A Weekend of Wine

School has been a bit stressful lately, and I haven't had much quality time with Adrian or my friends, so this weekend I made up for that a bit :-)

On Friday Adrian and I went out on a date to Spagio Cellars. I had recently been there for a birthday and wanted to take Adrian to check it out. Spagio Cellars is connected to the main restaurant, Spagio. There you can purchase wine by the bottle or glass to enjoy there or at home. They also have a menu of appetizers like cheeses, and they serve pizzas made in their wood fired oven. And there are weekly wine tastings that all sound fabulous.

The inside of Spagio Cellars

When we arrived, it was completely full, but we quickly got a table. We each decided to order a pizza and a bottle of wine. I picked out the eggplant pizza, while Adrian got the jalapeño pizza with chorizo. As for the wine, I wanted to try a drier Riesling or other German wine. Not all German wines are super sweet (thank goodness!). I knew I should at least look for Kabinett and definitely not Auslese or Eiswein. However, my knowledge is pretty limited. I picked out a bottle that wasn't yet chilled, so I gave it to our waiter. Instead of chilling it for us he recommended a different but similarly priced bottle that was already cold. He also offered to drink it after work if we tried it and didn't like it :-) No need for that, however, because it was really good. It was light, easy to drink, and had a hint of sweetness at the end. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name! I know it was from the Mosel region, and I would recognize the bottle if I saw it.

Adrian and I were enjoying our wine for a while, which then turned into a very long while. But we began to wonder why our pizza hadn't come and worried that our order was not put in properly. Given that the staff was swamped, it seemed likely that this was the case. We honestly didn't mind because we were having fun, and the wine was great. But we were starting to get pretty hungry after 45 minutes. It turns out that we were right. Our order didn't get placed. In the meantime they brought us a baguette to enjoy and told us that our pizzas would be free! Pretty awesome! When the pizzas finally did come, they were delicious. The eggplant pizza of course had eggplant, goat cheese, and was drizzled with a balsamic glaze. The jalapeño pizza was very colorful with red and yellow bell peppers, the green jalapeños, and chorizo. Adrian and I shared both, but I ended up liking his better.

Given that we were now getting a free dinner, we decided to purchase a second bottle of wine to take home with us. I am trying to learn more about French wine, which I find rather confusing at times, so we picked out 2006 Jean Reverdy et Fils Sancerre. I was happy because after I picked it out, the waiter also highly recommended it. We saved this one for later...

Saturday night also ended up being all about food and wine :-) Audrey and I had originally planned to go out to breakfast, which didn't work out, so we went out to dinner. We intended to go to Figlio, a restaurant also serving wood fired oven pizzas near Spagio. However, right next to it, we noticed that Vino Vino also looked good and decided to go there instead (we later realized that the restaurants are connected and run by the same people). At VV I decided to try one of their wine flights, which was called "Let's Get Naked." This was supposed to be 3 tastes of refreshing whites, but it ended up being almost 3 full glasses of refreshing whites :-) The first was 2007 Pascual Toso Torrontes from Argentina and was recommended for those who like Pinot Grigio, which I certainly do. This is made from the grape Torrontes, and it was my favorite by far. Next, there was 2007 Cousino-Macul Chardonnay and then 2006 Chateau les Eymeries White Bordeaux. These were both good as well.

Vino Vino

Our food was also great! I got the pistachio encrusted chicken, which was served over mashed potatoes. It had a spicy mandarin orange sauce to with it that I really enjoyed. Audrey got crab cakes that came with rice and green beans. Both dinners were delicious, and the presentation was fabulous (all with reasonable prices, yay!). We were having a pretty good time, and since the food was in normal portions, we splurged on dessert. I just got a cappuccino with biscotti, but Audrey also let me try her brownie with coffee ice cream. I definitely want to go back soon.

Later that night, Adrian and I decided to check out that Sancerre we got. We also bought some cheese to snack on, and I made up a nice cheese and cracker plate. I discovered the awesomeness that is Manchego. Eva had mentioned to me recently that she'd tried Manchego and really liked it. I did too! Here is the cheese plate I made up. I liked how it looked, although this picture is rather dark. We also had salami, gouda, and prima donna.

All in all this made for a relaxing, albeit unproductive, weekend.