Beaujolais Nouveau 2010

I got to celebrate Beaujolais Nouveau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaujolais_nouveau) with my cheese class friends on the third Thursday of the month for one of Jill Aboussie’s (http://www.facebook.com/jaboussie) wine classes. The theme was holiday wines and Beaujolais Nouveau fits in quite well, but Ellen still brought an aged Beaujolais so we could compare the two. While I don’t mind the full fruity flavor of the Nouveau, the aged version was still smoother.

The hard part about Jill’s classes is that you have to share all the cheese with everyone. And with the eight different glasses of wine, it was hard to make the cheese stretch!

My favorite pairing is always the lightest ones…the sparkling wine with the triple crème and chevre. Jill says that the better sparkling wines have smaller bubbles, more bubbles overall, as well as longer lasting bubbles. But everyone agrees that you should NOT drink so slowly that you find out how long your bubbles last!

It was a good thing I was in Whole Foods that night so I could stock up on cheese for trivia night, the following evening. At the end of the night, I was happy that the Midnight Moon (one of my favorites) was the biggest hit. Hehe

Then Saturday, the FAC club tried out Ichigo (http://www.ichigomodern.com) in Clayton, which is right next door to The Wine and Cheese Place on Forsyth. The restaurant has plenty of space inside with high ceilings and was very casual. I was very surprised that there weren’t that many types of rolls, and the list was split into raw and cooked. But they did have a very different menu from your typical sushi restaurant so it was good to try new things.

I had a Crunchy California roll and a Soft Shell Crab (Cucumber, Avocado, Scallions), which were the “cooked” rolls. For the raw roll, and my favorite, I got a Shangri-la (smoke salmon, avocado topped with tuna, white tuna, and yellow tail).

But my favorite sushi restaurant in Clayton is still Tani Sushi (http://www.tanisushi.com/). I have been a couple of times now and the décor is more what you’d expect from a classy sushi place. They have quite a few rolls named for Rams players but the most fun roll is the “Oh My God”, which they set on fire! Hehe Just about every table orders one so you see the flames going by all night. hehe

Summer Reds with Cheese

It’s been a busy week of classes with Angie Ortmann / STLwinegirl (http://www.stlwinegirl.com) and so I have a lot to write about tonight. We’ll start with the first one, and the best one, which was cheese class at The Wine and Cheese Place (http://www.wineandcheeseplace.com/) entitled “Summer Reds and Rose Wines”.

I was a little worried about attending a class full of reds but was pleasantly surprised that there were a couple of rose wines listed. I think rose wines are sweet and refreshing, perfect for summertime. Angie picked a lot of my favorite cheeses but everyone else liked them too so there weren’t too many leftovers at the end. The first rose was paired with a triple crème that looked like brie. The creaminess of the cheese helped to break through the tartness of the wine.

The second rose was a little stronger, so it was well paired with a thicker Chevre. It reminded me of peanut butter…sticking to the roof of my mouth…so it definitely needed a fuller body wine. But neither flavor was really changed by the other and I prefer a combination that is better than the individual flavors by themselves.

The first real red was Beaujolais and I was actually interested because I have gotten to take part in Beaujolais Nouveau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaujolais_nouveau) the last couple of years. The wine comes from the same region in France and had a very fruity bouquet but ended up tasting quite dry. Luckily, it was paired with aged cheddar, with little moisture, so it had a sharper flavor to match up to the stronger red wine.

For the first time I had an aged Manchego, which is a sheep’s milk cheese from Spain. I wasn’t sure how it would go with the Shiraz it was paired with because it had a pepper smell and burned all my nose hairs! But it did not taste spicy at all and the lower tannin flavor went well with the cheese.

Of course you gotta finish strong so the Blue Stilton was paired with a Napa Valley Cab. It had an oak smell and was high in alcohol – 14.2%! So I figured it would have some legs and walk across the table to start a fight with the stilton. I only had small samplings of both!

This means that there is only one cheese class left, beer and cheese, on September 2nd. Hopefully these cheese classes have been successful enough that Angie will have more themes in the future.

Menu:
Delice de Bourgogne Triple Crème
Schramsberg Rose

Homboldt Fog Chevre
Maiple Rose of Malbec

Vermont Clothbound Cheddar
Manior du Carra Beaujolais Villages Unfiltered

Aged Manchego
Thorn Clarke Shotfire Shiraz

Blue Stilton
Rubus Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

Happy Beaujolais Nouveau and French cheese class

It just dawned on me that perhaps The Wine Merchant (http://www.winemerchantltd.com/) set up their French cheese class the same week as Beaujolais Nouveau! Or maybe it was just lucky. Not that I need a French cheese class to get me hyped up for the holiday. I think it's pretty funny that I was all excited this year when I had barely heard of it years ago.

The only way to keep my wine snobiness in check is by sharing information with my friends. I finally roped in another unsuspecting victim to one of my cheese classes. I was sorry we didn't get to go to Whole Foods (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/st-louis/) this time around to meet those pals, especially since it's a great bargain at $20, but they were having "blue" class. Blue cheeses are my least favorite.

I know I've been going to too many cheese classes when I know half of the cheeses already. But it's always good to retaste and re-remember. hehe My favorite part of the class was talking then having the instructor repeat what I had just said. At least Gail knows I am not just full of it (bull, not cheese - which I am definitely full of)!

Or maybe the best part of class was getting seconds and thirds of the cheeses?

Highlights were the whites of course...
2008 Domaine de Beauregard Musacdet paired with a Chevre
2007 Helfrich Pinot Gris paired with a Racclette
2006 Marc Morey Chassagne-Montrachet "Les Chenevottes" paired with Morbier (A fav!)

Another favorite cheese of mine was the Ossau Iraty...it's a sheep's milk cheese! Nice and light but still full of flavor so therefore usually served with a red.

My friend also bought several bottles of wine, some from the class, so hopefully the Wine Merchant will read this and send me the appropriate commission!

In addition to getting to share cheese class this month, I also got to celebrate Beaujolais Nouveau for the second year in a row. Those new wines always have a bit of a bite and I wish I could let it sit out for a little bit. But it got better as I let it sit in my class. And having cheese to go with it helps balance it out!

A Beaujolais Nouveau wine is also a nice, inexpensive wine to bring to your Thanksgiving dinner as well.