Good Tastes

Hey all,

Busy week, great weekend so far.  Cooked a big steak dinner for two last night with some garlic and bacon mashed potatoes and mushroom/red wine sauce.  I did up the steak with a mix of spices, Calvados and fire, then added the juices to the mushroom sauce, it was pretty great.

If you haven't heard of Calvados, do some reading on it! Here and here.  Also Natalie MacLean (wine writer and author of Red, White and Drunk All Over) has this gorgeous-looking recipe posted on her site.  It's one of my most recent favourites, and goes down really smooth.

Be careful with all eaux-de-vie.  Be very, very careful.  It's deceitful stuff.  If done well, it doesn't have "fire from the throat to the guts" that you occasionally get from whiskeys (Irish), whiskys (Scotch) or some bourbons ('merican).  It's a clear fruit spirit, not a grain spirit, so it retains the aroma of whatever fruit has been the base of the distillation.  If aged in oak (like the Calvados), it goes down softly, all smoky and full of caramel and butterscotch tones, the fruity aromas from pears/apples/plums following closely, skipping while strumming pretty tunes.  I have had non-oaked eaux-de-vie; my teeth were instantly more flammable.

The hangover from too much eaux-de-vie will hit you like a shovel to the face.  Irish whiskeys hit you like a Chevy to the stomach instead.  Too much Scotch makes you feel like you've been buried alive, covered in peat, somewhere in the Highlands.  Following too much bourbon, it feels like a Texas chainsaw is working its way through the back of your head.  I love distillation.  It's wonderful.  But these creatures will bite you hard if you're careless.  Be neat about it (I don't like my spirits with ice, but I suppose this is just a personal preference).

Also I did some tasting at Ravine Vineyards today, we had some lovely offerings from 2007 and 2008 (especially loved the 2007 Reserve Merlot--what a gem).  We also got some sneak peaks at several wines soon to be released!

That's my little update for today.

Cheers!  (Be careful with the Calvados.)

Melissa