THINKING & DRINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX ©2010

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.....LET'S DRINK BOXED WINE!






After a few years of wine drinking I decided to try the wine's in a box. I am partial to Australian reds. Yellow Tail wines are among my favorites to drink. So when I saw the Hardy's (who makes Yellow Tail) had wine in a box I was sold! For $17.99, sometimes on sale for $14.99 I could get a box equal to 4 bottles. That made it about half the price I was paying to purchase it in the bottle. In the bottle sometimes if you did not finish the bottle it would be wasted. With the box, drinking my small glass ordered by my doctor each night my box of wine would last me between 3 or 4 weeks. Among my favorites in the Hardy's box was Shiraz & Cabernet Sauvignon. It would stay fresh the entire month and there was no waste. I may have felt a bit silly squeezing the foil bag till the last drop was released for me to savor, but when I think of all the savings it did not matter to me. A month or so ago over at Gaynor's house I tried the Hungarian wine Pinot Evil ...this is becoming a nice change for me to switch back and forth with. If you click on the boxes of wine above they will take you to places on the web you can read about the wines.
Lisa's favorite wine in a box is Fish Eye Cabernet...she says " I am partial only to the Fish Eye box. Very decent and not as large a box as, say, the Franzia and others. I like the Shiraz/Cab blend. "

I have never yet tried Fisheye Wines but I will be sure to do so soon. I value Lisa's opinion.
Chrissy has no favorite wine in the box (YET).....we will have to work on that for her.
As soon as Gaynor gets her wine list into me I will be sure to post it here for you.
Personally I think the box wine is the way to go..I still like buying a bottle or 2 now and then for when I want to try a new wine or have the full effect of a nice evening opening a bottle and sharing it with my friends.
How about you? Do you have a favorite in the box you would like to share with us? We are always looking for new ones to try. Comment below and let us know so we can try them.
Everyone have a wonderful weekend and please be careful...do not drink in excess and then drive. Be safe.....Live to love & Love to live & don' t forget to "Live life fully & abundantly"

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I must not fail to mention...although we had 5 bottles of wine...we did not consume all 5 bottles. We behaved ourselves! There was more than half the Ice Wine left, a great amount of the homemade wine (to become salad dressing, cook with or pour down the drain ).....:( and a smaill bit of the other 2. The hostess gets to keep all leftovers since she opened her home to us.
So actually we did not consume all that much wine.

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Our 1st Gathering!

I had spent nearly 3 hours on this blog this morning and at the slip of my hand on the laptop I lost it all....so I will be back at another time to start with a fresh mind to fill you in on our findings. Right now I may say it was a wonderful gathering of close friends and learning. So I will be back.....it is now 6am and I need to sign off for a bit. There needs to be a go back button on this blog editor or if there is one I need to know where it is located!

Well it is an hour later so lets give this another try. I have come up with the idea to type a section then save the blog and go back into it for another section. That way at least if I hit something by mistake I do not loose all my work. Live and learn. This may take me a most of the day to finalize but bear with me.

Let me introduce our entourage for this study:
Chrissy, Gaynor, Jackie, Lisa & myself. At this first study hosted by Chrissy we had a turnout of 5. As I stated before 5 or 6 is a nice number. I feel if it were ever to grow to more than 10 it would be more of a social time and not a learning time. I feel 10 different bottles of wine is a bit much for 1 study. I tend to still lean with the idea that 5-6 is the perfect number. If in time we each bring 1 other close friend with a learning interest of wine into the study we could probably have the same effect. In future plannings I think it would go well if we would now and then have a larger crowd at certain times in which to be a social time for us to share with some friends some of our favorite wines we will find in the next several months. I know it sounds good to want to include everyone we know, but somehow I feel the intimacy I felt with this first one would be taken away. So perhaps my friends will agree to some extent with me that larger times will be for social occasions of our choosing and field trips to wineries and wine bars. My intentions are that we learn and enjoy one another and the wines & foods. I am glad though that I see the interest which is evident on my friends faces and joy in their voices that they wish to share...this to me is a good sign that this has been a good idea!

Chrissy was the hostess for the first study. She was excellently prepared. I had loaned her my books to prep. Chrissy did a presentation on which glass to choose, how to host a wine tasting party, wine & food pairings, keeping an open bottle of wine and which wines can survive & wine serving temperature guidelines. She had prepared a simple pumpkin soup to go with her offering of an Italian Tuscan Wine Rosso Tuscana 2008.
It was bright ruby red in color, with cherry and strawberry notes and was soft & velvety in the mouth. It had thin, soft legs. This was a very good wine and a great accompaniment to the soup.
You can find out more with link provided above.

My wine was next. I had brought a bottle of homemade wine which was given to me as a gift. There was no label on the bottle and the person who gave the wine to me had no idea of i ts makings. I had thought it possibly could be a white zin. It was pale pink in color. Fruity and dry and low in alcohol. It was not a hit at our taste! It was much like drinking watered down juice. BUT, it did have strong legs. There was no sediment in the wine. I had thought possibly this would be a bad tasting wine so I pared it with sweets....dried strawberries,cranberries,cherries, raisins and dark chocolates. Chocolate always makes things better! But to my surprise this wine did not leave a bitter, bad taste...it just left no taste or impression. This wine I think could be used to make a wonderful salad dressing or cooking with. I try to not waste.

Lisa was next. She brought a Napa Chardonnay 2007 from Robert Mondavi Wineries.
Chardonnays are grown and planted all over. They are a long, cold fermentation. Part of the juice is cold fermented in stainless steel tubs. The remainder of some is them placed in French Oak barrels. This wine can be buttery, oaky and fruity. The best cheeses t o go with this may be provolone, Gruyere and mild cheddar. 55 degrees is the correct drinking temperature. This is from the southern tip of the Napa Valley. This wine was dry to semi dry a wonderful taste on your palate. I am a red wine drinker but this Chardonnay I would drink again. Good choice Lisa! Its notes were tropical fruit, floral and spice. Lisa pared this with a wonderfully delicious pork loin roast with butter herb sauce! Yum!!! She also baked her hubby's favorite 2 layer dark chocolate cake with cool whip icing & chocolate shavings! OMG!!!! Lisa.....you can cook for me any day...or if you ever have leftovers!

Gaynor brought a wonderful ice wine. The ice grapes are pictured above. The ice wine she chose was a NY Johnston Estate....Sweet Dreams 2001 & this was a great wine. In ice wine the grapes must be thoroughly frozen on the vine. This Ice Wine was a Vidal Ice Wine with 10% alcohol. You could taste and smell the honey, apricots and peaches. Gaynor pared this wine with water crackers topped with a slice of pear and Gorgonzola. As Chrissy said it nicely...."YUM,YUM....OH GOSH...YUM!!!" Indeed this was! Gaynor you were a hit with your choice!

And finally Jackie. She brought a South Australian Merlot 2007 from Oxford Landings. This wine had nice heavy legs, peppery taste and smell along with the sweetness of cherries. Jackie pared this with herb crusted crackers, sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese. Simply delicious and greatly pared. I am partial to reds so Jackie's and Chrissy's were immediately my favorites. I already knew I loved Ice Wine but have only had it on a few occasions. I now have another brand to add to my favorites. And Lisa's Chardonnay was exquisite to me as I will now occasionally have a glass of this particular Chardonnay, but my heart belongs still to the reds!

We first set out sampling each persons wine choice and discussing it for a while. Then we cleansed our palates with water crackers. We rinsed our crystal glasses out with water after each sampling so as not to have traces of the previous wine. After we had finished sampling we then ate our wonderfully prepared items and indulged in a fantastic luncheon and glass of wine of our choice.

We discussed growing our group eventually and are making plans for the next study. We are planning on attending Greendance Winery.
This will be our field trip for the fall. Gaynor will be the hostess for the December study.

Chrissy has agreed to be the leader in place of any hostess who would like her to do so.
I will be the one who will write the blog.
Gaynor has agreed to be the photographer.
We will add duties as we see fit....women who work together will stay in touch!

SIMPLE PUMPKIN SOUP RECIPE
1/2 C onion
3T butter
2C mashed cooked pumpkin
1t salt
1T sugar
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 ground pepper
3C chicken broth
1/2 C half & half or fat free half & half
Chop the onions and brown with butter in pan. Put mashed pumpkin with onions in pan. Add salt,sugar,nutmeg and pepper. Slowly add chicken broth and heat thoroughly, but do not boil.
To serve pour into a tureen and add cream. Makes 4-6 small servings.

A Must Read

As I prepare to get ready to go to our very first "Wine Study" today I stumbled upon this article which you may also enjoy. Wine may help women keep weight in control...

How It Began

It all began in May of 2010. I had just published my
first book and was searching for ways to promote my book into the bookstores. It started with my favorite book store to visit, The Penguin Bookshop
in Sewickley, PA, the town in which my son lives and I frequent often. Upon going to visit another authors book signing I was browsing the shelves in the shop and stumbled across this book "The Wine Bible". Being a Christian the title grabbed my attention. When I took it from the shelves and opened its pages I found it was filled with so much interesting information that I just had to have it. So because of my great interest in wine which had entered into my life over the last decade I decided to purchase this book.
After my divorce as I started to socialize once again, a few of the men I dated were very educated in wines and the vineyards. I attended many wine tastings and learned a lot during this time. My drinking this luscious drink became an educational time and a pleasurable time, not a time of drunkenness. At one point in that past decade of my life my doctor advised me to drink wine (a small portion ) each night in order to build my blood and energy levels. I took his advice and I did so at least 5 nights a week and when my next rounds of blood work came in my blood was excellent for a 50 something woman and my cholesterol level was called impeccably remarkable by my primary care physician. They credited this to the wine & also my diet since I was 29 yrs old.
Getting back to the book.....I rather enjoyed this book immensely the next couple months. So when an author was to speak at the bookshop on his latest book, Wine Lovers Devotional 365 Days of Wine I decided to see what he had to say. I then purchased my copy.
So now I had 2 wonderful books to further educate myself in the makings of wine. While my long time, great friend Chrissy was visiting one day I then shared my books with her. I had been considering beginning a "Wine Bible" Study group consisting of a small group of my friends who shared a common interest...wine. Here we could learn and grow together in our knowledge of the vine. So as Chrissy was looking at the books I was hoping she would grab hold of my idea and then she brought the subject up and it was then I knew this should be. So from July till now we discussed doing so and on Monday we are having out very 1st "Wine Bible" Study.
Being Christian women for many years now the both of us know what the Word of God says about wine and drinking. So as we set out on this wonderful adventure with our close friends we do hope to remember He is Lord of our lives and we never would want to do anything to take away from that or cause one of our friends ( or ourselves) to stumble.
What God commands Christians regarding alcohol is to avoid drunkenness.

Ephesians 5:18

18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

So Lord please remind us of this as we enjoy learning of just one of your wonderful creations, the fruit that comes from the vines.