Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus

My local beer store sometimes holds drawings for the opportunity to buy rare beers. Last week, they had a drawing for the Rose de Gambrinus, a raspberry lambic from Belgium. I like sour beers and lambics, so I thought, why not?  A few days later I got an email that I'd been selected, so I went down to the store to pick it up, and I was a little astounded that it cost $15.99 for a 12 oz. bottle. Of course I went ahead and bought it. I'm used to sour beers costing more than other types, but this is a little ridiculous. I guess it's for the novelty of the thing, and how hard it is to get.

The bottle came both with a cap and a cork. The cork was a little tough to extract. I almost broke the cork while I was pulling it out, but I managed. The beer pours pink and fizzy. It looks more like strawberry soda than beer. It has a super fruity nose, like raspberries, but with a citric note too.

The taste is really tart. Super tart. But in a mouth-watering sort of way. It reminds me of the way a tart lemonade leaves you a little thirsty, so you drink more. Lambic is made by letting the cooled wort (basically, the unfermented beer) stay open in the brewery and ferment from whatever yeast or bacteria happen along. The raspberry flavor is from fruit or syrup that's added to the brew. I didn't actually detect a lot of fruitiness in the taste, but the nose is beautiful.

I'm glad I got a chance to try this. I think this is only the 2rd or 3rd time I've had a true lambic, and it was interesting to get to compare to other types of sour beers that I've tried more recently. It compares very favorably. At $16, it's a little steep to go for again very soon (and I probably wouldn't get the chance anyway, considering how I got this bottle), but it's always worth it to me to try something new. If you want to try a sour beer that's a little cheaper and easier to come by, try Duchesse de Bourgogne. If you ever see a Russian River sour beer in the bottle at the store, definitely buy one.

Campari Cocktails

Even though I haven't blogged much about cocktails, I do enjoy drinking them. I also enjoy reading about cocktails and what's in style at any given time. My tastes have evolved over the years and I've found that keeping an open mind about cocktails has helped me find new things to enjoy. For instance, I used to like apple martinis, and I ordered them pretty frequently. I've still got some apple vodka from those days. But at some point I started finding them too sweet and not at all complex, so I moved on to the dark and stormy and old fashioned, drinks I'd read about and once I finally tried them, found that I liked them quite a lot. Today I'm exploring some cocktails with a bitter component. Bitter is a flavor that people sometimes need to get used to, but there is a whole world of bitter ingredients out there once you're open to trying them.

Campari is a bitter Italian liqueur. It has a bright pink color, so it looks like it should be sweet and syrupy. It is a little syrupy, but there is a bracing bitterness that you don't expect. There are two well-known cocktails where Campari has a starring role - the Americano and the Negroni.

Americano

The American is equal portions Campari and sweet vermouth, topped up with club soda. Today I'm using San Pellegrino. Apparently in the James Bond novels, this was Bond's favorite cocktail before he became a vodka martini man. The cocktail is a very pretty color - pink at the bottom with a nice gradient to clear at the top. There's no nose at all. The first sip I had before stirring, and it just tasted like the San Pellegrino. After stirring, it's different. Bittersweet, like grapefruit juice. Bright and refreshing. It tastes rather sophisticated but it's a simple drink to make with the right ingredients. Most recipes call for a twist or a slice of orange, but I don't have one, so I'm doing without. 

Negroni

The Negroni is equal portions Campari, sweet vermouth, and gin. It should be served with an orange twist but again, I don't have one, so I'll just have to imagine what orange rind would be bringing to the party. It looks like a vodka and cranberry. It doesn't taste like one. The nose is all gin pineyness. Maybe that's because of the gin I'm using, Tanqueray, but I'm not sure. The taste is similar to the Americano, but with the evergreen notes from the gin. It's a stronger drink, and a little sweeter. 

Of the two, I prefer the Americano, and I'd drink it again. I don't really like gin, but I thought I'd give the Negroni a chance. I can see why people like it. It's a very adult sort of beverage. I like that the Americano isn't that strong. It seems like a nice drink when you don't want to get wasted, but you still want to enjoy what you're drinking. It's not like when I have a gin and tonic, which is something I order when I don't really want to drink at all, but I also don't want people constantly bothering me for not having anything. My tastes will continue to evolve, and while I don't know where they are headed, the Negroni is something I will revisit again someday, maybe with a different gin.

Red Branch Hard Lemonade

There is a very unassuming little bar in Sunnyvale called Rabbit's Food Meadery. I first went there about a year ago with some coworkers because I read the outstanding reviews on Yelp and we were curious what all the fuss was about. They offer a tasting of a few different meads, beers, and hard ciders for about $5, so we all tried that. Everything they had was good, but what really blew us away was the cider. They usually have 2 or 3 different ciders on tap and they sell 500 ml bottles. My husband has never even been to the bar, but he's hooked on the hard apple cider, which they sell at Jane's Beer Store and Savvy Cellar in downtown Mountain View.

I was at the bar last week with coworkers again, and I had the last of the peach cider on tap. I also took a few bottles to go, including the hard lemonade. Today we opened it up and if the only hard lemonade you ever had was Mike's, you are in for a treat. There is a base of apple cider, which provides fruitiness and a little sweetness. Then there's a tart lemon flavor on top of it. Red Branch cider is already one of the less sweet ciders I've had, which is something I really like about it, but this extra tartness in the lemonade is really nice.

They make these ciders with honey, and they are able to make them stronger than you might think, around 7%. The problem is, they don't taste like they have that much alcohol in them. They go down like juice, actually, so you have to be thinking about that when you drink them. Otherwise you'll get into trouble. If you live in the area, check out the meadery, taste everything they have, then buy Red Branch cider whenever you see it. This is great local stuff.

Hook & Ladder Estate Sangiovese 2010

In April we decided to do something we hadn't really done before - go wine tasting in Sonoma. Crazy, huh? We often go to wineries in the Santa Cruz mountains and the Santa Clara valley, those are basically our backyard. We've been to Paso Robles and Carmel Valley and the Santa Lucia Highlands, but aside from stopping at St. Francis, Sonoma wasn't a place we'd ever gotten around to. Preparing for a tasting trip in Sonoma is daunting. There are tens, if not hundreds, of wineries you can visit, either that are open on weekends or you can call ahead for an appointment. I asked some friends for advice, and they suggested a place in Russian River Valley. We weren't really impressed with it, but I'd seen good reviews for Hook & Ladder, which was right down the street, so we decided to go there next.

One really nice thing about Hook & Ladder is that they offer free tastings. They had several wines available, and they were happy to let us try as many of them as we wanted. That's pretty rare these days, when tastings can sometimes cost $10 or $15 and they only let you try 3 or 4 wines. The tasting room is decorated with firefighter t-shirts from around the world. We met a couple on vacation from Florida who came to this winery specifically because one of them was a firefighter.

The Hook & Ladder Sangiovese is good.  The nose is just lovely, like a new leather wallet. Also some smoke and fruit that reminded me of darkness. The taste was a little jammy at first but that softened up after a while. On the heavy bodied side for the varietal, but with a short finish. Sangiovese is an Italian varietal, so we had it with spaghetti and it was a nice pairing. Before every sip of this wine, I continued to really enjoy that nose. This is a nice table wine. I think we paid about $25 per bottle.

As for Sonoma, we went to a few places in the Russian River Valley and Dry Creek Valley, and here's a list of some we liked the most:

• Iron Horse - they specialize in sparkling wine
• Truett Hurst - we really enjoyed their wine and they have a lovely garden and creek view
• Russian River Vineyards - good pinot noir, they offered a lot of wines to taste

Lost Abbey Saint's Devotion with Brettanomyces

Sour beer is interesting. Some people absolutely hate it. I think it can be pretty good, under the right circumstances. In a nutshell, brewers take ordinary beer, and add brettanomyces or other fungal or bacterial agents to add extra funkiness to the beer. These agents are normally things that they'd want to keep out because the tastes that they can develop are considered "off" but when things go just right, they get the sourness they are looking for, which is nice for people who like that sort of thing. Russian River Brewing Co, who I've mentioned before, makes some terrific sour beers. Because of the time it takes for the beer to get soured, and the uncertainty about what exactly flavor profile they're going to get, sour beer tends to be relatively expensive. I picked up this Saint's Devotion with Brett because I hadn't had it before, and it was one of the less expensive that the beer store had, $5.99 for a 12-oz bottle.

This is a Belgian golden ale with brett to add the sour dimension. On the nose it's got a sour element going on that reminds me of lemon juice. Promising. But the taste is actually pretty moderate. This tastes like a golden ale that's just got a hint of sourness. It's refreshing. A lot of sour beers I've had, it's hard to drink more than a couple of ounces, but I didn't have any problem finishing off this whole bottle. I've never had the same beer without the brettanomyces, so I can't really compare the two just now.

I've read a few articles talking about how sour beers are trendy, but given the expense and fact that a lot of people just don't like them, I'm not sure how big they're going to get. I think they're a fun way for brewers to experiment with what flavors they can get out of their beer, and they can be a treat for sour beer fans when they happen to find one. I wouldn't expect to see most breweries having one or more available all the time. But if you do see one, definitely give it a try. It's very different from what beer usually tastes like.

Whiskey and Coke

My first cocktail post!  How exciting. Actually I don't drink cocktails that often, which is a shame when you consider the liquor collection I've acquired over the years. I guess I'm just not that interested in coming up with something I have to mix myself when opening a beer or a bottle of wine is so easy.  Still, sometimes I want something "free," as in no carbs and therefore no calories that count (at least the way I count them). Red wine is basically free too, but I don't always want to commit to a whole bottle.  So that's when it's a good time for a cocktail.

My go-to is a whiskey and Coke.  Particularly, Maker's Mark and Coke Zero. I've got other, better whiskeys which I might even use in cocktails, but not in one like this. This is a cocktail for when I just want a drink. Maker's Mark is still a pretty good bourbon. If I had something less fancy on hand, like Jack Daniel's or Wild Turkey, I might use it instead, but tonight I didn't.

If I were in a mood to pretty up my drink, I'd add a mint leaf or a lime wedge. I don't have either one of those things today. What I did have is some orange bitters, so I added a dash of that. It adds just a little something to the taste. Other fruit bitters tend to work well too. Actually, you can add these to pretty much any cocktail (no matter or basic or complicated) and add a nice background note to it.

So my whiskey and coke recipe goes something like this:

1. Fill glass with ice.
2. Pour 1.5 oz whiskey in glass.
3. Fill glass with Coke.
4. Add a dash of orange bitters.
5. Stir and enjoy.

Morgan G17 Syrah 2011

A few months ago we took a weekend trip down to Carmel with some friends to visit some wineries. Most of the places we went to were either ones that at least one of us had been to before or recommendations we got while we were there. Morgan was actually a place my hairstylist suggested. It was a little unusual in that their tasting room is in an upscale strip mall in Carmel, rather than down in tourist-quaint Carmel Valley. We were in a hurry to get drinking that day, so we showed up right at opening time and had the place to ourselves.

Most of the wineries in the Carmel area focus on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, since they grow so nicely in the nearby Santa Lucia Highlands. Morgan does too, but also a little unusually they have some syrahs from the same region. They have both high end and low end, but the G17 is on the low end, around $22. It is from Monterey, so the vines were local.

It has a deep dark color, not quite inky but a very appealing dark purple. The nose has ripe berries, nutmeg, and I can detect some canteloupe in there. When I tasted it right after it was opened, I thought the heat really overwhelmed everything else. It just went right up to the top of my mouth and stayed there. I let it open up for about an hour, and it had mellowed out a lot. Now the heat was a lot less noticeable and rather the taste lingered more in a good way. There are notes of stone fruit, still some of that melon, and baking spices.

This could be a great table wine, just remember to open it at least an hour before you plan to drink it. It's worth the wait.