is one of those larger than life characters, always having something to say, always looking for the fun in things around him. Chris is a strong family man with constant reminders of his family around him at all times. As Chris said during the dinner, “We put it first thing on our web site. Family. Good Livin'. Damn Fine Wine.”

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I want to start this post by commenting that the service at the Fearrington House was spectacular this evening. It is a five star restaurant and I would expect nothing less, but sometimes places don’t always live up their billing. In this case, the staff here most certainly did.

Now Colin and Charlie put their heads together and came up with a terrific menu incorporating some of the techniques that Colin was familiar with and some of the foods that Charlie prepared at his other places. All in all, it was quite an extraordinary meal.

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Two weeks ago, Ms Cocktail and I set out on a journey to visit one of my Huddle buddies, Chef Charlie Deal. Charlie owns two restaurants in North Carolina, Jujube in Chapel Hill and Dos Perros in Durham. Now Charlie and I have talked about many things at the Huddle, not the least of which is food. However, an opportunity presented itself where I could actually shake free from my regular schedule and head on down to finally meet this person.

Of course, things didn’t go quite as planned.

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Quite frankly, like most of you I’m sick of winter. So today, I thought I’d put up a nice little post that reminds me a bit of this summer. I took this photo of a male cardinal while Ms Cocktail and I were enjoying a nice glass of wine outside at Horton Winery in Orange, Virginia. I distinctly remember that it was a bubbly kind of day and we were sipping on their Sparkling Vigonier, a very unique experience. While we were enjoying our wine, this little guy kept coming around trying to get a bite to eat from us. Instead all he got was his portrait taken.

Last night’s episode was excellent for a couple of reasons. First of all, it was Restaurant Wars which is one of my favorite challenges. The chefs really have to showcase all their skills in order to make this thing fly in a 24 hour period. Not only do they have to cook, but their management skills are really put to the test. That’s one of the hidden little secrets of the restaurant world, a top flight chef is not just a great cook but an excellent manager as well.

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I should have started this when this season first started 4 weeks ago, but I didn’t quite have my act together then. Now that I do, I’ll be doing regular weekly posts about the show and I’d love for you guys and gals to chime in with your thoughts about things.

For those of you that don’t know, Top Chef is a reality cooking show which airs on Bravo TV at 10 PM Wednesday evenings. It is hosted by Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio. It is essentially a contest where each week, one or more contestants are removed from the field due to creating the least liked food of all the chefs. The final winner is given a boatload of cash (somewhere north of 100K) and a feature in Food and Wine magazine.

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Our evening of wine tasting at the Australian Embassy ended with dinner at Plume restaurant. It is located in the Jefferson Hotel about three blocks from the Embassy. It is a quiet, upscale restaurant that is noted for having the largest selection of Madeira in all of Washington, D.C.

There was a group of six of us and our evening started modestly enough with some sparkling wines at the bar. The majority of us had a nice Rosé that functioned as a nice palate cleanser after some of the heavy wines we had at the tasting event. The highlight of the evening was provided not by the food (which was exceptional) but by Meaghan, or more accurately, her purse.

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