Mills Fine Wine & Spirits

Wow,  we’ve really been in the local spirit lately!  As the economy rebounds we’ve really noticed the importance of supporting local Annapolis businesses.  This is a close knit community that really needs to focus on supporting each other.  We are pushing forward at Mills and have been really excited about working with our neighbors to create fun and interesting tastings for you!

Last Thursday,  I had the the pleasure of hosting two different tastings.  In the morning I attended Chef Brendan O’Dea’s cooking class at Williams-Sonoma and brought  along some of our wines to pair with his, “Spring Pasta”, class.  The wines and the food were a hit.  I brought the Chateau Felice Rose 2008 $18.99 to pair with Farfalle with proscuitto and peas.  You may think its strange to pair a Rose with pasta, but it was a fantastic combination!  Light summertime pastas with basic olive oil based sauces  seemed perfect with the Chateau ducla entre deux Mers 2007  $12.99 .  This is a beautiful Sauvignon Blanc,  Semillion and Muscadelle blend wine.  It’s fresh herbaciousness and soft body married amazingly well with these pasta dishes.

In the evening I hosted a tasting at, The Annapolis Running Shop, ( owned by Jon and Megan Line)  for ladies night.  If you are an avid runner and have not been to this store your missing out!  Jon does gait analysis in the store and can get you fitted with the perfect running shoe.  How many times have you bought running shoes on your own and have been dissapointed because the fit was all wrong?  I’ve been running for many years and can honestly say I’ve done this several times.  Everyone enjoyed the wine choices but the most popular choice of the night was the,  Tenuta Rapitala Nero d’ avalo $12.99.   This is a great red wine for cocktail parties and just fun to drink.  It’s lighter bodied and slightly fruity and balanced.  There were more than a few of the ladies who were hooked and didn’t wander far from my wine table!  I had a great time being surrounded by such great company all night!  We are also working with Jon and Megan to do a Wednesday evening run benefitting Haiti this summer on June 2nd.  For $25.00 you can join in a little fun run around downtown that ends at a wine tasting in our store.  All proceeds from the race will be donated  to Haiti and you recieve a t shirt!  To sign up for the race, contact Jon Line at 410-263-0010.

On Sunday we partnered with Paws Pet Boutique for a dog friendly wine tasting called,  “Wag for Wine”!    We did two tastings for, “Wag for Wine”, this month  and they were both a huge success and a lot of fun!  Our raffle wine and doggie baskets raised  money to donate to Fidos for Freedom and The Westie Rescue which totaled over $1000.00.  Wine and dog lovers seem to go hand in hand in Annapolis!  Who would of thought?  We had a great turnout.  The wine of the day was, Domaine Michel Fonne Pinot Blanc 2008 for  $11.99!  It’s crisp and fresh with just the right balance of fruit and acidity!  I couldn’t keep it on the tasting table long enough because customers loved it so much.

We love working with local businesses  and we have some great events and meet  The Wine Maker dinners planned for the rest of the year.  Make sure to get on our email list so you’re  not to miss anything! If you are a local business and would like to plan an event with us contact us at our store.  Here are just a few of the events we are working on….

Kilwins and “Women and Wine”,  Tuesday April 20th from 2-5pm.  Sample delicious chocolates and wines!

Women and Wine Champagne Luncheon at Sam’s Waterfront with Pol Roger Tuesday May 4th at 12pm

Meet the Wine maker dinner with Julie and Tres Sabores Wines at Paul’s Homewood Cafe Monday May 17th at 7pm

Meet the Wine maker dinner with Walter Hansel at Lewnes Steakhouse Tuesday May 25th at 7pm

Run for Haiti,  a fun run and wine tasting Wednesday June 2nd at 7pm

Women and Wine Tuesday is every Tuesday (Wine tasting from 2-5 focused on women in the business)

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On Tuesday,  I had the great pleasure of meeting Martha Barra of Girasole and Barra Wines.  Martha is married to Charlie Barra (Legendary Veteran Vintner and Grape grower) and is the female driving force behind Barra and Girasole.  She is quite focused on promoting the brands and spends lots of time on the road to do so.  She generously offered to pour her Girasole wines for our, Women and Wine Tuesday”,  wine tasting in our store.   She was a grand hostess and was eager to explain the Barra’s  wine making philosophy.

Barra of Medocino wines including Girasole is a family estate owned operation entrenched in a long history of wine making.   When Martha and Charlie wed in 1980,  Martha began working  with him to farm 200 acres of certified organic vineyards on the rolling benchlands of the  Mendocino appelation in Northern California.  This is Charlie’s 64th harvest!  Wow!  Interestingly enough he admits there were 20 years in the beginning when he didn’t even know they were growing organic as if there were not any other way to do it!

Girasole means, Sunflower in Italian.  Girosole wines can easily be recognized by the bright sunflower on the label.  I had the opportunity to try the entire line of Girasole wines with Martha.  I was quite impressed!  These wines are all certified organic and vegan.  For those of you who are allergic or sensitive to sulfites,  these wines have a very low count.  The grapes are grown on the estate organically without the use of pesticides,  herbicides,  sewage,  sludge or radiation.  This allows the fruit to really shine through in the wines.  The juice is fermented in stainless steel tanks producing crisp and clean wines that are never over oaked.  These wines are great everyday drinking wines and are meant to enjoy now.

Two of the favorites during the wine tasting were the Girasole 2007 Zinfandel and the 2008 Pinot Blanc.  The Zinfandel was light to medium bodied,  delicate and fresh.  This is not the over the top jammy and spicy zin.  It’s the perfect balance of crushed fresh cherries and berries with spice.   The Girasole Pinot Blanc will be the perfect sipping white for a long awaited summer!  It’s beautiful with flavors of apple and vanilla and a creamy mouth feel.  The Girasole Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are also available in our store.  The Chardonnay has a touch of Pinot Grigio,  giving it a fresh zippiness.  I appreciated its balance and un-oakiness.  The Pinot was pretty on the nose with flavors of cherry,  vanilla and cranberry.  All of these wines are also  reasonably priced under $20.oo!

A big thanks to Martha for visiting our store and sharing her wines with our customers!

If you would like more information about Girasole Wines or Women and Wine Tuesday please call me at Mills!  Keep in mind men are always welcome to our Tuesday tastings.  Women and Wine Tuesdays strive to showcase women leaders in the wine business and local Annapolis businesses.  If you are interested in being involved in a future tasting contact me!

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Perusing the many and highly varied articles available at my fingertips this morning via the internet, I stumbled upon this heartening story.  In fact, this transcends being a mere story and jumps straight to the realm of truth, of science!  Of course, as with all surveys, the findings are correlative and not definitive, but the trend is a happy one.

According to the March 8 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, a recent study has shown that middle-aged women who drink 2 alcoholic drinks a day are less likely to become obese than are non-drinkers.  This study has spanned nearly 13 years at the time of this follow-up, beginning with just short of 20,000 women of good health and normal weight in their late 30′s.  Over this 13 year period the study has observed “an inverse association between amount of alcohol consumedd and weight gained”.

Apparently red wine decreases the risk of obesity the most, followed by beer and liquor, with white wine having the weakest correlation!  We all knew that red wine was great for all sorts of health reasons (probably), but beer and liquor are good, too!  I mean, who knew? I’m pretty happy about this new development.  Let’s just hope my healthy head start will only help!

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My first encounter with cooking rabbit was almost an accident.  I was a commis (an unpaid culinary hopeful who is, in turn, worked like a used mule) in the kitchen of a student-run restaurant.  One day we were especially slow and everyone else had been assigned a station.  I asked the Chef what needed to be done.  He pointed at a mass of fresh rabbits on a work table; “Do something with those rabbits.”

While a slew of Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam gags ran through my head, I couldn’t think of one single recipe. We were forbade cookbooks in the kitchen, as we had to rely on our own skills and creativity.

In a large, wide braising pan, I threw in a couple chopped onions, some green pepper, black peppercorns, bay leaf, juniper berries, cardomom, and half a smuggled can of beer.  I quartered the rabbit and let it all braise and simmer, covered with foil, for a couple hours.  The end result was delicious, meat just falling off the bone, tender as anything with a rich and savory sauce.

Rabbit is very lean and flavorful and wonderfully versatile in the kitchen.  If only they weren’t so darn cute!

Rabbit was a fairly common Sunday dinner when my father was a boy, and is slowly gaining new popularity amongst food bloggers and fans of inspired culinaria.

Rabbit has a very subtle flavor, similar to chicken, but it also serves as a wonderful canvas to infuse and create flavors.  I learned a very old French recipe for Lapin à la Vanille – rabbit with vanilla – which sounds odd, but actually brings out a delectable smoky sweetness in the meat.

Since we’re featuring some brilliant Sicilian wines in the shop right now, here is a recipe for Rabbit Cacciatore – and yes, you can use chicken.

Rabbit Cacciatore/ Sicilian Braised Rabbit

1 whole rabbit, quartered
1 of each; red, yellow, and green peppers, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, diced
1 large can, chopped tomatoes (or 4-5 good-sized fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped)
2 cups chicken stock (or rabbit stock if you’re a pro)
1/2 cup dry red wine
oregano
salt & pepper
flour

Season rabbit with salt and pepper and dredge in flour.  Heat olive oil in a thick-bottomed pan and brown rabbit pieces evenly.  Remove rabbit from pan and add onions and peppers.  Cook peppers and onions until soft, return rabbit back to the pan and add garlic, tomatoes, wine, and stock.  Bring to a boil for a couple minutes and then bring to a slow simmer for about an hour, covered, over low heat.

Add oregano or other fresh Italian herbs and serve with hot pasta and a bottle of Isola D’Oro Syrah or the lovely Rapitala Nero D’Avola – both on sale now for $9.99 a bottle.

Ben Ben, Nero D'Avola, Rabbits, Sicily, Syrah

This is one of the funniest controversies ever! Most assuredly because it ISN’T a controversy.

First: Caymus Special Selection

Those of you who open our EMails realize that we sold over 20 cases of this wine a few months ago. It isn’t exactly the most scarce or rare California wine out there.

It isn’t, by far, a terribly expensive wine either. if Payton scarfed Jones bottle of Lafite Rothschild that might be interesting.

Second: The restaurant in Texas

What a bunch of idiots! The only reason the wine was scarce IN THIS RETAURANT is that management only had one bottle. How difficult would it have been to get a second bottle for Jerry Jones the following day…..EASY AS PIE!

If the restaurant owner couldn’t get a wholesale salesperson to bring it to him, it is legal in Texas for a restaurant to buy from a retailer (in some jurisdictions it is required). There must be DOZENS of stores in the Dallas area who could have helped by selling the restaurant a bottle.

This whole thing is a bogus PR stunt by the restaurant

shame on them

Peter

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