BostonZest

We'll Toast September 2021 with a Reliable Favorite, Raventos i Blanc

We usually enjoy a glass of Raventos i Blanc de Nit Cava sitting at the bar at Select Oyster Bar. These days we are dining at a table on the little patio and this wonderful wine is not on their wine list at the moment. 

Sometimes you just want a sure thing, a winner, a favorite, something you know you'll love. That's how we're feeling this month. And, this cava fills the bill. With a bit of delayed rain perhaps we'll be able to share it with friends on the roof deck. We were able to have a wine-sharing with two special people last month and it really made our week!

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month! However, we have a bottle in our wine rack and plan to enjoy it tonight. 

We purchased our bottle at Gordon's Fine Wines & Liquors for $26.99. 

 

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018- 2020 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

Our August 2021 Toast Will Be Fizzante with Gönc Winery "Canvas" Pet-Nat Pinot Blanc

For August 2021 we will take our handy bottle opener and remove the cap from a bottle of Gönc Winery "Canvas" Pet-Nat Pinot Blanc.

When Penny popped into Urban Grape during a recent Zipcar trip, she described our monthly toast with a sparkling or frizzante wine, our search for wines from new places, grapes, or vineyards, and a bit about our taste preferences. Their staff person, Tray, was knowledgeable and helpful. She recommended three exciting prospects including this one.

Today's wine is from a new vineyard for us Gönc, and a new country Slovenia! What's more neither of us can remember a fizzante pinot blanc and this is one of Penny's favorite varietals. 

It is also a naturally sparkling "Pet-Nat" or, as the French say, “pétillant naturel” wine. In the photo above, you can see the yeast that collected as the wine rested in our wine rack. Food and Wine in an article on Pet-nat explains, "Many are also unfined and unfiltered, and may include some leftover yeast cells, which can lead to a slightly cloudy or hazy appearance. (All this is fine to drink.)"

You may also notice the special crown cap. This is one made with, "...special liners compatible with the vinification and fermentation process..." 

Here's one description of the wine that has us looking forward to our toasting time. "These effervescent, refreshing bubbles with smells of fresh lemon and minerals, crisp pear and almonds springing from the bottle."

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

We purchased our bottle at Urban Grape for $25.00.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2021 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

We'll Toast July 2021 with Our First Rose Prosecco! La Gioiosa Prosecco Rosé

La Gioiosa Prosecco Rosé sounds like a perfect wine to toast July 2021. La Gioiosa means “The Joyous” and, as we slowly get out and about, that's how we feel. Rosé proseccos are also a new thing! And, we love trying new wines. 

This one is made up of Glera, the traditional prosecco grape and Pinot Noir, one of our favorite wine grapes! It's a slim 11% Alcohol by Volume making it a great wine to sip on a hot summer evening. 

 

The winemaker's tasting notes say:

"Delicate rose in color with hints of pomegranate, the wine is extremely fresh and aromatic with notes of rose and pomegranate on the nose. On the palate, it’s silky and full-bodied with gorgeous balance between its fruit and floral notes."

We purchased our bottle at Urban Grape for $18.00.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2021 Penny Cherubino and La Gioiosa

We'll Toast June 2020 with Beyra Vinhas Velhas Bruto 2014

Today we'll raise glasses of Beyra Vinhas Velhas Bruto 2014 to the hope that better times will last for us and especially for all our friends in the hospitality industry. This bottle was a gift from a favorite bartender, Gabe Bellegard Bastos. The Boston Globe featured him in a story about his joy that regular customers were returning to his bar at Atlantico Boston.

We hope to enjoy this bottle on the roof deck of our building, a place we haven't visited for more than a year. And, if all goes well with other commitments scheduled for the day, we may even be able to invite a friend to share a glass. 

Gabe knows what we like and he shares our enthusiasm for finding wines with a story, a winemaker doing something different, a grape we haven't tried before and from an area, we seldom taste. This bottle ticks off all those things and we thank him for thinking of us.

Here's to all the people in the food and wine business who share what they know about wine with us and other customers. They are great educators!

The site Wines of Portugal told the story of this sparkler. They wrote:

"The renowned winemaker Rui Roboredo Madeira is the pioneer of the "Altitude Wines" concept.

Beyra is the name of his wine project that results from this concept. Beyra wines are produced in the highest vineyards in Portugal, at over 750 meters of altitude.

This terroir combined with the cool climate favours:

• The increase in acidity;
• The slower and more uniform ripening of the grape which enhances the concentration of aromas and flavours
• The proximity of the sun helps photosynthesis by enriching the wine in terms of colour and alcohol content."

If the science of soil and its impact on wine interests you, here's some extra credit reading on the subject.

"How vineyard soils affect the taste of your wine" from the Washington Post.

The grape is new to us. The wine is 100% Síria, which seems to be particularly suited to the region.

Finally, this gift from a friend fits perfectly into our year of wines that celebrate friendship. Thank you Gabe and soon we'll see your smiling face across from us at the bar.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2020 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

We'll Pour Txakolina from On HIgh to Toast May 2021

We made friends with Txakolina years before it became well known. This is our year of celebrating friendship with and through wine as we toast each month with a bit of sparkle. For May 2021, We've pulled our last bottle of this lovely frizzante Spanish wine out of the wine rack and put it in the chill box. 

BREAKING NEWS: After we set this post to be published, we learned that one of our favorite wine writers, Eric Asimov of the New York Times agreed with our choice for a May wine.

 

You can find Txakolina in both white and Rosé versions. Our May 1st bottle is the Ameztoi Getariako Txakolina Rubentis Rose in this photo with a lovely plate of Serrano ham. 

We love low alcohol wines, and the Txakolina we've enjoyed has been 10.5% - 11% alcohol by volume. That means we can sip a bit more over a summer evening.

There is an art to pouring this wine to bring on the fizz. This is a fun video on "how-to-do" and "how-not-to-do" the traditional Basque country Txakolina high pour. 

Label details are always important to learn about and find a wine we recommend. Here are the front and back of this month's bottle.

Here are some photos of other Txakolinas that we have enjoyed at home, on vacations, and at our favorite restaurants.

Both Select Oyster and Atlantico Boston have Txakolina on their current wine lists.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

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Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post: Join Us as We Toast...

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Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2021 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

We'll Celebrate April 1st with a Bottle of Bollinger Champagne

We think this April 1st monthly toast is a reason to celebrate and raise a glass from a splurge favorite Bollinger Special Cuvee Champagne. Today is the first milestone on our way to immunity from our vaccinations. We have a ways to go before our level of immunity is high enough to make us begin to feel safe. We also realize that we'll still be wearing masks and keeping our distance from others, because we still could be asymptomatic carriers who could spread the virus.

The big decision of the day is where shall we pick up a take-out order to go with our bottle. Michael Serpa is scheduled to open all three of his restaurants today, Select Oyster, Grand Tour, and Atlantico. We've missed the great food and most of all we've missed the people from these places. While we have not experienced Atlantico yet, we plan to pick up an order this week.

Finally, we'll celebrate in the hope that the warmer weather continues, the local positive case numbers begin to level off or fall, and that the number of our friends who are vaccinated rises quickly. We're starting to make a list of the things we'd like to do when we feel safer going places and doing more than our one walk a day for exercise.

A trip to Provincetown where these photos were taken is high on that list!

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

We purchased our bottle at Gordon's on sale: $54.99 last year, when they went out of their way to gather and deliver an order of favorite wines for us. 

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2017 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

Remembering Friends and Good Times with a Glass of Nino Franco Rustico on March 1st, 2021

March 1st of 2020, we gathered with a small group of friends in the small upstairs room at Grand Tour on Newbury Street. That was the last time we got together with friends in person, indoors, and shared food. Today we'll raise a glass of our old favorite and house sparkling wine, Nino Franco Rustico, and remember the times and places where we've enjoyed this wine with friends or for a two-person, private celebration. 

When friends stopped by in the old days, chances were good that we would have a glass of this lovely Prosecco at the ready since there are normally a few bottles in our wine rack. 

We were early fans of this Italian sparkler and became online friends with Silvia Franco and were even fortunate enough to meet her on one of her visits to Boston.

Naturally, Nino Franco Rustico came with us to Provincetown. Or rather, it was usually waiting for us there at a wine shop with excellent taste. We've shared it with friends who also love this place and are sometimes in town when we are.

We've been known to buy this wine by the case before the holidays to gift to friends, bring to gatherings, or add to a thank you tip for someone who's been very good to us all year.

Here's to those special people who joined us at Grand Tour last year and to those who couldn't make it. Let's hope we can enjoy one another's company again before March 1, 2022. And, here's to all the people we miss from Grand Tour and Select Oyster, where we were often found sitting at the bar in the good old days.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

We purchased our bottle at Gordon's for ~$25.00.

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post: Join Us as We Toast...

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2020 Penny & Ed Cherubino