Wine for Weather- A New Pairing Sensation

CulinAIRy and I were talking about food and wine (Surprised?) after one of our meals. We discussed pairing wines with food, and how amazed we are that what you eat makes such a difference on what wine you are drinking and vice versa. You may recall my previous post referring to one unfortunate pairing, and you will read later on on how such a great result we had with our current meal.


As we kept talking and drinking wine, we wondered whether we could take this whole pairing thing one step further, and my roommate came up with how about a blog for wine and weather, and I quote, "Wine for Weather because there is always weather". We couldn't stop laughing for a whole five minutes. If our other roommate was there, he probably would have called the men in white coats to come get us.

This is just one of the hilarious examples we came up with:

-Brace yourselves for a stormy day, thunderstorms throughout so make sure you are drinking a Shiraz or Syrah of a dark plum color and with spicy smoky peppery notes today. Stay tune for more weather pairings once we see how tomorrow is looking up!

What meal inspired these shenanigans?

 Well.... CulinAIRy made a gorgeous salmon dish baked with a quick simple pesto made from cilantro. The salmon came out beautifully soft and moist, topped with tomatoes and a generous squeeze of lemon. A lovely light dish that merited a lovely white wine which we had. 

So here's the meal and the wine. The wine came from the Rueda region of Spain. The region is well know for the Verdejo grape which origins can be traced back to the 11th century, according to the D.O. Rueda website.

What a lovely white wine with the salmon. The citrus from the fish did a fantastic job of balancing the melon notes of the wine. 

This wine was a slight dry wine with a bright taste that added great vibrancy to the salmon and balanced the fattiness of the fish. The aftertaste rests in the palate bright and clean. Highly recommend this one, or any of the ones from this region which is having a renaissance in the wine world. So go and have some of this lovely refreshing wine. Until next time, cheerio!

My Oxford Blues

Lets take a break from the wine posts and talk about traveling. I was reading one of my favorite blogs, The Thrifty Anglomaniac. She posted about Oxford and mentions fabulous and thrifty things to do while you are visiting there. So go read it!


The City of the Dreaming Spires is full of old architecture and atmosphere. It is one heck of a college town. Oxford University with all of its various colleges, churches, and buildings dominates the city and it is one of the oldest universities in the world. There is so much history, such wealth of knowledge. There is also something for the Harry Potter fans!




You read correctly. The Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library was filmed at the Bodleain Library. The picture on the right is the entrance to the Bodleian, but the real beauty was the interior. The woodwork, the books, the age of the place transforms your experience into something magical.






Not to get too caught up on Harry, I wanted to mention some food. You all know how much I love food. As my last two posts have shown, food and wine are some of my most favorite things. I was only in Oxford for the day, and had to catch the train back to London in the afternoon. I would have loved to stay for at least another day or a week, or a year, but I did get to eat somewhere quite yummy. 








Have any of you heard of Tolkien or C.S. Lewis? Well, they were part of a literary group called The Inklings. They gathered to argue, eat, drink, and smoke at a pub called The Eagle and The Child or as the locals call it "the Bird and Baby". 

This pub has been around since the late 17th century. You find the dark woods and wooden beams expected in a pub so old, and also, the history. The food wasn't so bad either. I chose to have a burger, but not just any burger. No, it was a Boar and Chorizo Burger. Wow! This burger ended up being one of my favorite meals while I was in England. The taste, juiciness, spices, all made for a lovely rich gamy pork taste with a spicy paprika flavored smokiness. What a fantastic dish. It was served with chips (fries for us Americans) and a vinegar based coleslaw that I actually liked.

Well, I will leave you all drooling about this burger. I also hope this post will inspire some of you to either visit Oxford, or (this is for you CulinAIRy) try to recreated this lovely dish for yours truly.

Ta Ta my dears and cheerio!

Sometimes you get the wine wrong (or maybe it's the recipe)

As my blog title indicates, there are times when you pick a great wine, and you are looking forward to drinking it. You wait for the right food to pair it with because you want to be all "a la gourmand". That is exactly what I did. Couldn't wait. 

We had a fabulous meal prepared by, you guessed it, CulinAIRy. It was, albeit. frozen sausage ravioli with a spaghetti sauce, beautifully presented with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and sprinkled with fresh Italian parsley. Even though it was semi-home made,the meal was fabulous as always. 

I couldn't wait to open my lovely Chateau Puech-Haut. A red wine blend from France. It received great reviews from Robert Parker . He gave it 90 points. (Didn't I mention I have pretensions of being a world class gourmand?) The wine was a lovely dark and dense dry red with a hint of plum sweetness. We liked the complexity. Drinking it on its own was so lovely: paired with our meal, not so much.

I'm not saying it was not a great mix, but the acidity of the pasta sauce just added to the dryness of the wine making the after taste a little bitter. You lost the plum notes and all you can concentrate on was the complexity and heaviness of the wine and the whole meal. Two fantastic different elements that one their own were delicious but wrong for each other. 

We definitely want to try that wine again, but we will save it for a nice piece of steak. 

A wine for a great roast beef

Lets start with a great recipe and a great friend willing to make it. Your mouth is watering as the recipe comes together and great smells start to permeate throughout the house. It is a slow cooked meal, but you know that it is going to be worth the wait. That is precisely me, yesterday while I waited for CulinAIRy to finish the fantastic and extremely yummy meal of Schweppes Roast Beef with Sautéed Power Veggie. Just click on the links to read about the yummy-fest!

So what did I bring to the table, wine of course! I love wine. Love. Love. Love.Now I am not an expert, but I am an enthusiast. I love trying wines from different regions and grape varietals. Who knew there were so many grape varieties? Not I.

I recently began learning and drinking wines from Germany and Austria. My roommates and I plan to visit Germany sometime during the summer. Therefore, I thought I should really start tasting and learning about wines from that region. All I ever heard of or drank from Germany was either beer (love the stuff) and Rieslings. There is so many other varieties of wine, even reds!

What wine did I decide to open for the lovely meal? I'm glad you asked.

I chose a red since we were having roast beef. I recently purchased an Austrian red called Gobelsburger made from a red grape called Zweigelt. This wine went spectacularly with the sweetness of the roast beef. The tannins were very mellow so it didn't dry out your mouth like a mouthful of Sweet Tarts; plus it helped cut through the richness and sweetness of the beef and gravy. There was also a light berry sweetness that helped balance the tartness from the vinegar within the kale. We were very pleased with the pairing.

Overall, we very excited and charmed with the reds from Germany and Austria.  

For more info on this particular wine, go to Schloss Gobelsburger . I believe you will all     enjoy this wine. But don't take my word for it. Give it a try. 

Here is the fabulous meal Schweppes Roast Beef with Sautéed Power Veggie courtesy of CulinAIRy.

Not only for the birds

One of the towers St. Paul's Cathedral

There is something truly magical about this city which keeps
 me completely engaged in the present: the juxtaposition of the old and the new buildings. They both weave themselves around each other creating an architecturally vibrant city. As you walk the streets, gorgeous gems peek out amongst modern  highrises keeping you aware of the history of this city.

While walking towards one of our destinations for the day,
St. Paul's Cathedral, I caught a glimpse of a  gorgeous tower peeking out between to modern office buildings. It makes you stop in your tracks; it made me. What an amazing and tantalizing preview of what was waiting for me. Visiting St. Paul's Cathedral has always been a dream ever since watching Mary Poppins as a little girl. So catching this glimpse of the Cathedral brings out that same little girl who also wanted to feed the birds  (and the stray cats and dogs). My poor mom was always asking where all the bread and hotdogs disappeared to.

Arriving at St. Paul's is quite an experience. This building is not just a church, but it is also a local hangout where people come to sit on its churchyard on the grass, benches, and monuments to chat, meet, eat lunch, or all three. The building stops being a static and imposing landmark and connects the people with its rich history and spirit becoming something to be enjoyed and loved.

Lunch time at St. Paul's

Unfortunately, photos are not allowed inside St. Paul's which is too bad. The beautiful stonework and mosaics are things I would have loved to share with all of you. Since I can't, it means you all must make the trip and see them for yourselves. You will not regret it. 

Finally, I want to leave you all with my last view of St. Paul's. My earlier photograph includes one of the towers from this part of the Cathedral, the West Front. In the photograph below, you see the second tower. The statue in the forefront is Queen Anne who was the reigning monarch the Cathedral was finished. This is such an impressive building not only because of its stonework and grand design, but because of its ability to be part of the city and be enjoyed by everyone, even the birds.