Twitter Tasting: Tales of Two Bloggers

This is the first time that Sister Annette and I did our F&E twitter tasting separately. (Remember these?) Since we live nowhere close to each other, I thought it’d be more convenient to just do it at our own home. Annette didn’t have as much fun. And while I was in good company of friends who don’t tweet, it was kind of weird not hearing Annette’s Chuggability™ rating live.

In hindsight, I guess we could’ve done at Google Plus hangout. Hrrm.... [Annette: Next time!]

Anyways. Here are our comments and recaps.

Dreamstone Pink Moscato

Quick Hits:

• Annette: Very chuggable. Better than chuggable, even my non-wine liking significant other liked it. If I didn't have to try two others, or get up the next morning …
• Oakley: The only bottle that got finished that evening. And quickly too!

Chuggability™: A bottle for you, a bottle for me... (A: Two for me, one for you. This is definitely a go-to for a champagne substitute, a light dessert wine, or a sparkling summer or holiday wine).

A: I was drinking alone but wished I had some port cheese and fruit to go with it. I think it might have gone well with the citrus chicken fajitas we had the night before.

O: My party is having dinner of flavorful broasted chicken and potatoes with sides of macaroni salad and barbecue baked beans. (Broasting is essentially deep frying in pressure cooker so the chicken is crispy and moist without being greasy.) The moscato went splendidly with our summery dinner. General comments from my party were: peachy, fruity, and gimme more of that.

Ma Cherie White

Quick Hits: Oakley: Is it me or that doesn’t taste like anything?

Chuggability™: Will cook with it but won’t really enjoy sipping this.

O: Perhaps the chicken threw our palates off, but we didn’t much care for this mixed white. My friend Heather said it’s too oaky for how she likes her white. Lee, being scientific about it, tasted the wine with all the component of dinner and concluded that it was good with the barbecue baked beans. For me, I didn’t get any fruit or floral. All I tasted was a slight tang and the oak.

A: After reading everyone else's tweets about it I wasn't too inclined to try it. I think the tasting would have gone better if we had started with the Ma Cherie - you know, go from white, to pink, to red.

Doon Buggy Red

Quick Hits:

• Annette: This would be great with a steak and was good with chocolate -- which I usually reserve for port.
• Oakley: At least the label is entertaining. (See below. Thanks Annette for the pic.)

Chuggability™: Oakley's went straight to the sink. Definitely not for chugging for Annette, more for sipping.

A: I opened it at 7 as suggested by F&E to let it breathe. I think this helped a lot. @suki also suggested dark chocolate, of which I had a square or two left over from Ghirardelli Intense Dark Pairing tasting. I'm not a big red drinker, the tannins give me a headache, but I was able to get one glass down and enjoy it. I enjoyed the smell as soon as I poured it, so that was a bonus.

O: Oh, Doon Buggy. We wanted to like you. I wanted to like you. Given, we skipped the breathing part and totally forgot to use the aerator, we didn't care much for this wine at all. The first sip I had, I was taken aback by the buttery-ness. I made a face Brandon called it “Is that a spider in my wine?” face. Then I got the oak...or was that a smoke? Brandon--who already prefers juicier wines--flat out refused to take another sip. Lee then proceeded to do a dramatic reading of the label.

Sure, we had enough wine in us by that point that everything seemed funnier than it is. But seriously, who writes this stuff? [A: Someone who's already had a few glasses and wanted to keep the Napa theme going?] Like I said, that's the only thing we enjoyed about the wine.

And of course, the colorful description of Doon Buggy from Oakley's Peanut Gallery: troll blood, zombie food, dune buggy's exhaust, and grapes crushed by a dune buggy. Sorry! We really didn't like the wine!

All in all, this went from good to worst for my dinner party. We even revisited some wine after dinner just to make sure. While Ma Cherie gained a bit of favor back, Doon Buggy was a lost cause. All in all, though, it was a great night.

Thanks F&E for the tasting party. Sorry we didn’t like all the wine this time around!

[Annette: Pssst - pass the moscato!]