Friday, March 11, 2011

Let the wine flow

Last night, Oakley and I had the pleasure of attending a wine tasting that sampled four of Fresh & Easy's 27 new California wines at the very green SmogShoppe in Culver City.
How much is that bottle?
The wines range in price from $3.99 to $19.99 -- and let me tell you, the Open Field Pinot Noir is worth it!

Greenery at the Smog Shoppe - a LEED certified, converted smog shop.
Of course, we live tweeted it along with other food bloggers, wine lovers, and F&E enthusiasts.

The night began with hor d'oeuvres prepared by Chef Cynthia Perez.


And progressed onto making new friends. At first Oaks and I thought we were being avoided, but we are so glad to have met Vianessa and Rachel.

@vianessa and @theartmuse, whom we shared a table with
Before the actual tasting started, we watched a short intro video on the background of the winery.


Allen was very informative later in the night when he explained how the pinot noir acquired its exceptionally sweet taste. It's almost as sweet as a port, but without the aftertaste. By far my favorite of the evening and I am not a red drinker.


Speaking of the actual tasting ...
The first wine, the pinot gris was a bit acidic to me. Using our (practically) patented chug-ability scale it was given a 0. Not chuggable at all. NEXT!

2nd wine: Cloud Valley Chardonnay. Chug-ability: Will sip with chicken or fish dinner.

The chardonnay needed to breathe a bit. The chug-ability from freshly poured to about five minutes later changed from "This isn't sweet enough to be a chardonnay, but would be good with chicken or fish" to "this is chuggable".

Fresh and Easy Wine Tasting: 3rd wine: Open Field Pinot Noir
The pinot noir was next and I was pleasantly surprised. I am not a fan of reds at ALL, though Oakley is. We both agreed that this was a very tasty wine and worth chugging. Slowly. To enjoy the taste of course. And maybe have with that Hunk.

The final taste was a Cabernet. Vianessa and Oakley both agreed that it was their favorite and the best tasting of the evening. Needless to say, I traded my cab for her pinot noir.
4th wine: Barrel Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon. Chugability: Easy to drink, favorite wine of the evening.
We also had a favorite server of the evening
Cody of Colorado. Great personality and awesome service!

Richard - the wine expert - was kind enough to give us a quick lesson on whites

After all that, we were asked to guess the prices of the wines. Team Fabulous is obviously of the frugal sort. There is nothing wrong with the Big Kahuna and wines in that price range.

255896346
Fresh and Easy Wine Tasting: Obviously, we are cheap.
Inside the box is our guesses for what the prices for the wines were.
Whoops.

And a raffle in which Oakley won a gift certificate and a bottle of wine

After wining us, we were dined. We absolutely ADORE Chef Cyndi and what she whips up. (All recipes provided by Fresh & Easy)
DSC_0273
Goat Cheese Stuffed Artichoke Hearts - Recipe


DSC_0288
Lobster ravioli from the Gourmet line.

DSC_0280
Steak and Vegetable Skewers served by Chef Cyndi herself - Recipe
Shrimp ceviche - Recipe
Pear and Brie Crostinis - Recipe

Dessert


And of course we were sent home with a goody bag

View all the photos





Related Posts:



1 comment:

Unknown said...

I miss california so much. great post :)