It’s not your everyday Moet. Not that you have Moet every day, mind you. But here’s a bright, white-foil-wrapped, gold-lettered bottle of Moet & Chandon Ice Imperial Champagne. The bottle looks cool to the touch. Then, all around the bottle are words you don’t usually see on Champagnes: Drink on ice.

Really?

Yes, this is the sunnier, lighter, fizzy side of Moet. At about $60 a bottle.

It’s a new product from the famous French company, meant to be served over ice. Because Champagne flutes aren’t meant to have any ice in them at all, I served this Moet in smaller wine glasses, with a couple of ice cubes per glass.

Joining me in the holiday weekend tasting (if it’s a holiday, it means Moet!) were my husband, my brother (a restaurateur) and my sister-in-law. This sparkler is a pretty, pale peach and light orangeade-colored blend of pinot noir (40-50 percent), pinot meunier (30-40 percent) and chardonnay (10 to 20 percent), which makes it a bit off-dry.

On the nose, it’s light and smells faintly of peaches, too. It’s got a slight tropical hint to it, and reminded us of a Champagne spritzer with a little oomph to it.
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I know, I know. Every time we have a Swirl-Up we say this one promises to be better than the last. Well, when a restaurant owner and a wine distributor tell you they intend to make their hosted Swirl-Up together the best one yet, you feel pretty confident passing along that sentiment.

Declan Hoctor, of The Bistro in Jupiter, and Michael Aitken, of W.J. Deutsch & Sons wine merchants, would be said guilty party, so what a party this should be!

Join the Swirl Girls for specially chosen wines and special dishes at The Bistro on Thursday, July 28, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. As always, be sure to have your credit card in hand when you call to reserve your spot, because our lively events sell out quick! Tickets are $50 each, with $10 of that cost going to a local charity. Call the restaurant at 561-744-5054.

With only 30 seats available, you won’t want to miss out on this enticing menu: Read the full story

Wine Spectator has just handed out its 30th year of wine program awards, listing the world’s “3,734 restaurants wine lovers need to know.” As you might expect, Florida and California have huge lists in the U.S. We are very lucky, indeed – we have 35 restaurants in Palm Beach County (34) and Stuart (1) on the list.

There are three tiers of awards: Grand Awards, Best of Award of Excellence and Award of Excellence. The Grand Awards were given to only 74 restaurants in the world. Two are in Florida; both are also on the list of only four that have been given Grand Awards every year since 1981: Bern’s in Tampa, and L’Escalier at the Breakers. Unfortunately, The Breakers announced earlier this year that L’Escalier was closing, to reopen in another capacity at some point.
To enter the 2012 Wine Spectator Restaurant Wine List Awards program, restaurants need to send copies of currents wine lists, menus and wine programs. There’s a processing fee of $250, and award winners are required to renew their awards each year.
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As we head into summer, the Swirl Girls dove into our wine cabinets and tasted our little tastebuds off trying these wines for you. These bottles were all sent to us for review. Enjoy!

From Bold:

2009 Flip Flop Riesling, Washington ($5.49, Total Wine)
This is a nice, inexpensive wine with a nose of melon and pineapple. It tastes on first sip as if it has a slight carbonation to it, though there are no bubbles. Also on taste is some peach and a little apple. It’s a sweeter riesling, though not the sweetest I’ve had by far. It went well with a seafood dish, and was still enjoyable the next day, too. For the price, this is a nice, medium-bodied wine.

2009 Kim Crawford Marlborough Pinot Noir ($15.99 ABC; $17.99 Total Wine)
This pinot noir, aged in a mixture of oak barrels and tanks for 7 months, started with a quiet, pretty nose of light sour cherries and a faint hint of earth. As it opened, it became a bigger pretty nose with a lot more dark fruit than I expected. It’s a beautiful ruby color (I think I’d like this color on my walls!) and tastes of dark cherries, with a hint of clove. It has a smooth mouthfeel and went on my good-sipping-wine list. But I have to say it’s terrific with food, so buy a bottle of this as a gift for the next dinner party you’re invited to – just make sure they open your gift for the dinner, so you can enjoy it, too.

2008 Vale do Bomfim Douro D.O.C., Portugal ($12 online)
On the nose, this dark, garnet-colored wine was very berry, big and promising. It followed up in taste with black cherry, a slight spice and some zing. I paired it with sausage in red sauce over linguine and it was a beautiful pairing. This is a good everyday wine, and I’d definitely buy it again.
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Meet The Chef: Luis Pous of Little Palm Island Resort & Spa >>

There’s something about summertime that makes me think pink. Pink sundresses, pink flowers, pink picnic blankets on a warm, sunny day. Pink-hued skies that bring on a summer night breeze. It’s a bright and happy season, a time to relax, kick off the shoes and just enjoy life. Summer is for casual affairs and simple, refreshing sippers.

I also think pink when it comes to summertime food and wine. A rosy-hued raw tuna served with fresh summer fruit. A crisp, dry rosé is summer in a glass. These are the comfort foods of the season, fresh, simple pleasures that define summer.

In the spirit of this happy, pink season, I gathered the Swirl Girls in my home for a backyard picnic and rosé tasting. We invited Luis Pous, executive chef for Little Palm Island Resort & Spa in the Florida Keys, who was passing through the city. Read the full story

Brian Chamis, Certified sommelier at Cafe Chardonnay in Palm Beach Gardens

CURRENT SIP: 2007 Ramey Syrah from Sonoma Coast, California
“I’ve really been getting into cool-climate syrah. The Ramey syrah is not over the top. It’s got subtle fruit with some gamey, meaty qualities, white pepper and nice acidity. It’s not the over-the-top style you find in warmer climates. This reminds me of a northern Rhône style of syrah.”

PAIR IT WITH: “This is a good wine for food because of its acidity. Pork or wild boar would be great. Duck is always a lot of fun. I’d love it with a Kurobuta pork – it’s like the Kobe beef of the pork world.”

PRICE: $13 a glass at Café Chardonnay (4533 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens); from $26 a bottle online.

Once a year, I make a Hungarian feast to honor my father, who died 10 years ago this month in a fiery plane crash. They are slightly random and difficult dishes to pair with wines, but after three years of trying, I finally feel confident that I’ve found some of the best wines for the dishes.

The first course is always a cold cherry soup. It’s sweetened with powdered sugar and served with a dollop of sour cream. After experimenting with everything from dry whites to rosés to juicy pinots, it met its match in the Caposaldo Moscato: a dessert wine for a dessert that passes as a first course. The sweetness ricocheted from the soup to the wine and back again. The slight effervescence in the wine barely brought out the sour cherries. Both soup and wine were light-bodied and playful and while a bit unconventional, it was pairing bliss.

The second course is always Paprikás Csirke (Chicken Paprika), a flavorful, hearty dish of chicken, onions, and green peppers and thickened with sour cream, served over homemade Hungarian noodles. The dish is heavy and rich and easily fills you up. This one is not so tricky to pair. I’ve had success with a pinot noir and I think you could go with a New-World syrah. Still, I opted to try a 2007 Royal Tokaji Furmint wine, a dry white table wine from Hungary. This wine was probably a couple of years past when it should have been drunk (whoops) and was fairly dark in the glass when the tasting notes denoted it should have been pale green-lemon. Dry thought it tasted like an old, dry riesling. It wasn’t bad at all, the dryness complemented the juiciness of the dinner very well and it was great fun to try a Hungarian table wine (other than Bull’s Blood…) but it probably would have been more magical if the wine was younger. Read the full story

CURRENT SIP: 2006 Michel Dutour, Pouilly Fuisse.

“Because it’s summertime, I’ve been getting into whites. It’s a really great South Florida wine. It actually reminds me of Key lime pie. It’s crisp, clean, really light, easy and refreshing to drink.”

PAIR IT WITH: Fresh seafood or salads, a lighter cheese, maybe a Manchego or gouda. Something light and fresh, even fresh apples or grapes.

PRICE: Look for this white burgundy online starting at about $30.

The Blind Monk
Venue Listing: Directions, invite friends, more

It’s so easy to, slide, er, slurp into it with the old stand-bys, the favorites, the beloved go-to wines we always end up ordering. We know more or less how they’ll taste and exactly what they’ll be good with, and so we turn to them, time and time again.

When was the last time you sashayed up to a sommelier and said, "Serve me anything – surprise me!"

There are literally hundreds of alternative wines out there, all waiting for daring souls. It’s time to put down the chardonnay and hold on for a wild ride. It’s time to drink bravely!

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It hits me right up front. Not the berries, but an unusual, keep-me-on-my-nose herbal and spice aroma.

I keep waving the glass below my sniffer, trying to decipher exactly what it is that intrigues me. A few minutes go by and I slowly write: “…mint, anise… cocoa, nutmeg?… cinnamon…blackberry. Smoky aroma.”

Yes, the 2007 B.R. Cohn Olive Hill Estate Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma Valley is that complex, which makes it one worth slowly drinking, allowing the flavors to evolve on your palate as the hour (or more) ticks by.

The same herbal, spicy components on the nose show up on the taste, as do black cherry, blackberry and plum. But be ready to pucker up! The tannins are big and tight, which makes this a good bottle to lay down and enjoy years from now. Read the full story