Black Sunday Croquet - Drinks

To accompany the amazing meal cooked by Moxie, we had a couple of beverages. It is just as hard to serve a decent wine at a meal when some of the members do not drink and others only drink white and others only drink red, and others do not drink blushes. Just another eating disability as far as I am concerned.

First let me say that you can drink a white wine with red meat. In fact let me say that a good reisling goes really well as this night proved.

Bottle 1.
We started with a 2004 Vignoles from the Knapp winery in the Cayuga Lake area of New York. This is a bottle Moxie and I picked up while traveling the wineries of the region. This is a great white. I am not a big white guy, but I can appreciate it in the right season. This wine claims to be a semi-sweet but I thought it was sweet. The wine itself was a light yellow in color, maybe a little toward the greener side of the spectrum but very clear. Spinning the wine let out a bouquet of mostly apples with some berries and a little honey.

Bottle 2.
The second bottle was a 2004 riesling from Germany. The Relax Riesling from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer winery. This was another fruity wine but not nearly as sweet as the first. It also had a strong apple bouquet but with a peach undertone. This was a very refreshing wine and was very crisp. It is definitely worth the $11.99 price tag, if you can get past the ultra modern blue bottle with 80s modern typography. This bottle was polished off faster than any of the others;I was scrambling to chill more wine almost immediately after opening it. (Available at Philbrick's Fresh Market, Rt 1, Portsmouth)

Bottle 3.
Bottle three was a 2003 Framinette from the Goose Watch winery in the Finger Lakes region of New York. This wine is compared to a Gewurztraminer, and I love Gewurztraminer. This is the second bottle that we have gone through in as many weeks and believe I am now tapped out. Looks like the movers may be sending a recon mission to upstate New York, or maybe we could find a satellite member to get some more. To me this wine had a strong aroma of Pear and vanilla. The color was similar to the Vignoles but was a little clearer if at all possible. This was the driest wine of the night and it is quite good for an experimental grape developed by Cornell.

Bottle 4.
Dessert. We served the Cayuga Ridge Estate Cranberry Frost (non-vintage). A sparkling cranberry dessert wine. A delightful wine. Moxie felt that it did not go well with the Butter Pecan Ice Cream that she had made. I on the other hand was excited to see if complete opposites would go together. If the tartness of the cranberry would make the ice cream seem creamier and smoother and in return have the ice cream make the wine seam tarter. I think it was successful. After a couple of bites of ice cream the tartness of the wine was almost overpowering. The more sips you took of the wine the more smooth it became until you ate more ice cream. I enjoyed it.

Reserve.
We also had a four pack of Midas Touch on hand just in case the wine was not enough. Not quite beer not quite wine not quite mead. It is described a "Handcrafted Ancient Ale with barley, honey, white muscat grapes & saffron". It is very good.