Wine Club 21: Supersize. Sterling Zinfandel, Chateau Ste. Michelle Syrah

Date: September 8th, 2012

Host: Christine

Served: pizza pinwheels, pizza burgers, green bean-mozzarella salad, grilled oranges with raspberry sauce and ice cream

Bonus bottles (from the host's personal inventory): sangria, J.W. Morris Riesling, Cupcake Red Velvet, Cupcake Moscato d'Asti

This was a special "Goodbye, Summer" wine club on Labor Day weekend. My sister Donna was in town as we'd gone to see The Boss at Wrigley Field the night before. It was a beautiful but cool and windy day. So, in the interests of protecting our forms from the wind and in preserving wine club as we came to know and love it, we kicked off the day indoors with two wines Andrea brought and some hot pizza pinwheels.

 

Sterling Vintner's Collection Zinfandel 2008 (Central Coast, CA, USA) 13.5% alcohol, $11

Christine says (16): Blood red color with darker edges. Lots of legs! Smelled like raspberry preserves and strawberry jam, with taste being the same. It was slightly tart up-front, so I docked it on acid. Still, a big berry taste to this wine. I liked it.

Andrea says (18.5): I really enjoyed this wine to start off a great Labor Day party. It had a dark red color. Smelled very fruity! Strawberry, plum, and raspberry. It had a very concentrated, jammy scent. The taste was also quite jammy and tart, tasted like strawberry. Nice tannins, good finish, delicious!

Kim says (18): I thoroughly enjoyed this wine! I've never paid attention to Zinfandel before but I plan on rectifying that. Smelled of plum, deep spices and was somehow masculine, while the flavor was bold, black pepper and unapologetic. Definitely worth revisiting!

Chateau Ste. Michelle Syrah 2007 (Columbia Valley, WA, USA) 13.5% alcohol, $9

Christine says (16): Dark maroon; looked like grape juice. The bouquet was berry and definite grapes, plus other sweet fruits (not sure what) and slight earthiness. Taste was grapey, with plums and cherry pits. Longer finish.

Andrea says (15): This wine had a dark, purple and opaque color. The flavor that I could most smell and taste was grape! I docked the wine in aroma, bouquet and appeal. But overall, I liked this wine. I think it went well with the pizza wheels and would work well with other foods too.

Kim says (12): Yikes! It's possible that this wine suffered in the shadow of the Zinfandel... it scored exactly one point in every single category, meaning it was (amongst other things) slight, normal, ordinary and average. Dark purple in color and tasted of grape juice.

Chilling out.

Donna, Christine and Andrea.

Kites flying high over Veteran's Park.

Next up, phase 2. We moved the party outside for a meal on the grill, with a batch of sangria to keep us company!



Viva Sangria!

Berry Lemonade Sangria
Makes 1 gallon.

2 bottles inexpensive white merlot (such as Sutter Home), chilled
3 cups lemonade (such as Minute Maid), chilled
1-1/2 cups Triple Sec, chilled
2 tangelos or oranges, halved and sliced
1 lemon, halved and sliced
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 liter sparkling berry lemonade (such as Trader Joe’s), chilled 
2 cups frozen raspberries

Combine the wine, lemonade, Triple Sec, tangelos, lemon and strawberries in a large container, or divide between two 2-qt. pitchers with lids. Chill for at least 1 hour.


Just before serving, stir in the sparkling lemonade and raspberries. Oh my, is that good!
Note: Bring a ladle so you can serve it up with plenty of fruit in each glass.

         Womanning the grill.            Pepperoni on the burgers, soon to be covered in melty cheese.             The tasty results!

Grilled oranges with raspberry sauce
and ice cream. Oh, yeah!

Sisters.

The schooner Denis Sullivan
on Lake Michigan.

A rare sighting of our talented
photographer!

Time for Phase 3: to hit the pool and hot tub, enjoy some bonus bottles (and bonus berries), thank Pretty Cat for her hospitality, and break out some pizzas. What a wonderful day!

Honorary wine club member. Her
signature purple ribbon.

Popping some moscato to
enjoy in the hot tub.
Frozen strawberry bonus!

Back upstairs. Bonus time.

 

Christine says (10) : I score this day a perfect 10. It was filled with food, wine, friendship and fun! A good sendoff to summer.  

Andrea says: What a great day! The pizza burgers, salad and dessert were great! The sangria was phenomenal! I've got to make that this summer. We had so much fun! Our longest, and most fun packed wine club yet!

Kim says (10): An amazing time! We started at 11am and went into the wee hours of the morning but it was so full of food, fun, wine and laughter that 15+ hours flew by in a flash!