Featured Cincinnati Wine Events: August 8 – August 14

Photo by Kevin. Spring Grove Cemetery, 06/09

We're out of town – again – and can't partake in as many of the great events this weekend. It also means that I'm missing the opening of Julie and Julia, which I really want to see.

Saturday is chock full of daylight tastings at reasonable prices. The Party Source is having an open house, which means a lot of fun & free samples of all sorts. But I really want to draw your attention to the tasting at the Dilly Deli and Cafe. Winemaker Rich Parducci (McNab Ridge Winery), whom we met back in March, will be debuting his new Zincinnati Zinfandel, which you can only get here in the Queen City. It's limited edition – we picked up a couple bottles of the previous vintage. Rich is a nice guy and you'll enjoy chatting with him – especially at 50¢ per pour.

There are two wine dinners on Thursday night and a Think Pink tasting on Friday. Additionally, it's Downtown Restaurant week, where you can score some sweet dinner deals. So the week is rich in one-time events. Enjoy! Remember, all the recurring events, those dependable weekly tastings, are displayed on our calendar. The one-time events are after the jump.

If I missed anything, make sure to let me know. For information on what's going on
in Dayton, you can refer to Mark's blog at Uncorked.

Local Wine Tasting Event Calendar

Friday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Saturday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Image Credit: Michelle, June 2009

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Always a Parrothead … Toasting Bob Marley

Today I'm not at my desk and not blogging. Instead, I'm experiencing my 22nd Jimmy Buffet concert. Crazy, right?

My friend Kate & I, Parrothead tailgating 2007

In honor of Buffett, I'm not giving you a margarita recipe. Instead, I'm giving you a much prettier – and much more deadly – drink.

We vacationed in Negril, Jamaica in 2004 and 2005. (Someday, ask me about Hurricane Ivan.) While in Jamaica, Kevin discovered a shot called the Bob Marley. Here's how you make it:

• 1/3 oz grenadine
• 1/3 oz creme de menthe (green)
• 1/3 oz 151 proof rum

Divide a tall shotglass into thirds. Fill the bottom third with
grenadine, the middle third with creme de menthe, and float the
151 in the top third. You're going for a layered look, so pour slowly. You might want to use a spoon to gently trickle the 151 over the top. Many bartenders will mix the 151 with banana liqueur to add a yellow color, giving you the rastafarian red, green, and yellow.

We've had these drinks as "Flaming" Bob Marleys, but in the interest of safety, I'm not giving you those instructions. Have a great Parrothead Thursday!

Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week

Did you know Cincinnati was big enough to have two different Restaurant Weeks sponsored by two different organizations? Neither did I. The event I usually promote is sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Independents and brings attention to locally owned eateries. The latest Restaurant Week is all about eating downtown, which I find to be equally important. 

Downtown Restaurant Week includes over 20 downtown restaurants. For those of you who haven't been downtown in years, yes, we have that many restaurants. In fact, this is a great opportunity to experience the new downtown, from the Gateway Quarter and resurging Over the Rhine to the remodeled and lively Fountain Square area and on down to Sawyer Point.

Downtown Restaurant Week runs from Monday, August 10 through Sunday, August 16. For $35 you get a 3-course dinner. At some of the restaurants, you'll get two dinners for $35.  Menus are available at the Do Downtown web site. 

Participating restaurants include Akash India, Arnold's, Black Finn, Boi Na Braza, Bootsy's, Daveed's, JeanRo Bistro, Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse, Lavomatic, Mixx Ultra Lounge, Montgomery Inn Boathouse, Morton's, Nicholson's, Nicola's, Orchids, Palomino, Scotti's, Sung Korean Bistro, Trattoria Roma, The Palace, and Via Vite.

Oh, and that other Restaurant Week? It's currently scheduled for Sept 14-20. The deals are just bustin' out all over!

The Night They Invented Champagne

Once upon a time, a monk named Dom Pérignon was making wine and couldn't get rid of the bubbles. After tasting his accidental creation, he exclaimed, "Come quickly! I am drinking the stars!"

Image by Lincoln-Log via Creative Commons

Or so the story goes. Wired Magazine points out that this fortuitous accident was supposed to have happened exactly 316 years ago today. On Aug 4, 1693, Dom Pérignon invented champagne.

Except he didn't. The story is most likely the result of some brilliant marketing campaigns throughout the years, including the "drinking the stars" line, which dates back to an advertisement in the 1800s.

In reality, Dom Pérignon was a Benedictine monk who entered the order at the age of 19. He resided  at the Abbey of Hautvillers near the town of Épernay (within Champagne, France), where he served as cellarmaster. He was charged by his superiors to get rid of the bubbles in the wine, but was unable to do so. Instead he made great advances in perfecting the method of champagne creation.

Champagne undergoes two fermentations. After the first, traditional fermentation and bottling, yeast and a bit of rock sugar are added to the bottle. The bottle, now sealed with a cap, ages for a minimum of 1.5 years. Once the bottle has reached maturity, remuage occurs. During remuage, the bottles are slowly turned almost upside down so that the residual yeast ends up in the neck of the bottle. The bottle necks are then quick-frozen and the cap removed. The pressure in the bottle forces out the ice containing the residue and the bottle is quickly corked to maintain the carbon dioxide. Several houses will add a dosage (sugar syrup) at this point to maintain the level of liquid within the bottle. 
The bottles are corked and caged, and often aged for a few months to many years before they are released to the market.

Back in Dom Pérignon's day, cellars would lose around 20% of their wine to exploding bottles, as the pressure from the bubbles would be just too much. It was Dom Pérignon's advancements that helped bring about the champagne we know today.

I love that champagne is such a wonderful beverage, inspiring myths about its creation and songs about its invention. So happy mythical birthday, champagne. You wear 300+ well.

Our Guide to Drinking Local

Originally posted on Aug 3, 2009 and updated continuously.

If you read CityBeat at all, then you noticed that they had a big article on Buying Local this week – complemented by an article on “Vineyard Tripping in Ripley.” Yep, CityBeat finally caught up to what I’ve been telling you all for years: Drink Local.

Happily, CityBeat visited both Kinkead Ridge, which gets most of the local press anyway, and Meranda-Nixon, which is sort of an undiscovered gem. (Or at least it was …)

So, as sort of a chaser to the CityBeat article, I wanted  to point new readers (hello Enquirer readers! *waving*) to some of our articles on Local Wineries, including Harmony Hill, Meranda-Nixon, Kinkead Ridge, and Chateau Thomas.

Back in the spring we had “winery week” here on My Wine Education, and we visited several local wineries:

• Harmony Hill
• Meranda-Nixon
• Kinkead Ridge
• Chateau Thomas

Last autumn, we got to help harvest the grapes at Harmony Hill, which was fun, hard, and educational. I guarantee we’ll be helping out again.

• Harvest Part 1
• Harvest Part 2

We’ve also got a post from our 2008 Labor Day trip to most of the local wineries and even a photo of Kinkead Ridge in winter. I haven’t yet visited La Vigna Estate in Georgetown, OH, but I hear it’s lovely.

Don’t forget that you can also visit Henke, our own urban winery, over on the west side. Woodstone Creek, another local winery, is located near Xavier and offers bourbon and vodka in addition to wine.

Additionally, there are Kentucky wineries. We keep meaning to make it to very local Stonebrook Winery for one of their highly recommended winery dinners. I’ve also published posts on Elk Creek in Owenton and Jean Farris en route to Lake Cumberland, which share a winemaker.

Not quite local, but so many Cincinnatians head to Gatlinburg on a regular basis that I thought I’d share my post about the “Rocky Top Wine Trail” in Pigeon Forge.

Our Local Wineries category allows you to poke through all of our local winery-related posts, all the way back through 2006.

Finally, I just want to give a shout-out to Valeree, whose Cincinnati Locavore blog is your guide to everything Slow Food locally.