Welcome to YourWineGirl. Wine.Simply.Answered! Texas Half Marathon? My name is Melanie, and I am, you guessed it, YourWineGirl! :) I am certified by the International Sommelier Guild in Wine Fundamentals, and pursuing more certifications as we speak! (or type) :) I have a passion for wine and love sharing my passion with others. If you've ever had a curiosity about wine, even to holding a wine tasting at home, then you've come to the right girl!
Each week I will post a new wine tasting where you can ask questions or leave comments, and each week I will post a new wine list of wines I recommend, and being the reasonable sensable girl that I am, are all $15 and below. :)
**COMING SOON: Thinking about having a wine tasting at your home? What about a wine tasting with the girls? Let me know! I will come and host a wine tasting at your home, with wines that will surely be appreciated by all your guests! Lists and Pricing soon to follow!*****
I hope you find my blog helpful and insightful, and if you still have questions, you can always shoot me an email, if you are interested in wine lesson or wine tastings locally in Texas please send me an email!
Welcome to YourWineGirl. Wine.Simply.Answered! Red Texas Wine. My name is Melanie, and I am, you guessed it, YourWineGirl! :) I am certified by the International Sommelier Guild in Wine Fundamentals, and pursuing more certifications as we speak! (or type) :) I have a passion for wine and love sharing my passion with others. If you've ever had a curiosity about wine, even to holding a wine tasting at home, then you've come to the right girl!
Each week I will post a new wine tasting where you can ask questions or leave comments, and each week I will post a new wine list of wines I recommend, and being the reasonable sensable girl that I am, are all $15 and below. :)
**COMING SOON: Thinking about having a wine tasting at your home? What about a wine tasting with the girls? Let me know! I will come and host a wine tasting at your home, with wines that will surely be appreciated by all your guests! Lists and Pricing soon to follow!*****
I hope you find my blog helpful and insightful, and if you still have questions, you can always shoot me an email, if you are interested in wine lesson or wine tastings locally in Texas please send me an email!
Welcome to YourWineGirl. Wine.Simply.Answered! My name is Melanie, and I am, you guessed it, YourWineGirl! :) I am certified by the International Sommelier Guild in Wine Fundamentals, and pursuing more certifications as we speak! (or type) :) I have a passion for wine and love sharing my passion with others. If you've ever had a curiosity about wine, even to holding a wine tasting at home, then you've come to the right girl!
Each week I will post a new wine tasting where you can ask questions or leave comments, and each week I will post a new wine list of wines I recommend, and being the reasonable sensable girl that I am, are all $15 and below. :)
**COMING SOON: Thinking about having a wine tasting at your home? What about a wine tasting with the girls? Let me know! I will come and host a wine tasting at your home, with wines that will surely be appreciated by all your guests! Lists and Pricing soon to follow!*****
I hope you find my blog helpful and insightful, and if you still have questions, you can always shoot me an email, if you are interested in wine lesson or wine tastings locally in Texas please send me an email!
Welcome to YourWineGirl. Wine.Simply.Answered! My name is Melanie, and I am, you guessed it, YourWineGirl! :) I am certified by the International Sommelier Guild in Wine Fundamentals, and pursuing more certifications as we speak! (or type) :) I have a passion for wine and love sharing my passion with others. If you've ever had a curiosity about wine, even to holding a wine tasting at home, then you've come to the right girl!
Each week I will post a new wine tasting from Texas where you can ask questions or leave comments, and each week I will post a new wine list of wines I recommend, and being the reasonable sensable girl that I am, are all $15 and below. :)
**COMING SOON: Thinking about having a wine tasting at your home? What about a wine tasting with the girls? Let me know! I will come and host a wine tasting at your home, with wines that will surely be appreciated by all your guests! Lists and Pricing soon to follow!*****
I hope you find my blog helpful and insightful, and if you still have questions, you can always shoot me an email, if you are interested in wine lesson or wine tastings locally in Texas please send me an email!
Welcome to YourWineGirl. Wine.Simply.Answered! My name is Melanie, and I am, you guessed it, YourWineGirl! :) I am certified by the International Sommelier Guild in Wine Fundamentals, and pursuing more certifications as we speak! (or type) :) I have a passion for wine and love sharing my passion with others. If you've ever had a curiosity about wine, even to holding a wine tasting at home, then you've come to the right girl!
Each week I will post a new wine tasting where you can ask questions or leave comments, and each week I will post a new wine list of wines I recommend, and being the reasonable sensable girl that I am, are all $15 and below. :)
**COMING SOON: Thinking about having a wine tasting at your home? What about a wine tasting with the girls? Let me know! I will come and host a wine tasting at your home, with wines that will surely be appreciated by all your guests! Lists and Pricing soon to follow!*****
I hope you find my blog helpful and insightful, and if you still have questions, you can always shoot me an email, if you are interested in wine lesson or wine tastings locally in Texas please send me an email!
Welcome to YourWineGirl. Wine.Simply.Answered! My name is Melanie, and I am, you guessed it, YourWineGirl! :) I am certified by the International Sommelier Guild in Wine Fundamentals, and pursuing more certifications as we speak! (or type) :) I have a passion for wine and love sharing my passion with others. If you've ever had a curiosity about wine, even to holding a wine tasting at home, then you've come to the right girl!
Each week I will post a new wine tasting where you can ask questions or leave comments, and each week I will post a new wine list of wines I recommend, and being the reasonable sensable girl that I am, are all $15 and below. :)
**COMING SOON: Thinking about having a wine tasting at your home? What about a wine tasting with the girls? Let me know! I will come and host a wine tasting at your home, with wines that will surely be appreciated by all your guests! Lists and Pricing soon to follow!*****
I hope you find my blog helpful and insightful, and if you still have questions, you can always shoot me an email, if you are interested in wine lesson or wine tastings locally in Texas please send me an email!
Welcome to YourWineGirl. Wine.Simply.Answered! My name is Melanie, and I am, you guessed it, YourWineGirl! :) I am certified by the International Sommelier Guild in Wine Fundamentals, and pursuing more certifications as we speak! (or type) :) I have a passion for wine and love sharing my passion with others. If you've ever had a curiosity about wine, even to holding a wine tasting at home, then you've come to the right girl!
Each week I will post a new wine tasting where you can ask questions or leave comments, and each week I will post a new wine list of wines I recommend, and being the reasonable sensable girl that I am, are all $15 and below. :)
**COMING SOON: Thinking about having a wine tasting at your home? What about a wine tasting with the girls? Let me know! I will come and host a wine tasting at your home, with wines that will surely be appreciated by all your guests! Lists and Pricing soon to follow!*****
I hope you find my blog helpful and insightful, and if you still have questions, you can always shoot me an email, if you are interested in wine lesson or wine tastings locally in Texas please send me an email!
So I have been wanting to try this wine for a very long time. Everyone talks about it, everyone wants it (hello, look at the catchy label!!), and well, I finally caved on my birthday, (yep, in case you missed it, I turned the big 3-0!) got a bottle, and had it with some awesome authentic Chinese food at Monkey King Noodle Company in Deep Ellum (awesome hand made noodles!! YUM!) with the hubs. So totally worth every bite, and probably the best meal and wine pairing I've had in a long time!
Butter Chardonnay is from JaM cellars, a winery business started by John and Michele Truchard (get it?! JaM!) that has produced some amazing wines, which some of you are probably familiar with. Their very first wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon, looks like this:
Another catchy label right? Well, I have not tried JaM Cabernet yet, so no offense, but this Butter is freaking awesome! Yeah, I said it.
Beautifully golden in color, the aromas you get right off the nose are lovely! Creamy butter and yeast(okay, so when I say yeast, since a lot of you are probably like eww, I mean the smell of bread dough about to be put in the oven, where that smell of yeast is so prominent. I swear, smell that dough the next time you're about to bake it. I mean, yeast is one of the basics you need to make wine, so smelling it in white wine especially is not that uncommon), you can smell in the first swirl of the wine, then it opens up with vanilla and toast(Remember, these two descriptors are our big hint in the wine world to tell us that this juice has been aged in oak barrels. Oak aging will almost always give you that toastiness and vanilla aroma), and a little bit of pineapple! I know, it sounds ridiculously awesome right? Heck yea!
But the best part is taking that first swig of this lovely white!
It slides down like pure creaminess. The perfect amount of creamy butter and vanilla and that tiny bit of toast and lemon all come together like a great lemon sandwich cookie(just not quite as sweet)!
I know, I just made your mouth water. So what's stopping you from buying this awesome bright yellow goodness? Don't know what to have it with? Problem solved.
Have a glass with some real Chinese food. No, not that instant ramen, but authentic Asian goodness. I had this for the first time with Monkey King's DanDan Noodles (ground pork and fresh noodle soup), as they were out of the hot spicy beef noodle soup, and it was the best decision ever! The perfect amount of spiciness, the ease of the ground pork (pork is just about always good with Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. It's a win-win!), and the chicken broth just complemented the wine so well, I cleaned my entire bowl, and finished two glasses! Yep, simply a delicious birthday dinner.
So what are you waiting for? The Texas weather to get better? That might be a while. So go grab a bottle and some noodles!
Perfect to Pair With: Chinese noodle soup, pork dumplings, chicken alfredo, shrimp scampi, salads, or by itself on a nice patio!
Average Price: $16.99 -(a little high, but totally worth it!) - Available at Whole Foods, Market Street, Central Market, Total Wine, and some Safeway locations!
Hello my wine lovers!! It's been a hop skip and a jump since our last encounter, but I have a new wine to share with you all! :)
As you can tell from the video and title of this post, I found out that Kroger (yes, the grocery store that keeps expanding their stores... Yep, they have everything now in their stores! I actually bought an awesome dress at one location, and they have shoes too!!) now has their own wine, besides everything else!
Okay, honestly, my first thought, Kroger is trying to measure up to Costco and their Kirkland brand wines. However, after trying this discovery, I do not think Costco will have a problem with Kroger.
Simple Truth Organic California Red Wine
Okay, so just warning you guys up front, this might be the first wine tasting review that I am about to share where I honestly did not really care for the wine. Stating that, let us move on to the wine and explain why.
I bought this on a whim when I explored my favorite Kroger location in Mansfield, TX. (I am a Tom Thumb girl, but just can't help this store! It's awesome!) I saw this wine, and was blown away at the price (hello super super Inexpensive!) and the temptation of trying an organic wine from the brand that already makes so many great products (haven't had a bad simple truth organic product before). Because I am yourwinegirl, I had to jump at the chance and give you guys a review.
This red wine is a light and very fruit forward. Lovely red cherry color, you can smell the blackberries as soon as you pour the wine. You can taste the lightness of the wine as you take a sip (because there are no added sulfites... yes, majority of wines add a little more sulfites to the wine as a preservative so the wine does not spoil, and to give it a little more flavor...this wine tastes very fresh and light), and then a raspberry jam takes over your tongue.
Here is where I got a little disappointed. The raspberry jam just ends. No lingering finish. Nothing more than a quick hit in the mouth of raspberry jam, and then nothing. There is no substance.
However, after letting the wine sit for about twenty minutes, it did open up a little bit more, and had a little bit of a finish, but not much.
Honestly, after the jamminess left my tongue, I did not like it.
The next day (after we used our wine saver and sucked the oxygen out to help keep it fresh... yes, I actually have these things. They work well, but honestly, if you're going to finish the wine the next day, there's not really a need for it. But hey, whatever floats your boat!), the wine really was not good. It was done.
Here is a quick wine lesson on why the wine did not last the night. Sulfites are a natural product of making wine. They help prevent oxidation in the wine (wine + oxygen = bad), prevent further fermentation, and act as a natural preservative for shelf life of the wine. As stated earlier, majority of your wines add sulfites on top of the naturally occurring sulfites in order to help preserve the wine and add a little more flavor, and sometimes to even preserve that red color of red wines.
Many people (I hear this on a daily basis), think that sulfites are the reason for their headaches/allergies with wine.. especially red wine, and I am here to tell you that you are pretty much wrong.
Now I must state that there is a very small percentage of the population that is allergic to sulfites, and they usually have asthma. Since no one wants an asthma attack, by law (at least in the U.S.), vineyards have to report "Contains Sulfites" when they add sulfites to the wine, on the bottle.
Here is the kicker: Organic wines and wine before adding sulfites contain anywhere from 10-40PPM (parts per million) of sulfites. When sulfites are added, it jumps up to about 50PPM, which really can not do much damage, as compared to some foods, like prepackaged foods and dried fruits, that can contain up to 1,000PPM or more (which honestly, who wants that much preservative??); AND Red Wine has LESS sulfites than White Wine!
That is right. For all those out there that think red wine has more sulfites and that is why you get headaches and are allergic, here is your eye opening fact: White wine has more sulfites added to them because they have less color. Red wine has naturally more occurring sulfites in them due to the hardier, tougher, black colored grape skin, which gives the wine it's color and natural sulfite derivative, which the white grape does not have.
Sweet white wine, hello my Moscato drinkers, has even more sulfites so a secondary fermentation does not happen from the excess sugar in the wine.
Because this simple truth wine is 100% certified organic and "contains no detectable sulfites," (No added sulfites. Remember that's really what it means.) this is why the wine more than likely tasted fresh, but went bad quickly and did not taste good in the long run for me.
All in all, if you want an easy, basically cheap wine for the night, this wine will do the trick!
Perfect to Pair with: Spaghetti Squash, light chicken dishes, salad.
Happy St. Patrick's Day my wine lovers! Now I know that this is a big beer holiday, but hey, why don't we change it up, and make it a wine holiday! :)
Now how do we make this grand Irish tradition a wine holiday you ask?
Well, how about with a glass of GREEN WINE?! That's right! Someone finally came up with green wine, and that someone might just be me! :)
So how did I do this you ask? Well, it is quite simple... and quite fun!
Step 1:Pick out your favorite bottle of Pinot Grigio.
Why Pinot Grigio? Good question! Well, if you look at your selection, majority of your Pinot Grigio bottles are green, or have some green to them somewhere on the label. Hence, a reason why I picked the Kirkland Pinot Grigio.
The other reason for picking a Pinot Grigio is that they are light, easy, refreshing, and inexpensive (Kirkland Pinot Grigio is on sale at Costco for $5.99! You can find a bottle of decent Pinot Grigio around $8 at any wine retail location!). Personally, for me, I have always assumed a little green tint to Pinot Grigio because of the citrus and light feel. I could also say the same thing for Sauvignon Blanc. The point: grab an inexpensive bottle of Pinot Grigio!
Step 2:Go Green!
Yes, what you see there on the table is GREEN WINE!! :) All it takes? A couple drops of Green food coloring! Yep! That is it! No harm to the wine in any way, no take away from the taste, just plain 'ol non toxic coloring dye!
Now you can make it your wine as green as you want. Like in the picture above, and the video available below, you can add a couple of drops to your own glass, which makes it an Emerald Green,or you can add a couple to the bottle, and come out with almost a Slimer Green(yes, totally just made that reference to the Ghost Busters. Can't help it. He is an awesome shade of green! Click on the link to watch a clip of Slimer's first appearance!)
Step 3: Enjoy!
Now that you have your St. Patrick's Day juice, it's time to celebrate and enjoy! I know it is a little weird to look at while you take a sip of the green delicious liquid, but I promise, it is worth it, and will be a huge hit at your next gathering! Plus, how many times can you say you drank Green Wine?!?
So sit back and relax with your bottle of Green deliciousness and have a Happy St. Patrick's Day my wine lovers! Cheers!
